[Moon-net] CW vs. digital - a newbie's viewpoint

[Bob McCormick W1QA]

Hi Dennis:

Thanks for taking the time to type up a nice note!

>> No one breathed!
>> This was like making the first Novice contact!

Congrads on those first QSO's!  In the end (in my opinion)
this is what it's all about - the joy and excitement in 
seeing the fruits of your efforts pay off.


> K1JT's  software made an unforgettable experience 
> possible for us.   It inspired us to go further, 
> to build better antennas and equipment and do greater 
> things on CW and digital EME.  Thanks Joe!    
> Thanks CW purists!    We can't always agree, 
> but we should be smart enough to understand 
> that we don't have all the answers.
> It takes all kinds of hams to make a world, 
> and I can appreciate and learn from them all.

Well said - and I wish you much success in your
future EME endevours.

This brings back fond memories of what I think is 
a couple of decades ago (gads, I'm a real OT now!)
when I helped NC1I activate on 70cm Vermont 
(actually twice in VT) and Rhode Island.

For these dxpeditions we spent weeks preparing and
setting up the operating QTH.  This included numerous
return trips driving many hours back and forth ...
building antennas (4 yagi's) and setting up a station.

Similar to the difficulties you described ...
we encountered them as well!  In one of our VT
dxpeditions we had to manually sight the antennas 
(thankfully we had a bright, clear night-time sky).

As both NC1I and I prefer to operate on random 
(versus skeds) we began one of our VT operations
sitting in a cold, unheated barn with equipment
on a door held up by saw horses.  We dug our heels
into the dirt floor and started sending CQ's ...

You can't imagine the excitement when the
booming signal of DL9KR answered our call!

Fast forward ...

At lunch the other day ... someone asked me what
I was going to be doing this weekend.  I responded
"going over someone's house and bouncing signals
off the moon".

Even though these are folks I've worked with for 
years (and they know I'm a ham and into all kinds
of crazy things) it still opened quite a few eyes ... 
maybe even sometimes we has hams that are into EME 
take for granted some of our accomplishments!

C U on the bands!

Bob W1QA