After Visalia '23 I got CW on the brain.
Some of the 10m buddies I talk with over the years via SSB were in a rut and so I thought what if we had a CW net, once per week. Just to practice and gain confidence. I've noticed that a lot of times, new CW operators are just too nervous. I've been there so I wanted to fix that for the Northwest 10 Meter Net with a CW Net.
I convinced one of my mentors, Jim Fish, K7NCG to start the CW net on Tuesday at 7:30 local time. Based on what I was doing in CW and excited about DX, I really thought what the Northwest 10 Meter Net needed was a reason to break out the paddles and just try CW -- even if it was slow -- really slow.
That went well and the net is on-going still.
At the same time, I also had a friend who was just a bit timid about using CW so I brain-stormed a way to help build his confidence and one afternoon drafted an article/instructions for a set of CW-games that would have one goal: Increase confidence and hopefully make the activity of using CW fun. A recursive goal -- confidence leading to fun, and so on. He and I worked the games out and practiced them. If nothing else, he is a lot less timid about trying CW. That's all I wanted for him.
Well, the ARRL took the article, and it will be in the May 2024 QST.
I didn't realize that the ARRL would put together a video with David NA2AA, Steve K5ATA, Becky W1BXY and Sierra W5DX working the game through.
What a surprise!
It may not be the right game for all people learning CW, but the intent was to make it fun and partner with a skilled operator to hands-on coach them through the basics. I'd be interested if anyone has tried it with their friends who are really new to CW -- what works and doesn't' work about the games.
And here's the video link that I found:
Enjoy,
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