CW on the cranium

I spent some quality time with my radio and CW keyer this weekend, casually taking part in the CQ WPX CW contest. I say “casually” participated because I usually only have a few hours, here and there, over the course of a typical weekend to devote to such endeavours. In all, I managed 125 contacts. Pretty good for me…but keep in mind the serious contesters finish with contacts in the thousands. In fact I was number 2000 for the Hungarian station I contacted just before 8pm local tonight (and I worked a few with serial numbers in the 3000’s).

I’d be interested to hear from other CW operators…to see if you, perhaps have shared this rather strange experience I’ve had. I think I hear Morse code mixed in with the white noise that certain household appliances make. No…my transceiver wasn’t on autopilot and sending RFI into the toaster-oven. And, before you call the nice men in white suits to take me away to the butterscotch hotel with the padded walls….realize that I know there isn’t really CW emanating from the vacuum cleaner, hair dryer or air cleaner. But…my brain seems to pick up what sounds like high speed CW buried within that hum or whir of the particular household gadget. Luckily I can’t decipher anything…or I’d be checking myself into the loony bin (then again I’m not good at copying the high speed stuff anyway!). This phenomenon only seems to occur (thankfully) shortly after I’ve been doing some CW work. It reminds me of a time a few years ago when I was having fun working the FM satellites. I’d be intently listening to the downlink frequency with headphones a few minutes before the scheduled pass…and I’d swear I could hear the hint of voices buried in the static. But, it would be a few more minutes before the real voices started to fade up.

Yup, the brain can do funny thins to us hams. Now…if only the vacuum would QSL.