My first QSO (and, yeah, it was with Morse code), was stunning.

What's your story of your first QSO?



73 de NW7US

Guy replied to my  first CQ,  sounded  to me like 20 wpm.... I copied only the  "7" from his call sign, and the  " K  "  at the end of transmission.
It was so bad, I   shakily tapped out my call sign, and turned the radio off....

I practiced code forever it seems.  Finally decided to try it live.  Answered a copy and had a few back and forth.  Copied the call sign looked the guy up and emailed him thanking him for my first CW contact.  He replied that he hadn't heard me and had been talking to someone else.....  was nice though and we did set up a contact...so I did end up talking to him.  I was pretty embarrassed but he just laughed it off and helped me out.

Yeah, I think that is pretty common and yes I did the same thing.

I sent CQ, someone answered me, I went into a blind panic and shut off the radio.
Of course now I can't understand why I did that. But, I was a teenager at the time and that was a long time ago. It was in 1979.

I guess it might have been the long anticipation of that moment that did it. I wanted to be a ham since I was a little kid. Finally as a high school kid I found an Elmer, studied the code for about two weeks, passed the code exam. He sent in my application and received the Novice class theory test back in the mail. I took it. We sent it in to be graded. Weeks later my license arrived. Like you said, the process might have took months.

And finally when the whole thing came together I was overwhelmed.

FWIW: I was using a Ten Tec Century 21 with a straight key into a random length end fed wire. I was using a tuner that I homebrewed on a piece of wood. I wound the coil on a plastic shampoo bottle using a stick from a kite to hold the turns up off the bottle so I could tap the coil. Along with a cap out of an old broadcast receiver. And a Radio Shack SWR bridge. Was putting out about 30 watts.

The first JA QSO that I had (on 15 CW - it was way back in 1968 or 1969 IIRC), I was so nervous that somehow I mixed up his name and his QTH.

It happens sometimes...

After copying other QSOs for weeks I felt confident enough to reply to a 10 WPM CQ. Once he came back to me it felt like he cranked it up to 40 WPM and I lost all my sending ability and he started sending ? over and over again while I was replying.

I too turned off the radio

But later I got better.

Kind of related to the topic, and a piece of advice for anyone new to CW who is worried that something like this will happen to them;

I used to be very active with the SKCC (Straight Key Century Club) that promotes the use of manual CW keying (straight keys, side swipers, bugs.....). And the SKCC has an online "Sked Page" located HERE  The purpose of this webpage is to facilitate on the air CW contacts between members. You might get on there and announce that you are listening on 7.055 and other members can get on there and work you.  Over the years, I have been on that sked page and had someone come on there and said that he has never made a CW QSO before and is apprehensive about getting on the air........................and I or someone else encouraged him to get on the air. We assured him that we would send at whatever speed he was comfortable with, we assured him that we knew what he was going through and would be patient and  would be willing to repeat our transmission however many times it took etc. And we got someone on the air with the least amount of drama possible. In a number of cases, when a brand new guy got on there, he worked the first guy and then everybody else wanted their turn and this new guy ended up working a half dozen or ten people one after the other.

The concept of having an "Elmer" or a mentor to help you get started in ham radio seems to be something that is rare today. In my opinion our society today, people are unwilling to ask for help or to take help when offered: I have no idea why but this has been my experience. But if you had an "Elmer" you could get on the air and work him a few times knowing that he knew your situation (brand new ham, with very limited CW skills) and you would not need to feel self-conscious or embarrassed. Today, you can accomplish the same thing via the internet using that SKCC Sked Page. Those guys not only are willing to walk you through your first QSOs, but they are anxious and happy to do so.

Ditto the SKCC advice!

I don't remember my first QSO as being particularily dramatic, other than some sweaty palms. I do remember that the other station was in Coshocton, OH. My first "DX" was one of the Carribbean islands.
I was 40 Meters running a homebrew crystal controlled 6AG7 (it may have been a 6V6) transmitter that put out about 5 Watts and the receiver was a HB two-stage regenerative set. Many of the parts came from defunct radio and TV sets.

I had made a few contacts before using a friend's station and call. He had a Hallicrafters S-40 and a homemeade transmitter with a 6L6 in the final, probably with 15-20 Watts output.