u/newsINcinci

I’ve been drilling myself using Morse Mania for about a week. I’m up to the challenge with all the all the letters and numbers. I can pass it, but I still screw up and I’m slow (some times I have to replay the character or stop and really think about it).

Part of me thinks I should stick to this level until I’ve mastered it and I’m just hearing the letter. And I’m fine with that. But I also think there’s an argument for pushing forward to words.

What do you all think?

If drilling on the single letters and number every day for half an hour is going to help me, I’ll just keep doing it, but I can push forward if it’s going to hold me back in the long run.

I will be doing the Long Island classes once my schedule clears up a bit this summer.

If it makes any difference, I’m in my 40s and I’m basically starting for scratch. I’m listening at 26wpm.

Morse mania is also a bit weird because the next level/module is every punctuation mark. And I think most times people only use like two or three. I really don’t want to burn time learning semi-colon and em dash and then all the accented letters.

Open to advice.

I had a random day off today and had scouted out a cool park with a high hill where I could set up - not a POTA park, just a regular one.

I made about five contacts on 20 meters, then I put a roll-up j-pole on my fiberglass mast and started calling on 52. I have been trying to do it more since there was a challenge issued by a young ham earlier this year.

Instant “pile up”! I made about 8 contacts in 15 minutes.

So if you want your own 52 pile up, here’s how to do it.

Set up your antenna about 50 miles south of the Hamvention and then trap the hams as they’re traveling, lol. It also helped to run 50 watts.

Two guys doing POTA even put me in their logs. Given the height, I was getting reaching out over 40 miles. Several folks were working mobile. I also checked into Hamvention net control.

It put a huge smile on my face!

To those of you going to Hamvention, enjoy yourselves and jump on 52. I’m not going this year, but I am hoping to make it next year.