On Wed, 3 Dec 2008 09:53:17 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:53:20 -0500, Gene
wrote:

On Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:50:42 -0500, Tom Francis - SWSports
wrote:

Messing around the lower end of 75 tonight listening to the high speed
traffic nets (yeah - they still exist much to my delight). Once they
closed down, I moved down the band to 3.520.50 and heard a faint call.
I switched from my 80 dipole to the long wire and got a couple of
extra s units - HS0B - thought I was hearing things. I was already
tuned up - gave a shout and damn if he didn't hear me. :)

Must have been long path - there was a lot of fade, but we got the QSO
exchange and quick name exchange before the pile up started. I tried
listening through the QRM - he was still there, but really faint.

Must have hot spotted.

Interesting anyway - the low bands seem really mediocre. I handed out
a few Qs today for the CW WW CW - maybe 200 in all - Europe turned on
and off like a freakin light switch. Same with the JAs which are
normally all over 20 meters around sundown.

Damn global warming.

I blame Canada.

Wow - now I'm hearing all kinds of UAs - band shifted quick.

Hmmm - me thinks it's time to inspect the Beverages. :)

WOW! I'd make that about 8,600 miles..... impressive!

Just worked UA9AB long path on 40 meters - cw - and the gray line
isn't in my favor. No fade and I got a 579 - 10 watts into that G5RV
I have hanging at 45 feet.

I don't know what the hell I did when I built that antenna, but it's
incredibly resonant on 40 and 20.

Don't know if this will capture the gray line at the time of QSO, but
we'll give it the old college try.

http://tinyurl.com/65rwhg

And they said CW was a dead mode.

HA!!! :)

Dead only because of no-code licenses.

That's part of it certainly, but the main emphasis came from the USCG
when they took their CW ops off the air. I have the message on tape
and listened as the station went off the air.

CQ CQ CQ DE NMN NMN
BT
010001Z APR 95 FM COGARD CAMSLANT CHESAPEAKE VA/NMN TO ALL
BT

USCG NOW CLOSING DOWN CONTINUOUS HF CW WATCH CEASING ALL MORSE CODE
OPS IN THE HF BAND. AS WE CONCLUDE OUR WATCH WE WISH YOU FAIR WINDS
AND FOLLOWING SEAS.

WE ARE PROUD OF OUR TRADITION AND LONG STANDING SERVICE TO THE MARINER
ON MORSE CODE BEGINNING IN 1901 WITH THE REVENUE CUTTER SERVICE
EXPERIMENTING WITH WIRELESS AS A MEANS TO COMMUNICIATE ON LAND AND SEA
TO THE FIRST MORSE CODE RADIO INSTALLED ABOARD CUTTER GRANT IN 1903.

OUR ORIG COMMS MISSION WAS TO RCV DISTRESS ALERTS BUT SINCE 1901 THE
CG HAS FAITHFULLY AND DILIGENTLY LISTED FOR TRAFFIC RESPONDING TO
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF CALL FM MARINERS IN NEED OF ASSIT OR RPTG
POSITION WX NAV OR SAFETY INFO.

OVER THE YEARS WE HAVE PROVIDED MARINERS WITH URGENT SAFETY AND NAV
WARNINGS OVER HF CW AND RCVD VESSEL LOCATION UPDATES FOR THE AMVER
SYS.

WE WILL FEEL A SENSE OF LOSS WITH THE PASSING OF CW. THE NEED FOR
OPERATORS WITH SENSITIVE EARS AND A FAST PRECISE KEY WILL BE REPLACED
BY COMPUTERS MODEMS AND AUTO ALARMS. THE SPECIAL EMOTION AND
EXCITEMENT ENJOYED BY CW OPERATORS CANNOT BE DUPLICATED AND THE
CHILLING SOS SIGNAL WILL NEVER AGAIN BE RCVD BY A CG UNIT. BUT CW HAS
RUN ITS COURSE AND NOW WE LOOK FWD TO SERVING YOU ON THE NEXT
GENERATION OF COMM SYSTEMS VIA THE GMDSS. FM ALL CG TELECOMM
SPECIALISTS WE BID YOU A 73.

WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT.

SIGNEED CG CAMSLANT
BT
DE NMN SK

Funny thing about the last USCG CW message. Itwasn't 30 seconds after
USCG ceased operations and all the commercial CW operations shut down,
A Russian trawler in the Bering Sea started taking on water - and
transmitted an SOS via Morse Code. :)

It probably was the only true "international" language that ever
existed.