The First 100 Years Are The Hardest

I spent 4 Days in May this year volunteering at the SKCC booth for Hamvention.  I met a lot of nice members in the club and was able to show off our Straight Keys, Bugs and Cooties to potential new members.   Was great to work side by side with Cathy W4CMG and meet so many SKCC members face to face.   I also had the chance to have dinner with the FlexRadio team, and sit at the table with Steve Hicks, CTO, and had lots of good discussion with the their team.  Definitely worth doing again. I also made the traditional POTA Rove while in Ohio.  I spent a few hours Thursday afternoon exploring the historic downtown Dayton, including the bicycle shop owned by the Wright brothers.   Made a trip out to Wright-Peterson Airforce Base in search of the Ace Tomato Company.  Not found. Activated  US-0732 Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park twice, and along with US-11673 Great Council State Park in Zenia township, located n...

When using a straight key, bug or "cootie", the ability to transmit morse code over the air using your actual "CW fist" is important - its your your signature. It’s the subtle weighting, the rhythm, and the human "swing" that makes your CW unique. When moving to a Software Defined Radio (SDR) like the FlexRadio 6600 , a common concern is: Will the the radio preserve my fist when using a straight key to operate remotely?" The short answer is YES,  at least for the FlexRadio platform.   Here  is how the Flex ecosystem ensures your individual style reaches the other end of the wire exactly as you intended.  Its like a very long digital extension cord plugged into the Key input on your remote rig. The Secret Sauce: Precision Timestamping Most remote setups send "Key Down" and "Key Up" commands as generic network packets. If a packet is delayed by 20ms due to internet jitter, your "dah" suddenly becomes a "dit," and ...