Dit- a diddle dot dit :

Back when the telegraph was the fastest method of long-distance communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise and clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on the receptionist's counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office.

The young man filled out his form and sat down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes, the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and walked right in. Naturally the other applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They muttered among themselves that they hadn't heard any summons yet.

They assumed that the young man who went into the office made a mistake and would be disqualified. Within a few minutes, however, the employer escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, "Gentlemen, thank you very much for coming, but the job has just been filled." The other applicants began grumbling to each other, and one spoke up saying, "Wait a minute, I don't understand. He was the last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got the job. That's not fair!"

The employer said, "I'm sorry, but the last several minutes while you've been sitting here, the telegraph has been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: 'If you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours." None of you heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.
CW IS!

A friend forwarded this interesting story. Source unknown. de Tom N4KG

AT8LH Photo url :

AT8LH was a great success, infact it was first time activation of our country's First Light House - Mamballapuram (Mahabalipuram) WLOL IND011 and IND016 , the team worked 57 DX countries.

Here is the link of few of the pictures taken by Vimal - VU3CPE and Ajoy VU2JHM.

Click here

Learn CW Online :

A new website to learn and practice Morse telegraphy has been launched - Learn CW Online

There are already hundreds of training programs, MP3/CD courses and practice aids available, but LCWO follows a radically different concept:

While sticking to well-proven methods for learning and practice, all you need for using LCWO is a web browser!

This gives the user the liberty to practice CW wherever an internet connection is available, always retaining the personal settings, scores and statistics.

Currently the site, which is available in seven languages (Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish) offers a complete Koch method Morse course, code group practice, callsign- and plain text training modes and also allows you to convert random text to Morse MP3s.

A high score list is available to compare results with other users, personal statistics help to track training progress. LCWO.net is a non-commercial project.

Creating a free account only takes a few seconds, and you can start practicing CW right away!

Fabian Kurz, DJ1YFK http://lcwo.net/,

Source: The Southgate Amateur Radio Club

Special Event Callsign 9V1F1 :

Approval has been given by the iDA for SARTS members to use the callsign 9V1F1 to commemorate the Formula 1 Races which will be held in downtown Singapore, at night, from September 26th to 28th.

SARTS members may use the callsign from Aug 26th until Sep 30th 2008 (UTC).

Outward QSLing will be 100%. Members using this callsign will be responsible for printing the QSL labels and sticking them onto the QSL cards, which will be provided by SARTS.

Members using this special event callsign are required to maintain a computer log and submit a copy in ADIF format to a to-be-appointed co-ordinator.

In order to prevent confusion amongst DX stations arising from multiple 9V1F1 stations operating on the same band, in the same mode, at the same time, members are required to book their operating slots with Darryl 9V1DE. A timetable will be drawn out and will be published on the web. Booking of slots will commence after National Day.

This slot booking system will also facilitate distribution of incoming QSL cards.

Source : SARTS NEWS

D9D - Dok Island (AS-045) 13-18 Sept. 2008 :

A group of eight Korean operators (namely Kim/HL2CFY, Lim/DS2HRE, Kweon/DS2GXU, Kim/6K2GEN, Seok/6K2GDT, Cho/6K2FNN, Song/6K2BWA and Young/6K2ABX) will be active as either D9D and homecall/5 from Tok (Dok) Island (AS-045) on 13-18 September. They will operate CW, SSB, FSK and PSK31 on 80-10 metres with four transceivers, two amplifers and various vertical and wire antenna systems.

QSL D9D via 6K2BWA, others via home call.

50th Scandinavian Activity Contest :

The Swedish Amateur Radio Society SSA invites you to participate in the 50th Scandinavian Activity Contest.

The contest takes place during the following two weekends:
CW – September 20th-21st 12.00-12.00 UTC
SSB – September 27th-28th 12.00-12.00 UTC

The Scandinavian Activity Contest is an ideal occasion for meeting old and new Scandinavian friends in a competitive but also friendly radio-sport environment.

Regardless if you are new to contesting, or if you have participated in all previous SAC contests, we are convinced that you will enjoy this spectacular anniversary tremendously.

Huge amounts of contesters from all Scandinavian countries are right now in the process of preparation in order to be ready for the challenges of SAC 2008.

Download the Official SAC 2008 Invitation! (PDF 51kB)
http://qrq.se/sac/wp-content/sac_2008_invitation.pdf
You are welcome to distribute the invitation to your contesting friends!

We also have a special homepage for the SAC Contest: http://www.qrq.se/sac where stations are encouraged to register and announce their planned participation in the contest.

Source: ARSICOM

Amateur radio 24 X 7 :

Every minute of every hour of everyday, 365 days a year, 24X7, radio amateur all over the world are communicating with each other. It's way of discovering new friends while experimenting with different and exciting new ways to advance the art of this wonderful hobby.

Morse code decoder :

CW Beats SMS :

Working AO-51 Satellite :

AT8LH from Mahabalipuram Lighthouse :

This week end of 16th/17th August,2008 will be very interesting for those of you who hunt lighthouses.

AT8LH from Mahabalipuram Lighthouse Old (IND-011) and New (IND-016) would be activated by a group of amateurs from BARC/LCI.

Please try to have a QSO and do not engage into a rag-chew, so that AT8LH can have many QSOs, within the short time at their disposal.

Source: Arasuji, VU2UR
Awards Manager,Contest manager,
Monitoring Systems Coordinator of
Amateur Radio Society of India (ARSI)

Live web broadcast of the Huntsville Hamfest :

As per information given by Tom Medlin, W5KUB

We will be broadcasting again live video and audio of the 2008 Huntsville, AL hamfest this year via the internet. The live broadcast begins on Friday morning Aug 15 at 0800 cst (1300 UTC) as we depart Memphis, Tn and head for Huntsville. Just as we have done before, we will be broadcasting our drive live from the car. Then we will broadcast the hamfest all day Saturday Aug 16 and Sunday Aug 17. We expect hams to be taking part in the Huntsville hamfest from all over the world. Hams will be able to join in with a real time chat room while they are watching the video. Viewers will also be randomly selected throughout the days and be eligible to win a great prize Sunday afternoon. Video quality should be many times better than past hamfests that we have broadcasted as we have added a new improved camera this year. Then from there, the video is streamed on our server which has unlimited bandwidth to our viewers. In addition to our live video page, you will also see a link that takes you to a page that shows a world map and on it you will see where all the virtual visitors are located. Watch as the helmet cam takes you on a virtual tour of all the tables and booths there. If you can not be there in person go to http://wa5kub.com and join in all the fun.

Look for the link on the webpage with more detail on the prize.

Chevron vs. Begali Comparison :

written by JE1TRV Atsu (2007-1-3)

This article is worth reading my friends do visit the following link given below:-

http://www.a1club.net/je1trv/key/

CW sample QSO :

A sample CW QSO between vu2sgw,OM SAI and vu2nxm, OM BASAPPA

vu2sgw:
CQ CQ CQ DE vu2sgw K
(Calling anyone, this is vu2sgw, listening)

vu2nxm:
vu2sgw DE vu2nxm K
(Calling vu2sgw, this is vu2nxm, listening)

vu2sgw:
vu2nxm DE vu2sgw = GA DR OM UR RST 599 HR = QTH THANE = OP IS SAI HW? = + vu2nxm DE vu2sgw K
(Good afternoon dear old man. You are RST 599 here. I'm located in THANE. The operator's name is SAI. How do you copy?)

vu2nxm:
vu2sgw DE vu2nxm = TNX FB RPRT DROM SAI UR 558 = QTH LODIVALI = NAME IS BASAPPA = + vu2sgw DE vu2nxm K
(Thanks for the nice report dear old man SAI. I read you 558. I am in the LODVALI. My name is BASAPPA.)

vu2sgw:
vu2nxm DE vu2sgw = OK TNX QSO DR BASAPPA = BEST 73 ES HPE CUAGN = + vu2nxm DE vu2sgw K
(Okay, thanks dear BASAPPA for this QSO. Best of luck to you and hope to see you again.)

vu2nxm:
vu2sgw DE vu2nxm = R TU CUAGN 73 = + vu2sgw DE vu2nxm + SK
(Understood. Thank you. Best of luck. Signing off)

VU2AY :

VU2AY, Cyril Alphonso a retired sailor, marine electrical engineer and presently working in a near by school just two minutes walk from his home QTH as an computer & networking engineer still going strong at the age of 72 plus.

Today it was really another memorable day in my life, long awaited eyeball with Cyril. He stays in Mumbai city place called Mazagoan. In Mazagoan itself there is a very famous lane called Mathar Pacady, when you enter this lane I am sure you all will get feel of Goan heritage houses simply awesome.


Cyril got his HAM tickets way back on 1st. January, 1966. He is basically a QRP operator and worked DX in CW with his homebrewed rig NR60 with not more than 5 watts and that to more than 20000 QSO's. "Home brewing is in my blood" Cyril says to me, with a peculiar smile on his face, his smile is worth more than million dollar. He showed to me that each and every part of his QTH is filled books, rigs, receivers, circuits, valves and what not Cyril proudly says "you name it and I have it". For HAM's it is like Alibaba's Khazanaa.


After that we QSYed to his morning QTH, the designing part of computer lab is done by Cyril himself and I tell u folks it is worth seeing. It has about 70 computers and each and every computer is assembled by him. He learned C++ by going through the books and his latest craze is HTML.His funda of life is, whenever he takes any project he completes it and that too with 100% success. We had eyeball for more than three hours. I was gifted a Matric make Electronic keyer, QSL card and 2 books (ie. The Radio Amateur's Handbook & Low-Band DXing). Finally, he dropped me to Byculla station. Thanks Cyril.