Canadian Straight Key Month

Ham Radio and Canada? Two of my favorite topics, as you know, if you've been a long-time reader of the blog.

How about combining both for one post? Now, that's a real winner.

September is observed as Canadian Straight Key Month (CSKM) by the Straight Key Century Club (SKCC). The CSKM team is actively seeking members to join its team of operators for the month-long special event that begins in less than two weeks.

A comprehensive, bilingual, webpage has all the key information about CSKM.

The goal of the celebration is to encourage on-air contacts (QSO) using the straight key or other popular mechanical keys such as the bug or sideswiper (known colloquially as a cootie key). In a similar fashion, the greater SKCC celebrates Straight Key Month (SKM) each January. I've been fortunate to be a part of the team of SKM operators the past few years.

What I've done–and I suspect many of the CSKM ops will also do–is to post the frequency where I am planning to operate once I have followed proper etiquette to make sure that frequency is open and available for use. Your frequency posting lets other operators know where they can find you on-air.

You can list your frequency, within SKCC, on the SKCC sked page. You can also post it to operators around the world on one of the spotting pages such as DXWatch or DXSummit, among others. 

Then, the operator sets up and begins sending "CQ" (meaning I would like to talk to you) and the name of the special event (in this case CSKM). And, likely, several operators will find the station and make contacts.

It's a fun and enriching experience. And if you get a pile-up (ham lingo for several operators calling you at once), it's exciting and rewarding to successfully manage the pile-up and work each operator in succession. 

There are several approaches to doing this. I might right about pile-ups in future Tuesday ham radio editions.

Meanwhile, I predict the Canadian stations will experience many of those fun moments. Personally, I plan to try to work as many stations as I can during the month and I know others will do the same.

If you're an SKCC member in Canada and interested in participating, I recommend you check out the page I mentioned above. You can reach out to the event coordinators at the following email address: CSKM@SKCCGROUP.COM.

If you're interested in getting involved in SKCC, there are numerous resources on its page. Or you can private message me and I can get you in touch with the right people. I've been very happy to be involved in this group and really appreciate my friend, Jerry, recruiting me to join four years ago.

It takes me back to my roots. As I told you in previous editions, my dad was a radio operator in the U.S. Army and when he taught me morse code some 20 years later, he did so using his straight key - or la cle' droite.

Many of them, as well as bugs and cooties, are used by club members each day and will be in action on the airwaves throughout the month of September.

JG