My Tips for Learning Morse Code

I thought that while I learn morse code, I’d document along the way what I’m doing, issues that I’ve had, observations, and any tips to others feeling the pain of the CW learning dance.  By the way, morse code and “CW” are used interchangeably by hams.  CW stands for “continuous wave”.  I won’t get into what exactly that means here, just be aware.  Also, I'll be updating this article with any new tips that I learn and add to the links to resources at the bottom as I come across them.

Note: The wine cork paddles pictured to the right were my first.  I used them to make my first ever CW contact from a mountain top to N0OI.  The paddles were a gift from K6ARK, my SOTA sensei, aka SOTA Yoda. (click pictures for larger)

If you are here for the tips, just scroll down to the "Tips" section and skip my poetic blather.

2020-05-03 Jamul Mountain

I couldn’t wait to hit the mountains today.  I headed over to Jamul Mountain with the radios and antennas to get some amateur radio contacts.  The mountain is local to the area and it’s another K6MXA special.  John turned me on to this and mentioned that it’s a pretty hike.  I got up early today to avoid the heat (last week was still in the back of my mind).  Today was forecast to be a lot cooler than last weekend, 76 at the house.  I was at the trailhead by 7AM and it was cool and moist.  The marine layer was backed up against the mountains and hung in the valleys, making for a picturesque launch.  As I hiked, the marine layer slowly burned off but it never got real uncomfortable. 

SOTA 360 Deep Dive Into Charting

I’ve had a few requests to dig into AllTrails a little deeper for planning so I made a video.  It’s one of the many excellent mapping and charting applications on the internet.  In the video I cover the requirements that I had for mapping an application, the three that always popped up in reviews, why I chose AllTrails, and how to use it.  There is a cool feature that allows me to to import a whole bunch of SOTA summits into the application as well.  

I hope you enjoy 

73,

N1CLC

Christian Claborne

(aka chris claborne

2020-04-25 Flynn Mountain with Snake Bonus

When the end of the week hits, I’m dying to get out, hit the trail, and play radio.  I knew today was going to be hot but figured what the heck, I’ll just take it easy.  It was supposed to be 89 at my house.  I’m stupid, hiking over by Crest in the heat was not a good idea but I took my time on the way up and back.  The mountain may not actually have a name, the SOTA designator is W6/SC-260 Hill 2258, but I’ll call it Flynn Mtn.

I got up early enough but I made it a lazy Saturday, having a coffee and reading the online paper.  I had the whole day off so I figured, if it took me longer than normal, so be it.   The drive over to the trail head which starts in a residential area, similar to the hike last week, was about 30 minutes. The trailhead is clearly marked and starts down a path between two pieces of property.  It was a nice trail and part road.  All was going well until about 1.5 miles in.

2020-04-19 Hill 1940 & a K6MXA Meetup

After breakfast this morning I got a notice from HamAlert that Jamie, N6JFD was on a CA summit, so I went up to my office / radio room to chase him.  I did eventually get a contact with  Jamie but while I was doing that, I noticed  that John, K6MXA, a San Diego local, was on a summit too,.  He and I chase each other and have gotten quite a few summit-to-summit contacts as well.  John was up on W6/SC-297.  When I looked it up I realized that I had looked at that a few times but wasn’t sure how to get up there.  I called John and he gave me the tip I needed.  I sat down at AllTrails and got to work creating a map.

2020-04-05 W6/SC-365 (Rancho Sante Fe)

I needed to get out of the house for a quick hike since we have rain in the forecast all next week.  The trip was also an effort to undo the taste in my mouth from the frustrating time yesterday.  I went up to a little known area in Rancho Sante Fe.  It’s a short hike but pretty if you take the route that wraps around a mountain.  I didn’t see anyone all morning but did run into a couple with their kids out on a hike on the way back.  I also saw a couple of others out on the trail.  So in summary, I was in quarantine, with big separation,and only a radio to communicate with.  The best part was the view from my operating position.  I sat in my little chair looking at a small mountain in front of me and worked 40 other stations, many of them summit-to-summit (S2S) contacts.
(click on images for larger)

2020-04-04 San Marcos Mtn.

This Saturday my objective was to find another hike that didn’t have many people on it.  San Marcos seemed like a good bet, and it was.  There were very few people in the area and we gave each other plenty of room (for the 4 people that I did see).

I wanted to try SSB phone today since I haven’t worked any stations that way with the KX2 in a while.  It was tough finding a quiet frequency to setup because there was a small contest going on and a lot of hams on the air.  Just about the time I thought I found a spot, someone would camp on top of me.  I did eventually find a spot and spotted myself on sotawatch.org.