We worked 20 stations 

The CW sent during SKN was good....  several were excellent ... but no one stood out as above the others that we workd  ...

Key Used :  WW2 Japanese Imperial Navy hand key 

Station :  FT- 1000MP MK 5  200 watts   Antenna R7 Vertical 40 - 10 

We made up a QSL card for the event 

January 1st

We got on 40 CW at 7 PM ...0000Z .  a lot of activity....  couple of other type "events " going on with exchanges ... but there were enough SKNs calling CQ ....We called CQ and did S & P .... we worked 9 stations in 1:45 minutes ....  the QSOs like we had 40 or 50 years ago ..  these QSOs take 15 minutes or more ... ..Name ... QTH ... Rig ..type of hand key or bug .... antenna ... age ... how long on the bands ....   Many older and newer calls sending at slow CW speeds  ...  they were on the band on CW... they are trying ... We sent CW at below 10 WPM with a several of them ..... some asked me to QRS ... which we did ... I think it looks positive for the future of ham radio .... They are trying ...some had one x two calls ...  worked Wash State ... KS....TX...   FL   etc .... our sending hand was bit sore by the the time we quit for the evening ..   

We got on Sunday morning  about 6 AM ..1100Z... . 40 was fairly quiet  .... we CQed around 7037.0 ...  it took about 15 minutes to get a reply .... Typical 1950s CW QSOs .. .this is the way it used to be with a hand key ........Name ... RST ... QTH ....  Describe your key or bug ... rig ... pwr ... ant ...your age ...  how long a ham ...     We operated until about 9:45 AM ...  my hand was quite tired .... started making more mistakes than I liked.... so we quit .... I forgot how much "FUN" it was to use a hand key for long QSOs ... HI ...  we had 20 Qs ... ..worked a couple of QRPers    5 wts from Texas ... worked a guy with a VX3 ..15 watts ... and one guy told me that I was his first QSO since 2010 ...We copied some guy saying he was using a single 50C5 tube  8 watts ... he was chirpy ..it sounded great ! .. during gray line we tuned down to the bottom of the band.... There was VK2DX calling CQ ...  we worked him ...  first call .... .. there was some other DX buried in the noise on the bottom end of 40 but we could not copy a complete call ....    there was propagation on the low end of 40. .

There were a lot of operators with slower CW .... under 10 WPM ...so there is hope that the newer no code ops  are getting on CW and trying to improve their code ...and we  all should get on SKN and work them to keep the bands alive .

Radio is STILL FUN ....after 61 years on the bands 

God Bless you all ... HNY 

Whitey  K1VV / W1AA