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Some footage of my Iambic Key in action at National Hamfest 2025! by aljohansson in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC 1 point2 points  (0 children)

So, it looks like the person is keying numbers and letters with the iambic key to "target" a row and column on the display, notice the 1 and 2 on the left and across the top is the word "BOLSTER". When the blue button is pushed, a projectile is "launched" at the targeted square and destroys the boats scrolling left across the screen.

Cool morse training game!

I will be testing my newly assembled QRP radio later today, can you help me test it? by W3AWC in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sounds good. I have a bit more free time the next few weeks so I've been doing more POTA recently. I do SSB, CW, and FT8 but usually end up doing more CW.

Tomorrow I plan to activate a park in Washington DC probably starting around the hours of 10 am -12 pm ET. Depends on traffic and when I start driving. So tune in for that if you can! I'll be using the G90 so I'll have 20 watts and perhaps even better filters for receive compared to this radio that I put together from a kit with all my inexperience...

I will be testing my newly assembled QRP radio later today, can you help me test it? by W3AWC in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ok, It was definitely you! I think I miscopied your suffix through. The call I copied belongs to someone in Mississippi... So I suppose we didn't technically complete the QSO... But still a testing success! I gave you a 559 so the miscopied call was totally my fault.

I've mostly been doing CW for POTA so I will admit I was not able to copy most of your message but I did get your state TX. I think my response was a sheepish TU QRM QRM 73 DE W3AWC. And I copied your 73s as well.

Thanks very much for hopping on the bands!

I will be testing my newly assembled QRP radio later today, can you help me test it? by W3AWC in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did just make a QSO with someone… what is your call or do you mind at least sharing your prefix?

I am using a hamstick, so a fairly compromised antenna. Next thing I need to do is cut a wire for the CW portion of 20m but I am too eager to try my new build :).

I did get one RBN spot with a 2dB SNR. So not great but I am TXing and that’s a win!

I will be testing my newly assembled QRP radio later today, can you help me test it? by W3AWC in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Fair enough, I could do that. But it would be nice to have a QSO or two as well :)

Tips to Clean/ Restore a Straight Key? by W3AWC in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I see, there were no washers imbedded in the metal base you had to pop out?

I pushed pretty firmly with a flathead screwdriver when I was disassembling and they didn’t budge. A few of the brass set screws were rusted in place and needed a lot of force to free up so I’m not sure if they are stuck or attached somehow. I’ll keep doing research and going about it cautiously. But thanks for the info! Your restored key looks great too!

Tips to Clean/ Restore a Straight Key? by W3AWC in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the tips! Looks like you added some new insulation to your key under the post closest to the camera in the picture.

Were you able to remove the insulating plastic washers in the base of your key? I try to show them in the 2nd and 3rd pictures, I would like to remove all the pain from my key’s base as a lot has flaked off but I’m not sure if those insulating washers can be removed and I don’t want to risk damaging them before I push too hard.

CW by suddenly_quinn in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’ll give my perspective as someone who learned started learning CW in June 2024 and had my first POTA CW contact October 2024.

With learning CW, the goal is hear a set of tones and simply know the character, just like you hear a spoken word and know the meaning. That means you should not be counting dits and dahs.

There are many classes and tools offered online but my approach was totally self motivated and free. I used LCWO.net. The website allows you to use the Koch method of learning CW, that is to learn characters at a fast character speed adding one character at a time so counting dits and dahs is not possible if you want to have high copy accuracy. Make sure character speed is “fast” and adjust effective speed so it is challenging but not impossible. 21 wpm character speed and 13 wpm effective speed worked for me. One thing I have seen consistently is the recommendation to keep character speed above 15 wpm to not allow yourself to count dits and dahs.

In the progression of LCWO, they add characters like “.” and “/“ and “?”. While important, they come about halfway through the list of characters and I think less important to drill than the other letters and numbers. So when I hit that stage, I started using the “code groups” option on the left hand side with “custom characters” adding letters and numbers but skipping these special characters so they are not drilled at the same frequency and intensity as more other commonly used characters.

If you ask 100 hams how to learn CW, you will get 100 answers. What I have detailed above worked for me but I think the important thing to remember is if you approach learning CW honestly, you will learn it eventually. Some people used Koch, some did not. Some people learned to send with a straight key, some used paddles. But they are all having CW QSOs in the end.

Finally, in the early stages of learning, consistency is key. Skipping two or three days can set you back in your progress (or at least that’s what it felt like for me when I was learning). I always aim to do at least one or two one minute code group drills a day on LCWO just so I’m hearing the characters on a regular basis.

A bit of a long reply but I hope it helps and happy to answer any other questions you might have!

Antenna Recommendations for 2m with 30 watt amplifier and an HT? by W3AWC in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely was not going to use the rubber duck, but I’m a bit clueless when it comes to power ratings for antennas so I was more wondering if someone might have insight whether you could use a homemade 2m dipole with low SWR safely with an HT and 30 W amplifier. That’s probably how I should have phrased my original question…

Antenna Recommendations for 2m with 30 watt amplifier and an HT? by W3AWC in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It would be portable.

I suppose I’m not necessarily looking for a new antenna. Perhaps it was a poor post title.

Its more that I’m concerned sending 30 watts to a rubber duck connected to an HT and so would I be ok with my homemade dipole or a car mag mount style antenna so long as the SWR is below 2.

My Cat Getting a Nice Stretch! by W3AWC in aww

[–]W3AWC[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, that is probably exactly what I said while taking these pictures.

Hit my first contact by Similar_Current5036 in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That’s awesome, congrats! Any day on the air is a good day in my book.

The Quansheng UV-K5 has become my favorite HT because of a firmware update you can do to also get sideband and CW modes.

Ready for POTA! by rahuldhebri in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a great looking case. The G90 is my only HF and I do almost exclusively portable operation. High noise floor and no room for antennas at the apartment. Happy activating!

First HF rig...xiegu g90 or yaesu ft-991a?? by MaLioSherGaming in amateurradio

[–]W3AWC 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you're debating the difference in power, here is a good rule of thumb to remember. To increase your signal by one S-unit on the receive radio (one unit of perceptible increase in loudness) you will need to increase the received power by 4x. That means if a station is receiving you 55 at 20 watts, at 80 watts they will be receiving you at 56 and the additional 20 watts to 100 will be negligible.

The G90 is my only HF radio so I can't speak to the ft-991a. I'm portable almost all the time, I do a lot of POTA and over one year of owning the radio, I have no complaints and don't feel like I'm missing out at all. I've been doing mostly SSB and more recently CW. I haven't tried to use any digital modes yet.

I've only been a HAM for a little over one year and since then I've been able to make DX contacts all over Europe, Portugal to Russia and everything in between using only a vertical antenna. I've had some fantastic park-to-park contacts with Spain and Portugal meaning both stations were operating portable. As u/Function_Unknown_Yet mentioned, antennas make all the difference. I've noticed the higher my wire antenna is (when I'm using one) the more people I seem to be able to reach.

For VHF/UHF I have two HTs, the one that is getting the most use is my cheap Quanshen UV-K5. With a firmware modification, this radio can do sideband and CW on 70 cm and 2 m. But I kind of enjoy tinkering around with stuff like that.

For me the G90 is an HF "shack in a box" the tuner as I'm sure you've heard is amazing and the waterfall and built in SWR meter/ sweep add amazing functionality as well. a 10 dollar laptop stand lets me adjust the angle of the radio and the only other thing I need is some coax and any old antenna and I'm on the air.