Starting to Work with a Begali CW Machine 15 - July - 2009
Posted by k9zw in Amateur Radio, K9ZW Shack, K9ZW Uses.Tags: K9ZW, Morse Code, Begali CW Machine, Begali
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Back at Dayton I bought a Begali CW Machine for Code Practice.
Finally getting around to setting it up.
Begali CW Machine
http://www.i2rtf.com/html/cw_machine.html
I’ve found an appropriate keyboard and will wire up a Kent Key and get started.
Wish me luck!
73
Steve
K9ZW
“Night of Nights” July 12th – Very Interesting Marine CW Event 10 - July - 2009
Posted by k9zw in Amateur Radio, K9ZW, K9ZW Just Rambled.Tags: K9ZW, K9ZW Just Rambled, Morse Code, Night of Nights
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A VERY interesting commemorative special event runs this weekend:
“Night of Nights X Final Information
HISTORIC MORSE CODE RADIO STATIONS RETURN TO THE AIR FOR “NIGHT OF NIGHTS IX”
o Station KPH will return to the air!
o MRHS station KSM will be on the air.
o Station KFS will return to the air!
o Coast Stations WLO and KLB will join in.
o Amateur station K6KPH, with commercial operators at the key, will be QRV for signal reports.
o Operations begin at 1701pdt 12 July, 0001gmt 13 July. We usually continue two way operations for about 6 hours but broadcasts on the commercial stations KPH, KFS and KSM may continue after that.
If you’re not already a member, join the MRHS mailing list for late information. Just send an email message to: Radiomarine-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
————
It’s hard to believe that this will be the tenth annual Night of Nights. What began as a modest effort on the part of a small band of dedicated enthusiasts has grown into a truly global event.
Listeners around the world wait with their earphones on to hear the first signals rise up out of the static. Many write wonderful letters with phrases like “It was tough going there for a while but I stuck with you through to the end!”. Words like those let us know that we’re on the right track and that this event is as close to the hearts of many other “true believers” as it is to ours.
Frequency and reception report information for all stations appear below.
KPH, the ex-RCA coast station located north of San Francisco, will return to the air for commemorative broadcasts on 12 July at 1701 PDT (13 July at 0001 GMT), 10 years and one minute after what was thought to be the last commercial Morse transmission in the US. Now the Maritime Radio Historical Society’s own KSM carries on the tradition of commercial Morse.
These on-the-air events are intended to honor the men and women who followed the radiotelegraph trade on ships and at coast stations around the world and made it one of honor and skill.
Transmissions are expected to continue until at least midnight PDT (0700GMT).
Veteran Morse operators, including former KPH staff members, will be on duty at the receiving station at Point Reyes, CA listening for calls from ships and sending messages just as they did for so many years before Morse operations were shut down.
The transmitters are located 18 miles south of Point Reyes in Bolinas, CA at the transmitting station established in 1913 by the American Marconi Co. The original KPH transmitters, receivers and antennas will be used to activate frequencies in all the commercial maritime HF bands and on MF as well.
Many of the KPH transmitters will be 50s vintage RCA sets. KFS will use a 1940s vintage Press Wireless PW-15 transmitter on 12Mc. This is the transmitter that was in service at KFS on the “last day” of American Morse and is thought to be the last PW-15 in service in the world. The transmitting antennas include a Marconi T for MF, double extended Zepps for 4, 6 and 8Mc and H over 2s for 12, 16 and 22Mc.
KPH will send traffic lists, weather and press broadcasts as well as special commemorative messages, some of which will be sent by hand. At other times the KPH, KSM and KFS “wheel” will be sent to mark the transmitting frequencies.
Members of the public are invited to visit the receiving station for this event. The station will be open to visitors beginning at 1500PDT (3:00pm). The station is located at 17400 Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and is on the route to the Point Reyes lighthouse. Watch for a cypress lined driveway on the right past Drakes Bay Oysters and “G” Ranch.
KPH and KSM are operated by the Maritime Radio Historical Society in cooperation with the Point Reyes National Seashore, part of the National Park Service.
Further information may be found on the Maritime Radio Historical Society Web site at http://www.radiomarine.org “
Full details at: http://www.radiomarine.org/non10.html
73
Steve
K9ZW
·· –/-· — -/-·· · ·- -··/-·– · – (“I’m not dead yet” in CW) 11 - July - 2008
Posted by k9zw in Amateur Radio, K9ZW Just Rambled.Tags: CW, Morse Code, Stephen Moss
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·· –/-· — -/-·· · ·- -··/-·– · – *
Very neat article by Stephen Moss in the UK Guardian Newspaper available online:
One had assumed that Morse code’s last hurrah (that’s ···· ··- ·-· … oh, life’s just too short) had been in about 1944. But one had assumed wrong. The writer Alan Sillitoe, who trained as a wireless operator in the second world war, this week revealed that he still practises taking Morse every day, listening to chatter across the airwaves, including a French station that broadcasts poetry in Morse.
So how much Morse, in iambic pentameters or otherwise, is out there?
More at: I’m not dead yet…..
73
Steve
K9ZW
*I’m not dead yet
CWirc – CW via World Wide Web 9 - July - 2008
Posted by k9zw in Amateur Radio, K9ZW Just Rambled.Tags: CWirc, K9ZW, K9ZW Just Rambled, KC4WMS, Morse Code
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Ok, I’m a bit out of touch how to implement this on a OS-X machine – ideas? Clients? Software?
Assistance appreciated!
73
Steve
K9ZW
——
copied material from several net sources and from emails sent to me:
Now you can send and receive morse code via the Internet thanks to CWirc, an X-Chat plugin for sending and receiving raw morse code over IRC.
The website at http://users.skynet.be/ppc/cwirc/ says:
CWirc is a plugin for the X-Chat IRC client to transmit raw morse code over the internet using IRC servers as reflectors. The transmitted morse code can be received in near real-time by other X-Chat clients with the CWirc plugin.
CWirc tries to emulate a standard amateur radio rig : it sends and receives morse over virtual channels, and it can listen to multiple senders transmitting on the same channel.
Morse code is keyed locally using a straight or iambic key connected to a serial port, or using the mouse buttons, and the sound is played through the soundcard, or through an external sounder.
Note that CWirc doesn’t do any morse decoding : it simply transmits and receives morse code timing events.
A standard IRC user on the same IRC channel you’re transmitting morse on will only see coded lines when morse code is transmitted. Only other CWirc users can receive what you send.
The website also has historic information on morse code and the telegraph.
CWirc
http://users.skynet.be/ppc/cwirc/
Google “MorseKOB” http://home.earthlink.net/~n7rz/morse/
There are a few Morse operators around yet that can use the old wire
telegraph code….it is almost a lost art for sure. There are even fewer that are “bi lingual” and can use both International Morse and American Morse codes fluently.
Now, instead of just the bus and the phone, we have the Internet. It is no different in kind, and I bet it will be at least as useful to those who want a place to make mistakes in trying to be better CW operators as the technology of my day was to me.
It goes one better than the phone, though, because sites like this could well be one way to expose those not yet licensed to the utility of Morse code.
I can’t see for the life of me how this would be a thing bad enough to have one poster spouting disguised obscenties and another one begging for a break. Why is it that no matter what someone does to promote Morse code and CW, one or two of its proponents jumps in and finds some reason to put it down if it isn’t being done exactly the way he would do it. Things like this will “preseve” the mode right into extinction. Swearing and being generally dour is NOT the way to encourage others to use the mode.
I, for one, would point to this site as a good tool for those who want some off-the-air practice before they put it on the air.
Ed, W1RFI
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Originally Posted by N7BXY
 Where indeed has the romance of being a Ham gone! When you use radios to communicate by CW, not a computer. Building your own transmitter with a 6AG7 as a crystal controlled oscillator, and an 807 as the final amplifier is gone and in the past, but, where is the love for listening for that weak signal from far away and responding to the CQ. That’s inspiring to me.
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But almost every one of us used non-radio technology to learn the code, even it it was just sitting down with the chart and memorizing. Vinyl LP records were the “hip” technology of the day. I have to wonder whether old timers of that generation were displeased to see Morse code put onto vinyl to encourage newcomers to learn it easily.
We aren’t using a 6AG7 often nowadays (though we can). But there is now a wealth of kits and projects available that lets more hams build more equipment than was practical in those good old days. There is experimentation in software-defined radios, where modulation and demodulation is done using DSP and analog/digital devices to interface between the digital and analog world. The magic isn’t gone; it is just a new trick some of us have never seen before.
The site is an interesting novelty to an experienced CW op; it is an interesting simulation of CW use that could attract newcomers to the mode.
Amateur Radio has always been connected to other technology of the day. Did hams fear the first phone patches? Do they fear the interface between Amateur Radio and the Internet?
The Internet has brought value to many areas of my life. Amateur Radio is one of them.
Ed, W1RFI
for anyone interested in IRC , google xchat , it’s a free client avail. for windows and linux.
the following are the two nets I frequent :
irc.undernet.us.org common ports 6667
irc.superhosts.net common ports 6667
you may need to add servers to the client. or have an option to use the client command of :
/server ( the above server addresses one at a time )
after connecting you’ll need to join the channel by this command:
/join #hamradio
you’ll also need a nick name – user name most use their call so the command would be:
/nick ( your call )
NOTE do NOT use the ( parentheses ) in any commands.
73 de kc4wms
Brass Pounders Online – Internet Morse Code 21 - December - 2007
Posted by k9zw in Amateur Radio, K9ZW Learned.Tags: Brasspounders, CW, K9ZW, Morse Code
2 comments
Brasspounder.com by Harry AB7TB is a neat website featuring methods to get on the internet with CW (both International Morse Code and the old Railroader’s “American Morse Code”).
The Brasspounder Station On-Line List
MRX CWCode does something similar – their website is:
http://www.mrx.com.au/d_cwcom.htm
MorseKOB is a program by Les N7RX for doing landline telegraphy and American Morse
http://home.earthlink.net/~n7rz/morse/
The Morse Telegraph Club focuses on keeping “American Morse Code” alive, and is a wealth of information:
http://www.morsetelegraphclub.org/
As I work at my CW skills websites like this will enter into the education & practice to get up to a reasonable CW level.
Hope you enjoy them too!
73
Steve
K9ZW
