Geez sometimes I wonder if my mind has a brain of it's own. I was sitting here working on brochures for a show I am doing on Sunday and I have 'The Battle of the Bulge' movie playing on my phone while I work. It's the second episode in the series. The had a scene at the command post, I was just listening while I was typing out the brochure, and in the background you can heart CW (Morse code) coming out a an off-screen radio. Well my brain locked in on the CW and I realized it was a fella calling CQ (that's a general call for a contact) and I caught part of the callsign, and F5 which is France. But at the rate he is calling and working other stations I realize, this guy is a contester. I used to do that 20 years ago but I am beyond rusty, especially at this stations sending speed. He is sending at about 25 word per minute, which is fairly fast but average for a good contester. It took me a while, I had to keep backing up the movie (the actual dialog was covering a lot of it) and finally think I heard F5LFP as his call sign. Why this matters? I have NO idea. My mind just went there and I had to figure out who the station was.
There is no accounting for it, we are a curious bunch.
Ever driven down the road,get to your destination and have little or no recollection of the trip or parts of it?
You could send him a QSL Probably not a typical contact for him, but he probably reached a lot of people - they just didn't know it.
Claude Pajusco, F5LFP
Street address available to members
HORTES, 52600
FRANCE
Looked up on HamCall. QRZ didn't have him in the database.
Yeah, I looked it up too. But that movie was from back in the 60's I think and I'm sure it's not the same operator. Also, I am not really certain I even got the call right. It's been a very long time since I worked at that speed. What first caught my ear was that it was a WWII movie and here they had a background code of a fella or gal working a radio contest. Stuff like that drives me a little nuts and is distracting. I have watched movies supposedly shot in a certain period and they have firearms from a much later period. Makes me crazy... but then again, it's a short trip for me. :D
Yeah I agree. They usually have various consultants to get those details right but they probably didn't think a viewer would be paying attention to the radio. It's amazing how many little things like that sneak in and get overlooked and it is distracting. Try watching a good ol' spaghetti western like A Few Dollars More. Eeeeekkkk!
Back in my contesting days when I could run 25-30WPM all day long I might have easily copied his call as well as the few I heard him work, but it's a shame I have lost those skills. I could get them back if I rebuilt my station and starting working at my skills again. I hope they can come back, because that is my fallback to keep from going crazy when I am unable to do physical work. I kind of miss that hobby, but there is no money in it, only expense. Having friends all over the world is pretty neat and in the past I had many.
I bet the skills would come back pretty quick if you get to that phase of life. Plus there are all sorts of techno gadgets to either copy or send without knowing a lick of Morse. Takes all the charm out of it though. There's something to be said for having a six foot rack full of old boat anchors and good bug in front of you. Add a pair of old school bakelite headphones with no cushions just complete the ensemble.
Quote from: btulloh on June 02, 2023, 07:25:06 PM
You could send him a QSL
Set off a trigger in my mind. Going back 54 years to the Vietnam era, Morse code intercept operators were called "ditty boppers" in the Air Force.
I managed to avoid that job....all
ZKL here.
I know a fellow who is into ham, but he's a recluse. He has gone to shows of some sort in the US for years. Never worked his entire life. Mom talks on the phone with his mother on a weekly basis.
Happy birthday, Swamp!
Quote from: Larry on June 02, 2023, 09:57:55 PM
I managed to avoid that job....all ZKL here.
OK, I'll bite, what is "ZKL"?
OH, and Happy Birthday SwampDonkey!
When I was in the Air Force, I was basically an electronics repairman in the communications arena. One day it might be fixing CW and the next would be microwave or a ratty old teletype circuit. CW used Q codes but the military had Z codes which did the same thing. I think the military had 3 or more sets of Z codes and I had to know them all. A lot of times we would use both Z codes and Q codes interchangeably.
ZKL means all is well.
:) A cool one to, temp wise. Got some more rhubarb juice made. I think it's October, if it weren't for nesting birds in the yard. :D
It is funny the things that can send a fellow down a rabbit hole!
It happens to me all the time. I see or hear something on TV or the radio and I have to investigate! Next thing I know it's an hour later. :o
Quote from: Larry on June 03, 2023, 04:07:13 PMZKL means all is well.
R R QSL es 73 de N2SA ;D (I don't think I have ever heard of Z codes before.)
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Swamp it was just like that here today too with a mist coming and going, nothing fired out from yesterdays rain and the high was maybe 60. I wanted to pack my truck today for tomorrow's show, but I am concerned about any rain that may come in. I might have to get up at 5 and pack in the morning.
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Ted, I have been doing that a lot lately. I guess it's because I am retired and am allowing myself these cheap and amusing yet frivolous diversions. I never had time for them before.
Amateur Radio "Q" Signals (http://www.sckans.edu/~sireland/radio/q_signals.html)
Sorry, I know the forum rules are "English only" so I should have included a translation for that cryptic line. Hams use short hand on CW in addition to Q codes.
So:
R R QSL es 73 de N2SA
Literally translated Means:
Roger Roger, I got it, and best regards from N2SA (My callsign)
Caution N2SA! rabbit hole ahead!
???
translation, "Tom it looks like even though you do not want to go down the rabbit hole ,getting back into a radio hobby, you may be doing just that. BKH (my initials)! :D :D :D
'tis a rabbit hole...
dah di dah dit da dit dah (if I recall correctly)
Beenthere, the way you typed that I can't tell where your letter breaks are. Looks like K_E_N_T to me.
Yeah it's a deep hole, and I know this because I made it to the bottom and came back out (for now). I'm an 'all or nothing guy' and I got into the contesting aspect in as big a way as my money, build skills, and time would allow. Mostly I scrounged stuff and repaired, rebuilt or re-made, some I built from scratch, rarely I would buy something new I could not make. How did I know I made it to the bottom? Well when you are doing the biggest 48 hour non-stop contest as a single operator in February and one of your antennas goes out at 3am and you find yourself on your roof, knee deep in snow, with a flashlight in your teeth and solder in one hand and a soldering iron in the the repairing the broken feed point that got ripped up in the raging wind, you can guess you are pretty close. :D At one point I had about 15 different antennas working here at the same time, not counting the VHF and UHF stuff I had for running the packet cluster DXNode I also operated 24/7/365. I had two HF radios, two amps, about 4 computers, and a mile of wires and cables interconnecting it all on 10-160 meters. Best I could manage though was a few top ten finishes either regionally or nationally and some nice wall paper plus some DXCC certs in various modes. It was a lot like having a second job but with no money coming in and all going out. But it was fun! If/when I get back in I will have to start over. Not even sure my HF rig will still work.
Reading this reminds me of my dad many years ago, as he was an electronics man his whole life.
He repaired color TV's (back when they could be repaired), and built radio's from parts in a kit. If I remember right the ham radio guy's had either a "code" or "no code" license, depending on whether they knew how to send and receive Morse. My dad never was licensed, but knew all the setups, and worked on the equipment.
He knew Morse code, and was also a pilot. I remember the local airport had a constant 24 hour repeater broadcasting the city ID letters. (Every airport had it's own letter ID, he had aeronautical charts that listed all of them). It was a way of navigating (especially in poor weather conditions), to pick up the signal while flying and know he was getting close to the airport.
I don't know code, well not very much, mostly SOS, ... --- ...
When I was stationed in Korea 1976-1977, I was a Ground Radio Equipment Repairman, and my everyday workplace was the Receiver Site and we had a receiver that identified us as Osan Air Base, and all day long I would hear --- ... -. = OSN!
I'll probably never get that out of my head! smiley_dizzy
Every time I see this subject I am reminded of the old TV commercials from the United Negro College Fund where their logo was "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
One of my semi-rotund buddies slightly modified the term for his personal use and quoted it as "A waist is a terrible thing to mind". :D
Yup, that's where I stole it from but I modified it a very long time ago to make a different point.
Tom did you ever go to Rochester Hamfest? 91st annual was this weekend, we have not been in years. I see my callsign is listed as "cancelled" :-[ Thanks for the memories
I don't believe so, but there were many over the years. I went to Dayton once, and Deerfield, and of course tons of reginal ones too many to count.
You made me look. I worked to hard for that license even thought it's a lot easier now without the code, I don't want to go through it again. I am good until 2027. I also checked my VE card and that is also good to '27. :) I suspect I will only renew one, but perhaps 2 times now.
Nice 👍 it was a long haul for us but Rochester hamfest was a swap meet to look forward to all year. I will look into renewing license -- never had code. In 10 or 15 yrs we can talk on the radio instead of computer 🙂
I know Rochester was a big one, it just never was a hit with my crew for some reason. Can't make them all and they all cost money. Why go if you don't have cash to swap for 'stuff'? ;D
As for your license, try real soon to see if you can re-up it. You have time after it expires, but I don't know how much time. Go to the FCC ULS system online and work through all the nonsense, it take a bit of time. It's been different every time I did it because things change in 10 years. :D
Right now, it doesn't hold much appeal or value for me, but I know how hard I worked for my Extra class. When they started talking about 'no-code' and we had little idea how things would go I just thought " I am getting my Extra class now before it changes and I will be grandfathered into whatever they come up with. That 20 WPM test became a mission for me, a full time job for several months. When I took the test, I lost it, brain fart about 30 seconds in and I blanked out. So I collected myself and thought "Oh well, call it more practice", and I copied out the rest of the test. I could not answer enough of the questions to pass (Missed one), but apparently I had enough error free copy to pass. When they called my name with the results and asked me to sit for the written, I told them to check again, they must have had the wrong name. They checked, no mistake. I was one of only 3 guys that passed that day. 20 or so took the test. I took the written (which I had not prepared for) and that was easier than for the Advanced class (except the quantum physics part, never understood that). I had only hoped to, at best, pass the code that day, but I came home with a new license. I never want to go through that again. A month or so later we found out they were eliminating the code and now we have no-code extras. Never would have guessed, but I got mine the hard way.
You should look into what you can do to get yours back, and soon.