Steve's Radio Page

What is CW? CW stands for "Continuous Wave". Around 1920 vacuum tubes made it possible to transmit radio frequency energy in a pure unwavering state. By turning this kind of transmitted signal on and off we can create a wireless kind of telegraphy signal. By sending characters made up of combinations of dots and dashes, we can send information anywhere in the world using very simple equipment. You have probably heard the term "wireless" recently in reference to PCs connecting and communicating with the Internet. This is really just an advanced form of CW using computers to control the signal. Yes, CW was the original form of wireless digital signals, and is over 80 years old. CW still has many advantages. Since it relies on just some simple equipment and your brain, instead of computers it can mean the difference between life and death during a disaster. When the power grid, cell phone sites, and the Internet have been destroyed, a CW operator can still send information on CW using a small radio powered by a few AA batteries. That's why anyone involved in emergency communications should be a good CW operator if they want to be ready for every possible disaster scenario. The fact that you can do CW using your brain as the only computer makes it a lot of fun for many hams.

A lot of new amateur radio operators become frustrated when they first try communicating in CW (using the International Morse Code). They can't see why they are having so much trouble and are not successful. The purpose of this page is to offer some advice to help to prevent these frustrations, so the radio operator can enjoy the CW experience. I find that most of the people who are frustrated jump into CW operation just knowing the code as their only prerequisite. However, there are a lot of techniques that you need to be aware of and need to be mastered before you will know what is going on in the CW portion of the Amateur bands. I will be explaining a few of these basic prerequisites. If you master these few skills you will be ahead of ninety percent of the all the CW operators out there in your understanding, and this will help you replace your frustrations with a great sense of satisfaction.

Reading is a good way to learn about correct operating. These days, the following references are really mandatory reading for anyone who wishes to become a good operator. I am surprised that so many hams have never read them.

Also the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the best organization in amateur radio on this planet. Their monthly magazine "QST" is the best amateur radio publication out there and is alone worth the yearly dues. I highly recommend that you join the ARRL to learn more about amateur radio and to show your support. The above books are available at their web site: www.arrl.org

Amateur Radio Terms to Know
This page is also meant to introduce non hams to amateur radio, so some of the information may seem a bit basic to some hams. But there is still a lot of useful information here for hams that are already licensed, so please be a little patient here.

QSO - A wireless radio contact between two radio operators is called a "QSO".

Amateur Radio Operator - This is a person licensed by their government to perform non-commercial radio communications on government specified frequencies.

Ham - The word "ham" is a popular term for a licensed Amateur Radio operator. It is probably a shortened Cockney British form of "amateur" that showed up in literature in the early 1900s.

CQ - This is a radio signal sent by a ham when he wants to communicate with another ham. If his call sign is W2MY, he might send "CQ CQ de W2MY". "de" is French for "from".

Transceiver - A piece of equipment that can send and receive radio signals. A cell phone is a transceiver.

Amateur Band - A continuous range of frequencies allocated to amateur radio operations.

Morse Code - An alphabet consisting of a short sound called a "dit", and a long sound called a "dah". For example, the letter "A" is dit-dah, or graphically is shown on paper as ".-" (dot and a dash).

DX - This is an acronym for "distance". It means a foreign station. If a ham wants to only communicate with hams not in his own country he will use this term in his initial call as in CQ DX de W2MY.

How to Tune your Radio
Tuning your transceiver to the correct frequency in order to answer a CQ from another ham may seem easier than it really is. If you don't know how to do it the other ham will probably not hear you, and chances are you will not be able to make contact with him, and this results in frustration. Probably fifty percent of Hams don't know how to do this correctly on CW, so if you master this, even with your limited experience, you will be way ahead of the curve.

Let us assume that you have a "single signal" receiver. As it turns out, a CW signal can have two images that you can hear in your receiver. It's just the nature of how receivers work. But for 99% of the receivers out there you will be able to hear only the "correct" image. This is good because tuning to the wrong image can mean that when you transmit, the other station won't hear your signal, but with a single signal receiver this is a moot point, so let's proceed.

Say you are tuning across an amateur band listening for amateur signals and looking for a station that you want to contact. What you will find is that the signals will change pitch as you turn the tuning dial. They will either go up in pitch or down depending on the direction you turn the dial. If you want to communicate with a station you must tune your transceiver to within a few Hertz (cycles) of the other signal. In other words, you need to transmit on his exact frequency. The assumption here is that your transceiver must appear to transmit on the exact frequency it receives on, and the same for the station you are listening to. The big question is how to do this.

All decent transceivers have a feature during transmit called "sidetone" that allows you to hear how your "dits and dahs" are sounding as you send them. To send Morse code without hearing it can be difficult, so the sidetone gives you the audio feedback needed for you to properly form the characters. What happens when you press down on the key of your transceiver is that the transceiver goes into its transmit mode, sends a radio signal, while muting the receiver so you can't hear the other station, and injects the audio sidetone signal so you can hear your sending. As soon as you let up on the key the transceiver stops transmitting, stops the sidetone signal, goes back into receiver mode and un-mutes the receiver so you can hear the other stations signal.

For a properly set up transceiver the sidetone pitch is set to a specific frequency. When the pitch of the sidetone is the same as the pitch of the received signal, you are on the same frequency as the other station. This is one of the most important facts needed in Amateur radio. How can you hear your sidetone pitch to compare it to the pitch of the received station? If you hit the key to hear your sidetone you will transmit causing interference to the other station! There is a solution. With nearly all of the commercial amateur radio transceivers made including Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, and Tentec, there is a way for you to activate the sidetone in the receive mode without transmitting a signal. This is sometimes called a "Spot" button. When you activate this feature, you will be able to hear the sidetone sound continuously along with the other station's signal while in the receive mode. It is then just a matter of turning the tuning dial until the changing pitch of the received signal is the exact same pitch as your sidetone. At this point you should be within one or two Hertz (cycles) of the other station. If you transmit now you will be in the middle of the other station's audio passband, and he has got to hear you. Imagine if you were a hundred Hertz off in tuning, and the other station was using his 100 Hertz passband filter to avoid nearly interference. Since you signal was outside his filter, he would not hear you. Now no matter how narrow his filters are, your signal will be smack on his listening frequency.

So you need to read the instruction manual that came with your transceiver to figure out how to activate the sidetone in receive. You may want to transmit into a dummy load while playing with this so as to not create any on-the-air interference. Transceivers that have a "RIT" control must have it disabled during this exercise. More on using RIT later on.

The process of matching the received signal tone to your sidetone is called "zero beating". If you have ever tuned a guitar you already know how to do this. Two audio tones will combine and made a third tone that is the difference between the two tones. So when the two tones are 10 cycles apart you will hear a 10 cycle per second pulsing tone. As you get the two tones closer in pitch the difference between them is less and the frequency of the pulsing tone will decrease. When the two tones are one cycle apart in pitch the pulsing will be exactly once per second. When you get the two tones within 1/3 of a cycle the pulsing will be every three seconds. When both pitches are exactly the same the pulsing goes away. So with this method you can easily tune your radio to within one or two cycles of the other stations signal. Within the 14 megaHertz amateur band this represents a deviation of about .000001 percent, which is really good.

Your First QSO
Ok , you do have to make your first contact. Let's say you hear a CQ on your radio from another station whose call sign is W2MY. It might sound like this:

This is a 3 x 2 CQ. The "CQ" and the person's call are given three times, and the entire line is repeated twice. Repeating the line gives stations tuning across the band more time to find the CQ, gives the listening station time to tune the sending station in by "zero beating", and finally gives them time to write down the call sign and decide if they want to reply to the CQ. The K is a prosign meaning "over to anyone". This tells stations listening that the sending station will QSO with any station that replies.

The "DX" means that the station is requesting QSOs with foreign stations only. So if the call of a Brazilian ham is PY5EX, a USA ham is DX to him so you can reply, but if a US ham does a "CQ DX" he doesn't want to communicate with any US hams. A variation is "CQ AK de W2MY". This means that the US ham only wants to CQ with hams in Alaska. He is obviously needing an Alaskan contact for a "Worked All States" award, or he needs to relay information to Alaska. In any case hams not in Alaska should not contact him.

So lets assume that you have found a station (W2MY) who is calling a general type of CQ and you have decided to contact him. After zero beating his signal you can simply send the following. Assume your call is: AA5XX

The "de" is French for "from". If conditions are good that's all you need to send. Send it at the speed you are comfortable copying. I know this sounds trite, but the other station will probably match your speed exactly. This often puts beginners in a bind as they don't realize how much faster they can send than receive. Anyway, if its your first QSO your hand will be trembling so just concentrate on forming your characters. During my first QSO my hand didn't even work so I had to send with one hand over the other. Use a hand key first, not a paddle and keyer. If you didn't copy much when the other station replies to you, and this will probably happen, ask him to slow down. Use the "QRS" Q signal for this. So your reply might sound like this.

W2MY de AA5XX TNX FER QSO. THIS IS MY FIRST QSO SO PSE QRS QRS. UR RST IS 589 589. NAME IS STEVE STEVE. W2MY de AA5XX BK

Notice that both call signs are given at the beginning and end of the exchange. This confirms that you have copied his call sign correctly and sends your call sign back to the other station to help confirm that he copied it correctly. If one of the stations did not originally copy the other's call sign correctly, they now can correct it. This also gives you something to send to the other station. This may sound trite, but your mind will probably go blank during your first QSO so at least you will have the call signs to send for live on the air practice. "RST" is the signal report of the other station, which will be explained later. "BK" is another way to say "K".

After you calm down you can send him your location; the Q signal for this is "QTH".

W2MY de AA5XX TNX FER QRS BILL. QTH IS MILWAUKEE, WI, MILWAUKE, WI, AGE IS 21, 21 GOT LICENSE TODAY HW CPY? W2MY de AA5XX BK

If conditions are good you may end up getting your Ragchewer's certificate on your first QSO by having it last more than 30 minutes. A long friendly QSO between hams is called a rag chew. I guess the phrase "chewing the rag" means to have an amiable conversation. Eventually you will be so exhausted that you'll want to end the contact. Simply thank the ham for his patience and say goodbye. Some hams go into a 10 minute monologue every time they say goodbye in CW. Make it short but sweet.

W2MY de AA5XX TNX MUCH FER UR QRS AND PATIENCE BILL. ARE YOU OK IN QRZ.COM? AS I VERY MUCH WANT TO QSL YOU ON MY FIRST QSO. 73 ES TNX AGN. SK W2MY de AA5XX SK

Then listen to his reply. "SK" is a pro-sign meaning that you are sending your last transmission. "ES" is short for "and". A "QSL" is a card you send to the other ham confirming in writing the contact. Since it is your first contact, you will want a card from the other ham as a memento.

There - you did the impossible. You will want to rest a bit and enter the QSO info in your logbook. After a brief rest you will probably want to listen to the bands again looking for another contact. A good idea is to write down stock transmissions that you may want to send during your first QSOs. That way if your mind goes blank you can just send what is on your paper.

What is RIT?
RIT stands for Receiver Incremental Tuning. That still doesn't explain it. What it does is it allows the operator to change the frequency he receives on, but keeps the transmit frequency unchanged. The big question is when would you want to use it? Imagine that you have called CQ on 7038.00 kHz. A station replies to you off frequency on 7038.40 kHz, because he is either inexperienced and does not know how to zero-beat, or there is something wrong with his rig and his transmit frequency is not the same as his receive frequency. His signal is 400 Hz off from yours, and at the edge of your pass-band so even though you can tell he is there, you can barely make out his signal.

Your first impulse might be to retune your receiver to put his signal in the middle of your filter. This would help you temporarily, but then other station would probably not hear you since you also changed your transmit frequency when you tuned to his signal to be in the center of your filter. If he realizes this and retunes his receiver to hear you, the two of you have set a precedence where the two of you are going to leapfrog each other's signal across the band, every time one station turns it over to the other. In fact one of the stations might be convinced that the other station's signal is drifting because every time he turns it over to the other guy, the other station's signal has moved approximately the same increment.

Normally, to avoid this you must never change your transmit frequency once you send a CQ. However, you must have a way to adjust your receive frequency so you can hear those off-frequency stations. In the above example, you would activate the RIT on your rig and turn the RIT knob clockwise to increase your receive frequency to about 7038.40 kHz until the other station's signal was clearly heard. When it was time for you to transmit, your transmit frequency would still be unchanged at 7038.00 kHz. Below is a picture of the RIT button that activates/deactivates the RIT function, and the RIT knob that allows you to adjust the actual receive frequency either plus (clockwise), or minus (counter-clockwise).

Signal Reports (RST)
Conditions on the air can change very quickly. You may contact a ham who has a strong signal and on the next exchange realize that his signal is quickly fading away to nothing. You may be operating QRP (less than 5 Watts) and the other station might be operating at 1500 Watts using an amplifier. You may hear him well, but because of your low power you need to know quickly how the other station is copying you. You certainly don't want to start a ragchew if the other station has great difficulty trying to figure out what you are sending due to poor conditions. Using the "RST" format is a way to exchange this information quickly. It stands for the following:

R - Readability (1 to 5), how well you copy his information
S - Strength (1 to 9), how loud his signal is
T - Tone (1 to 9), how pure and unwavering his signal sounds

For readability (R)
1 - Unreadable
2 - Barely readable, occasional words
3 - Readable with considerable difficulty
4 - Readable with practically no difficulty
5 - Perfectly readable.

Remember, "readability" is based on copy conditions such as QRM (interference), QRN (static), and QSB (fading) . It does not mean you didn't copy because the sending speed was too fast. Also a very weak signal can be very readable with a good receiver, so don't confuse this with "strength".

For strength (S)
1 - Faint signal, barely readable
2 - Very weak signal
3 - Weak signal
4 - Fair signal
5 - Fairly good signal
6 - Good signals
7 - Moderately strong signal
8 - Strong signal
9 - Extremely strong signal

"Strength" means how loud the signal is. If you have a signal meter on the face of your rig, it is probably numbered from 1 to 9. You can use this as a rough guide to estimating the strength number to use. However no S meter is exactly correct, so you still need to estimate this. A booming signal may rate a "9", and if his signal gets a little weaker you may then call it an "8". The next station you contact might be a bit less in strength than the first but still quite loud so you might give him a "6" or "7". If the signal is just above the noise level it might be a "2" or "3", while a signal that is in the noise might rate a "1".

The "tone" designations go all the way to "1", but transceivers today are almost always perfect in tone. In fact if you give someone a "T8" he might get very upset if his rig is an IC7800 for which he just spent $11,000 on purchasing it! Also there are stations from other countries who can't afford, or do not have access to state of the art equipment. Many are using patched up equipment from the 1950s. They are fortunate to just be on the air. It would be a bit unkind to criticize their signal tone, so it is best to just give them the standard "9". I don't think that I have ever given someone an "8".

Also, there are other reasons for a signal to have a bad tone other than from the transmitter the signal comes from. Aurora can make a received CW tone sound "watery". A signal can also sound watery if something is wrong with the digitally synthesized VFO in your receiver, so the problem may be on your end of the QSO. One time, I heard a station on PSK31 giving bad reports to everyone, because it appeared that everyone else's signal were too wide. It turns out he had the gain to his sound card in his PC set too high, so the wide signals were being creating inside his own PC.

"Tone" was originally much more important when spark stations were on the air (1901 to 1923), and even with vacuum tube rigs in the 1920s and 30s many hams did not have crystal control and every time they hit the key to transmit, the frequency would shift causing a chirp.

589 to 599 - a normal strong signal
529 - weak but fully readable
449 - some difficult reading signal and its also fairly weak
229 to 329 - about the worst you can get and still copy the call sign and signal report to make it an official contact

If you give someone a 589 and suddenly they go to a 339 and their signal doesn't recover, the band may be going dead, and it may indicate that you should finish the QSO quickly. So using RSTs is a good way to communicate operating conditions to the other ham.

Also there are other conditions you may want to include with the signal report to explain the actual conditions

QRM - Interference from another signal
QSB - Fading. If the fading is cyclical you may be able to copy his information on the signal peaks. QSB can be cyclical every few minutes or every few seconds.
QRN - Static. This is natural atmospheric noise that can be an S9 at times especially at the lower frequencies. You have probably heard QRN on an AM broadcast receiver.

So you might say that his signal is 589 in the clear but there is strong QRM from a signal just below ours, so lets QSY (change frequency) a few hundred Hertz to avoid the QRM.

What is Operating "Split"
The concept of operating "split" is a bit more complicated than the first topic "How to Tune your Radio". Consider it an advanced topic, but one that is easily mastered in one or two hours of practice. That's why I find it incredulous that ninety-five percent of hams either don't know how to operate split or don't use it efficiently. It is an essential skill needed for effective DX or Contesting work. Many DXers and Contesters are the very best operators you will ever hear, and this is so principally because they are part of the 5% that operate split effectively. So it makes sense to practice this skill for a few hours and be included with some of the best hams in the hobby.

Lets describe the problem with not operating split. Let's say you, as well as 99 other hams hear "CQ CQ de EM1HO", Paul, who is a Ukrainian working in Antarctica. You zero beat his signal at exactly 14039.1 kHz (kiloHertz), while he is still sending his CQ. After he finishes his CQ you immediately reply EM1HO de AA4XX AA4XX (assuming AA4XX is your call). Since you were one of the first to hear him and you have practiced zero beating you are one of a few of the hundred hams who were ready. Since you were on his frequency he heard part of your call so he replies "4XX 4XX pse KN". He wants only you (KN) to come back with your complete call and give him a signal report. This would be great if you actually hear him send this, but usually several other hams who can't quite hear the DX station decide to send their calls five or six times just to be sure. Since they can't hear the DX station too well they end up QRMing him, and as a result you can't hear EM1HO's reply to you. Your reward for operating with good procedures is now a big fat zero thanks to inconsiderate, or lets just say "less enlightened" (totally clueless) operators, who by the way probably won't make a contact anyway since their skills are so poor.

So what can the DX operator do to gain a little more control over the mob (which includes some poor operators) who want to work him? Well, this is what operating split is all about. It makes it easier for the DX station to pick out call signs in the mob, and it makes it easier for the stations calling the DX to hear the DX station, since essentially everyone is transmitting on a frequency well away from where the DX is transmitting.

So lets assume you didn't get the EM1HO as he was immediately QRM'd by a bunch of stations. So he has started sending:

OK so he has added "UP 2" to his CQ, and he has stretched out his transmission so most of the stations hear it all. He is telling them that he will continue to transmit on this frequency (14039.1 kHz), but he will be listening 2 kHz higher. This is called working split. So what do you do?

Chances are your rig can operate split unless it is one of the less than $150 QRP kits on the market. You can still operate split with most of these rigs but you must use a different tactic. But for now I'll assume that your rig has split capability. In other words, your can listen on one frequency but can have your rig set so when you transmit it transmits on another frequency.

So what happens next. First you do nothing. One of the first rules of operating is to listen first and transmit only when your chances of making a contact are good. So you listen first. What will happen next is that say about 50 percent of the operators will operate split so that they are transmitting on 14041.1 kHz which is EXACTLY 2 kHz higher than 14039.1 kHz, which is taking the DX operator's instructions a bit too literally. So now there is a tremendous amount of QRM on that particular frequency. Let's say that about 46% of the operators will set their transmit frequency anywhere between say 14039.6 kHz and 14041.6 kHz. In other words these operators are looking, and hoping for a clear spot to transmit, so if the DX station tunes to their transmit frequency, the chances are good that they will be heard. This is good for the DX station because it is easier for him to pick out call signs if they are spread out. But what are your actual chances if the DX station has 100 signals to listen to in a span of only 2 kHz? For you, only about 1% ( 1 in 100 stations). That's why I said to wait first and listen a bit. We need to increase your chances from 1% to about 95%. Now about 3% of the operators (3 stations) who are quite skilled are going to first listen to the frequency of the station that gets the first QSO with EM1HO. Say EM1HO finds W6FW in the clear at 14040.3 kHz. EM1HO gives W6FW the exchange and turns it over to W6FW to give the exchange and complete the QSO. These three stations find the frequency W6FW is transmitting at, if they can hear him, and put their own transmit frequency on his (14040.3 kHz). As soon as W6FW completes his QSO they call EM1HO on the frequency he was listening to W6FW on. If he has not tuned to another frequency in the pileup, these three operators have a very good chance of getting the next QSO. Pretty tricky. But there is an even better strategy.

So far we've mentioned what 99% of the hams are going to do to try to contact EM1HO. You are the last 1% and you are going to do something better. There is a good chance that EM1HO is not going to listen on 14040.3 kHz for the next QSO. The reason why is because even if five hams try this approach this means that 5 hams will be QRM'ing each other on the same frequency. Not as bad as the original non-split situation, but the DX station has another option to beat the QRM. He probably started pretty low in the range he specified. He may have started to tune up the band slowly from about say 14039.4 kHz and worked his way up until he found W6FW on 14040.3 kHz. What he may do next is tune up the band a little for each QSO to beat the QRM. So keep listening. If he picks a station for the next QSO at 14040.6 kHz, we will start to see a trend (up 300 Hz after each QSO). What I would do now is set up to transmit around 14040.9 kHz and send your call twice at the end of the second QSO. You are guessing that the DX station will move up a bit after each QSO to beat the QRM. If he takes another station instead of you for the third QSO, find out the frequency of the lucky station, and work that information into your next guess. You are using your brain power to predict where EM1HO will listen next, instead of just sitting on a frequency and using the brute force of electrical power (up to 1500 Watts) to make the contact. At most only one or two other operators in the whole mob will be doing the same thing. Your chances of success have gone from near zero to about 99%. This is what amateur radio is all about: using your brain and listening. You will no doubt hear stations transmitting on and on and on, sometimes even during the time when the DX station is transmitting. These hams probably can't even hear the DX station well enough to have a successful QSO, but they just keep on sending their call sign hundreds of times, causing QRM. If you do it right you can often only send your call maybe 8 or 10 times before making the contact. You don't need 1500 Watts or a tower to be a good contester or DXer. You only have to know what you are doing.

There are DX stations that say "UP 2" and actually listen "DOWN 1". The mob goes up in frequency, while the experienced DXers wait a second and verify exactly where the DX station is operating (below his frequency). It sure cuts down on the QRM for the DX station, and the experienced operators (the ones who think) get the contact.

How to Operate Split
OK, now you know why it is important to be able to operate split frequency. We will now discuss how to do it with a typical rig. The radio must have the equivalent of two VFOs (Variable Frequency Oscillators). Now this is a fancy term that we don't really need to explain now. But what the radio must be able to do is to store two different frequencies. You want to be able to press a button and go to one frequency, and then be able to press another button and go to the second frequency. We ultimately want to use one frequency to transmit on, and one frequency to listen on. There are four switches or controls that are needed in order to be able to do this efficiently. I will explain these functions as they are arraigned on my kit radio, because it is in front of me now. Your radio may have more buttons or they may be differently labeled. But if you can follow this explanation and then study the manual that came with your rig, you should do fine.

SPLIT	This button is a toggle, and switches between "simplex" mode and "split" mode. Simplex mode is the default where there is only one VFO frequency and you transmit and receive on the same frequency. When you operate in Split mode you can transmit on a different frequency than you listen on.
A/B	This button is a toggle and switches between memory "A" which is the default setting and memory "B". To be consistent with the manuals of most radios, I will call these memories "VFO A" and "VFO B". Only VFO A is used when you operate simplex. When you operate Split, VFO A is normally your receive frequency, and VFO B is your transmit frequency.
A=B	There are times when you are operating split that you will want to make the frequency stored in VFO B the same as is stored in VFO A. Press this button to do this.
REV	There are times when you are listening to the DX on VFO A, and you want to quickly listen to your transmit frequency stored in VFO B. This is a momentary button that will let you do this. You may want to do this just before transmitting to be sure that you are not near another transmitting station. When you are pressing this button you can even change your transmitting frequency slightly to get away from another station's signal by just turning the tuning knob.

In the photo at the upper left the chevron shaped annunciator above the "A" indicates that VFO A is active and the frequency has been set to 7038.46 kHz. At the upper right VFO B has been selected and the radio has been tuned to 7039.24 kHz. At the left you can see that only two buttons control the four Split functions previously described. The white colored functions are accessed with a quick press, while the yellow colored functions are accessed by holding the button down longer.

If this radio is left in split mode and VFO A is made active, you would be listening on 7038.46 kHz (VFO A), and transmitting on 7039.24 (VFO B).

OK, let's actually use split to get some DX! Lets assume again that your call is AA4XX. You start at 7020 kHz and slowly turn the tuning dial, listening to every signal. When you get to 7038.46 kHz you hear a CQ, and stop tuning to listen. It is a DX station in a country that you have never worked so you get ready to transmit by zero-beating his signal exactly. Just as he is about to finish his CQ, and you get ready to transmit, he sends "UP 1 K"! You are set for simplex, and in order to not QRM the DX's transmitting frequency, you don't transmit, but about five other stations do. You press your "Split" button, then the "A=B" button to be sure your VFO B is the same as VFO A, and then you press the "A/B" button to go to VFO B. You tune up about 650 Hz and hear the first station that the DX contacted finishing up his exchange. You leave VFO B set at 7039.10 kHz and press "A/B" to go back to VFO A to listen to the DX station. As he finishes up his second CQ you press and hold down the "REV" button to monitor your transmit frequency. Two loud stations start sending their call signs exactly where you wanted to transmit, so while still holding down the "REV" button you turn the tuning knob to move your transmit frequency up to 7039.24 where the QRM is minimal. You release the "REV" button and immediately send your call once. The DX station immediately comes back with "A4X?". You immediately send "AA4XX AA4XX K". He repeats your call and gives you the exchange. You send "559 559 TNX DE AA4XX K". He sends "QSL", which means "confirmed". So you are now in his log, and you can sit back and relax and listen to the mob try to get a contact with the rare station. You can be proud of the fact that you used your brain instead of brawn (1500 Watts), and only had to send your call three times to make the contact. Job well done.

QSL'ing (Confirming Contacts)
During a CW QSO if the other station sends "QSL", it means that he has copied all your info 100%. If at the end of an exchange a station sends "QSL?", he is asking the other station if they copied his transmission 100% (DID YOU COPY?). So QSL is used like the word "Confirmed" with or without a question mark. You can also send an "R" in CW, which is represented by the phonetic "Roger" in voice. Incidentally, "Roger" means "R" or "received". It does not mean "Yes".

Just as the term QSL is used during a QSO to confirm information, it is also the term used to describe the card sent to confirm a QSO in writing. So a QSL is an official, legal, valid confirmation or record in writing of an on-the-air communication between two hams. These cards are pretty important. Hams have been exchanging them for almost 100 years. Since they are important there are particular formats that are generally adhered to when creating these cards. There are also rules about filling them out. If you don't follow these rules your card may become worthless to another ham. For example if someone is going for a Worked All States award on CW, and you made a mistake filling out his card for your state and crossed out "SSB" and wrote next to it "CW" for the mode, the fact that you crossed something out on the card would invalidate it. The standards for Amateur Radio Awards are very high to maintain excellence, and anything that could remotely suggest a forgery would be invalidated.

So let's talk about the general layout of the card. You need a certain minimum amount of information on the card. To help others, its best to also add additional information about your station to help them with awards.

So all you need to do is put this information on your QSL card. Sounds easy. But you need to do one other thing: put all of this information on one side of the card. Why? Because anyone who must reply to a lot of cards does not want to have to keep flipping the card over to get all the information. QSL managers are people who manage the QSL'ing responsibilities of foreign hams. Often these hams can not afford the postage or even the cards to QSL. But QSL managers unselfishly help them out. If the cards are filled out in the USA, then the postage for all USA contacts is cheaper. First the manager must write down your call sign from the front of the card, and if the QSO info is on the other side, he has got to flip the card once to see it. Once he confirms your contact he's got to flip the card over again to get to your address. It just wastes his valuable time. I know it's great to put a picture on one side of the card with your call sign, and the QSO info on the back of the card, but it is considered a bit selfish and thoughtless to do this. What you want to do is make it easy for the other ham or his manager to fill out and mail your card. So please be considerate. You can always use the blank side of the card to write a personal note to the other ham, That's how friendships are born. You can also state how much you are depending on his card for a certain award, and tell him how much you appreciated the initial contact and confirmation. This personal touch will increase your success rate at receiving QSLs.

How to Learn the Code
In the 70's I purchased a 33 rpm record to learn the code. As it turned out although I had memorized the 1956 ARRL Handbook as a 12 year old, I really didn't know how to become a ham, so the effort was wasted. If I had known enough I would have borrowed a receiver and learned the code by listening to the amateur bands. In 1991 I decided to try again using tapes and a little Walkman cassette player. It worked. It was not easy but I did practice a lot and passed my 20 WPM test and got my Extra Class license. There was a DOS PC program at the time that let you practice 5 letter groups, Amateur radio words, call signs, and actual test QSOs. It really helped to sharpen my copy skills.

Now there is a program on CD called the Koch method that is available on the Internet. There is also an email reflector that is dedicated to learning the code and passing your test. It is called "Solid Copy CW" and is located at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SolidCpyCW/. It is the brain child of Gary, AF4LD. You can obtain the CD by signing onto the group and sending Gary a request.

To start out you must practice with two characters only and add two more as you master the previous characters. It is extremely important that you develop a reflex to write down the character immediately and instinctively after you hear the sound of the character in Morse code. You should not be listening for the separate dots and dashes as this results in an extra translation step and you will always be a bit behind this way, and copying at higher speeds later on will be impossible. Do not ever write down the dots and dashes on the paper. You will be hopelessly behind this way and never really learn the code well this way. The ARRL code test uses the Farnsworth method where the character spacing is set to 17 WPM and the characters are spread out to effectively slow the code down to 5 WPM. With the Koch program start the character speed at 20 WPM, and the effective speed at 17 WPM. This way you always hear each individual character sent at a high speed. If you were to initially learn the letters at a slow character speed a) you will be more tempted to learn the dots and dashes instead of the overall sound of the character, b) you will have to relearn the sound of the characters when they are sent at a higher speed, c) you will reach a plateau at about 13 WPM where you will have difficulty going faster until you thoroughly relearn the sounds of the characters again. By learning the sound of each character at 20 WPM you will easily be able to adapt to the 17 WPM character speed for the actual test. The 3 WPM difference will give you a buffer. It also makes no sense to study at the test's effective speed of 5 WPM when normal use of CW is at about 10 to 15 WPM. It is really easy to master the faster speed I recommend because you start with only a few characters and add only a few at a time.

Practicing the letters you know in random groups is very good practice. This is difficult but good practice since the groups are not words and you can not predict what letter will come next. At first you will copy only some of the characters but when you can copy 90% of them you can go on to the next set of characters. When you are done learning all the letters, numbers, punctuation and pro-signs, you can start practicing real amateur radio words, and even practice copying test QSOs. When you can consistently copy 90%, at about 20 WPM character spacing and 17 WPM or more effective spacing, you will be ready to take the 5 WPM test. If you really do as I say you will do very well on the test. Expect to spend 2 or 3 months practicing before you are ready to take the test. You will really have to strain your brain at times to learn. Copying at a higher speed than you are comfortable with can cause some anxiety and fatigue, but it is the only way to increase your speed. You must be committed to spending several 20 minute to half-hour periods per day practicing in order to succeed.

Of the people I see fail this test, they just don't know the code, even at 5 WPM. They don't practice more than 10 minutes a week because they don't like to study, they don't like the code, and they don't want to learn it. So practice at the 20 Character/17-20 Effective speed and not only will the test be a breeze, but you will be ragchewing on the air in no time. If you want to do it, you will.

How to be a Good/Bad Operator
QRM is a fact of life on the amateur bands. Most of it is unintentional, but still a lot of QRM is due to bad operating practices by many clueless operators who just don't know better. Amateur radio is a technical hobby and it amazes me that people who have taken the time to get their license and put together a station can generate more QRM than they do contacts. Lets take an example of the QRP Fox Hunts. Two stations are the Foxes and they send "CQ FOX", while 250 other QRPrs look for them within a 20 kHz swath of 40 meters during a 2 hour period. Often conditions are terrible. This is a great way to sharpen your skills and learn how to work with weak signals under marginal conditions. This kind of practice is good for DXers and contesters as they are often put in the same type of difficult situations. And if you have the right frame of mind, it is fun too.

What you need to do is develop a plan of attack and stick with it. I scan between 7030 and 7050 kHz about once every three minutes for the entire two hours or until I get a contact with both Foxes. I figure that it could very well be that the Foxes will only be workable at my station for at the most about two or three minutes during the two hour hunt. I have to find the Foxes and work them in that three minute window. Just browsing up and down the bands occasionally will not produce a contact 98% of the time. You have to search continually just like a hunter looking for game. You also can't sit on top of one Fox for a half hour trying to work him, as you will probably lose the opportunity to work the other Fox during that period. Finding one Fox is easier than working two.

What I have heard are experienced and well known hams sitting on a frequency and just sending their call continuously. They do this whether the Fox is transmitting or whether he is listening to another station. Either these guys can't hear the Fox or they are totally clueless. If you can't hear the Fox it doesn't matter if he hears you. You can't make the contact! A QSO requires 100% copy from both stations, so if you can't hear the other station 90%, don't transmit. You won't know if he ever hears your call. Some operators don't have split capability but have RIT. It is still possible to work the Fox with just the RIT control, but you still have no excuse if you create QRM. Just be patient. If you read the How to Operate Split section above there is no reason you can't get the Fox on a couple of calls. Some people just assume when operating split that sending your call continuously is the only option. Actually its one of the worst options you can choose with about a 1% success rate. Read the above section on operating split and increase your success rate to 98% and at the same time learn how to avoid creating QRM.

All of us should be aware of how much energy we use to establish a contact. If you are using 5 Watts and call on a split frequency 100 times and I call only three times you are using 3333% more energy to make the same contact that I did. That's equivalent to the energy in a 500 Watt signal when you need to call only once. If you were on batteries your station would be a basket case. If you conserve your energy you automatically reduce the potential to create QRM.

Some types of interference are temporary and understandable. I have had QRP hall-of-famers QRM me when the Fox has picked out most of my call and his call was not similar to mine. But chances are his reception of the Fox was marginal and eventually he got enough copy to realize that the Fox picked another station, and he then waited his turn. That's just part of amateur radio, no big deal. Be patient and do your best to operate in the best fashion and your peers will eventually recognize you as one of those really good operators who is always considerate of other operators.

Creating You Own QRN, or “I have met the enemy and it is I”
QRN means “static”. In amateur radio it usually means the atmospheric (weather related) scratchy sound you used to hear on your mother’s old AM radio when you were a kid. Thunder creates static crashes. All the thunder for hundreds of miles can come to your antenna and it can often sound like one continuous event. Noise from the many bad connections within the utility power grid outside can also create a lot of noise on the 40 meter and lower bands. The combination of natural and man-made noise can be enough to prevent you as a radio listener from hearing weaker signals. So it is best to minimize the noise picked up by your antenna. Even blinking-outside-Christmas lights can make using your radio impossible.

I was trying to work two QRP Foxes on 40 meters recently and not having much luck. I heard one of the Foxes and was sure he sent my call correctly but then I could not make out his confirmation that he had copied my exchange. There was just too much noise on 40 meters that night. I then started looking for the other Fox but was not having much luck. I started my scan again at 7030 and was proceeding slowly upward in frequency when I heard the second Fox call very clearly on 7034, but after that I heard nothing else on the frequency. This is about where I have always heard a spike of noise now since the beginning of the Fox hunts about thirteen weeks ago. I continued to listen on this frequency for about fifteen minutes. I could occasionally hear some code but could not make out the station enough to risk a call. In desperation, I got up from the operating position and went across the room to where the surge protectors are located for my PCs. I turned off the switch that powered my non-wireless router, and cable modem, and I instantly heard the Fox’s call from my headphones, which were on the desk at the other side of the room! I ran over and immediately made the contact. He was continuously readable, armchair copy. The band was so quiet I would have thought I was on 20 meters. I then went back to the other Fox’s frequency, whose QTH was on the other side of the country from the first Fox, and he was also on the clear. Since he was calling CQ simplex with no takers, I called him and he confirmed that he had me previously in the log. So I went from having an excruciating time trying to make a QRP contact, to having a very easy and enjoyable time of it by just getting rid of some self generated QRN.

So you need to be aware of how much noise you are experiencing at different times on each band. Static crashes from storms are just that: they are intense but momentary. If the sound of the buzz is more or less continuous over several kHz or every so many kHz, then it might be man-made noise, which can often be located and eliminated. Even a bad connection on a power pole can be found, and if you are lucky repaired by the power company. But you should first see if any of the interference is being generated within your house. The best but most extreme approach is to power your receiver by a battery and turn off the electric mains to your home. If the noise goes away, you now know at least that the problem is within your own property. Sometimes carrying around a small AM radio will help you locate the noise. The ARRL has very good information to help you combat RFI (radio frequency interference).

Good Fox Hunting Scenarios: Example One
You start your 3 minute scans of the band segment at 02:00z. The band appears very quiet to you. You hear stations but there is a lot of quiet parts of the band. Some people on QRP-L say they looked for ten minutes for the Foxes but the band was dead so they turned off their radios and went to bed. These are the same guys who haven't gotten very many Foxes and are always blaming it on "propagation". You turn off the PC to reduce the QRN to your radio, as anything that will help you get a Fox tonight is appreciated. At 02:15z you can hear one or two stations acting like hounds (somewhere above 7.040), but can not hear the Fox. You mark the frequency and continue scanning , as you don't want to lose an opportunity to work Fox#2. At about 2:30z during your scan you hear something about 1.2 kHz beneath the original hounds, but can't make it out. Perhaps it is Fox#1 and he is operating split. You mark the frequency, and continue your three minute scan drill. Still no sign of Fox#2. At 02:45z you can just make out a signal that you think is Fox#1, the pattern seems to be what a Fox would do but you still have no copy on the station. So Fox#1 probably is operating split. Five minutes later you hear a hound somewhat below 7.040, but you can't hear Fox#2, as there seems to be a QSO about where he would be if he was operating split. You mark the frequency.

OK, so you think you know where the two Foxes might be, so you stop scanning for the moment and start switching between the two stored frequencies. At 03:05z Fox#1 is now about 30 percent copy and about a 219. You also have a pretty good read on which hounds he is responding to and where they are. Fox#1 tends to go up about 100Hz every time he chooses a new hound. The QSO on top of Fox#2 is still in progress but you can make out about half the hounds that are contacted and you see that Fox#2 is not moving his listening frequency very much. Fox#1 is up to a 229 and you now have about 60% copy on him.

At 03:15z the QSO on top of Fox#2 stops. Fox#2 is now 329 and 90% copy. He CQs and does NOT use "UP" at the end of the CQ. You are set for split so it takes you a second for you to go back to simplex and really zero beat him good. After his next CQ you give your call once and he comes back to you with your complete call and the exchange. You send the exchange and Fox#2 starts to fade, but you do hear him send "TU", so you assume that you've made the contact.

You are exhausted and run to the bathroom and also get another iced tea, but you are ready for more so you only take a short break. You go to FOX#1 again and at 03:25z he is 329 at 90% copy. He is still operating split and going up a bit after each QSO. You listen to two more contacts and put your VFO2 about 100 Hz above the last QSO. You give your call once at 03:29z. Fox#1 comes back with "MY? AGN". You and two other hounds, who don't have "MY" in their calls, reply. Fox#1 comes back with "2MY?". Again, you and two other hounds reply but this time you send your call three times. Fox#1 comes back with your call and the full exchange. You send everything in your exchange twice but quickly, and then end your transmission with "BK". Fox#1 sends "W2MY QSL TU", and at 03:35z you turn the rig off. You are totally exhausted, but you have a very good sleep that night. The next morning you read on QRP-L about how bad the "propagation" was and how many operators simply left their transceivers set on 7.040 while they did other things like repair some equipment. They just can't understand why the propagation gods have been so cruel to them this season. When you read this, all you do is smile.

Good Fox Hunting Scenarios: Example Two
You start scanning the bands at 02:00z. This is a very unusual night. Normally the Foxes are originally very weak, and you must patiently wait till they get strong enough to work. Tonight you have found both Foxes within the first 15 minutes of the hunt. Both sets of hounds are very loud and both pileups span a good kiloHertz of spectrum. The pileups sound just like ones for rare DX stations. What is funny is that both Foxes are very weak and only about 219 to 119. There is no way that you are going to work one of these guys right now with all those hounds barking at them. You start alternating your listening frequency between them, giving a little more attention and time to Fox#1 since he is a little more readable than Fox #2. At about 02:15z Fox#1 is a 229 and you decide to give him a call. He is going up about 50 Hz on average after each QSO. However, you get no response. You continue sending your call once at each opportunity and adjusting your frequency each time, but still get no response. Often you listen to your transmit frequency and there are two or three other loud stations on the same frequency. So you keep trying to move a little farther away from the other stations so you are in the clear. You have no idea how any of these loud stations sound to the Fox but they are getting the QSOs and you are not. You keep switching back to Fox#2 because you don't want to lose an opportunity to work him.

By about 02:35z the hounds chasing Fox#1 are not as loud as before. Maybe all the loud ones got their contacts and left the frequency, or maybe you are getting more favorable propagation. You start calling in earnest now but still only once per opportunity. The Fox is so fast that he is contacting the next hound while you would still be sending your call the second time so why cause the QRM? Finally at about 02:45z it appears that there are fewer stations QRMing your frequency when you call Fox#1. Perhaps the remainder of the hounds don't know enough to try to tailgate the last hound's frequency. At about 02:50z you are finally in the clear and the Fox#1 hears you. He sends your call at the beginning and end of his exchange so you have a better chance of determining who he has contacted. At this very point a kiloWatt station comes on Fox#1's frequency and completely wipes him out. However, you have the Fox's exchange and all you need to do is give your exchange, but with your QSK (full break-in) you can hear the kiloWatt station in between the characters you send. It is quite un-nerving but you get through the exchange, and during a pause in the kiloWatt station's transmission you hear Fox#1 give your call and "TU". Fox#1 is a really good operator like most Foxes that you have worked. You had to send your call many times but you did so very discreetly, and you constantly adjusted your transmit frequency trying to anticipate the Fox's next move. So you've got one down and one more to go. You take your five minute break and come back to the rig refreshed.

At 03:00z Fox #2 is now a 229. You decide to wait a bit and see what he is doing. He is operating split and not varying his transmit frequency much. You hear a station give his exchange, but you remember that this same station gave his exchange 5 minutes ago, and it appears that the Fox is actually working another station. Apparently this mis-guided hound can not hear the Fox well enough to pick out his call so if he thinks the Fox might be coming back to him, he gives his exchange. This is a good way to possibly create QRM and make a few people mad. If you can't hear the Fox don't even bother to send your call. Luckily it seems the Fox is working stations 400 Hz down from the QRMing station, so its not a problem. It would be better for this hound not to send anything if he thinks the Fox sent his call. If the Fox does not hear you come back, he will send your call again. The Foxes are quite considerate and realize that there are a lot of reasons why you may not hear him send your call the first time.

You put your transmit frequency at the right spot and just wait, listening to each hound to see where they are located. It seems that a lot of the hounds getting contacts are from your call area of the country. That tends to suggest that if you call now, you might have a pretty good chance of making the contact. But you know that you will have a lot better chance if the Fox is 329 or 339, so you wait. Too many times you have worked a Fox while he was in the noise and you were not sure if the contact was complete, when if you had waited five minutes the Fox would have been much easier to work and confirm. At 03:40z the Fox is a good steady 329-339. As you go to transmit your call you find that a loud QRO station has just opened up on your transmit frequency where the hounds have been getting QSOs with the Fox. However, the Fox is in the clear, and you don't know if the QRO station can even be heard at the Fox's location, so you decide to start sending your call at the appropriate moment. After your second try the Fox comes back to you with your full call. He obviously can't hear the QRO station on your frequency, but can clearly hear you. You send the exchange, which he confirms, and the second Fox is in the bag. The next morning you read on QRP-L about the guy who got the Fox by broadcasting his exchange, and he is bragging about it. Once again you smile, assured that you are not one of the clueless.

Bad Foxhunting, or How Not to Operate
Everything that has been discussed on this web page is useful information which you can use to improve your operating skills. Being a good operator will come with experience, but only if you question all that you are doing and you always try to be courteous to the other operators on the air. Before you transmit ask yourself what impact it might have on other hams. The following is just a list of things that are done all the time, but are things you shouldn't do if you ever want to be thought of as a good operator.

1) Don't get into a competitive situation on the air if you are not totally familiar with the capabilities of your equipment, and familiar with the applicable operating procedures.
2) Don't broadcast. If you can't hear the other station, don't transmit. The only time you would do this is if you were calling (CQ'ing) another station because of a schedule you have with him, or you were calling for help in an emergency. Don't transmit while the other station you want to communicate with is transmitting. If the Fox is coming back to hounds faster than you can send your call twice, then only send your call once, as he is not listening for you if he is transmitting, and then all you are doing is creating interference.
3) If the other station or Fox is operating split, try to think of where the Fox will listen next. Sometimes it pays to listen to a bunch of contacts first so you know how the Fox is operating. It is far better to wait five minutes and learn the habits of the Fox, or DX station, than it is to just keep sending your call on any arbitrary frequency for 30 minutes without a clue as to what is happening. Once again this type of operating is just creating QRM.

Reflections on the 2/18/05 Foxhunt: Listening and Transmitting
It looks like a lot of us could hear the Foxes last night. Way down here it was actually harder to work the Foxes at 589 instead of the usual 329 because there were just more of us in the pileups. Unfortunately, because of the way some of us operate, it added to the difficulty. Which is understandable as a lot of us hounds don't have a lot of experience it seems operating split. As always this season, the Foxes managed the pileups very well. They have been terrific role models for us. I think some of us hounds need to brush up a bit on our operating skills. True, the purpose of all this is to have fun. But hand in hand with this we should always use the hunts as a learning experience. If you operate rudely, you make it less fun for the others who are participating.

Since conditions were so good last night it gave me a good opportunity to study everyone's operating etiquette. Of course you need to study the Fox's habits. Both Foxes were moving up in frequency about 1 or 2 hundred Hz every QSO. It makes it easier for them to thin out the crowd and pick one of us out of the pileup. And it seems a bunch of the hounds knew this, and knew to move up in frequency to anticipate the Fox's next listening frequency. I was able to also study the habits of many of the hounds calling. If you think about it a hound should be listening most of the time during the Foxhunts, up until he bags both Foxes. If he is doing it right, a hound might transmit for only maybe one minute during the entire 2 hour hunt. Transmit any more than that and you should re-evaluate your procedures.

Last night both Foxes were each plagued, it seemed continuously from this QTH, by several hounds at a time who either could not hear them, did not understand their instructions, or choose to ignore their instructions. So just in case you don't know what is going on, in the interest of education, let me try to explain. When a Fox says, for example "XY?", or "XY AGN", he only wants to QSO with a specific station he heard. If your call is "ZZ5DXY", then you respond by sending your call ONCE because "XY" is in your call. The chances of XY being in the call of another station exactly on your transmit frequency is extremely small. So don't keep sending your call if the Fox wants to QSO with someone else. If you don't hear his reply, don't transmit! It does you no good if you can't hear him reply. And continuously sending your call whether the Fox is listening or transmitting does you no good either. So I want to emphasize that you should always think about how your actions, (what you are about to do - transmit), are going to affect everyone else. If you follow this rule, I think you will eventually be known as a first class operator, (although I am still working on this goal myself).

Later on in the week one of the Foxes posted, along with his list of hounds worked, a plea to all the hounds to only respond when called. I think a lot of DX stations would rather ignore a caller who was rude and inconsiderate in the way he operates, rather than work him and get him off the frequency.

I also noticed one of us hounds was transmitting simplex (zero beat) on one of the Fox's frequency while he was operating split. This hound was transmitting when the Fox was receiving and transmitting. It was almost as if he was sending his call continuously to a DX station operating split a few kHz down. A coincidence? Perhaps, but if you brag about bagging the Fox the next day, you've pretty much implicated yourself, as you must have heard the Fox at least once to make the contact. Could the Fox have faded out suddenly at the hound's QTH? That's a possibility. In that case the QRM I heard, was not QRM to the Fox. So you can't always be sure whether it was QRM or not, so don't be so quick to point a finger at someone. (Later, someone told me that this individual does this for every Foxhunt. Causing this type of QRM is FCC grounds for losing your license).

QRM is inevitable. I think that all hounds create a little QRM, unintentionally, every time they try to work a Fox. I do it myself. But you must always try to minimize the QRM you create. That will help you to become a better operator. If you think you could use more coaching, then read this page a few times.

Required:
Call Sign	This info is absolutely necessary to make the contact legitimate
Date
Time (in UTC, always)
RST given
Mode (2-way)

Optional (but always given)
Street	If he doesn't have your address, how is he going to send you a card?
City
State
Zip Code

Optional (but should be given)
County	County hunting is extremely popular. It's a pain for someone else to figure out what county you live in without this info. If you are mobile indicate the complete location of the actual contact on the back of the card.
Grid Square	Some people need your grid square for awards
PSE/TNX QSL BOXES	You need some way to tell the other station whether you need a QSL card for him or are thanking him for already sending you one.
IOTA information	If you are on an Island, the other ham can get IOTA (Islands of the Air) credit for awards if you put the correct information on you card.

CLUB Numbers:	A lot of Amateur Radio Organizations sponsor awards where the members collect membership numbers for awards. If you are a member of a club and are proud of it, include your membership number on the card. The three most important numbers I have on my card are for 10-10 International, QRP-ARCI, and FISTS.