Our Next Meeting ...

Jack Warren, WB4MDC/AE

With a once in a lifetime,
"Believe It or Not!"
Presentation

“C What?”
Well, “CW”, of course!!

That’s the response I’ve been getting to that question for the past several years. The more recent response to the question has been “T-E-T-E E-T-T”, since I’ve been heard talking about all those “E”s and “T”s. Before that, I claimed that the EXTRA CLASS license was a dead end license, seeing how there’s no place to go after attaining THE top class license. I received an answer to that one too!! That’s the whole reason behind the “Dead Ender’s Society” ( Callsign: ‘W1DES’, look it up... ).

WHY I DID IT.

That’s a rather short story. First of all, I recently celebrated my 30th year of being a licensed ham radio operator and thought getting my Amateur Extra would be a nice anniversary present. Secondly, if the FCC has their way, the current license structure will go away and with it will go the 20 word per minute Morse Code requirement. It’s not much of a challenge if they take it back to 12 WPM because I passed 13 over 20 years ago. Besides, my birthday was coming up and thought I might have a better chance of getting something REALLY SPECIAL if I had my EXTRA. Also, I hadn’t studied the rules for a while so thought that I’d get some added benefit from buying a new FCC Rule Book. (What, the master bottom feeder bought a NEW Rule book??.) Finally, I thought I might be able to squelch your hounding me to get my EXTRA if I really got it. Some of you may not know how many activities I’ve been excluded from just because I didn’t have my EXTRA, including Field Day from a VERY NICE spot in FN53 (when it happens...)!

HOW I DID IT

Last November, I decided to set aside an hour every day, starting 8 weeks before the next Nashua VE session. That meant that I could start on January 4 and be ready for the session at the end of February. I figured 8 weeks should be enough for me to get up to 20 WPM (at least 18...). I’m fortunate that I had to learn the theory AND USE IT many years ago, so I didn’t think I’d have very much trouble with that part of the exam.

It’s so easy to get FREE study materials these days!! I downloaded the question pool from the ARRL’s web site, reconfigured them by removing the answers from the main questions and created two answer sheets; one with the answers and one without them (you know, remove the A-D letters from within the parenthesis). This way, I could read the question, (without being tempted to look at the answer) place my answer (guess!?) on the blank sheet and when I was done answering the 450 pool questions, check my answers against the ones provided. Using this method, I only had to print another blank answer sheet to answer the questions again instead of another 35, double sided pages of questions.

I went through all 450 questions 2 times. Each time took 2½ evenings, over and above the hour of code practice time each day. I wanted to see what I still remembered, so I didn’t study anything before I answered the questions the first time. This gave me an idea as to how much I REALLY didn’t know. I made a pencil mark at each question I missed. I used the marks to specifically study the book(s) so I understood why the answer given in the pool was truly the correct answer. I had an old license manual and found it didn’t have some of the material, but I found the required materials in more recent copies of the Antenna Book, the Handbook, and other ARRL publications I have around the house. The second time through netted a 75% improvement in the number of missed questions. I was delighted. However, I managed to miss some questions the 2nd time that I had correct the 1st time and others I missed twice. I marked the ones I missed the 2nd time on the question sheet. This gave me the total missed and the marks were right beside the questions. The 3rd and final time I went through the pool, I only answered those I’d missed in the past.

The theory was MINE!!

The code was a different matter. I’ve never had a CW QSO. I never went looking for one, nor did it “just happen”. I’ve always been interested in the “slinging’ solder” part of Ham Radio. Building things, making them work, then setting them aside has been my mode of operation. Oh, yes, I do check to see that my HF rig works, but that’s sideband and usually only lasts about an hour during a sked I have on weekends. Back in the ‘70s, I built several CW identifiers for some local repeaters, but CW was just an incidental part of those projects.

I started studying CW again using the same tried and true method that helped me get my Advanced license back in ‘77. Good, ole, reliable W1AW!! Yes, folks, ‘1AW is alive and well. Every weekday W1AW transmits code practice at 7:00PM and 10:00PM local time, sometimes starting at 5 WPM and going up in speed and others at 35 WPM, decreasing in speed to 10 WPM. I knew the 35 WPM stuff was out of the question when I first started, but also knew from my Advanced code preparation days, that listening to too fast code, then listening to some that wasn’t as fast causes me to increase my copy speed. I used the fast to slow code sessions to get up to 15 WPM. This is painfully slow, because you feel you’re not getting ahead fast enough because you only get about 10 minutes of each speed. That’s great when you’re trying to copy code that’s too fast, but when the “right” speed comes along, you want 15 to 20 minutes at that speed. However, when I hit the 15 WPM mark, I started listening to the 8:00PM 18 WPM W1AW code bulletins. These are usually around 45 minutes long and are near my goal of 20 WPM. They include FCC news, propagation information, and other timely Amateur related news. The solar flux results and predictions are especially useful in increasing your number recognition. Watch out, though, if you tend to read what you’re copying (like me) you can get into trouble second guessing what’s coming next!!

During my code practice sessions, I’d sometimes record the off-the-air code. This allowed me to practice at more convenient times, including lunch times at work.

THE RESULT.

What can I say other than since about 11:00AM, February 27, 1999, I’m now allowed to use ALL of the spectrum allocated to the Amateur Radio Service... no foolin’

DE WB4MDC

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