Back of AB6ET QSL Card<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nOn March 7, 2018, during my lunch break I set up my mobile 40m hamstick in the office parking lot and surfed around the CW frequencies of 40m (i.e. 7.000 to 7.125 MHz). It was mostly me calling CQ and with no replies, but toward the end of the lunch hour, I heard someone coming in pretty loud, and slow enough that I could (mostly) make out the characters. By the second callsign send, I could visualize: AB6ET. I hoped I was getting it right.<\/p>\n
When AB6ET finished, I sent out, “AB6ET DE AD6DM AD6DM K”.<\/p>\n
Expecting to hear the CQ call again (which is normally the case, nearly no one hears me), I prepared to shut down and go back to work. But then AB6ET was sending my callsign! WOOHOO, I had just made a CW contact!<\/p>\n
The QSO was horrible, and by no fault of AB6ET. I sent “SRY MY CW IS BAD, NEW TO CW” (or at least I tried to send that), as well as totally mucking up his RST report and other words. I felt so unprepared. I didn’t have a pencil or paper, and when I thought I could rely on the CW translator of the radio, it totally failed me due to the background noise.<\/p>\n
I copied perhaps 25% of what he sent, but I did make out NORM as the name, and bits and pieces. It was an embarrassing conversation due to my limitations.<\/p>\n
Later that evening I found Norm’s email on QRZ.com, and asked him if I got the callsign right. The next day he replied that yes, we indeed talked on CW, and he encouraged me to keep it up and gave a lot of great tips on how to get better at CW. I felt very motivated to keep at the CW practice after that email.<\/p>\n
This contact was 300+ miles away on 40m, transmitting roughly 10 watts into a mobile 8ft vertical hamstick with about 2.2:1 SWR. Not bad for a lunch break, I’d say!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I received my first reply QSL card. And for a CW QSO, no less! On March 7, 2018, during my lunch break I set up my mobile 40m hamstick in the office parking lot and surfed around the CW frequencies of 40m (i.e. 7.000 to 7.125 MHz). It was mostly me calling CQ and with no replies, but toward the end of the lunch hour, I heard someone coming in pretty loud, and slow enough that I could (mostly) make out the characters. By the second callsign send, I could visualize: AB6ET. I hoped I was getting it right. When AB6ET finished, I sent out, “AB6ET DE AD6DM… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,35,13],"tags":[25,29,23,39],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cw","category-elmer","category-qsl","tag-contact","tag-cw","tag-hf","tag-qso"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9naFX-7p","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":219,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2017\/11\/got-my-first-qsl-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":0},"title":"Got my first QSL card!","author":"kf6ujs","date":"November 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Whoa. Unexpected but received my first QSL card in the mail today from my 2nd ever (and farthest so far) interstate contact: WD1W in Colorado. What a great ham tradition. I gotta get me some QSL cards made up to send to people.","rel":"","context":"In "DX"","block_context":{"text":"DX","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/dx\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_6722-1-1024x764.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_6722-1-1024x764.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/IMG_6722-1-1024x764.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":773,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2019\/03\/the-other-side-of-sota-failed-chasing\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":1},"title":"The Other Side of SOTA: Failed Chasing","author":"AD6DM","date":"March 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In today's episode, I go on my typical Lunch Time on the Air\u2122 (LTOTA) during my lunch hour at work in Rancho Cordova, and I fail at chasing two of my friends activating Summits on the Air (SOTA): - Jose K6HZR activating San Juan Hill (1 pt) W6\/CT-230 - Scott\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Contesting"","block_context":{"text":"Contesting","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/contesting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":500,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2018\/05\/cw-and-ft8-and-psk-oh-my\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":2},"title":"CW and FT8 and PSK, oh my!","author":"AD6DM","date":"May 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In the past month, I've finally unblocked my antenna issues and made great strides in the digital realm of ham radio. Using the PreciseRF HG-1 magnetic loop antenna along with my RigExpert AA-600 to get the lowest possible SWR, I have found that I can get out to virtually all\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Reverse Beacon Network for AD6DM","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-22-at-11.30.24-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-22-at-11.30.24-PM.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-22-at-11.30.24-PM.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":283,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2017\/12\/what-is-this-transmission\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":3},"title":"What is this transmission?","author":"kf6ujs","date":"December 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I checked in to W6VVR Vaca Valley Radio Club net this evening and they said post-net they'd be hopping on to 7.190MHz. Quickly set up my bugcatcher for 40m and listened, but nothing heard, except for a QSO in progress on 7.192 from Arizona to Los Angeles. So I thought\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Digital"","block_context":{"text":"Digital","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/digital\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":929,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2020\/02\/sota-with-ai6xg-on-wragg-ridge\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":4},"title":"SOTA with AI6XG on Wragg Ridge","author":"AD6DM","date":"February 21, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dan AI6XG has been doing SOTA for a couple years, and we were in CWOps Level 2 class together in 2018. He graciously offered to go on a SOTA hike with me, and picked this great spot mapped out by Jeff AA6XA around the Lake Berryessa area. Enjoy watching my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antennas"","block_context":{"text":"Antennas","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/antennas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":684,"url":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/2018\/12\/projects-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":459,"position":5},"title":"Projects 2018","author":"AD6DM","date":"December 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"This past year was an eventful ham radio one. As I begin to look ahead to goals and daydreams of 2019, it's always good to not expect the past to be the norm, but to take a moment and appreciate all the stuff that's happened good and bad. Thinking back,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Elmer"","block_context":{"text":"Elmer","link":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/category\/elmer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Southwest_050216.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Southwest_050216.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Southwest_050216.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":463,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions\/463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"AB6ET](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ad6dm.net\/log\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/AB6ET-QSL-Card-Mar-18-2018-8-05-PM.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a>