Your First CW Contact

kx4o — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:56:24 +0000

So you have your ham radio ticket and are interested in getting on the HF bands. You are not alone. The HF bands are THE place to really see what ham radio is about. If you only have a technician license, you won’t be able to exercise phone privileges except on 10 meters. However, you do have CW privileges on 80, 40 and 15 meters. You should take full advantage of this.

Assuming you have made the investment in an HF radio and antenna, you might still be worried about making that first Morse code contact.

You may also be very apprehensive what others will think of your Morse code CW skills.

Not to worry. We were all beginners once and yours truly is still in the learning process.

The good news is many organizations exist to help you get going with CW and have several web pages full of excellent information on what to expect during CW contacts.

FISTS.ORG is one such organization.

They publish a Basic CW Operating Manual to help you get started. Here is the link… enjoy.

http://www.fists.org/basiccw.html

CW Common Abbreviations

kx4o — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 02:21:48 +0000

As you begin your adventure sending and receiving Morse code on the HF bands you will almost instantly hear a variety of short hand abbreviations. Many are obvious while others aren’t.

CW works well with these abbreviations and may even lend themselves to cell phone text messaging since both systems benefit from sending fewer characters.

Below you will find Prosigns and other abbreviations. The Prosigns you hear a lot and are well worth learning fast.

Procedural Signals (Prosigns) for Morse Code
These are letters strung together in one continuous symbol.

CQ – Calling any station (does any ham *not* know this one?)
AR – end of message
K – go, invite any station to transmit
KN – “(” go only, invite a specific station to transmit
BK – invite receiving station to transmit
BT – Pause; Break For Text
R – all received OK
AS – please stand by
SK – end of contact (sent before call)
CL – going off the air (clear)

These are other abbreviations:

ABT – About
ADR – Address
AGN – Again
ANT – Antenna
B4 – Before
BK – Break, Break in
C – Yes
CFM – Confirm
CUL – See you later
ES – And
FB – Fine business
GA – Go ahead
GA – Good afternoon
GB – Good bye
GB – God bless
GE – Good evening
GG – Going
GM – Good morning
GN – Good night
GND – Ground
GUD – Good
HI – Laughter
HI – High
HR – Here; hear
HV – Have
HW – How; how copy
LID – A poor operator
MSG – Message
N – No
NIL – Nothing
NR – Number
NW – Now
OB – Old boy
OM – Old man
OP – Operator
OT – Old timer; old top
PSE – Please
PWR – Power
RIG – Station equipment
RPT – Repeat; report
RX; RCVR – Receiver
SED – Said
SEZ – Says
SIG – Signal
SKED – Schedule
SRI – Sorry
TMW – Tomorrow
TNX – Thanks
TT – That
TU – Thank you
TVI – Television interference
TX – Transmitter
UR; URS – Your; Yours
VY – Very
WKD; WKG – Worked; working
WL – Will
WUD – Would
WX – Weather
XMTR – Transmitter
YF; XYL – Wife
YL – Young lady
73 – Best regards
88 – Love and kisses

Ham Radio Help Desk » morse

Your First CW Contact

CW Common Abbreviations