In addition to the 12 dB SNR advantage if CW, CW-only rigs are also simpler and smaller than an equal power SSB rig. The simpler non-linear final amplifiers are also more power efficient (less battery power consumed for the same power out). And for portable operation, there is something very nice about being able to set up and operate discreetly, not having to talk loudly inti a microphone on a busy mountain top or in a park. Sure, you can do that eith JS8Call or PSK31, but you need a computer and extra gear to make it happen. CW, the original digital mode, is still amazingly relevant and incredibly useful.
I became a believer in CW while playing with a Utah Web SDR one night. While testing propagation on SSB, I was curious how little power was necessary to be heard. Once I could no longer hear myself on SSB, I switched to CW and I could hear myself perfectly fine. I continued lowering my power until I could no longer hear myself. I was blown away that a SSB signal could be outperformed by a fraction of the power in CW. There are other advantages with CW. We have young children, and I can't be yelling into my microphone after they are in bed. With CW, I can talk on the radio all I want without waking anyone up.
I have to 3rd this comment. As a father to young children and as someone who values the quiet of nature, I prefer these non voice modes like cw. It feels more rewarding to do than ssb as well. After a year of doing only cw, going back to ssb feels like I'm yelling over the top of people- compared to cw which feels zen and relaxing.
Agreed. I remember the cyclists turned around and looked at me when I was using SSB for POTA activation in a quiet mountain environment, while CW kept me from being found. :)
I love SSB for POTA. After watching your videos on CW and other videos of K6ARK Adam doing CW, I have started practicing CW. It’s not easy but hopefully in time I’ll get the hang of it. Thank you for all your videos Josh!!👍🏻
Thanks Josh for visiting this topic again CW gets me dx from a summit every time compared to SSB. I run my KX3 @ 8w. The other thing is take a decent antenna with you, the dipole is the bench mark as high as you can get it. You proved the theory by using the compromised antenna on your lunch break. Best of luck learning CW everyone a little bit often is the way. Regards vk5cz ..
I have a bit of a struggle bus with morse code, but this was a good demonstration of the value of knowing it better.... So back to my seat at the back of the bus.
I've been a ham for decades, but for the past 12 years or so, I've been all CW on HF, QSO'ing with others all around the world, still using, yes, the "language" of Morse Code 🇺🇸 dit dit 😃
I had to make an emergency cell phone call. Cell coverage was so weak and unclear that I used CW Morse code to communicate with the other person, that I was calling You know like saying "di and dah and so on.... It worked because the other side knew CW also. dah-di-di-dah.
Josh, I appreciate this video so much! This is my personal goal. I'm starting late in life, but it's somehing I've wanted to do for a very long time! Since I was in Scouts......decades ago! I'm planning to take the technical test in a few months. WML!
This is the best Argument I have seen for why you should learn morse code. I mostly avoided it from hearing sad hams complaining about how it's not required anymore. But the argument of being able to be heard with a lot less power and a compromised attenna is a valid argument that does interest me. Thanks for the Video!
Great video! I recently upgraded to General so I’d like to learn Morse code and expand my available modes of operation even further. I’ll definitely check out the Long Island group. Good to know they exist and have an active interest in motivating others to learn. 👍🏻
Adding to the list of 'good reasons to learn morse' You can almost always find a clear frequency for morse code Several times I've attempted to do an SSB pota activation but always seem to find no open space on 20 and few people seem to use 15 or the WARC bands(especially for SSB), daytime 40 isn't necessarily the best, and while 10M is huge and may be picking up as the sun gets active, in my admittedly limited experience using 10m (with FT8) I almost never hear anybody in US/Canada, just 3k+ mile DX (which is fine but not always what you want)
CW ROCKS!!! I began participating with SOTA about 10 years ago using SSB. Back then, I remember at times having difficulty making four contacts with SSB. I am also somewhat hearing impaired and it is often difficult for me to understand voices on the air. I began learning CW about four years specifically for SOTA and now use it with POTA and WWFF. I have not operated with SSB in about four years. I always operate QRP (5 watts) from CA and have made contacts around the world. I agree, LICW is a great resource as is CWops. I am one of those people that CW was not easy to learn. Practice, practice, practice and hunt often once you are familiar with all the characters of the code.
I've got a QMX on order. I'm currently learning CW. I recently discovered that there's a linux console utility called 'cw'. Just do an echo and pipe it into cw 🙂 73s M7GTX 👍
Simple answer, it's FUN. People get into ham radio as a hobby and to have fun. Some of us spend ridiculous amounts of money on this hobby and then there are the crazy people who spend over $1M to build a contest station, why because it is fun (certainly not for the glory or the $10 plaque if they win).
never really thought about it but you made some good points............ think after i pass my tech test i might have to look into seeing if my brain can learn it. maybe see if I can get my kids on board and make it a competition
Dropping the bandwidth by a factor of roughly 5 while keeping the transmitted power the same gives you a 6.8 dB improvement in signal to noise. But you can do even better than that by using better filters for CW mode or some combination of that and IF shifting which does a bit of the same thing and improve S/N even more. Then there's Shannon's law to consider, C = B * log(1 + S/N), and what is the equivalent capacity in bits per second required to pass understandable voice to get a conversation through. Contrast this with the fact that as S/N degrades you can drop the bit rate for CW communications to nearly zero and still copy. The great thing about CW is that it is human copyable and takes next to no hardware. We can do even better than CW with digital modes and error correction in terms of getting a message through in a given bandwidth with next to no signal to noise. But that's not as much fun . . . ;-)
A small group of us joined an in person CW class here and most of us have gotten on the air a few times now! You should have given a shout out to the SKCC (Straight Key Century Club). They have been extremely helpful for getting us on the air and slowing WAY down for us so that we can be more successful!
Everything said makes sense. I think a lot of old school hams are causing a bit of backlash regarding CW. I've listened to and read hams talk about "no code generals and extras" and say that the skill levels of hams have gone down to lack of CW. They rant about hams who don't know CW and conflate that with not being a knowledgable ham. Sadly I think some of newer hams are hearing this and being turned off to wanting to upgrade their license or continue with ham radio. Glad to see a positive video on reasons to do CW instead of the you must do CW to be a good ham ideas that some sad hams are positing.
With my compromised antenna situation, the difference in POTA hunting today was this from MA - SSB: CT, MD, TN, GA. CW: AL. UK, AZ. I never would have made the UK and AZ contacts on SSB.
Learned cw back when I was about twelve. Got my novice at 16, never got really proficient enough for high speed conversations, but cw POTA is fun, and can usually get through on a DX-pedition on cw before SSB. Would hate to have to learn cw at this point of my life, but I feel for those who are doing so. 73
I struggle just with SSB and hearing call signs in voice. I really struggle hearing CW whether it is a dot or dit and then I'm sorting out what I already heard while more is coming. It's stressful. It would be great to train my ear so that CW comes more easily. I see the utility of this CW skillset and the power efficiency. I recently acquired an ICOM-705 which is a QRP radio (5w with basic battery and 10w with external) so without an amplifier to push it up to 100W it may not be able to get signal out far or higher than the noise or other stations calling. So now CW has more of an appeal than I previously would have thought it would have for me. I'm not quite ready to start trying to really learn CW until I've gotten more comfortable with making HF contacts with SSB. My first was last weekend on 40M at 5w from Southwest of Pittsburgh to Hampton Maryland (outside Baltimore) that's about 176 mi away on 40M during the day with a strung up center fed (via balun) tuned wire dipole antenna (MIL-3 on DXengineering) (half of it horizontal the other half cascading down a balcony to the ground) so compromised (HOA LIFE). I'm still learning. Thank you Josh! I'm having fun! 73, N3TBJ Dr. Steve
@@fthorup. He's speaking of testing when CW testing was required here some years ago. I don't think Morse is required anywhere anymore. The U.S. was among the last to phase out CW testing and that was quite a few years ago. I tested at 20 wpm >30 years ago, and by the time my wife got her license a while later the requirement for all license classes was reduced to 5 wpm. The CW testing requirement finally ended here in 2007. Ironically my wife was a natural at CW, where I struggled quite a bit. She learned the entire alphabet in 24 hours!
@@OnAirVoice I got my Novice Ticket (US) in 1989 and 5 WPM was required for a Novice License. Then, for General Class it was 13 WPM, and for Advanced Class it was 20 WPM.
CW (Morse Code) is international provided people worldwide use the same Q signals which is usually the case. I don't need to speak or understand Italian; QTH? K QTH Torino Italy K.
And the old man sez: Back in the day everyone wanting to play ham radio had to do CW. Plus, if you did radio comms in the military, you had a 90% chance of learning CW or peeling potatoes. And back then it was the draft or you enlisted. Or your rich Uncle Vito bought you a pass. Thus, ‘though I’d tried to learn CW as a kid, it took the potato threat to ‘inspire’ me. It became a badge of honor. I even learned to do Morse with flashing light. Now, even with essential tremor, I prefer CW, especially at QRP/POTA power levels. It works. See you at Dayton/Begali Keys booth ;-) 73 de W8IJN
I would love to do CW, I was able to in the army, these days however I have Cerebral small vessel disease which unfortunately affects my memory and cognitive function. I haven't found anything that reads cw well enough in software to help either.
Not pushing through= time to go swipe the boat battery and hook it to something like an Acom 1200s! If that doesn't make it conditions just plain suck, and idk how your hearing that pota in the first place! P.S. if your lazy your PC can learn CW for you in like 10 Min as long as you have a way to receive the sound! 😂😂😂
Let's face it, no alien spy ever held a microphone, they all used a morse key -likely because it was better at skipping over continents and remaining readable.
Great video! I'm learning morse code myself. I would like to use my truSDX. I just need a small battery. What size powerpole connectors can I attach to my truSDX?
In which bands you find more activity? I’m shopping for a QMX to force myself in to learn but they are divided between 10-20 or 20-80. I will think 20-80 as I read 40 is very active but I don’t imagine myself ever using 80 portable.
@@DM7XK correct, I saw they have now 15-60 and 10-20 but I still don't know where is more activity if in 10 or in 40, that's why I'm trying to figure out which one to choose. 10 will be great because is a smaller antenna but that band is quite erratic regarding conditions in my experience.
They don’t work well if the sender isn’t sending very good code. If you software to send code, software can decode it well. Hand code is often not “good enough” for the apps today. But also, it’s one more thing to forget, break, etc.
CW is definitely still relevant, and in the event of an emergency or disaster situation, clear efficient communications is going to win the day. Having said that, at 66 years of age I find the idea of learning Morse code a daunting task, but I will keep plugging away at it. 73 de VE7WNO.
n the funny stuff ,ft8.ft4, and that stuff as you can see it /hear it but for guys like me it is useless as i am TONE deaf and do not hear it but not the digi junk and they do not have manners they jump on any freq an do it I think are all totaly DEAF, 73 , Pieter
I have been trying to hunt POTA activators in all 50 states. A little while ago, I got a Ham Alert that someone was activating a park in West Virginia. The operator was on SSB, but I could barely hear him at my noise floor. Fortunately, he switched to CW and we were able to copy each other perfectly fine. CW for the win!
Learning morse (to do POTA) is what got me active in radio. Passed General in 2019 and then did nothing with it. This month marks 1 year of my commitment to learn morse. I don't remember the exact day but it was sometime in April 2023 when I decided to learn. Finally did my first CW activation in early March I ask for repeats a lot, I miss things when hunters go 'off script' but I'm better at both sending and receiving each time I go out. Its weird, its fun, its different.
@@swilliams2229 Not getting on the air sooner is something I regret. Feel like I'd be in a much better place if I'd gotten over the key-fright and started calling CQ in Sept 23. I knew the whole alphabet by then but my confidence in my ability to copy was exceptionally low. My experience so far is that people using CW are very forgiving of new operators. My first pota activation I was so nervous I could hardly send people's call signs without taking two or three attempts but every hunter who came back to me endured my newbish ability. My most recent pota activation a hunter (from Czech Republic) stuck with me for five minutes to make sure that we both were copying each other correctly. That particular activation I hadn't expected DX. I wanted to do 15M to mix it up and at 1PM it seems DX was all I was gonna get on 15 because the only other station that came back to me was in France.
I think that a bigger factor here, where you may have an easier time hunting a POTA in CW than SSB, is the relative powers. Most people activating POTA in SSB are using 50-100 Watts. This means that for them to hear you as well as you hear them, you need to be somewhere in the same ballpark of transmitter power. This is because there isn't a great deal of difference in receiver sensitivities, and also, antenna performance is pretty close to bidirectional. If you don't have much in the way of antenna gain, and yet you can still pick up someone at a POTA site, you can use that same crappy antenna for transmitting to them. I suspect that most people activating in CW are using more like 5-10 watts. Again, you still need to be operating in the same power range that they are, in order to ensure they can hear you as well as you can hear them.
I am interested in learning CW but I am at a cross roads. I assume that most people in the US uses American Morse. So by learning that, I should be able to make many contacts. I also have a long term goal of selling everything off and going the sailboat world cruising route. In light of that, I believe that I should learn the International Morse. However, I am an English speaker so.... I'm not sure which one I should learn. Thoughts?
Hi Josh, long time viewer, first time caller...hi hi...great video, I can think of another reason and I liken it to your comment that it "rounds out" your EP comms. I am retired from the USAF and was an aviator my entire career. I was airborne communications and could not think of a better job than to fly around the world and operate and maintain communications equipment. While the aircraft I flew on did not have code, there were still some that used it. We were always taught that in a scenario where there is heavy "atmospheric scintillation" (I love that term), meaning the atmosphere is heavily charged (like after a nuc goes off somewhere in the world) SSB may no longer be a player for quite some time. Digital modes and CW will be the modes of choice. Just wanted to share that with you and, like the person's comments before me, I too saw your conversation with LICW and decided to get back into it. That was a short time ago and I am back to sending 18-22 WPM and copying around 12-14. I had to learn at 20 WPM to get my Extra class so this is truly a refresher for me. Anyway, thanks for the video and keep bringing them -- we can all learn something new no matter how much time we have behind the mic or key. Cheers -- and 73 de AF1US Brian
I think you could also think of Morse code as shorthand, in the digital world a character is made up of at least two characters like 28 or NL or special characters in the 128 character set. So technically Morse is a saving in transmit time, maybe..
Hi Josh, great video . . I'm also learning Morse Code . . I can do simple QSOs using CW like sharing Callsigns and Signal reports but i'm slow for long chats. . trying to improve so i can be a conversational type of operator . . De AP2MS, Salman
Morse Code was my nemesis 60 years ago, and I put off getting an amateur license till recently. I've recently tried again to learn, and the same problems arise, no hand/ear coordination (likewise for hand/eye coordination), and no 'rhythm' either. But I do like the idea of the small radio with big (relatively) power capability...
Thanks for the great video. I love how you talk about low power CW "punching up" to be as powerful as a 100 watt SSB signal. When someone asks me why anyone would want to use Morse Code these days I compare it to sailing (I first heard this comparison from N9EP). You don't sail to get somewhere in a hurry - it's more of an art form that takes many years of practice to become truly proficient. It's fun, and extremely satisfying when you're successful at it, and you're carrying on a tradition that goes back many generations. This comparison works with fishing, too. It's easier & faster to buy fish at the supermarket, but for people who like to fish, it's more about the experience of catching the fish than having fish for dinner. They find it relaxing and they love learning how to become better at it.
Great video Josh and very valid points in favor of CW. Let me say this about CW, at least in my case, you have to want it. I originally got my license when the code requirement was in place. Obviously that has long been done away with and I finally got into HF. Once I passed the Extra test, I wanted to continue learning more and decided it was time to give CW another shot, after a few previously failed attempts. I managed to learn the characters, numbers and some punctuation in about a week. I still need to work on it but it only took that long to learn the composition of the letters when I wanted to. I spent 2 months on a deployment years ago trying to learn code and retained few characters and never could remember the difference between A and N. This works when almost nothing else does and for a lot of reasons, it's worth learning. Is it a quick conversation using CW, absolutely not. Is it an effective way to have one, without a doubt. I'm starting to get back into it so I can get my copy speed up with the hopes of being more proficient and hopefully, one day, work a special event, field day or a POTA entirely over CW just for the fun of it.
If you listen to a cw beacon over and over until you can copy the beacon you will be ready for qso ,after a few qsos you will be ready for ragchew,good luck hope to hear you
Morse code was invented in 1830 - just about 200 years ago why on earth learn that? Requires dots and dashes and dashes are impossible in many situations. Learn Tap Code. American POWs in the Vietnam war used it - tapping only no dashes. It's a 5X5 grid with the alphabet inserted left to right top to bottom with C and K the same The letter B would be row then a column dot pause dot dot X breaks sentences K means acknowledged (C) If you want numbers then a 6X6 matrix Tap code starts out with matrix size tap tap tap tap tap pause tap tap tap tap tap nobody needs to memorize anything
@@HamRadioCrashCourse I'm just answering the question put forward on this RU-vid. Using a 200-year-old code that requires both parties to memorize a code that makes no logical sense is ridiculous. I proposed a far superior code that both parties already know - just listen for: tap tap tap tap tap .......... tap tap tap tap tap
@@noleftturns I don't think calling out the age of Morse Code is relevant when we all speak forms of languages that are way older. Just a series of taps is not superior to a two tone system.
@@HamRadioCrashCourse When is it time to dump a 200 year old technology? Tap Code requires no memorization and works in any language. Morse is USA and the rest of the world wants to use their languages. Tap code provides for this.
Morse code sucks. I got my Novice and technician licenses back in 1988. Barely managed to pass the 5 wpm code test after months of studying. I then took and passed the general written, thinking, that gives me a year to learn the 13 wpm code. Didn't happen. I took and failed the code test twice. Didn't even come close. I gave up. Fast forward all the way to 2009, after the code requirement had been dropped, and I finally got my general. Not everybody is able to learn code. Yes, I can see how it might be fun for those who like it and are able to learn it. But that does not include me.
Just because you couldn't find a way to learn it, doesn't make it automatically, "suck" It's a great mode, and is extremely versatile. I would suggest if you still are interested, you do what Josh suggested and join the LICW club. They have online classes that I am almost certain will benefit you. I encourage you to give it a chance and learn to have fun with it, because that's what this hobby is all about. Good luck and I hope to make a CW QSO with you some day.
Morse does not suck, he is right in what he says, although there are faster far more efficient ways to communicate, it is still more efficient than voice. So it might have its uses, and it could even still be useful today. Having said this, it's an absolute waste of time to try and learn Morse code.
You have mastered talking out of both sides of your mouth. Sure, there are other ways to communicate. Morse Code is just one of those ways. If you dont like it, hey, you do you. But if you like having fun with the hobby, which I do, then Morse code has been an awesome addition.
@@PendejoRyan A big part of learning should be finding ways to learn. Try it from a different angle, or with a different method, or with different people, or at a different pace, or with a different attitude. But it’s also definitely possible to stay with what doesn’t work and prove to yourself that’s it’s impossible.
@@PendejoRyan At least I don't take coins like you do, to play Morse codes. Did I mention I do not forget your comment and I am keeping special coins just for you? I'm gonna make you play when I say so. I say jump you jump asshole. Get it mate?
morse is for ham snobs and executive lottery winners, £1,000s for a key and intolerant ham listeners, its purely for rich snobs and the righteous ham millionaires.
Morse/CW represents the highest communication skill level a Ham operator can achieve. The “modern no-codes Hams” who deny this don’t know what the hell they are talking about.
