Morse Code for the Technician: resources

This is the companion page for my Morse Code for the Technician session in the 2026 Northeast HamXposition Technician Toolkit on Friday, August 14. The central idea is simple: learn characters as sounds, build a short practice habit, and make the first contact small and safe.

Slides

• View the working Google Slides deck
• Browse the official HamXposition schedule
• Download the 2026 HamXposition program book
• Read my CW journey

I will add a downloadable PDF after the talk deck is locked.

Know what a Technician can already do

The ARRL chart of U.S. Technician privileges shows the CW windows on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters and the 200-watt PEP limit that applies there. FCC Part 97 remains the underlying rules text. The talk is about making those privileges feel usable, not about memorizing band edges from a slide.

Choose a learning path

• Long Island CW Club offers ongoing live classes at multiple levels.
• CWops CW Academy offers coached, session-based classes from beginner through advanced levels.
• CW Innovations focuses on conversational CW, head copy, and confidence on the air.

You do not need all three. Pick the structure and schedule you are most likely to keep using.

Practice that fits your day

• Morse Mania provides focused, interactive character practice on iPhone and iPad and Android.
• Learn CW provides similar interactive character practice directly in a web browser.
• Morse Code Ninja provides incremental audio, podcast, and video practice. Its audio lessons fit especially well into a commute or walk.
• Vail Morse combines a browser decoder with an internet repeater. The optional Vail Adapter connects a physical key or paddle by USB.
• W1AW code-practice files provide regularly updated copy at several speeds.
• ARRL operating aids collect common Q signals, abbreviations, state abbreviations, and procedural shorthand.
• My CW Practice Schedule finds the next SST, MST, and CWT sessions in local time and walks through each exchange.
• My CW QSO Walkthrough provides interactive prompts for a standard contact, with copy fields and local ADIF export.

Start with one sound-based tool. Use a normal character speed with extra space between characters, rather than slowing each character until you can count its parts. Morse Code Ninja’s reference explains the Farnsworth approach; its beginner advice also covers the counting trap and the move toward words and useful exchanges.

Watch operators make it real

• Doug, N4HNH explains practical receiver operation, filtering, and CW through detailed radio walkthroughs.
• Thomas, K4SWL publishes field activation videos and portable-radio stories at QRPer.
• Forrest, KI7QCF shares an approachable mix of portable radio, CW learning, and experiments.
• Michael, N4FFF, and Becky, N4BKY, the Ham Radio Duo, share their CW learning process, tools, and outdoor operating adventures.
• Aaron Bowman, W4ARB publishes relaxed, on-air CW and portable operating videos.

Get on the air without making the first contact enormous

• Parks on the Air gives a new operator a short, repeated, and predictable exchange to listen for. The official getting started guide begins with hunting, and the POTA spot page shows who is currently on the air.
• No HF receiver yet? The public WebSDR and KiwiSDR directories list internet-connected receivers you can tune in a browser. Take a frequency from the POTA spot page, choose a receiver that covers that band, select CW, tune near the listed frequency, and confirm the callsign you hear on the air.
• The POTA Hunter Guide explains listening, calling, exchanges, spotting, and hunter credit.
• The official POTA CW Guide covers common CW exchanges from both sides of a park contact.
• potacw.guide — CW POTA: A Field Manual walks through the exchange line by line and includes a customizable activator and hunter cheat sheet.
• My first all-CW POTA activation is the field report behind the “do not wait” story in the talk.

Hunt before you activate. Listen through a few contacts, recognize your own call, learn AGN? and QRS PSE, and arrange a patient first QSO if that makes the step feel safer. POTA can be the gateway; it does not have to be the destination.

See the five-part station

The complete portable station in the talk is a radio, key or paddle, antenna, power, and a log. My radio equipment catalog and packed station overview show how those systems fit together in the stations I actually carry.

• Radio: the QRP Labs QMX, Elecraft KX2, and Elecraft KH1 illustrate different portable-CW tradeoffs rather than a required shopping list.
• Key: the K8CES Zippy paddle is the small paddle I use in the demonstration. My photo-by-photo assembly guide documents the giveaway batch.
• Antenna and the rest of the station: the Pulaski State Park doublet test shows a wire, battery, paddle, radio, and log together at a picnic table. The Sachuest Point activation shows the compact alternative: KX2, internal battery, clip-on paddle, headphones, and a portable vertical carried down a trail.
• Log: Ham2K Portable Logger is the phone logger mentioned in the talk; its first-operation guide covers creating an operation, logging contacts, and exporting ADIF.

Borrow before buying when possible. A few contacts reveal whether weight, built-in tuning, a large display, or a very fast setup matters to the way you actually operate.

Follow the learning into real contacts

• My complete CW journey connects the failed 1998 test, the patient first QSO arranged by Brian, K1NW, CW Academy, POTA, and the goal of ordinary conversation.
• CQ WPX CW as a learning weekend is the story of using a fast contest as structured practice while still asking for repeats.
• The Washington, D.C., POTA rove shows several small CW stations adapted to walking, public spaces, and limited setup room.
• A KH1 and doublet at J. L. Curran is a recent example of a tiny radio paired with an efficient wire antenna.

Continue at HamXposition

The official schedule is the source of truth for rooms and times. These sessions continue topics that I can only introduce in this talk:

• Getting Started with POTA — Robert Nazro, W1RPQ — Saturday at noon.
• POTA Activations: Finding and Researching a Park — Brian Horne, N1BAM — Saturday at 1 and Sunday at 11.
• Choosing Your First Ham Radio — Jonathan Slawsby, W5GI — Saturday at 11.
• Ham2K Portable Logger — Sebastian Delmont, KI2D — Saturday at 1.
• Stealthy All-Band HF from Attics and Small Spaces — Corey Ruth, KD3CR — Saturday at 3.
• LICW and the Renaissance of Morse Code — Greg Algieri, WA1JXR — Saturday at 4.
• Technician Toolkit Redux — Sunday at 10 for anyone who missed part of Friday’s Toolkit.