QRP CW - Amazing!

[cockpitbob]

With my FT-857 in the shop I've been using my little QRP rig: a TenTec R4020, CW-only, 4 watts. It's a tiny little thing 5.5" X 4" X 1" with batteries inside. It's feeding to a simple half wave end-fed wire up 50'.

I've been chasing some Dx with it and I'm stunned at what you can do with CW. I am consistently hitting stations 4,000 miles away, mostly in Europe. I am routinely doing better than 1,000 miles per watt. I assumed 100W stations had to sound loud to me for them to be close enough to hear my little mouse-squeak signal, but I've gotten solid copy reports from stations that were pretty far down in the noise for me.

Morse carries amazingly well. And I guess the math regarding S-meters is right. With each S-unit being a 4X change, the difference between 4W and 100W is only about 2.5 S-units.

I'm something of a minimalist. I can fit the entire rig with key, antenna, mason's line for the antenna and accessories in a lunch box. I think I'm about get sucked deep into the world of QRP.

 

[ToddDubya]

It's shit like this that's going to force me to learn Morse Code.

 

[Madball13]

It's shit like this that's going to force me to learn Morse Code.

this

 

[hminsky]

When I was into it several years ago I had good results using PSK31 with just a few watts. It uses quite narrow bandwidth so you can get a signal through, much like morse code, with small amounts of power.

 

[FreeWillie]

With my FT-857 in the shop I've been using my little QRP rig: a TenTec R4020, CW-only, 4 watts. It's a tiny little thing 5.5" X 4" X 1" with batteries inside. It's feeding to a simple half wave end-fed wire up 50'.

I've been chasing some Dx with it and I'm stunned at what you can do with CW. I am consistently hitting stations 4,000 miles away, mostly in Europe. I am routinely doing better than 1,000 miles per watt. I assumed 100W stations had to sound loud to me for them to be close enough to hear my little mouse-squeak signal, but I've gotten solid copy reports from stations that were pretty far down in the noise for me.

Morse carries amazingly well. And I guess the math regarding S-meters is right. With each S-unit being a 4X change, the difference between 4W and 100W is only about 2.5 S-units.

I'm something of a minimalist. I can fit the entire rig with key, antenna, mason's line for the antenna and accessories in a lunch box. I think I'm about get sucked deep into the world of QRP.

Best way to learn CW is?

 

[cockpitbob]

There are apps (g4fon is good), web sites (www.lcwo.net is my fav.) and lots of other resources. Most work well enough. The Kock method of hearing the characters fast (20wpm) with a slow spacing between characters (5wpm) seems to work best. BUT...

...there is one key thing most don't talk about. Do NOT memorize dots and dashes. You have to learn it like learning a language without a book where you associate the sound with the letter. Ideally if someone asks you what the letter X is, you would have to whistle it to figure out the dots and dashes. It's to do with a limitation in the brain. If you memorize dots and dashes you'll count the dots and dashes you hear and your brain will use a look-up table to convert to a letter. This falls apart at about 10wpm which is why the FCC's old 2nd level test was at 13wpm. You need to be hearing syllables, not dots and dashes

I did it the wrong way: memorized the code with dots & dashes. That did damage that took more than a year of part time effort to un do. And I still lapse at times with a few letters where I have to stop and count, then translate, and by then 3 other characters have gone by.

 

[ToddDubya]

I just tried the first practice at lwco.net. I listened to the k and m tones a bunch of times, then tried the test. Fuhgeddaboutit.

The way cockpitbob says to learn it makes perfect sense to me. I think I'll try that one a bunch this weekend and see where I can get. I imagine at some point I'll have to key a keyer to learn that half of the equation, too.

 

[cockpitbob]

I imagine at some point I'll have to key a keyer to learn that half of the equation, too.

Yup, but focus on copying for a while. Learning to send is much easier. There's something about how the brain works that makes people able to send better and faster than they can copy. At least until you get past 15wpm and you've had too much coffee.

When getting on the air, send at what feels like a too-slow speed. Good operators will slow down to your speed, but if you send faster than you can copy...

 

[cockpitbob]

Forgive me for getting a bit geeked-out but I just worked Antarctica with this little rig. The internal batteries are low so I worked a station 10,700 miles away with 3W! That's 3,600 friggn miles/Watt.

Amazing.

 

[FreeWillie]

There are apps (g4fon is good), web sites (www.lcwo.net is my fav.) and lots of other resources. Most work well enough. The Kock method of hearing the characters fast (20wpm) with a slow spacing between characters (5wpm) seems to work best. BUT...

...there is one key thing most don't talk about. Do NOT memorize dots and dashes. You have to learn it like learning a language without a book where you associate the sound with the letter. Ideally if someone asks you what the letter X is, you would have to whistle it to figure out the dots and dashes. It's to do with a limitation in the brain. If you memorize dots and dashes you'll count the dots and dashes you hear and your brain will use a look-up table to convert to a letter. This falls apart at about 10wpm which is why the FCC's old 2nd level test was at 13wpm. You need to be hearing syllables, not dots and dashes

I did it the wrong way: memorized the code with dots & dashes. That did damage that took more than a year of part time effort to un do. And I still lapse at times with a few letters where I have to stop and count, then translate, and by then 3 other characters have gone by.

Very interesting! So maybe a tape/MP3 with the alphabet by sound would be good? Thanks for the link

 

[cockpitbob]

Very interesting! So maybe a tape/MP3 with the alphabet by sound would be good?

Yup. I've recorded the practice stuff into MP3 and either (I forget which) G4FON or LCWO.net can save things to a sound file and one of them will allow you to paste text and play it as morse. I put a chapter of a book in and recorded it at various wpm speeds. Lots of stuff works. Just don't sit ther and go "A...dit da", "B...da dit dit dit".........

 

[wacky_doug]

I've started doing the exercises on lcwo.net. So far, it's hard. But I think with enough practice...

 

[RUT]

CW/QRP is a blast. I've built several QRP "kit" rigs and there's nothing more thrilling than when you make your first contact, especially if it's DX.

 

[cockpitbob]

I've been having so much fun with my tiny 4Watt QRP rig that I've completely forgotten my 100W rig is in the shop. QRP - CW still amazes me. With 4W I am consistently getting reports of 559 or better from stations 4,000 miles away. My log is now full of Qs with stations all over Europe, South America and some exotic sounding islands (Aruba, Jamaca, Bermuda, Canary Islands the Philippines, etc). My sloping end-fed wire seems to like to do 4,000 mile skips to Europe, but I've had Qs with places 6K and 8K miles away and the one 11Kmile Q with Antarctica. Working my 100W rig SSB I rarely got a good Dx contact, but with CW it's like walking through a candy store. I also get the sense that there are more people working DX with CW than SSB, but maybe it's just that I can work more Dx with CW than SSB.

I can work the world with a station that fits in a lunch box and weighs about 4lbs including key, antenna and string, cables and enough battery to operate for well over 12hrs.

I'm hooked.

 

[RUT]

>>but maybe it's just that I can work more Dx with CW than SSB.<<

Well, there is some truth to this, especially when band conditions are marginal. And when you end your CQ with "/QRP" you'll often get more comebacks just for that reason.

 

[quincy]

I have a vintage HW-8 that I built many years ago. Worked a lot of DX to Europe and beyond. Of course it depends heavily on solar activity but aside from that, it's a lot of fun. I haven't fired it up in a while because I have not figured out an antenna config for my 7th floor balcony. I face west so anything east of quincy will probably be very weak.

That Ten Tec set-up looks very nice.

 

[cockpitbob]

That Ten Tec set-up looks very nice.

It's really nice because with the internal batteries it is so simple and has so few cables. It was a factory reconditioned one I got off eBay for about $180. I decided to go cheap because I didin't know if I was one of those "QRP, when you care to send the very least." type people. I'm in love with QRP so I'm selling that 2-band TenTec to fund the used Elecraft KX1 I just bought. It's smaller, 4-bands and has an internal auto-tuner along with internal batteries. The KX1's keyer is also better and, of course, it's an Elecraft so it's got to be good. Suprisingly you can get a used KX1 for less than the new kit. Still, they aren't cheap and for just a little more you can get a used FT-817ND, and those babies do everything. The only down side is they are bigger and suck batteries 7 times faster.