Here’s another cartoon I drew for Gordon West’s latest Extra-class license guide, shared for the CW enthusiasts among us.
Maybe 10 percent of my QSOs are CW these days (the rest are PSK31), and I can cruise along at up to 20 wpm as long as copy is good and I don’t have to write everything down. (Tip: You can speed up your CW if you read more in your head and learn to listen as if it were just another person talking.)
I thought I was fast — and compared to a lot of licensees, I suppose I am — but realized just how slow I really was when I worked Field Day with the CW old timers at the Alford Memorial Radio Club. Those guys copy 35-wpm-plus like it was nothing. I tried to help log and was left in the dust every time.
My goal for next year: Work enough CW that I can keep up with the Old Timers. What’s yours?
Allison, AB4YL, has just about the coolest call ever for a YL. She’s also a friend; my wife Gail, N2ART, and I know her through our home club, the