I have been spending too much time chasing K3Y activators. Don’t get me wrong – I appreciate those SKCC folks who have signed up for hour and two hour long slots to make contacts. I can only imagine not only the work that goes into organizing the Straight Key Month but sitting a sixty minute shift logging contacts is serious work.
At first I thought I would just be focused on getting a sweep for the callsign areas. Then I wanted to get a sweep of all nineteen unique K3Y areas. Then I wanted to try and fill in fifty band slots.
… and its fun, but not as much fun as having a real QSO. The rapid SKCC exchange just leaves me wanting more.
And I have had (and will continue to have) real QSOs while making SKCC contacts – just not in the context of a rapid exchange.
I am excited to have worked many SKCC DX stations this month; New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Japan, Hawaii, and Alaska. I will count the Yukon Territory as well. Making these contacts were cool. Many of these were ATNO (all time new ones) as CW contacts. And I doubt I will ever achieve CW DXCC unless contacts are made in some sort of contest.
In the end I think I get more satisfaction in having a real exchange with another op in Ohio (or Texas or wherever). Monitoring a watering hole, listening for a CQ, and having a chat.
January is straight key month! The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) sponsors the event. Across the 10 US call areas and around the world SKCC operators are using the K3Y/# to make contacts. I have been lucky to work a fair amount of contacts and qualified for the sweep award.
I have really enjoyed being a member of SKCC as they have really helped me improve my Morse code skills. When you call CQ on an SKCC frequency, chances are you’ll receive an answer from a patient op who is understanding of those trying to grow their Morse skills. I am very appreciative of all the operators who helped support this event.
Here is the method I use to clean my J-38 keys. Some key collectors believe that keys should be left exactly as they are found, but considering the construction, materials, and ubiquity of J-38 keys, I think that carefully and gently cleaning them is appropriate. Do not, under any conditions use wire brushes or other highly abrasive methods.
1. Disassemble the key. Look carefully for, and set aside, the positioning pins in the binding posts (if they are loose) and all of the fiber washers. Put the bakelite and hard rubber parts in soapy water. Put the metal parts in ammonia. Let both soak overnight. Don’t panic, because some of the metal parts will turn black.
2. Carefully wash off the bakelite/rubber parts. If the two knobs are very dull I sometimes us black shoe polish on them. The bakelite you can carefully clean with Flitz (see below) if it is still dirty or discolored.
3. The metal parts I clean first with “Nevr-dull”. It is a “wadding polish” product that I get here in a hardware store, but I think it is also sold in boat stores, grocery stores, auto stores, etc. It is manufactured by The George Basch Co., Inc., Freeport, New York, 11520, USA.
4. Then I clean some of the larger metal parts with “Flitz”, which is a metal/fiberglass cleaner made in West Germany and packaged in the USA by Flitz International, Ltd., WI 53185. It is available in boat stores, and I buy it from West Marine on the internet (www.westmarine.com). Just get a very small tube of it–it goes a long way. Flitz protects the metal from corrosion.
The most important step is #1. The soaking makes a big difference!
I have started the process of cleaning an ol’ J-38. Here is the before picture:
There is also some guidance (based on K6IX’s recommendations) from N2HTT’s website. Here is what he had to say:
Soak all the parts in household ammonia solution overnight. I collected the parts in groups, so I could figure out how they went back together. Also, I separated the white metal parts from the brass ones, not wanting any weird galvanic thing happening to them while soaking. I had visions of all the brass bits disappearing overnight or something like that. I have a bunch of these all-plastic ice cream jars (the family consumes a bunch of this stuff, good ice cream, great jars) that were ideal for the task. As Scott predicted, the white metal parts turned black overnight, but this is expected and not harmful.
Initial polish with Brasso. This removed the residue from the soaking.
Polish the parts again withFlitz Blue. You can find it on Amazon. This stuff is amazing. You can even use it on the painted parts, diluted.
This is my second effort at cleaning a J-38. The last one turned out pretty well and I gave it to a friend, encouraging them to give Morse code a try. This J-38 will be a loner to local hams aspiring to practice their straight key skills.
The parts have been soaking in an ammonia solution. This morning I realized I did not keep good track of where the rubber and cork washers went. Then I remembered I took step-by-step pictures of the last time I tore down a J-38… which I still have. These pictures clearly show where each part goes. Once I get all the parts clean on this key, I will reassemble, then take very good pictures with another disassembly to hopefully help anyone else looking for how to disassemble and reassemble a J-38.
K6IX has a picture of a disassembled J-38, but the image is a bit small.
… as you can see, there are a lot of small parts. (Image from K6IX)
An excellent resource concerning all things Morse code.
The English language edition of Morsum Magnificat, the Morse Magazine, otherwise known as “MM”, contained a vast amount of information and illustrations of interest to Morse operators, key collectors, historians, researchers and other Morse enthusiasts.
MM was first published in the Dutch language, by Morse enthusiasts, Rinus Hellemons PA0BFN, and Dick Kraayveld PA3ALM. They were later joined by Tony Smith G4FAI who helped them launch the English language edition of the magazine.
Published from 1986 to 2004, in 89 issues, with readers and contributors around the world, it covered every conceivable aspect of Morse telegraphy, past, present and future, in a truly international way.
Issues are available at the Internet Archive here.
About twice a month I have the opportunity to scoot out in the morning to a nearby park for an hour or two. I use it as an opportunity to make a few contacts to make sure my mobile setup is still working well. This morning I was out at the Wyandotte County Park.
I was able to make five contacts on 40M. Some interference form shortwave broadcasts, but nothing that fully prevented a QSO. I enjoy using the J-45 leg key – it does not seem like it is a key built for speed. That’s okay for me as I am still somewhere in between 10 and 15 wpm.
When I get home and upload these contacts on to LOTW, I want to make sure that I have the correct location in TrustedQSL before I sign and upload the logs. I found two websites that helped me figure out the grid location for the park. The first is QRZ’s Gridmapper. The second website was a bit more user friendly and also provided the ITU and CQ Zones. After I set up a new station location in TrustedQSL and had transferred the contacts from my pocket notebook to my fldigi logbook, I exported the contacts and then signed and uploaded them via TrustedQSL into LOTW. Victory.
The whole purpose is just to have fun. They are not looking for speed racer code operators and everyone is welcome.
The exchange is the best: (1) RST (2) your states (3) a Zombie number, which is east to get. Or you can just use your area code. (4) your Zombie name. This is the best part. You can just pick your own Zombie name being as creative as you want.
I had a total of 13 contacts (that’s pretty spooky in and of itself). Some of the fun names I worked were: Grim, Creepy, Gorigor, The Thing, Itt (as in Cousin Itt), Elvis, and Booger.
St. Mary Campground, Glacier National Park, Montana
Another summer trip has come and gone. This one did not feature any new locations or set records for being away from home for the longest time. We did discover some new trails in Yellowstone as well as getting to know older trails in Grand Teton in different ways. The consensus for favorite hike was the out-and-back we did in Paradise Valley, not far from Fishing Bridge in Yellowstone. Ask me some time about the Solfatara North trail with the grizzly who wanted to take us out to dinner (take us out as in kill us… and then we’d become dinner). Or maybe it is best not to bring that hike up at all.
At times it seemed like the odds might be against us. Primarily with the June 2022 flooding in Yellowstone potentially putting a large chunk of our summer at risk. A new menu prevailed with a few winners and a general request for less potatoes.
The wildflowers were sensational, as always.
The culminating event, when we were down to Emily and myself, was a hike around Jenny Lake. What a blast!
Something new this trip was my increased attempts at getting on the air this year. Usually I do very little amateur radio work on the summer trips. To be honest, I am normally either too busy or too tired to get on and enjoy radio. This year I made an effort to get on the air and see if I could make some CW contacts. Although I had visions (and most all the equipment) to setup an operators position at the back of the station wagon, I ended up making all of my contacts from the driver’s seat. Helping me was my J-45 leg key and my Field Notes memo book for handcopy. When I did get on air, I was generally successful in making contacts. My best luck was on 20M around the SKCC watering hole at 14.055 MHz. An enjoyable aspect to making the contacts was sending each one a postcard from the national park I was at… using the postcard as a QSL card. Overall, I made eleven contacts – beating any previous year by quite a bit.
Today I upload the contacts to LoTW after figuring out how to add the locations from where the contacts took place into my LoTW account (three separate locations). Then, after I had entered the contact information into my fldigi-based logbook, I exported the contacts, using the correct location, into LoTW. It was nice to see many of my contacts had already confirmed the contacts.
I do need to make some modifications of my HF vehicle installation. The display heads up front are great! Using the Ram setup really made things organized and solid. The FT-891 in the rack tray needs to be adjusted to mitigate its ability to bounce too much on a bumpy road. I also need to repair the feedline into the radio. This fall, I would like to try out a back-of-the-vehicle setup.
As always more and consistent Morse practice will always yield dividends.
I have an old J-38 that I bought a few years back and it has remained in a storage container in the shack for too long. I got the key out today and connected it to the rig – it works, but is not much to look at. The goal is to get her to look good as well as sound good. Lots of advice concerning how to clean a J-38.
Here is the method I use to clean my J-38 keys. Some key collectors believe that keys should be left exactly as they are found, but considering the construction, materials, and ubiquity of J-38 keys, I think that carefully and gently cleaning them is appropriate. Do not, under any conditions use wire brushes or other highly abrasive methods.
1. Disassemble the key. Look carefully for, and set aside, the positioning pins in the binding posts (if they are loose) and all of the fiber washers. Put the bakelite and hard rubber parts in soapy water. Put the metal parts in ammonia. Let both soak overnight. Don’t panic, because some of the metal parts will turn black.
2. Carefully wash off the bakelite/rubber parts. If the two knobs are very dull I sometimes us black shoe polish on them. The bakelite you can carefully clean with Flitz (see below) if it is still dirty or discolored.
3. The metal parts I clean first with “Nevr-dull”. It is a “wadding polish” product that I get here in a hardware store, but I think it is also sold in boat stores, grocery stores, auto stores, etc. It is manufactured by The George Basch Co., Inc., Freeport, New York, 11520, USA.
4. Then I clean some of the larger metal parts with “Flitz”, which is a metal/fiberglass cleaner made in West Germany and packaged in the USA by Flitz International, Ltd., WI 53185. It is available in boat stores, and I buy it from West Marine on the internet (www.westmarine.com). Just get a very small tube of it–it goes a long way. Flitz protects the metal from corrosion.
The most important step is #1. The soaking makes a big difference!
Another recommends soaking the metal parts in ammonia overnight and then the grime wipes off the next day.
Here’s another write up where bore cleaner (apparently ammonia-based) was used and met with good results.
Before I get too far along, I need to make sure all the adjustments and springs are still in working order.
I was initially licensed in 2001. Finally upgraded to General in 2005. Up to this point, my ham radio career has been under less than optimal propagation. From the oldtimers, I’d heard tales of 10 meters… when the sunspots where there, 10 meters could be worked around the world with only a wet clothesline (not even wet, just a bit damp). Frankly, it was hard to believe. My one prior 10 meter contact had been an opening QSO during the 2006 Field Day… Virginia to New York, some serious DX? [I thought so at the time.]
We’ve all heard the news… 10 meters is open. But from an HF standpoint, I was limited to my Buddipole, where I was nugging out CW contacts on the 40M Novice Band.
This weekend I threw up some wire and everything changed…..
Europe, the Caribbean, Alaska, 10 meter magic! (… I thought 6 meters was The Magic Band?) 10 meters was like a local 80 meter ragchew without the S5 noise floor, everybody has a 2KW amp, and the vast majority of the inbreds were nowhere to be found.
Thanks be to Apollo – may the sunspots continue!
Time to look about getting a 10-10 membership…. and, with a little luck, I might even have the cards for DXCC.(!)
Richard Fisher, KI6SN, had a post back in August 2009 that talked about an interesting transceiver that was in use by the military in the 1960s and 1970s: the AN/PRC-64. The radio is crystal controlled, limited to four channels between 2.2 to 6.0 MHz, has a max output of 5W for CW and 1W for AM PHONE. Its distinguishing factor is the rigs small form factor: 9.8 x 5.1 x 4.7 in.
What really makes this a spy rig is its ability to be paired with another device: the AN/GRA-71. The AN/GRA-71 is a burst encoder. The encoder allows the transmission of CW messages of speeds up to 300 wpm… some serious QRQ.
A government evaluation report on the radio concluded, based on tests conducted in Vietnam supporting Special Forces teams, that the radio had an effective range while operating in CW mode of between 40 and 300 miles. I imagine with both the power output and frequency range (and assuming the use of a field expedient wire antenna) the radios were not normally used for long haul communications… probably more like a range of not more than 75 miles.
I participated in a CW QRP event! Why not? It was actually a pretty good time.
