GB2CW - Morse Corner - May 7th

Details

Published: 07 May 2021

Last Updated: 07 May 2021

CW Nets

NZ Net.

Neil ZL1NZ sent me some information on a similar net to the NARC one that he runs in New Zealand. Obviously we won't be able to join and the same applies in reverse, but I thought you might be interested in some reading and to see that we are not the only ones!

Neil Sanderson ZL1NZ, Net Manager
New Zealand Net (NZ NET)
3535.0 kHz at 9pm NZT Mon-Fri

This is a national CW net in New Zealand, running Mon-Fri at 2100 hours for about 15 minutes (or a bit longer if there is a lot of traffic).

I founded the net about 18 months ago, to encourage CW operation, and help people learn about nets and traffic handling. Although NZ had no tradition of traffic handling in amateur radio, I had dabbled in it as a young ham in Canada 50 years ago. To my delight, a few people have become quite enthusiastic about it. But even without the traffic handling, NZ Net serves as a reason for people to turn on their rigs, and check in. The net is quite business-like and brisk, but people will often pair up before and after the net for some casual conversation. We typically get 8-10 check-ins each evening.

I publish an online newsletter each fortnight, which also helps keep people engaged.

You can find out more at nzcw.net

There are some recordings of the net on the website, or you can listen to us via SDR at 0900Z on 3535 kHz.

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Back again to our net!

CW 80m Net

Note that there will be no net on Monday 10th May as it is the RSGB CC SSB session
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Norfolk Amateur Radio Club CW Net.
This is an informal net, to enable people to become familiar with operating in a net, netting properly and being short and to the point overs.
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NARC Net: 3545kHz plus or minus QRM.
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Chris G4CCX was Net Controller this week. We had seven taking part, but we are keeping the speed down to 20wpm to try to encourage others to join, seemingly with little success!
Joining Nets is good experience so please try to join in if you can. We don't bite, and it's all good practice!
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There will be a rotation of Net Controller to give every attendee a chance of becoming Net Controller. Malcolm has circulated tha rota now for Net Controller:

17th May Phil G4LPP

24th May Dick G3WRJ

31st May Malcolm G3PDH

14th June Roger G3LDI

The Net Controller will call CQ at 8.30 p.m. local time on Monday evenings. Call with just your call sign once until he acknowledges you.
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1 Keep a note of the order. This will be sent.
2 Net on to the Net Controller to the nearest Hz if you can.
3 Keep overs short with brief comments, no waffling, and pass transmission to the next on the list.
4 There is a 2m discussion after the Net on 145.250MHz
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The RUFzXP Challenge

I do hope you decide to try for yourself. If so, please send your wpm score to Jim G3YLA by Thursday evening latest. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Morse Classes for winter 2020 are going well. However, at a recent meeting of tutors the following was decided:

GB2CW Tutor Meeting April 12th 2021-04-12

A Zoom meeting was held today of all the GB2CW tutors in the Norwich area to discuss the future of the various classes in the best interest of the students. Classes as they are at present have been going since first initiated way back in 2007. Yes it was as long ago as that, although then we did not have as many tutors as we have now.
We discussed lots of options and have come up with the following suggested changes in the arrangements.
First of all the GB2CW year will run from October 1st until May 31st each year. The summer break will enable both tutors and students to have some down time to do other things. Holidays and gardening usually interrupt the schedule anyway. This is not to say that there will be any relaxation of the Big P word!

Starting October 1st 2021, this will be the proposed new schedule: Times are all local.

Mondays 1000 – 1100: Head Copy with Roger G3LDI. This will encompass a wide range of copying ability. i.e. 15 – 25 WPM.

Tuesdays 1000 – 1100: Higher Intermediate Class with Chris G4CCX 20 – 25 WPM

Tuesdays 2000 – 2100: Lower Intermediate Class with Jim G3YLA 10 – 15 WPM. Jim is proposing to make this change in the next couple of weeks.

Thursdays 1000 – 1100: Intermediate Class with Chris G4CCX 15 – 20 WPM

Thursdays 2000 – 2100: Advanced Class with Malcolm G3PDH 25 – 30 WPM

Fridays 2000 – 2100: Raw Beginners Class with Phil G4LPP which will be for just beginners, those knowing absolutely nothing up to 10 WPM
(not sure when Chris was planning his speed change from I am planning to change mine from when Jim says he’s ready to change !) Phil.

The following table, submitted by Jim, shows it in much better form:

Morse classes

You will be in the appropriate class until the tutor suggests that you change to the next level. It will be entirely up to the student how long he spends in any one class. This is dependent, of course, on the Big P word. No progress can be made without practice.

Sending Techniques.
Without Bootcamps, it is impossible to ascertain the technique of the individual, whether it be straight key or paddle. To that end it is proposed that we hold Zoom classes online to advise on sending techniques. You should have either straight key or a paddle and a keyer / the side-tone on your rig, available. Sending practice will hopefully take place once per month with tutors taking turns. This will not happen until the autumn so please watch this space.

Real QSOs will be run on the air for one – to – one practice, times and freqs to be confirmed.

NARC Net.
Some people have been nervous about joining the Club net because of the speed at which we run, normally around 24 – 27 WPM. It is proposed to drop this to 20 WPM from the start of May this year to encourage more to join, so please do consider that.

If you have any input, suggestions etc., please do let us know. You can send comments to : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Report from G3LDI, the Bad Cop, on the Monday Headcopy session. 145.250MHz 1000 local time.

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This week, the usual three attended, Phil G4LPP - always early, Chris G4CCX and Stephen M6KYF. Pleased to see Stephen join and quite impressed with his progress too. Just shows what practice can do! We had a variety today including cut numbers, Dotty groups, call-signs, and QSO format. I deliberately left of the starting signals this week to impose an extra stress factor. It was all good fun however. Phil seems to think there are several listeners, but I am not sure about that. If you are listening, please call in! It's all great practice! Lots of variety there and a lot of laughs, especially with the EISH5 groups!
You will be most welcome. It's rapid fire stuff to keep you mentally alert!
73 de Roger, G3LDI
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Report from Jim, the Good Cop, on his 25wpm session. GB3NB repeater 2000 local time Tuesdays

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Lower Intermediate GB2CW Tuesday evening GB3NB 8pm 4th May 2021

There was a group of three on the repeater on Tuesday evening for the 10-15wpm class. Good progress had been made by all during the last week with tales of on air activity, including simply listening, and this is the vital point. We are doing this to become active on air and spending time with CW on in the background from real QSOs is a vital part of absorbing the ‘spirit’ of the craft.

We covered abbreviations, figures and sample QSO texts as well as mixed texts. Its getting the on air time that is the important bit of the deal and I look forward to seeing the return of the three, Paul M1AFQ, Stephen M6KYF and Dave G0ELJ to having QSOs on the bands.

73 until next week
Jim, G3YLA

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Morse with Anubis - Tuesdays 1000 on 145.250MHz. Thursdays on GB3NB 1000 local time.

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GB2CW Report 06-05-21

This week's Tuesday class attracted four students, G4PNF, G4LPP, G4TUK, and 2E0FHF.

We practiced QSO format, number groups, letter groups, and plain language.

The Thhursday class attracted six students. The session was joined by G0CBO, 2E0FHF, M6KYF, and G4PNF. also, G4LPP and G0OOR were listening, taking the opportunity to practice their keyboard typing skills at the slower speed of 15-20 wpm.

Hopefully the slower speeds on the Thursday session will attract some more students, and encourage others to move up from the other classes.

Look forward to meeting you on the classes.

Class times for Morse with Anubis are

Tuesday 10am - 11am 145.250 mhz FM simplex. Speed range 20 - 25 wpm.
Thursday 10am - 11am GB3NB repeater. Speed range 15 - 20 wpm

73 de Chris G4CCX

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Morse with Doctor Phil.
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Report from GB2CW beginners class, Friday evenings at 8pm on 145.250MHz.

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Beginners GB2CW class Friday 30th April 2021.

This week the two attendees were Tim M1MIT and his other half Nikki M7SUP. They are both new starters and have been learning letter recognition and the first 9 letters of my course. They do also know and recognise a few others so did well on q codes and short mixed groups. Speeds used were letter speed of 14 wpm and overall code speed of 6 to 8 wpm. They seem keen and are working well to spur each other on so I hope for great things!

Looking forward to continuing next week.

The beginners class is on Friday evenings at 8pm on 145.250. I use 100W to either a 9 element vertical beam or a white stick, whichever is appropriate for the participating stations and am based in Sutton near Stalham.

New beginners are always welcome. Code speeds will not go above 10wpm in this class. Anyone progressing beyond this speed is welcome in Jim, G3YLA’s class on the GB3NB repeater on Tuesday evenings at 8pm where speeds are 10 to 15 wpm.

73 de Phil G4LPP / GB2CW

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Phil's email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Email him if you wish to join in.
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By the way, Phil is a GOOD cop, so you will be treated kindly!
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Report from the Executive Club, Malcolm G3PDH - Thursdays GB3NB 2000 local time.

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Report for Advanced Morse 6th May.

This session was joined by Phil G4LPP, Chris G4CCX, Paul M1AFQ and part way through by Les G0DFC. Plain language, call signs, letter groups and mixed groups were sent at speeds ranging from 26 to 28 wpm. As usual both Phil and Chris took down the Morse directly onto a computer keyboard whereby Paul and Les used the conventional method of pen and paper. Some of the mixed groups included punctuation thus making keyboard entry more difficult where a ‘shift’ function was needed as well as locating these less used keys. The session finished with transmission of a passage containing poor word spacing and error corrections in order to see how they could interpret it. Chris managed to decipher the text and the other members of the class could then see it from the jumble of letters copied.
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Malcolm G3PDH
Malcolm

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The CWOPS CWT activity periods are still as popular as ever.
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With the time change for BST, the CWT periods are now 1 hour later than we have been used to over the winter. The 1300 session had poor propagation but there were 10 locals taking part. the 1900 hour saw 11 locals with some of us watching NARC at the same time. The 0300 session was understandably down with just five stations.

If you aspire to join CW OPS, prove your worth with a few >20wpm QSOs, chatty ones, and you can get in! It is a lot of fun operating in the CWTs, and terrific practice too.
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A New Slow Speed CW Contest for Europe

The K1USN Radio Club, in conjunction with CWops, are planning to expand their existing and popular weekly Slow Speed CW Contests, held on Mondays at 0000-0100 UTC, to include a second one for the benefit of budding European CW contesters. This will run from 2000-2100 UTC every Friday beginning on February 5th 2021 and will share the same rules and format; it will also be fully supported by the N1MM contest logger. There is no formal log submission; instead participants are encouraged to upload their QSO totals and scores to the 3830 reporting website - easy! See www.3830scores.com

These contests will be conducted at 20 wpm or less and are aimed at CWops Academy students and any other novice CW contesters who are not comfortable with normal contest speeds. Everyone is welcome to take part and is a great opportunity for established CW contesters to come on and help encourage our new ops. Please see www.k1usn.com/sst.html for rules, easy to follow instructions and lots more.

If you're new to CW contesting or are experienced and wish to help please join us if and when you can.

73,

GW0ETF & G3WZD (CWops)

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The link below is to FAV22. THis is a military station on 3881.00kHz and runs at varying speeds with groups of letters, numbers, punctuation and procedural signals. It is on 24/7 so take a look It is well worth the practice.
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https://www.r-e-f.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=715&Itemid=444
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Another freq to check is 6.825MHz.
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If you look up this link in Google Chrome, it will translate into English for you.
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The following comes from Tom DF7TV. It could prove quite useful practice for both receiving and sending. CLick on the link and have a read.
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In January/February 2021 I started to do some experiments to increase (1) accuracy and (2) speed in Morse Code copying(receiving) and sending at speeds above 25 wpm. I have prepared several files containing common English words to assist the training. The main idea I had was to keep the setup and exercises as close as possible to real world conversational QSOs.

My actual setup for exercises is shown at:
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https://www.qsl.net/df7tv/morse-code-training.html

I would like to know what you think about this way to improve Morse Code proficiency.

Thank you for your comments!

73
Tom DF7TV
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'Turn your difficulties into opportunities'
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Email me with input, queries, keys, paddles, classes and so on. Hopefully I can help or know a man that can!
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73 de Roger, G3LDI GB2CW Coordinator. May the Morse be with you.

Norfolk on the Air

Details

Published: 30 July 2020

Last Updated: 24 February 2021

 

Morse Training GB2CW broadcasts
Mondays: Head copy class  with G3LDI on 145.250 at 1000
Tuesdays: Coffee Break Morse with G4CCX on 145.250 at 1000
Tuesdays: Beginners Morse at 25wpm with G3YLA on 145.625 at 2000
Thursdays: Coffee Break Morse with G4CCX on 145.625 at 1000
Thursdays: Advanced Morse with G3PDH on 145.625 at 2000

Fridays: Morse from scratch with Phil G4LPP on 145.250MHz at 2000 - NEW - Morse teaching for absolute beginners

 

Lockdown Morse - an in-line course by Matt M0PTO. Find it on YouTube or www.facebook.com/lockdownmorse

 

Other contests

For more information on other contests see the weekly contest news from John G8VPE.

 

 

Koblenz sked - monthly; second saturday in the month
Second Saturday of each month at 10am local - 7.135MHz + local talk in on 145.250MHz

 

 

Over to you...

If you know of a Norfolk on-air net, repeater, or anything else you would like us to share so that others can join in the company, please let us know and we will help publicise it. It can be any net or general interest and not necessarily anything to do with NARC or even just Norfolk.

 

 

73, David G7URP   This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For NARC

 

 

 

 

Your Help Wanted

Details

Published: 08 October 2020

Last Updated: 08 October 2020

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NARC Appeal for more Contest Operators.
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For this year it has been the aim of NARC to make a concerted effort to win the 80m Autumn Series for the first time.
So far we have achieved 3 first place results in the first 3 out of 9 events.
It does appear that 3As Contest Group are possibly intent on also winning this Autumn Series and they've given us some very strong opposition to date.
This year 3As have brought in some of their operators who haven't been active for a while, consequently they've been entering more logs of a very high calibre which could erode our current first place overall.
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We do have a number of operators who have not joined us so far in this Autumn Series and if we are to hold off any strong challenges we really do need their valuable help to gain as many points as possible in the remaining 5 contests.
Please consider joining us in this short series of contests, even just a few contacts will all help to swell the entry from NARC.
There are events for SSB, CW and PSK/RTTY, similar to the 80m CCs.
Please help us in just one or all modes if possible.
It is your club please support it with 110% effort.
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73 John G8VPE
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NARC Live! from Wednesdays - Now available on catchup

Details

Published: 01 April 2020

Last Updated: 01 June 2020

Wednesdays NARC Live! Club meetings are streamed live to both Facebook video and simultaneously to the BATC Live streamer. 

If you miss one you can watch it again on our Facebook page at  www.facebook.com/norfolkamateurradioclub 

We will be doing NARC Live! every Wednesday night at 7.30pm BUT we really need input and content from you! If you have a story to tell, a picture to share, a talk to give or are willing to let us into your shack (its really easy using almost any modern mobile phone or computer with a webcam) then please drop me a note -  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Stay safe

73, David G7URP & Tammy M0TC

NARC and the Coronavirus.... Updated 10th September

Details

Published: 12 March 2020

Last Updated: 10 September 2020

With the government advice of March 16th you will probably not be surprised to learn that the committee and officers of this club have suspended all physical meetings and events for the forseeable future, with immediate effect. However we are aiming to continue to provide an active club presence with a NARC Live! TV stream with guests as well as nets etc which we very much hope you will support and join in.

Whilst schools have now opened, on September 9th the governement annouced that no more than 6 people could meet inside or outside, except for schools, covid secure workplaces and a few other specialised reasons, so as a predominantly social-club we still cannot meet but hope that the NARC Live! stream every Wednesday evening together with nets etc will keep the club together in a virtual way in spirit....

The Club AGM and awards evening originally scheduled for Wednesday April 1st did not take place, but at an online committee meeting on 16th March all club officers and commitee agreed to stay on to run the club for as long as it takes until we can safely reschedule meetings.

As I said previously we will strive to keep the function of the club going with a NARC Live! stream or radio net on Wednesday evenings, plus other onair/online events we will bring to you. After all, communication is at the heart of our hobby, so I feel we should try and put this technology and skill to good use and continue to bring companionship to everyone in our hobby, especially to those who are vulnerable or on their own. And if there is something you feel the club can do to help someone specific, please let one of the committee know and we will do our best.

Please continue to keep an eye on the front page of our website for the latest club news.

Take Care and stay safe.

73, David G7URP

Hon Chairman, for and on behalf of Norfolk Amateur Radio Club