Category Archives: Morse Code

Amateur Radio, Amateur Radio Organizations, Amateur Radio Relay League, Education, Event, Event, Hamfest, Morse Code, Podcast

QSO Today Ham Expo review

From 00:45 August 8 (5:45 August 7 local time), until August 9, I attended the QSO Today Ham Expo. This exposition was a virtual event on the Internet hosted on theVFair.com web site. There was quite a few sponsors of the event including the American Radio Relay League, ICOM, Gigaparts, RFinder, Flex Radio, RT Systems, Elecraft, and several others. There were others that did not have “booths.” I searched the parking lot for the tailgate hams, but could not find any.

I did get a chance to discover some organizations I did not know existed. One is Youth on the Air.

Some presentations in the form of videos may have been transferred to YouTube. Marcel Stieber AI6MS posted some of his QSO presentations on his YouTube page. He also has videos on ExamTools—a remote amateur radio licensing test system. His presentation on Fully-Remote Amateur Radio Exam Administration is well worth watching.

Ward Silver N0AX gave a good presentation on Bonding and Grounding. There are several videos with him on different amateur radio topics on YouTube.

I also liked the presentation of the CW Ops CW Academy. Eric Silverthorn NM5M gave a great brief on the four-stage program the academy offers. I received feedback from one student who really enjoyed their program. I hope to be able to take the course in the future.

The Exposition is closed now, but for the next thirty-days people who got tickets can still check in and watch, or re-watch, videos of the presentations. I do not know if you can now “sign up” and check in now that it is over.

At the beginning of the Expo I got to Zoom with the ARRL headquarters in Connecticut.
Of course the Exposition is far from the fun of attending an actual convention. Conventions will no doubt return when COVID ends on November 5. I can see the VFairs platform being useful into the future, however. The QSO Today Exposition boasted over 26,000 and that will be difficult number to beat.

I was also able to hold a QSO with Bill KQ1S; a fellow member of the Coconino Amateur Radio Club. He discovered that there was a list of participants in the QSO Lounge and found me to start the QSO. There was no easy way to find a person at the Expo. If they did not go to the QSO lounge, you could not search for them. The QSO chat between Bill and me was through a Skype-like set up. The problem was you could not move it around the screen so you could see something else.

The Q&A sessions after the presentation were on Zoom. You could ask text questions, but chat, your video and audio were not functioning. That is understandable, of course, since you are not answering the questions. The Q&A sessions were recorded so I believe they are available

Amateur Radio, Amateur Radio Organizations, ARES, Coconino Amateur Radio Club, Emergency Communications, Event, FEMA, Flagstaff, Morse Code, National Government

Flagstaff EOC opens doors to the public

The nerve center of the Emergency Operation Center.

FLAGSTAFF – On March 23, the Emergency Operation Center in Flagstaff held an open house to allow the public to peer inside for the first time.


The Emergency Operation Center is based on a modular, FEMA model. That means that only those areas necessary for the current emergency are staffed. That could mean representatives from federal agencies, State agencies or local agencies. Local agencies can be anything from the American Red Cross, Amateur Radio Emergency Service, Community Emergency Response Team, Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, representatives from fire and police departments from anywhere in Coconino County to name a few.

The Coconino Emergency Operation Center is operated by Coconino Emergency Management. It received national recognition during the Tinder Fire in the Blue Ridge area. Amateur radio operators from the Coconino Amateur Radio Emergency Service was the only communications to get through to the EOC at the beginning to issue evacuation orders.

Visitors got a chance to see the various community emergency services in Coconino County. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) sponsored by the Sheriff’s Department was one. The group is made up of volunteers that respond to various emergencies as directed by the CCSO. This can be anything from assisting in searching for a lost person to providing traffic control. CERT training, provided by the CCSO, is required to be a member.

Amateur radio operators set up antennas to demonstrate emergency communications.

The Coconino Amateur Radio Club Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) group mans their space at the EOC for almost every emergency. Amateur radio—aka “Ham”—operators are people of all walks of life licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to operate amateur radio equipment on several frequencies. This is not the same as a General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) license. Although amateurs are not required to, many donate countless hours in training and providing emergency communications. Amateur radio can get through when many other means of communications fail. They use a variety of digital and voice modes and sometimes even old-fashioned Morse code. Some FEMA courses are required to work with the amateur radio operators in the EOC, however any amateur radio operator can participate by providing reports in their area. ARES is a program sponsored by the American Radio Relay League. There is no requirement to join any group or provide emergency communications attached to an FCC amateur radio license.

The American Red Cross also provided an information table for their continuing role in many emergency situations in and outside of the EOC. The State Emergency Management Agency also presented their role.

Ground control to Major Tom. This unit provides cell and wi-fi service in remote locations.
Flagstaff Police Department bomb squad robot.

Outside there were several agencies present . The Flagstaff Police Department bomb squad had their bomb robot present. The State Emergency Management Team had their “Ground Control” unit that provides cell and Wi-Fi services in remote areas. There were also representatives from the fire department and ambulance services.

Education, Morse Code, Personal

Mind your Q’s and Y’s

EDUCATION — I have been working at learning Morse code as the next step on my road to being a successful Ham operator. The main problem is one of money. Yet while I am waiting for the proper equipment to CQ CW (call for any station using Morse code), I am learning the code.

It is true that there are computer programs that perform all manner of digital codes available—including CW. You need a computer to communciate using the other digital codes, but using one for CW is cheating. Unless, of course, it is an emergency situation requiring quicker communications. Like John Henry, however, there are probably some coders who might even beat the computer.

I am not an expert, mind you. I am just starting to learn. There are some interesting things that I noticed that I will share. Your personal CW learning experience might be much different.

I suspect that everyone has at least heard of Morse code. I am not going to get into frequencies and transmit restrictions, at this point, because I am still learning the technical points. You probably know that Morse code is a series of dots and dashes representing letters, numbers and punctuation. Coders usually use the words di for dots and dah for dashes. This is rhythmically representing the dots and dashes. For example the letter A is represented by a dot and a dash, (or .-). In code we would say di-dah.

What I have found helpful in my study is to correlate certain of the coded letters. For example .- represents A and -. represents the letter N. They are reversed and spell the word AN.

That is a simple one. Two other Morse code combinations that are similar are ..-. for F and .-.. for the letter L. Perhaps the word FLy might help to remember.

Q and Y is another combination—Q being – -.- and -.- – being Y. That one still confuses me, a bit, but I am getting better. The only thing I can think of to remember this is mind your Q’s and Y’s. That is taken from the old saying mind your P’s and Q’s.

When I refer to Morse code, or CW, I am referring to what is called International Morse Code in common use in amateur radio today. I understand that it is different than the code that Samuel Morse actually developed. Samuel Morse, when developing the code, was clever in designing it. He knew, for example, that the most common letter in the English language was the letter E. Therefore he used a simple di (.) to represent it. T, also being common, became dah (-). Studying the manner in which the code developed might also help you learn it. There are many videos and articles on the subject on something called the Internet.

There are a couple of good apps for your so-called “smart phone” or tablet that might help. I will be doing articles on two of these in the near future. This site also offers some videos that might help you sort things out and there are several sites online that offer Morse code training. I will try to link to resources that might be useful to you in your endeavor to learn Morse code. I am working on getting some QRP (Ham lingo for low power equipment) to transmit Morse code. As I learn, I will pass it on.