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Sending and decoding CW

When the radio is in CW or CW-R mode, the console shows a CW panel with a decoder and a keyboard for sending.

Sending CW

The radio's own keyer sends the text, at the speed set on the radio, so the timing is as clean as from its front panel.

1. Put the radio in CW mode.
2. Make sure break-in is on: Semi or Full in the CW panel. Without it, the radio only plays the sidetone and doesn't transmit. If it's off, the panel says so and offers Turn on semi break-in.
3. Set the speed with the WPM slider. It changes the radio's keyer speed.
4. Type in the box and press Enter (or click Send). What's being sent shows under the box.

You can keep typing while it sends: the next line is added to what's already queued. Stop (or Esc) stops sending at once.

Sending CW counts as transmitting, the same as holding Hold to talk:

• Only one console can transmit at a time.
• The station's TX time limit applies.
• Sending stops if your console disconnects, or if an amplifier faults.
• Every transmission is recorded in the transmit log, with the mode CW.

You don't have to hold anything while CW goes out: the text is already at the radio.

Memories

Eight memory buttons, F1 to F8, send stored messages. Click one, or press its function key. Two placeholders are filled in when they're sent:

• {MY}: your callsign. This needs the station linked to your account.
• {CALL}: the callsign in the Their call box. Type the station you're working there first.

Click Edit to change the labels and messages, then Save memories. Every console at the station shares the same memories.

Decoding CW

The decoder listens to the radio's receive audio for a tone at the radio's CW pitch (shown as Decode at 600 Hz, for example) and prints what it reads. Tune the signal so it sits at that pitch, as you would to hear it on the pitch you've set, and narrow the filter if other signals are close.

• Receive audio must be on in the console. The decoder hears what you hear.
• The meter shows how strongly the tone is coming through, and ~22 WPM the speed it has measured.
• It learns each sender's speed as it goes. When a much faster or slower station starts, the first word or two may come out garbled while it catches up.
• Untick Decode to pause it, and Clear to empty it.

Decoding works best on a clear signal that stands well above the noise. Weak or fading signals, several signals close together, and hand-sent CW with uneven timing come out with mistakes: listen too. A narrow CW filter (FIL3) helps when the band is busy.

Which radios

Sending works on Icom radios whose CI-V has the send CW message command (current HF radios such as the IC-7610, IC-7300, IC-705 and IC-9700) on FlexRadio radios through SmartSDR's CWX, and on Kenwood, Yaesu and Elecraft radios through their keyer's CAT command (in beta; turn break-in on at the radio). On a Hermes Lite 2 the agent is the keyer and keys the transmitter itself. Decoding works on any radio with receive audio.