Central Alberta Amateur Radio Club
As I was watching Paul VA6MPM’s very interesting Zoom presentation about Summits On The Air the evening of February 17, Ken Smith VE6AGR caught my attention by mentioning that CW is commonly used for SOTA and that he is using the internet to practice. What? Another group using CW!
I had made an earlier post to this site about the CWCOM system for practicing Morse Code via the internet, and I am interested what applications Ken is using. I got Paul VA6MPM to ask Ken on my behalf how he is practicing CW on the internet. I have edited Ken’s responding email a little, I hope without destroying his message.
The internet-based learning aid that he mentioned in the Zoom meeting is VBand which allows Practicing sending solo or sending & receiving with a few buddies, on the internet, with no embarrassment of actually transmitting on the air
Find it at https://hamradio.solutions/vband/  . You can make certain keys on your computer mimic a key or paddle but by far the best way to use this site is to buy the optional interface dongle they sell, which enables you to connect a proper iambic paddle to the computer. Some people have trouble with latency, though, so it’s not foolproof.
Other Learning Aids:
Android apps with no data connection required
For listening rather than sending practice:
Morse Machine — good tool for initially learning the characters and main punctuation signs
Morse Mentor – a next step from the above, adds prosigns & generates random-length groups of random characters. Is great for call sign practice, because you don’t get to infer things by anticipating the rest of words. Has Farnsworth timing options as well as the usual adjustable character speeds.
QSOSender3 — generates 2-minute or so messages with content from typical QSO’s – call signs, signal reports, QTH, rig info, 73 & other pleasantries, etc.
Downloadable Windows applications,
no internet connection required to actually use:
G4FON Koch Morse Trainer
Web site resources requiring an internet connection
ARRL Code Practice files (Code Practice Files (arrl.org)) – are great to practice receiving long blocks of actual text from old QST magazines. Various speeds available.
LCWO on-line (https://lcwo.net/) and Rufzxp.net seem to get good reviews in lots of places but Ken hasn’t used them. The latter apparently allows you to inflict noise and interference on yourself to really hone your skills.
Practice sending and receiving anywhere, anytime
Build the code trainer kit from QRP guys:   https://qrpguys.com/qrpguys-code-trainer Ken says, “This kit was so easy I even built one and it worked on the first try – which is something I cannot say about ANY of my other pathetic forays into electronics.†Use whatever paddle you like with this tiny keyer kit (great for travel):
Ken wishes us good luck with our CW learning exercises.
Thanks to Ken Smith VE6AGR for all this information!
John VA6SJA
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about 3 years ago
It is harder to get together now for CW practice with keys and code practice oscillators. And the internet makes it easier to practice at random times, although making a “sked†can still be worthwhile.
I thought that I would try my version of the “dongleâ€, a mouse on which I had grafted another tail 11 years ago. I have three leads of a cable wired to the right and left mouse button pads and ground, with the other end of the cable to a ¼†TRS jack. I could plug in my key or my Bencher Paddle. This has worked OK with CWCom.
I tried it with my straight key on my HP Pavilion x60 portable computer using the Edge browser with a few tabs open and at least CWCom open at the same time. With my first try on the VBand practice channel there was distinct and variable delay with the sidetone. I found that confusing, for me the sidetone helps me keep track of where I am.
From the https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ website:
“Latency Issues – On some systems, there can be a noticeable delay between pressing a key, and hearing the sound from the speaker. This delay is due to the press being sent over USB, the Javascript code processing the press in the browser, and the sound system buffering. If this delay is a problem, we recommend closing all other applications and browser tabs, and anything else that can reduce CPU load.â€
Then there was a â€Your computer will restart in inactive hours†flag that indicated that more work had to be done for a Windows Update. I have noticed before that when my computer is working on an update it becomes unbearably slow.
After I restarted the computer enough times to complete the Windows Update and I opened the https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ tab all by itself, with no other applications running, the sidetone was in sync with my keying. Although the VBand website recommends against pressing on mouse buttons, it seems that running a key through the mouse is fast enough.
David W6DS told me in an email of February 22, “We are glad to hear that you understand one of the possible causes of VBand latency. That being the Windows Update feature. It causes issue for many users and not just VBand. The issue is that it consumes a lot of resource and the only way to clear it up is to let windows update and then perform a fresh restart.â€
He also stated, “Our main reason for recommending against a mouse is a user interface one. Our concern is that if your mouse drifts off of the VBand web site window you may wind up inadvertently clicking on things you didn’t want to. Our recommendation is to not leave Amazon running in the background with a lot of one-click buy options displayed while using mouse mode. â€
So, make sure that your mouse does not move if you use it that way.
Although my use of paddles is, at this point in time, worse than my straight keying I tried that with my mouse on VBand. I set the key to Iambic Mode A. The dits went just fine. I could not find the dahs from my paddles nor from my normal mouse. But the [ and ] keys did work like a clunky paddle. It seems that VBand is not set up to sense a right mouse button at this time.
I then tried the mouse/paddle arrangement on CWCom and it worked fine with both the dit and dah paddles.
In another email of February 22 David told me, “VBand uses the center mouse button for “dah” in mouse mode to avoid bringing up the context sensitive menu.â€
So, I will have to modify my mouse a little if I want to use my paddles on VBand. Maybe I will try to install a switch on the right-side lead.
For Morse code letters that are well formed and properly separated are set up on a line, except on the channel where decoding is disabled. Each screen letter is delayed a little, so don’t do the variation of touch typing by looking at the screen to remember where you are. That will introduce a big inter-character delay in your keying. Listening to the sidetone should keep you aware of where you are.
I am impressed with VBand using a straight key through my modified mouse.
I’m not yet ready for prime time,
John VA6SJA