“Don’t worry about what people are thinking of you, because they rarely are”
How many times have you heard that very weak Morse Tropo signal on 23cm or the distant hiss of rain scatter Morse on 3cms and wished you could work it?
I know, you trot out the usual excuses in your head.
• Oh he’s going too fast….
• I used to be a Class B/I’m a new licensee and I never took the Morse test.
• I’ve not operated on Morse since I walked out of my local coastal station in 1972.
• My Morse is not good enough
Maybe you just too “frit” to have a go in case you get in a tangle with the dots and dashes and “make a fool of yourself”?
Wake up… no one really cares about how bad your Morse is.
You’ll miss out on some of the best Microwave DX if you take this attitude, just look at the Terrestrial DX World records.
1.3GHz! 4143km! CW
2.3GHz! 3980km! CW
3.4GHz! 3980km! CW
5.7GHz! 3980km! CW
10GHz! 2079km! SSB
24GHz! 710km! CW
47GHz! 343km! SSB
75/76GHz! 175.3km! CW
122GHz! 114km! CW
134/136GHz! 114.4km! CW
……………Need I go on? 8 out of 10 are on Morse.
Unlike the HF bands you don’t need to be a “good” Morse operator to work Morse DX on Microwaves. There’s no “First Class Operator’s Morse” club for Microwavers, in fact I’m thinking
of forming a “2nd Class Morse operator’s club!
So why not join me and become a bad Morse operator? Don’t sit back and “wish you could do Morse properly”.
Here are the four pillars of being a Bad Morse operator.
• Everyone else is as bad at Morse as you are.
• Never admit how bad at Morse you are.
• Bad Morse operators still work the DX on Microwaves
• On the radio, no one can see you blushing
And here are the rules of Bad Morse Operating
• If you hear someone calling CQ or posting on KST….. CALL THEM!
• If you don’t call them, you won’t work them.
• Call the station at your speed, 99% of people will slow down. If they don’t, then they are likely to be a prat and you wouldn’t want to work them anyway.
• If you miss something, ask them to repeat it.
• Learn to pick out callsigns, reports and locators. The rest of it’s probably boring chatter anyway!
• Don’t be afraid to sign off once you’ve got the above info, blame it on “Deep QSB” (“Heavy QRM” doesn’t cut it on Microwaves, but it’s great for HF!)
• All the Morse you need to know after you’ve learned the alphabet is …
G1XYZ de G2ABC ga (gm/ge) tnx call UR 559(xxx for contests) in
RRR tnx QSO es 73
• If you’re embarrassed by your poor Morse skills, …LIE!..... and learn...
The “Bad Morse operator’s code”
Here it is.
1. QRS = please slow down
2. QSB = I didn"t read my report because my Morse skills are so bad
3. QRM = (see QSB)
4. PSE ALL AGN = (see QSB)
5. PSE TRY SSB (only if signal is strong enough)
6. TNX QSO es 73 = (see QSB, only to be used after 2, 3, 4 and 5 have failed)
The chances are the only person who’ll know or care that you are a Bad Morse Operator is yourself, the other station has got a new square/country/ initial – that’s all he cares about.
What do Bad Morse Operators do better than non-Morse operators?
They have Morse QSOs! …..AND….. their Morse actually improves!
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