K3WWP's CW Stories

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.

Steve - WB6TNL

Hi John. I was first licensed in 1967 when I was in high school. My Elmer was Ed Sanders, WA6VJP (SK). Ed was a blind ham and one hot CW op. He was the moderator for our school's radio club and taught us all proper CW procedure and drilled us kids by having us handle CW traffic. One year we made Brass Pounders League (over 500 messages passed) in one weekend during a Boy Scout Jamboree handling traffic from family members of service personnel stationed in Vietnam via Navy MARS.

Back then I always drooled over Ed's Collins S-Line, his Hallicrafters "T.O." keyer and his chrome Vibroplex "Vibrokeyer" paddle. Now that he is gone, I own that same Vibrokeyer and will always treasure it.

One of my favorite memories of operating CW is from the late 60's or early 70's after I'd discovered homebrewing QRP CW transmitters using transistors. I would spend hours on end rag-chewing on 40 meters using only a few hundred milliWatts of power. One afternoon I met an OT on the air signing a W6xx call. His fist was real good and strong and we hit it right off. We had such a good time that we set up a regular schedule during the day on Saturdays. But there was something odd about this guy. Every once in a while, he'd start sending in weird characters that I couldn't figure out. When I asked him what was going on, he apologized and told me that he was a retired railroad telegraph operator and that when he got real comfortable with someone on the air he would slip into sending landline Morse without even realizing it!

After several QSO's, I began to recognize the landline characters and later on had no trouble copying him no matter how he was sending! I never got up the nerve to try my hand sending in landline Morse however. 73, Steve Smith WB6TNL

(Note from K3WWP: Ed WA6VJP was for many years the NCS for the CW County Hunters Net)

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.