Tag Archives: Morse Code

Portable Ops, SOTA

SOTA Fail on Pike’s Peak

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My son (Chris W4CBB) and I took our motorcycles to New Mexico and Colorado. It was an epic, father/son motorcycle adventure!

I took my KX2 with me in order to attempt a SOTA activation on Pikes Peak. Unfortunately, we had to abort due to weather. But, it’s just as well because my brain wasn’t working right in the thin atmosphere. I was sloppy and couldn’t think clearly. I’ve never been at that altitude before! Very interesting.

I worked Gary (W0MNA) but other signals were weak. The weak signals, coupled with my weak brain, and the sketchy weather made for a failed outing. We packed it up after Chris saw a lightning bolt.

What a fantastic vacation we had! I wish I had a better video for you but maybe this will be helpful to someone who anticipates activating Pikes Peak someday.

 

Antennas, CW, Operating, Portable Ops

New England QSO Party – From Bobcat Ridge

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This past weekend, I took the Mountain Topper radios (3B and 5B) to Bobcat Ridge and worked a bunch of stations.  In this video, I show my antenna setup and work 5 or 6 stations. At the end of the video, I show all of the stations I worked.

Not bad for 3 watts and a wire antenna.  I was only transmitting for about 90 minutes, total.  The various contests running this weekend made it super-easy to work QRP!

CW, General, Portable Ops, Radios

Using the Mountain Topper QRP Radio

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I got the last Mountain Topper QRP radio of 2015 from LNR Precision (according to Ryan).

I’ve been having a ball with this gem for the past 10 days.  In this video, I tell you about the radio and then show you how to use nearly every feature.  It’s a long video that I made for those who may be interested in this jewel-like little rig… which should be EVERYONE!

CW, General

Improving Your CW Speed with Morse Runner

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A fun and effective way to improve your CW character recognition and gain speed is through the software program called Morse Runner.

Morse Runner is a contest simulator that lets you work a virtual “pile-up” (multiple people calling you at the same time).  You can control the parameters so that your session is as easy or as white-knuckled hectic as you wish.  This program really makes a game out of morse code.  Note: This program assumes that you already know your letters and numbers… it’s not for learning morse code but for helping you to improve your speed.

Download it from the author’s website: http://www.dxatlas.com/morserunner/

Soapbox

The Case for Morse Code

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If you’re into QRP, I want to encourage you to consider learning morse code. While you can make plenty of contacts with voice or digital, it’s hard to beat the “cw” (continuous wave) mode for efficiency.

With voice, everything you say is stretched out and occupies about 3 kHz of bandwidth. With morse code, that energy is compressed/condensed into a sliver of the bandwidth, concentrating the energy like a laser pointer!