Category: Morse Code

Straight Key Month

Posted on by Andrew

Great Day,

January is Straight Key Month. 

A straight key is a tool for sending Morse code characters.  The ham radio operator operates the straight key by using the muscles in his or her arm, and to a lesser extent, the wrist and fingers.  These Morse code characters by a real live human being.  There are no computer generated dits and dahs (some folks may call them dots and dashes) when the ham radio operator is using a straight key.  That is the beauty of a simple tool.

The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) advocates and promotes the use of straight keys.  They have designated January as Straight Key Month.  All month-long hams who support SKCC will be on the air a little more frequently than usual, sending their radio signals using Morse code.  The on-the-air activity will take place using the special call sign K3Y followed by a portable designation such as “/3”

 

Our own Cumberland Amateur Radio Club is honored to have one of our members  participating in this event.  Radio Station Operator John, WA3KCP will be operating some of the scheduled shifts using call sign K3Y/3.    His shifts over the next few days are:  

Friday January 13, 2023 from 1300 UTC to 1400 UTC.   The equivalent local time is 8 am to 9 am

Friday January 13, 2023 from 2200 UTC to 2300 UTC.  The equivalent local time is 5 pm to 6 pm

Tuesday January 17, 2023 at the same two time periods as listed above.

Friday January 20, 2023 at the same two time periods as listed above. 

 

If you hear K3Y/3 on the air during those time slots it will be our friend John WA3KCP with his hand on the morse code straight key.

 

For more information about Straight Key Month please visit the Straight Key Century Club web site www.skccgroup.com

This link will take you directly to the Straight Key Month web page.  https://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/k3y.php

 

For more information about the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club, located in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, I invite you to visit our web site.

www.RadioClub-CARC.com

 

Regards,
Andrew Forsyth    Amateur Radio  (Ham Radio) Call Sign AF3I

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Straight Key Century Club December News

Posted on by Andrew
Good Day,
This is a short story sent to your Editor by one of the members of Cumberland Amateur Radio Club. 
The author, John WA3KCP, is an enthusiastic Morse Code operator.  He recently participated in a monthly on-the-air event sponsored by the Straight Key Century Club.  The theme changes each month, usually with some type of seasonal theme.  The December theme involved Reindeer, Christmas characters, and Elves.  
John describes the thrill of being one of the popular Bonus Stations that result is additional scoring points when making a two-way radio contact with the Bonus Station.

From WA3KCP, John

SKCC members volunteered to be bonus stations (12 reindeer/ Christmas characters, 25 elves). By posting operating frequencies on the SKCC Sked page, bonus stations could be more easily located and worked. This year I volunteered, for the first time, to be an Elf bonus station. It was great fun!  Managed about 4 hours both Sat & Sun. Given this experience, I am checking schedule availability to take a first-time turn or two as a K3Y/3 station for the annual January K3Y SKCC event.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Happy to hand out bonus points for Elf and Senator, and really appreciated the SKCC Sked page for locating fellow elves. Helped me QSO all the reindeer, but just couldn’t work Santa. Avoided 28Mhz due to the int’l contest there. Tickled to stumble across VK2GR on 14MHz, otherwise got a few EU and the rest NA. First time performing as “Elfen John” after all these Dec WES events, and plan to sing that tune again next year!  Wishing good health and much happiness to all my SKCC buddies, those I logged for the first time and those I seek out every month!

73s
John/Elf  WA3KCP #11705S
Glossary:   
VK2GR — the ham radio callsign of an operator located in Australia.  Australia is one of the farthest away radio destinations for ham radio operators located near the east cost of the USA which makes it a particularly interesting achievement.
73 — Ham Radio shorthand notation for “Best Regards” .
SKCC — The acronym for Straight Key Century Club.  The club promotes the use of vintage radio techniques, particularly the generation of morse code characters using a manually operated telegraph key and traditional shorthand abbreviations to convey information.  In contrast, electronically generated morse code dots and dashes are frequently heard on-the-air these days.
Sked — a prearranged schedule in which to ham radio operations arrange to meet each other on-the-air at a particular date, time, and frequency.
K3Y/3 is a ham radio callsign assigned to the Straight Key Century Club.  If you turn the number 3 around you will see it looks a lot like the capital letter E.  In that sense, the
K3Y callsign promotes the use of a Morse Code KEY when transmitting.   The “slash 3” is a designation for a call sign being operated away from its registered location.  The planned operation will be taking in the Third Call Area District, which includes Pennsylvania, Maryland, District of Columbia, and Delaware.
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Straight Key – Morse Code QSOs

Posted on by Andrew

Straight Key Morse Code QSOs

QSO #1 — Jim WE5E and John WA3KCP have an on-the-air conversation using straight keys to send Morse Code while Lynn NG9D listens.

QSO #2 — Lynn NG9D and John WA3KCP hold their own conversation upon completion of QSO #1.

 

Both QSOs were captured on video and audio by NG9D in real-time as the operators chatted on-the-air.

 

WA3KCP is a member of the Straight Key Century Club as well as the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club.