K3WWP's CW Stories

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Terry - KD6YPU

John, I read your page about teenaged CW operators and wanted to add my two cents.

I took my technician test in 1993 when I was 12 years old. Unfortunately I didn't go for my CW exam when I should have. My grandfather (N6RE, Ray) is an old ham and was a big CW operator for years up until the late 80's when I was a young child. I can remember listening for hours to the soothing dits and dahs not knowing a single character.

When I was older and became interested in amateur radio, I thought that HF and Morse code were way above me, so I just went for the no code tech ticket. After about a year I became too busy for the hobby and dropped it.

Now nine years later I'm back on the air and eager to upgrade. All those years of listening to my grandfather in the garage with his dits and dahs has caught up to me. All I want to do is communicate with Morse code. I'm currently working on upgrading and purchasing a nice HF rig. I'm also setting up some 2 meter CW contacts in my area for practice and fun. Even the older hams are interested.

Basically my reason for contacting you was to let you know I'm doing my part to keep CW alive with the younger generation. I'm 23 and I'm doing my best to get my peers and ham peers interested. It really disturbs me when I hear talk about banishing the Morse code test for amateur radio licensing. It's bad enough that they've lowered the bar to 5 words a minute.

73,
Terry KD6YPU
Fullerton, CA

When you are through reading this page, close this window to return to the Stories index - or - click here to go to my home page if you came here from elsewhere.