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That's awesome news to hear! It's a journey and practicing is part of the fun! Good luck and hope to hear you're on the air someday! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you! Call signs are definitely the most difficult thing to get. We still don't get most of them the first time and that's okay! As a hunter you really just need to be able to recognize you're on the right frequency (hearing it's a POTA and their call) but you can listen to several rounds to make sure. Then sending your call sign and recognizing when they call you back. (Most activators will also slow down to your incoming call speed to help out). Then ... TU UR 5NN (state) and you're on the air!! Excited for you and don't worry if you mess it all up ... we've all been there! Just have fun and celebrate the effort whether it's perfect or a lot of mistakes. Then just do it again .......and again and again. You'll relax and get better each time! Good luck and excited to hear how it goes! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you! Hope to catch you on the air sometime! 73 Becky es Mike

Yes, that's a very good explanation. It's not something that you just go through the steps and you got it! Enjoy the practice and celebrating the smaller accomplishments along the way. It's a journey, but very fun and rewarding! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you so much! POTA is a great entry point to on air exchanges and pretty much how we both got more comfortable on the air. 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you! Yes, those are good resources as well. 73 Becky es Mike

Awesome to hear and thanks for coming along on our journey with us! It seems counterproductive to crank it up, but stick with it and eventually you might even want to crank it up more! 73 Becky es Mike

@HamRadioDuo only cuz it sounds less like dits and daws this way using that app.

Hey Ron! You're right, it's a big step going from a formatted exchange to rag chews when you don't know what to expect😮 . At the same time, super rewarding and fun to just have a chat using CW! 73 Becky es Mike

That's so exciting to hear! Thanks for joining our CW journey as well. We celebrate each step along the way and remember to just keep it fun! 73 Becky es Mike

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing your story!! That is great progress and we are super excited for you. Taking the leap to fast character speed definitely seems counterintuitive but it really is necessary. And for some, even fast than that to really break the habit. So many hams, including Mike, learned at slow speeds and it really is hard to copy when you need that extra decode time. We will pass on the thank you to Glen and Teri as I'm sure they would be excited to hear your story as well. Excited to hear your updates! 73 Becky es Mike

Mountain biking accident on the way back to the camper. The bike stopped and he flipped over the handlebars. We were both very thankful it was only his wrists. It could have been way worse. We posted a couple video shorts (one the night of) and some updates in our community section as he recovered after surgery. 😊 73 Becky es Mike

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@ that is about the speed I can copy 100% and head copy I need to work on speed

Head copy is what we are really working on now. Challenging but fun when it clicks 😊

Thank you! We think the sooner you get on the air the better. Everyone is so helpful and will slow down to any speed as needed. As you get comfortable and relaxed on the air, both sending and receiving are easier as well. 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you so much for letting us know it's helping! For most, I'm sure it sounds counterintuitive, but it really does help to avoid the decode monster that just takes up way to much time! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you! Wow, that was a lot of work to basically learn 3 different times. Sounds like eventually you got to instant character recognition as you were able to just write it down without really thinking about it! Awesome on the QRP stuff. We love being able to just take a tiny little radio and small battery and go anywhere and operate for hours! 73 Becky es Mike

@ Keep doing what you’re doing, it’s awesome!

Hey Jake, so great to hear from you!! Thanks for the update and so happy to hear that your surgery went well! I think you have a built in keyer now right!?! 🤣 Excited to hear you on the air again! 73 Becky es Mike

Great question! While it seems counter intuitive, for may people -- like us -- its the only way to prevent your brain from memorizing the dits and dahs. It's too fast to listen and count the dits and dahs so you learn to hear the sound of the whole character. If you hear the sound of the whole character, then it can pop into your head instantly. If 35 wpm is too hard, try 25 or 27 to see if that is fast enough to not hear dits and dahs but still hear the sound. It's kind of like learning a language. When you hear someone speak the letter "W". You just hear a W. You don't hear "double yew". The part of your brain that does the instant recognition is super fast. That's the part of the brain you are trying to use, not the part that has to think about the map of letters and the dits and dahs for each one. Once you use the fast part of your brain, the letters just pop right in. When you listen to words, that gives you plenty of time between letters to think about what word you might be hearing. If you have to think about what the letter was, they start piling up and then you miss the word. If you've already learned some or all of the letters by memorizing the dits and dahs, it may be even harder. Mike did it that way and has/had a rough time turning that part of the brain off. Becky learned by sound at first, but still learned some problem letters the wrong way by accident. Its probably impossible to entirely avoid, but it gets better and better with time. In summary, it has to be fast enough that you force a different part of your brain to just hear the full sound. Hope that helps clarify it a little bit better. 73 Becky es Mike

😊 Glad you got it! 73 Becky es Mike

Hey Teri!! Most definitely! 73 Becky es Mike

Good job sticking with it! 73 Becky es Mike

Hey Stu! Isn't it though! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you! I think it's just where I'm comfortable so I'm relaxed 😊 I would mess up a lot more on a paddle! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you for the feedback! They are fun to do! 73 Becky es Mike

Disclaimer: While I do have the background to do the math for this, I'm not an expert in TSA stuff or the specifics of how battery manufacturers rate things. My understanding of the TSA rule and our USB battery means that it is well below the limit. Let me explain. My understanding is the TSA rule is that it must be below 100 watt hours. Watt hours (or Wh) is a measure of the capacity of the battery -- how much power can be delivered over a period of time. The rating for the USB battery we started using is expressed in 10,000 mah. That's just the current part of the equation or how much current it can provide over time. To know the power, you'd need to know the current * the voltage. I believe the equation would be Wh = mAh x (V/1000). You'd really need to know what voltage they were using in determining that rating. I think its pretty save to assume it is probably 5V, the default output of USB. Based on that, Wh = 10,000 x (5V / 1000) = 50Wh. 50 Wh is well below the 100 Wh allowed by the TSA. Given the small size and fact that it is a standard USB battery instead of a funky hobby battery, I think you probably can feel even better about it. So why not factor in the power rating given of 22.5W? Given it is in watts, that's instantaneous power capability, not capacity. The power rating would be the maximum power that it can provide at any given time. It's different from the capacity because it's a measure of how much power it can provide all at one time. As long as what you are powering requires less than this at any given time, you'd know you are good to go. The capacity discussed above is more like the size of the tank and the power is the rate you'd be using it up. One way to think about it is that the capacity (Wh) is like the size of a gas tank, in our case 50 Wh. The power rating, in our case 22.5 W, is like the size of the pipe or how quickly you use what is stored in the tank. www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/lithium-batteries-more-100-watt-hours Hopefully that makes sense! 73 Mike es Becky

@HamRadioDuo thank you for taking the time for such a detailed explanation. That helps quite a bit. That's good news when flying. The power bank appears to have more capacity for its weight than the Talentcell, so looks to be the winner. 73

As a reminder that we figured out : Make sure you always plug in the trigger cable first so that it negotiates to 12V before plugging it into your radio (there should be a little lightening bolt on the display). Also, never plug in any other devices at the same time because some USB PD power banks will then output 5v on all ports. There are reports that the QMX specifically can be damaged from experiencing a 5V to 12V increase, even though it is still within its voltage range. 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you 😊. 73 Becky es Mike

Yes, that is very true! 73 Becky es Mike

Yes, very true when you can just relax and hear the letters come in! 73 Becky es Mike

Way to keep at it! Great job! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you, they are fun to come up with and make! 73 Becky es Mike

Yay!! 😊 73 Becky es Mike

For sure! 73 Becky es Mike

😊 73 Becky es Mike

Way to go! Thanks Phil! 73 Becky es Mike

Good job and thank you! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you! I don't think anyone feels like they're ready the first several times on the air🤣 We definitely didn't, but the more you do it the more relaxed you are and then sending and copy seems easier. Keep at it! 73 Becky es Mike

Thank you! 73 Becky es Mike

Keeping it fun is the key for sure! 73 Becky es Mike

¡Siempre es un placer saber de usted, y gracias por todo lo que hace por el CW! 😊 73 Becky es Mike

Awesome idea to get kids involved with a fun app! Let us know how it goes. 73 Becky es Mike

Hey Bill! Thank you and hope we catch you on the air again! 73 Becky es Mike