01/02/2007 | AI4RE This was my first Straight Key Night. Although I've been licensed almost 19 years, I only got on HF regularly for the first time in September in the FISTS Get Your Feet Wet Contest. I've been an avid CW'er ever since. I wasn't sure if the SKN exchanges would be fast and frequent despite the rules, but discovered that people seemed to take more time than usual for ragchewing. I ended up working almost 5-1/2 hours during four different sessions throughout the 24 hours, worked four different bands and ended up with 10 nice QSO's.

At 0000Z, the bands sounded like a contest, only everyone was engaged in ragchews. There had to have been a lot more participating than the 349 of last year.

I operated with my Vibroplex Original Standard bug that was graciously given to me a few months ago by another ham who was interested in encouraging my interest in CW and keying methods. SKN wasn't as much a handicap as it was to others as this as been my primary key since.

It was great to talk to people who don't get on CW very frequently but made the effort for SKN. I hope I encouraged some of them to operate more often.

My most interesting QSO was with Dave KB1NSB in CT who was operating a kit-built Oak Hills Research 100A QRP rig at 5W. We had a nice, hour-long QSO despite the effort required to dig him out. I handed the headphones to my XYL at one time, and she didn't hear Dave at all, so she thinks I've lost my mind. We managed to talk about things beside the usual RST/QTH/name/rig like discussing our common interests in camping, hiking and kayaking.

John AI4RE - FISTS 12663+CC - SKCC 2308 -- AI4RE