Author: N0SSC

Twenty-something year old amateur radio operator. I love everything about ham radio. Trying to learn CW and contest more, and doing my best to promote youth involvement and retention in this rapidly aging hobby.

The Modern Morse Code Renaissance (and my Learning Progress)

The pastime of Learning Morse code has been on a huge upswing these last few months. Reddit posts have increased, LCWO usage is at an all-time high, and Google trends are showing an obvious bump in interest in “morse code” during the last 6 months. It seems that people have taken a liking to learning or getting better at Morse code. It might have to do with renewed interest in ham radio, COVID-19 stay-at-home impacts, or just people looking for something fun and interesting to do.

It’s definitely translated into quite a bit of on-air activity, but what I’m more impressed with are people across the Internet asking for advice learning the code.

I for one am glad to be a part of what seems to be a Modern Morse Code Renaissance.

I’ve neglected to write about my progress on becoming proficient in Morse code, but thankfully that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped practicing. I’m too busy trying to get good to write about it!

Some background for new readers – Back at the start of the 2020 (before it turned into the worst year ever), I embarked on a journey to practice Morse daily. I streamed every session to Twitch.tv and YouTube (you can see some goofy highlights and bloopers here).

It’s been several weeks since then, and mostly thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak, I’ve been able to find the time to not only stay (somewhat) consistent with practice, but to also commit my Monday and Friday evenings to CW Academy. I’m in the basic class with Dave W8OV, who has been an excellent instructor, with a group of hams that are right there with me trying to improve our ability to translate Morse code in our head, without writing, instantly.

I have definitely seen a massive improvement in my proficiency. I’ve completed all of the letters, numbers, and symbols. But still, I learned last night that I still have a long way to go before I have a FB QSO at 20-25WPM, but I can hold my own at an effective WPM (a.k.a. Farnsworth speed) of around 10 WPM. Not bad. But a ways to go.

Now I just need to get on the air.

True Morse code proficiency comes from on-air practice, not from LCWO drills or even classes like CW Academy or Long Island CW Club. It comes from the grueling embarrassment of flubbing your first QSO and getting better with every QSO after that. Absolutely nobody will disagree with that (unless you’re one of those super-human High Speed CW wizards like Fabian DJ1YFK).

I wonder who is going to be the lucky ham on the end of my first real CW QSO? If you’re reading this, sorry in advance for my awful copy. 🙂 

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dit dit

A New Discord Server for Young Radio Amateurs

Join the YARC Discord here: https://discord.gg/MpQJadu

Suffice it to say, the Young Amateurs Radio Club experienced a split. From my experience, every ham radio club will experience a split in it’s lifetime. It seems to be the natural order of things.

The original YARC board met with the former YARC president (who owned the server and banned key members of the board) for several weeks of mediation and reconciliation, but ultimately no compromise could be met.

From out of the ashes, a phoenix shall rise.

The original YARC board regathered, lost interest in saving the old server, and created a new server. The old server still exists, but it’s down to a fraction of it’s activity and is being ran by the former YARC president has been deleted by the former YARC president.

The new YARC Discord server is now active, it’s just as busy as before, and it’s members are coming up with new activities to get back into the swing of things before the ‘event.’ It is open, friendly, inclusive, and has no tolerance for bullying and harmful trolling.

I left a parting message on the old server that read as follows:

Hello.

This message will probably get deleted and I will probably get banned in record time, but it doesn’t hurt to try to get a message out. 

This server is a husk of its former glory that’s lost it’s vision, it’s leadership, and it’s heart. You may have noticed a lot of people have gotten banned, kicked, and had their messages deleted due to disparaging this server or linking to the new YARC server. This is because the server owner has been lurking trying to control the exodus of members while forming it into his own brand after the banning and de-perming of the YARC Board members. 

 I couldn’t be happier if it was to blossom into a vibrant young ham community. But at the end of the day, this isn’t YARC. 

But given it’s an inactive server being led by questionable ethics and obscurity, I recommend the new YARC server that is being ran by the OG YARC founders, board and members. Go to https://discord.gg/MpQJadu if you want a healthy, active, inclusive, and lively server ran by fellow young hams who truly have your best interests at heart. 

To avoid confusion of newcomers looking for the YARC server, I deleted several invite links to draw in new members from across the internet. Since the server has changed in many ways, those invite links aren’t valid anymore. I can’t tell which links were created after the change in leadership, and what version of the server went to which invite link, so I removed all but the owner’s personal invite link.

I would still like to serve as liaison between Young Hams and the rest of the amateur radio world (as I’ve always done) and a mediator between our two communities. 

message edited to redact names

73, N0SSC

PS: To KZØP- Jesten and I are forever grateful for the Reese’s pumpkins, but I ran out 🙁 but thankfully it’s Easter so Reeses Eggs have flooded the market 🙂

Anchorage VEC Remote Testing results in a new Extra; Remote Testing Working Group Underway

First remote exam due to COVID-19 complete. 94% on my Extra. Thanks to Anchorage VEC! from amateurradio

Good news! Remote VE Testing is happening and people are getting licensed and upgraded! Woohoo!

I spoke with Brandin Hess, AL6I, Anchorage ARC VEC chairman on the phone shortly after this test session was complete. He told me that remote testing is well underway. At the current rate, they can handle between 5 and 10 candidates a day, possibly up to 20 if everyone was operating at full tilt. Only 40 applications are in process right now (and many more are sure to come). Several applications have been rejected, in part due to the an in-person proctor not being available because of shelter-in-place requirements.

I want to publicly thank Brandin and the Anchorage VEC for their efforts. He says it’s using up 110% of his time, and taking an impact on his health, but if he wasn’t working on it, ham radio licensing would come to a screeching halt.

The process at Anchorage still requires an in-person proctor, who is essentially a trusted individual, to verify that the test taker is following all the rules and not cheating, and to – without a shadow of a doubt – validate the integrity of the test session per Part 97 regulations.

But what if it’s okay to perform testing entirely online? A working group is currently underway solving that problem.

In the last few hours a group of about 30 people has coalesced from across the country, all working towards defining specific goals and requirements for 100% online amateur radio examinations, performing proofs of concept, and creating a standard operating procedure that any VEC can adopt and modify for their needs. No software is being written, yet, as it may very well be possible this can be done with off-the-shelf components like video conferencing, Docusign, ExamTools, and even mirrors!

The effort got quite a massive signal boost with the help of Sam Hulick, renowned composer and software developer, and verified “blue checkmark” Twitter user, sent a tweet to Ajit Pai, FCC Chairman. Yes. The Ajit Pai. And he responded:

I eagerly await to see the results of this tweet, but at the end of the day, there’s no need for any FCC action, besides maybe a 👍 and a vote of confidence that VECs can reliably perform 100% remote testing.

This clearly isn’t an effort that will result in immediate adoption (although theoretically the capability is already available), but it will – within the next few months or less – result in a framework and/or set of tools that VECs and their VE teams can use to perform remote testing reliably and be confident that it is FCC compliant.

But is it really FCC compliant? By that I mean, does a 100% online synchronous exam with several angles of surveillance of the test taker by 3 or more VEs meet all subparts of Part 97.509? I think so. What do you think?

I will keep the updates flowing and those interested informed as progress is made. If you want to be added to the conversation, reach out to me.

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