Those are fun ideas and thank you for the feedback! I'd probably have to do them a little at a time to avoid all the mistakes 🤣 73, Becky es Mike

@@HamRadioDuo no no… do not avoid the mistakes. I guess it would be the best not to stress about them but show how not to. This is actually very important in learning CW. The repetitions of vital part of communication, the 5 dits with slightly increased spacing indicating you will correct. I would not stress about it. I am trying to do something you do, sort of Morse Asmr and I am absolutely paralyzed with mistakes. But we learn by making mistakes. It is just an idea. Occasional mistakes are welcome as far as my opinion. Have a great day :-)

CW is a journey and mistakes come with the territory for sure. Sometimes you have no clue that you just sent a G and meant to send a W. HiHi! After getting off the air sometimes we look at each other like, I'm not sure what I just sent or heard, but it was still fun!!! 73, Becky es Mike

@@HamRadioDuo Let's air the dirty laundry: J is too long, so I just use W; every H is followed by a 1 minute pause, but 5 no effort; I like some numbers by ear, others I won't do. The practice itself is relaxing tho.

Good idea! Now why didn't we think of that? HiHi!! 🤷 73, Becky es Mike

HiHi, that's a good one! When you have teenagers and ask them what the WiFi should be called, you never know what answer you'll get and then have to stick with. 🤣 73, Becky es Mike

We definitely prefer to get on the air when we can, but found this is a fun tool to practice CW when you don't yet have a radio or the bands just aren't open for whatever reason. 73, Becky es Mike

Thank you! Hope your recovery goes well, knee replacements are tough! Mike practiced CW using VBand a lot when he was recovering from surgery. 73, Becky es Mike

That was our first time at Hamfest and so fun to hear their stories! 73, Becky es Mike

@@HamRadioDuo Nice and interesting, thank you 🙂! Keep trying with the bug... 72..😉👋

Great idea! We actually have an Ipad and will test out the adapter on ours for you. To get started you can just use the VBand website and two keys on the keyboard to give it a try. Our other video is just about VBand itself if you haven't seen that one. It is the starting point to getting the CW Hotline. 73, Becky es Mike ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4ciJR-hEyA8.html

Glad you enjoyed it. Crazy what a G90 can tune 🤣 73, Becky es Mike

Thanks Seven! CW VBand party would be lots of fun! 73, Becky es Mike

Thanks Scott! I really is pretty fun to practice on and for sending and receiving with another person when you can't get on the air for whatever reason. 73, Becky es Mike

I don’t yet own a CW capable radio (want to build a QMX or QCX-mini). I built a little no-solder straight key kit that I can practice sending with. For decoding, I practice with videos like yours and with the Morse Elmer app.

i tap on my leg like i have a straight key while driving.

I have both the dongle and assembled the box kit as I thought it may be good for some practice but have not gotten either to work. So I now use a Morserino I assembled. Since my success at kits is 50/50 I ordered my QMX pre-built to practice with next.

Ok I a totally new to CW but am dying to try. Is the purpose of this unit for practice? Do I need a HAM license to operate?

@@doeleen It is to practice CW with other learning CW online. No licence is necessary as it over the internet and does not go over the air.

🤣You win first post on the video award 🤣 73, Becky es Mike

Hey Stu! It was a fun and pretty easy build and the paddles are great to take for POTA! 73, Becky es Mike

Thank you so much for checking in on us! Thankfully we are in North Alabama and only had heavy rain, but no damage in the area. We feel very fortunate based on what is still happening as a result of the flooding. Stay safe as well! 73, Becky es Mike

@@gilgabo thank you for saying and we're happy it's useful! 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY

Glad it was helpful. Learning CW is definitely a journey and each step is fun and rewarding. 73, Becky es Mike

That would be a fun and good thing to try. No spots, leave the phones behind, and see how it goes 😊 73, Becky es Mike

That is awesome to hear it's helpful for you! Our goal is to get more CW operators on the air and we really appreciate the feedback. 73, Becky es Mike

Thanks for the comment. CW has been so much fun and the learning journey is an amazing and rewarding challenge for us. Hope to hear you on the air sometime! 73, Becky es Mike

We are in North Alabama but travel up into TN quite a bit! Thanks for watching 😊 73, Becky es Mike

Way to go Forrest!! I love the straight key and kuddos on using it. I bet you could activate now if you just went for it … not that I’m throwing down a challenge. Hi hi. Hit us up for a QSO anytime if we can find a good band. 73, Becky es Mike

Thanks Tim!! We only have a small key and paddle collection (so far 😊) and love that one for portable activations. Might do a review video on what we have sometime. 73, Becky es Mike

Thanks for watching and your feedback on the call signs 😊 73, Becky es Mike

Yes, we were pretty quick at getting it unplugged and on the ground 😊. 73, Becky es Mike

Hey Phil, thank you so much for the great questions! We are almost exclusively on 20m when portable but only because that is the only option for our QCX mini😊 but also our favorite band for POTA. On occasion, if near the camper and in a park, we might use our G90 and 40m. Frequency just depends on what we find open after checking the POTA website / Polo App and listening. And yes, we generally check the SWR because the placement / tension of the antenna can definitely affect the ratio. Our EFWH antennas generally have a great SWR and we have started not checking with those as much. Mike got his club cast of this week and although it's nice to be out of that, his mobility is pretty poor and he has a lot of work ahead of him. Thankfully in my past life (job) I was a practicing physical therapist so I can keep him headed in the right direction from home. As always, appreciate your feedback and support of our channel!! 73, Becky es Mike

Thanks so much for joining our adventures!!! 73, Becky es Mike

Good question. 72 has the same meaning as 73, but is a quick way to let the operator know you are running QRP or low power (5 watts or less) which is generally our setup. It's fun to activate and hear someone else send back 72 knowing we are both low power and sometimes from great distances!! 73/72 😊 Becky es Mike

¡Gracias! También nos encanta la rapidez con la que se puede montar y desmontar la EFHW. ¡Esperamos que nuestro QMX también llegue para Navidad! 73/72 Becky es Mike (Thank you! We also love the quick ability to put up and take down the EFHW. Hopefully our QMX arrives by Christmas as well! 73/72 Becky es Mike)

We have had similar questions on other videos as well. Most likely we will be doing a video on this topic, but here is a copy of a previously written response that we posted... We are both self-taught. We both want to be good at having conversational qsos and being able to head copy and not write everything down, so we're both currently in a course so that we make sure we're learning correctly. Until we make a video about it, here's The short version from what we've learned. My number one thing is to think about it as a journey and enjoy all the steps along the way. I first carved off a weekend thinking I was just going to check off learning CW over a weekend. By the end I was humbled 😂 I think it's kind of like being a teenager and wanting to be a rockstar and getting a guitar and expecting to be really good at playing an instrument in a weekend. Instead, if you enjoy music you enjoy getting better practicing and looking back at your accomplishments. I think it's more like that. There's plenty of steps along the way where we've had tons of fun as we're slowly getting better. My next tip would be to practice a little everyday and keep it fun. Like many things in life, it requires consistent practice. Like you, we are always very limited on time. It only takes 5 to 15 minutes here or there a few times a day. Learn the letters by sound. Whatever you use to learn, I would listen to them at 30 words per minute as you learn the letters. That forces your brain to not be able to memorize the dits and dahs. l learned the wrong way by memorizing in struggles still to turn that part of my brain off. Becky learned by sound from the start and has gone much faster. That being said, we both ended up accidentally memorizing to different degrees, and a primary focus for us right now is learning how to transition it into the subconscious. Last, a few specific suggestions on tools for learning. We both learned on an app called morsemania that's available for both iOS and Android. As long as you start off by setting the letter speed to 27-30 words per minute, or something that makes you memorize the sound of the letters instead of memorizing the map to dits and dahs, we still think it's a great way to gamify learning the letters the first time and kind of makes it fun. After we pretty much had the sound of the letters and numbers memorized with that tool, we moved into listening to words. That's a little bit of a longer story, and making a video will give us a chance to go over the long version. We were self-taught primarily because we also had very little time. The only way for us to be able to learn was to fill cracks in our day a little bit here and there. We are just now investing in being part of a class because now we're hooked and we've seen how much fun it is for us and so we put a few things aside so that we could take the class. Whatever path you take, we personally find it tons of fun. There are aspects that are very challenging, but like other things, that's the same reason why it's so fun. Just learning your first handful of letters by sound is an accomplishment. Getting to the point where you know all of them is an accomplishment. Listening to other people on the air and being able to pick out letters or States here and there is an accomplishment. I remember the first time I was listening to a RU-vid video of a pota and starting to recognize States and thinking how cool it is. I've now been able to have slow conversations and picked up the gist of all of it without writing anything down. Being able to talk to someone from 2,000 miles away, with qrp, where it is kind of like a digital mode but all the processing is going on in my own head is just so much fun! It's probably one of those things where you never finish learning, and we're still learning and enjoying it along the way! We are happy to help anyway we can and email is on QRZ. 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY

@HamRadioDuo thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question...I enjoy your vids...73's

Thanks for these videos. Really enjoying them. Learned CW years ago for the general test back then. Now relearning CW to get on the air with POTA. Thank you both for inspiring others. 73 de N3LUD.

Thank you! We were glad the storm rolled past so we could finish the activation! 73, Becky es Mike

Thanks Scott! Appreciate your support and will look into SOTA campout for sure. Thank you for the information 😊 73, Becky es Mike

Thanks Julia! It was fun to hear you again recently and we were happy to be out at a park after Mike's injury🚲 . 73, Becky es Mike

Thank you Scott!! Glad to help your day go a little faster 🤣 73, Becky es Mike

PS WHERES UR LISTING OF THE THE CONTACTS - I NEED THAT TO LEARN lol

Oops, thanks for the reminder to add that. We were a little rushed in final editing this morning :-) List is now in the description! 73, Becky es Mike

Thank you Brian! We built the QRP version with the male BNC connector that can plug directly into our QCX mini. 73, Becky es Mike

@@dandypoint thank you!

Thank you Pat, we really enjoy working together and have a great time. Happy to hear you're planning a SOTA. We have a few activated but not too many around our QTH. Maybe up on a summit we would be able to hear you on the air! We are always surprised just how good our little EFHW and QXC do when we activate. 73, Becky es Mike

@@HamRadioDuo That could work, indeed! A S2S would be awesome. 😃 All the best and hope to see you on the bands! Pat

CW is a lot of fun and good luck learning. We are always learning and practicing nearly everyday even if just a little. We both love the little CW Morse Key. It was a gift to Becky the day she passed her technician exam. It is definitely great to take portable and the only downside which is also a positive, is that it is so lightweight you have to hold it down while sending whereas larger metal keys have bases or built in weight to give them stability. Becky still prefers it over some other keys we have. 73, Becky es Mike

@@HOAHamRadio hey Bob! It's great to hear you've gotten the bug 😉 We have not done a video on it yet, but now I'm thinking it should be one of our next videos! We are both self-taught. We both want to be good at having conversational qsos and being able to head copy and not write everything down, so we're both currently in a course so that we make sure we're learning correctly. Until we make a video about it, here's The short version from what we've learned. My number one thing is to think about it as a journey and enjoy all the steps along the way. I first carved off a weekend thinking I was just going to check off learning CW over a weekend. By the end I was humbled 😂 I think it's kind of like being a teenager and wanting to be a rockstar and getting a guitar and expecting to be really good at playing an instrument in a weekend. Instead, if you enjoy music you enjoy getting better practicing and looking back at your accomplishments. I think it's more like that. There's plenty of steps along the way where we've had tons of fun as we're slowly getting better. My next tip would be to practice a little everyday and keep it fun. Like many things in life, it requires consistent practice. Like you, we are always very limited on time. It only takes 5 to 15 minutes here or there a few times a day. Learn the letters by sound. Whatever you use to learn, I would listen to them at 30 words per minute as you learn the letters. That forces your brain to not be able to memorize the dits and dahs. l learned the wrong way by memorizing in struggles still to turn that part of my brain off. Becky learned by sound from the start and has gone much faster. That being said, we both ended up accidentally memorizing to different degrees, and a primary focus for us right now is learning how to transition it into the subconscious. Last, a few specific suggestions on tools for learning. We both learned on an app called morsemania that's available for both iOS and Android. As long as you start off by setting the letter speed to 27-30 words per minute, or something that makes you memorize the sound of the letters instead of memorizing the map to dits and dahs, we still think it's a great way to gamify learning the letters the first time and kind of makes it fun. After we pretty much had the sound of the letters and numbers memorized with that tool, we moved into listening to words. That's a little bit of a longer story, and making a video will give us a chance to go over the long version. We were self-taught primarily because we also had very little time. The only way for us to be able to learn was to fill cracks in our day a little bit here and there. We are just now investing in being part of a class because now we're hooked and we've seen how much fun it is for us and so we put a few things aside so that we could take the class. Whatever path you take, we personally find it tons of fun. There are aspects that are very challenging, but like other things, that's the same reason why it's so fun. Just learning your first handful of letters by sound is an accomplishment. Getting to the point where you know all of them is an accomplishment. Listening to other people on the air and being able to pick out letters or States here and there is an accomplishment. I remember the first time I was listening to a RU-vid video of a pota and starting to recognize States and thinking how cool it is. I've now been able to have slow conversations and picked up the gist of all of it without writing anything down. Being able to talk to someone from 2,000 miles away, with qrp, where it is kind of like a digital mode but all the processing is going on in my own head is just so much fun! It's probably one of those things where you never finish learning, and we're still learning and enjoying it along the way! We are happy to help anyway we can and email is on QRZ. 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY

@@HamRadioDuo Incredible feedback! Thanks a ton for putting the effort into this response. I have a lot to digest and think through. As eager as I am, I'm trying not to rush into this and get it wrong.

Happy to help whenever we can so don't be afraid to reach out! 73, Becky es Mike

Thank you! I was definitely nervous but it was so exciting and felt amazing to accomplish the activation. The map is a little confusing because the word Toronto is over the red dot, but actually just labeling the city (white dot). I got close, but didn't get a VE on this activation 😊 73, Becky es Mike

LICW is great! We joined about a month ago and sampled some classes. Everyone involved seemed very patient and nice. They have so many classes and people to connect with to help. I don't know what the perfect answer is, but I suspect that it's liike a lot of things in live and doing a little bit of something every day, while still having fun, is the trick. We are currently in a class from cwinnovations.net/. The founder Glenn really is a fantastic teacher and really knows his stuff. Every time I saw him on a youtube video, what he explained always resonated with me. I believe that they are focused on several fundamentals in the best practices of learning CW. I love the fact that they focus on starting with learning the letters at 30 wpm or above. That way you learn the letters by sound. My biggest pitfall so far has been having memorized the dits and dahs, which makes it impossible to translate into letters fast enough. You may want to check out both. There seem to be fantastic people involved in these organizations to help learn CW! 73 Mike N4FFF es Becky N4BKY