The beginners CW group at SDARS (Spalding & District Amateur Radio Society) has made excellent progress. In four months they have gone from complete novices to knowledgeable operators. It was always the aim to make the group student led rather than just following my instructions so it was particularly pleasing when, at our normal Club gathering, they requested some further information about CW Contesting.
We covered the basics;
- reading the rules
- Where in the band to operate QRS
- What exchange information was needed and
- how to make that exchange.
We then had our own small, mock contest. We decided what the exchange information was going to be and then one would start calling CQ TEST. I don't think I have heard so much laughter from operators learning CW! It was great to see and hear them enjoying using CW and having fun with it, doing what they wanted to do.
At the beginning there were many errors but these were taken in good spirit and the nerves soon started to calm. Early errors included;
- not incrementing the serial number so every contact was 599 001
- Actual sending errors. The most common being sending too many dits in a 5
- panicking
It was a great session and the the group got a lot out of it. The laughter must have been infectious as it looks like we now have the demand to start another beginners class from scratch from some new novices. What on Earth have have we let ourselves in for!
73 de Jim G0HGH
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