CQD or SOS????

As a avid CW operator, I had always thought that SOS stood for 'Save Our Souls'

The BBC recently published an article outlining the history of CQ, CQD, and SOS.

In the early days of radio there was no voice communication. It was all morse code.

Before radio, ships in distress could only signal other ships in range using lights, flags or flares.

But before SOS the was a distress signal called CQD.

CQ was a general call to demand attention from all stations, preceding a time signal or other announcement. The Marconi company, the dominant power in early radio, suggested this signal be appended with a D to work as a distress signal.

Many people thought CQD meant 'Come Quick Danger' but in reality it did not mean anything except a distress call.

The year 1906 brought a wireless telegraphy conference in Berlin, and there was a pressure to agree on a common signal.

The Italians uses SSSDDD, the Germans used SOE, and everyone used CQD.

The conference decided to use SOS and set the effective date as July 1st, 1908.

Many mistakenly believed it stood for Save Our Souls, or Sinking Of Ship, or Send Out Succour or Save Our Ship.

The first ship believed to have sent an SOS was the American steamer Arapahoe in 1909.

When the Titanic was sinking in 1912, its operator first sent out CQD and then SOS, alternating.

So that is the story of the morse distress signal.

73, Jack K4SAC

Credit: BBC NEWS UK

Ham radio, and licensing

I was discussing how licensing has changed over the years.

I was 13 years old when I got my first ticket in 1974, I had to drive about a 4 hour drive to Indianapolis, IN to take my exam in front of an FCC examiner. The question pool was secret, you had to have the knowledge, not memorize a bunch of questions. You had to take your morse code test, sending and recieving, they had a machine that had a bunch of head phones attached to it and you listened to the code through the headphones.

You had to get 1 minute of solid copy on your paper.

My Novice ticket if I remember right(it has been a few yrs) was only good for 2 years (originally it was 1 yr) and 75 Watts.

I was limited to xtal control, so I had crystals for a few different frequencies in the 80 and 40 meter band. I would call CQ on one of my xtal frequencies and had to tune my rcvr up and down the band to listen for a reply. Talk about inefficent use of bandspace!

Finally transmitters such as the Heathkit DX60 came out and you could hook a VFO to it and QSY up and down the band. That was so neat, you could actually get calls on the same frequency you transmitted on.

W1AW was my friend as I would listen faithfully to the code practice to get my speed up so I could get my General ticket within the 1 yr timeframe. W4OYI would get on the air and help me also by qsoing me and pushing me on my cw speed.

Finally, I made the trip to Indianapolis and sat for my General and passed it. 13 wpm code...By that time I was copying 20 wpm, but I was so nervous taking the test I barely copied the 13wpm.

Another year went by and I went to take my Advanced exam. That was the hardest written exam I think I have ever taken. It was even harder then my 2nd class Radiotelegraph Commercial ticket I eventually got. I know it was harder than my extra exam. There were tube schematics on it, one of them I remember was a tube type colpitts osciallator!

Then finally I got my Extra ticket. This one I ended up driving to Atlanta Ga and taking it. At that time, at Indianapolis, they would only give the exams like 4 times a year and they weren't giving the Extra in Indianapolis before college started and the only way to get it before I went to college was to drive to Atlanta and take it. By this time I was copying 25 wpm or better, but again in front of that FCC examiner, that 20 wpm sounded a lot faster.

But in those days of FCC examiners, they did have a license you could get sort of like the tests you take now. There was a ham license called the Conditional license. It granted basically the same priviledges as a General license, except you took the exam in front of another ham.

It was originally intended to be for people that had disabilities that prevented them from traveling to take the test in front of an FCC examiner.

This was the precusor to todays VE exams.

Like anything not monitored properly, there were abuses of the Conditional license process which led the FCC to re-examine some Conditional Licensees in front of an FCC examiner and eventually the FCC abolished the Conditional license.

Today the licensing process is totally different.

You no longer have to drive hours away to sit in front of an FCC examiner to get your ham license. The Novice license no longer exists and although some Advanced licensees are still alive once those licensees die out, there will no longer be any Advanced licenses.

Today you can get the Technician, General and Extra. You no longer have to know the code to get a ham license.

Today the license pools are published with the exact questions and answers to the test questions.

Today there are VEC's which accredit examiners and it takes 3 VE's to give tests. The FCC learned from the days of the Conditional that one tester is subject to impropieties, but if you have 3 you are less likely to have abuses of the system.(Although that is not a given as there have been some VE test sessions that have been discredited.)

Even though I have been licensed for 34 years and I am a CW operator, I am not going to sit here and preach that the old way was better. Times have changed and society itself has changed and most of all the focus on ham radio from the FCC's point of view has changed.

What hasnt changed over the years is the fact that the Amateur Radio Service has been a self-policing service and internally we try to correct the abuses we see or hear about. It is up to us as licensees and us Old Timers to not denegrate the new licensees but to teach the proper ways of operation and for us OTers to set the example for the newer licensees to emulate.

But self-policing hasn't been enough and over the years the FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division Riley Hollingsworth has been enforcing the Ham Radio rules and you can read the list of enforcement actions that the FCC has taken http://www.fcc.gov/eb/AmateurActions/Welcome.html


We need to continue to be active on the HF bands and especially our VHF and UHF bands, as spectrum allocation is getting very competative and there are certainly many services that would love to take away our frequency allocations. There is big money to be made by the government in frequency allocations and if we as a Amateur service do not make good use of our frequency allocations, then we could possibly look at losing frequencies in the future.

Yes, Ham radio has changed a lot over the years since 1894 when Marconi first sent a wireless radio signal across the English Channel. The Ham radio landscape has changed numerous times and probably will change again.

I can honestly say that Ham radio has given me one of the greatest pleasures in the past 34 years and that I hope it continues to give me pleasure, but also that it continues to flourish.

73, Jack K4SAC

International Marconi Day 2008

The Maritime Radio Historical Society (MRHS) is pleased to announce that its amateur station K6KPH will be participating in International Marconi Day 2008.

International Marconi Day (IMD), sponsored by the Cornish Amateur Radio Club, is a 24-hour amateur radio event held annually to celebrate the birth of Guglielmo Marconi on the 25th April 1874.

IMD is usually held on the Saturday closest to Marconi's birthday, when amateur radio stations are operated from original historic sites around the world.
Stations may apply to the Cornish Amateur Radio Club for awards for contacting these stations.

With transmitters at the site established in Bolinas, CA by the American Marconi Company in 1913, K6KPH has a direct connection to the great inventor.

K6KPH will begin IMD operations at 5:00pm pdt (0000gmt) on Saturday, 26 April. Transmitting frequencies will be 3550.0, 7050.0 and 14050.0kc. All transmissions will of course be in Morse code.

The public is invited to visit K6KPH to observe the station in action. Qualified Morse operators wishing to operate K6KPH are invited to bring their keys and headphones. No amateur license is required.

Those intending to visit should reply to this message for detailed information and directions.

For more information about International Marconi Day see the Cornish Radio Club's Web page at:

http://www.gb4imd.org.uk/

CW Skimmer Vs. Contesting

If you are a contester, you have probably heard about this new software package called "CW Skimmer."

There is currently a debate raging about the use of CW SKimmer in contesting.

For those that don't know what CW Skimmer is, the link to it is http://www.dxatlas.com/CwSkimmer/

According to VE3NEA (who has created some truly outstanding ham radio software), CW Skimmer is a :


1) a very sensitive CW decoding algorithm based on the methods of Bayesian statistics;
simulatneous decoding of ALL cw signals in the receiver passband - up to 700 signals can be decoded in parallel on a 3-GHz P4 if a wideband receiver is used;

2)a fast waterfall display, with a resolution sufficient for reading Morse Code dots and dashes visually; the callsigns are extracted from the decoded messages, and the traces on the waterfall are labeled with stations' callsigns;

3) a DSP processor with a noise blanker, AGC, and a sharp, variable-bandwidth CW filter;
4 ) I/Q Recorder and player


Many contesters are being very vocal about this new software and it has certainly sparked a controversy in the contesting arena about its use.

Pete Smith N4ZR wrote an article about its use http://www.pvrc.org/~n4zr/Articles/Skimmer.pdf (You must have adobe acrobat reader installed to read it)

Whether you are for this type of software or against it, one thing is for certain....The face of contesting and dx'ing is about to be changed. Whether it is for good or bad remains to be seen.

73, Jack K4SAC

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KR2Q on the Elecraft list serv posted this which pretty much sums up all the arguments you will see against this new software. I won't try to paraphrase Doug, but will copy his post here for you to read.

DOUGLAS ZWIEBEL
Feb 06, 2008; 08:05pm

OK...here it is in a nutshell.
1. CW Skimmer will profoundly change serious-level contesting forever

2. Serious contesters use two radios at once (called SO2R or single op, 2 radios). While they CQ on one band (using a memory keyer...voice or cw), they TUNE a 2nd band, looking for additional contacts, using their 2nd radio. This is very intense contesting and require super-human concentration and skill to be really successful. It means that you are constantly switching focus from the Radio A to Radio B (the switching is automatic, controlled by the contest software).

3. Currently, tuning the 2nd band is a manual process, requiring one to (a) find stations between CQs on the other band, and (b) copy who it is and (c) then decide if you need it or not and if you do, (d) work it while not "losing" your "RUN" frequency (the first radio frequency where you are CQing and working guys who answer your CQs).

4. With CW Skimmer, one no longer has to use their skill to (a) tune the 2nd band and (b) figure out who it is. The computer does this for you....and all at once for the whole band.

5. The entire basis for CONTESTING is competition...a competition of who has the best set of HUMAN skills...skills at using their equipment, but mostly skills at copying callsigns and working guys and tuning a second radio and doing the same. With CW Skimmer, the "second radio" skill is effectively eliminated. The computer does it for you. This is VERY FAR from DSP, or a yagi, or an amp, or an electronic keyer because. Those things made CHORES easier. This thing makes the only human element left (tuning the band and finding callsign) meaningless. It eliminates the HUMAN element. All you need now is a clerk to "point and shoot" or "point and click" whatever you want to call it.

6. With this "tool," a single op can now be SO6R and have a CW SKimmer on every band. Someone will write a script so that multipliers bubble up as found...and even non-mults, but new Q's, will be easily flagged (and worked). YOu wont have to "waste" time tuning and copying the callsign of stuff that you already worked.

7. CW decoders (such as included on Elecraft K3) only copy one signal, which YOU tuned to. This thing does the whole band at once.

8. Yes, it is like an "automatic" packet/internet band-mapping tool, except that use of those places one in the "Assisted" or "unlimited" category, separate and apart from "single op all band." Under the current rules for all contest, the addition of CW Skimmer will NOT cause a change in category away from Single Op All Band to the Assisted or Unlimited category. How could it? Nobody else is helping you get the callsigns.

9. For many, especially those who feel that "packet ruined contesting" or that "packet ruined DXing," this may turn out to be the "packet ruined contesting" of the 21st century. As many have pointed out (if you want to read A LOT on this, go to the CQ-Contest Reflector: www.contesting.com ), with this "tool," there is currently no way to tell if the guy has a 2nd op in the shack, is using packet, or is using CW SKimmer. It makes adjudication a nightmare (probably, impossible).

10. Serious SOAB contesters have long done everything possible to keep their category separate and apart from packet/internet users. They want to keep the category "pure." This will make that job very, very difficult. Why keep it "out?" The same reason sailboat races do not allow engines/motors. The same reason why the Daytona 500 does not allow jet engines to be used. The same reason why people climb mountains instead of taking a helicopter. The same reason why some folks only Bow-Hunt.

Sorry for the bandwidth, but there seems to be a fair about of interest in this topic. Hope this helps paint a clearer picture. de Doug KR2Q

Good Luck in the Contest!!!

Good luck to all of you in ARRL SS CW contest!

73, Jack K4SAC

Stew Perry Topband Challenge-OCT 20-21st

RULES from http://jzap.com/k7rat/stew.rules.txt


             12th STEW PERRY TOPBAND DISTANCE CHALLENGE

1. Contest period:  1500Z December 29th to 1500Z December 30th, 2007.
Operate for a maximum of 14 hours.  Off times are 30 minutes minimum
and a maximum of four off periods are permitted.

A separate warm-up even will be held on October 20th/21st with the
same time period and entry categories.

2. Bands and mode: 160 meters CW only.

3. Categories: Single operator or multi-operator.  Remote or Cluster
spotting shall not be used.  All transmitting and receiving antennas
used must be within 100 km of each other.

4. Exchange: Four character grid square (i.e. CN85).

5. QSO Points: The number of QSO points for each contact depends on the
distance between the two stations.  This is computed by taking the
distance between the centers of the two grid squares.  Count a minimum
of one point per QSO and an additional point for every 500 kilometers
distance.  For example, a QSO with a station 1750 kilometers away will
count for 4 QSO points.  No additional distance for long path is allowed.

QSO Points are multiplied by 2X if you work a low power station and 4X
for working a QRP station.  This is done based upon received logs and
is computed automatically during the log checking process.

Do not worry if your logging software does not compute the QSO points.
Our automated log checking software does this.

6. Score: Final score equals the total number of QSO points.  There is
no multiplier for different grids worked.  Stations running 5 to 100
watts output multiply their score by 2.  Stations running less
than 5 watts multiply their score by 4.  Scores will be grouped by
category.

7. Reporting: Your log can be sent via the internet to TBDC@CONTESTING.COM
using the Cabrillo format before January 31st, 2007.  Paper entries can
be mailed to BARC 15125 SE Bartell Rd; Boring, OR  97009.  If possible,
please provide an electronic copy of your log.  You can use the tool
INSTEW.EXE to generate a Cabrillo log from your paper log.  It can be
found at http://web.jzap.com/k7rat/stew.html.

Logs for the warm-up event are due by November 20th.

8. Plaques will be awarded for categories we have sponsors for.  To
volunteer to sponsor a plaque, contact Lew Sayre, W7EW at w7ew@arrl.net.
A list of the plaques sponsored can be found on the web at
http://jzap.com/k7rat/stew.html.

There are no plaques or other awards for the warm-up event.

9. Results are published on the web in September or October.  Look for an
announcement on the topband and contest reflectors.  Warm-up results willS
be published before the real event in December.