Hi Phil

I wonder if one of those guys was Doug VE7NH.
A strange guy, but amazing at CW.
he stayed with me here in G on one occasion, and I visited him on Pender
Island (off the east coast of Vancouver Island) while I left wife and
daughter in Victoria to shop!!!!

Most of those guys were professional CW operators from WW II and highly
trained!
Presumably you, and certainly me, are amateurs.
When running GB75FOC recently my max rate was 220 per hour in contest mode,
and 5 in one single minute.

Here's off for an omelets for supper!

73

David W Wood 

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Phil Scovell
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 7:41 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: High speed CW

Howard,

You may be right; I just don't remember.  I got my General in November of 66

and after a few weeks of learning how to operate the Drake TR4 my mom bought

me for a Christmas present, and because I had passed my general, I joined 
every CW net on 80 meters I could find.  I soon learned, after the fun of 
sideband wore off, that CW was still my all time favorite mode.  I could 
already copy 10 WPM when I took my 5 WPM novice test because I listened to 
nothing but CW on my old BC348 receiver that was my novice RX.  Then when I 
took the 13 WPM general, I was copying 20 WPM as a novice.  When I took the 
Extra class at 20 WPM, I could copy, and rag chew, at 40 WPM.  In 1980 I 
bought my first CW keyboard and never went back.  I join the CFO, Chicken 
Fat Operators, group on 40 and 20 and some days worked as many as a dozen 
high speed operators all in a single round table.  We all worked QSK, break 
in CW, so it was like working vox on sideband contacts.  I got so 60 WPM was

my rag chew speed and on good days, I could run at 70.  The guys I worked, a

few of them, could copy 80 to 90 WPM.  I proved it one day, not really 
believing what I was hearing, by putting Sandy, my wife, on the Curtis 
keyboard and setting it to 80 WPM.  These guys, W1OBJ, W6Wu, VE7NH, and 
several others were on frequency.  I told them Sandy would type and ask them

questions.  They kept answering her at 80 WPM and I finally told them to 
slow down to at least 50 so I could copy their replies and questions to her.

They all rang chewed at 80 and some, as I said, could do 90.  All the ones 
there that day, had men preset the Curtis keyboard to 95.  Sometimes they 
got it and sometimes they didn't.  W6PY was reported to be verified at 100. 
Sandy could type 120 WPM on the straight due to her job.  I practice every 
day using the Morris Runner contest practice software and I start at 40 WPM 
and play contest for several minutes.  I do it for brain stimulation.  I 
make at least 33 contacts in the pile ups each day and sometime run it up 
all the way for 30 minutes.  I'm about two WPM below 200 contacts per hour 
on good days and about 180 per hour on any given day.  I find it as fun as 
actually being on the air sometimes.  The CFO members, my number was 168, 
had to copy at least 30 to 40 to keep up with the group but we all ended our

contacts with the chick cluck CW notes which saided like, dit dit dit dit 
dit daw or a long dash at the end sounding like a prolonged letter A.  At 50

to 80 WPM, it immediately reminds you of a chicken clucking.  I can't do 50 
WPM any more without really focusing and I get tired of trying to copy it so

don't practice that as much.  I sit and copies some 40 meter guys who run at

60 WPM just for practice but I get more letters, and an occasional word, at 
that speed.  All these guys I'm referring to were over 60 years of age so 
what am I doing at 61, haha.  All I know is, even at 5 and 10 WPM, I still 
like CW the most.  However, in 1981, when the bands were hot, I worked 295 
countries in that year alone and almost all were on sideband on 20 meters 
with my 4 element yagi at just 40 feet and running 700 watts output.  I 
still worked a load of CW and probably worked well over 200 countries on CW 
alone that year.  I have 316 countries now but I don't go after new DX much 
these days.  I still like working DX but mostly on CW.  If anybody thinks CW

is a lost art, tune around in the DX CW contest.  You will find guys still 
running 50 WPM and working guys one right after another.  They take up the 
first 75 KHz on each CW band; wall to wall CW signals.

Phil.
K0NX




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard Kaufman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 11:47 AM
Subject: Re: Old Rag Chewers Certificate


>I am not sure, but I think you got it by having a qso at 30 WPM or more.
> I had it to.  November of 1967 was a long time ago.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 12:12 PM
> Subject: Re: Old Rag Chewers Certificate
>
>
>> Gerry,
>>
>> I sure wish I would have kept my Braille novice log book and a couple of
>> those old certificates.  I had the brass pounders certificate, too, but I
>> can't remember how you obtained that one.
>>
>> Phil.
>> K0NX
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Gerry Learry" <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Monday, June 10, 2013 4:13 AM
>> Subject: Re: Old Rag Chewers Certificate
>>
>>
>>>I also got the real rag chewers certificate.
>>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>>> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2013 7:47 PM
>>> Subject: Old Rag Chewers Certificate
>>>
>>>
>>>> There use to be a ham thing called the Rag Chewers Club.  You got a =
>>>> certificate by talking to one ham for 30 minutes; phone or cw, it 
>>>> didn't
>>>> =
>>>> matter.  Then there was the 6 hour QSO which you could only talk to one
>>>> =
>>>> person for 6 straight hours and there was another=20
>>>> certificate for that.  A blind friend of mine that got his license 
>>>> three
>>>> =
>>>> months before I did, and I, did both.  So, there is lots to talk about 
>>>> =
>>>> on the ham bands.
>>>>
>>>> Phil.
>>>> K0NX
>>>
>