Since almost day one when I got my license I was hoping to learn a bit of CW (aka Morse Code). Not that I have a thing for nostalgia (quick look sideways at the TS830: oh, yes, I do!) but CW always excited me for its simplicity and elegance. Very little effort is required to build a CW capable rig and very low power goes a long way. In the end I'd love to do some more outdoor work and QRP but that makes no sense with SSB. For PSK the laptop is too much baggage so CW is the ideal mode.
Sadly it is very very difficult to learn, at least for me. Thanks to LCWO I managed to understand a little bit more so yesterday I thought I'd give it a try with a call on 14.055, the known QRS (slow morse) hideout. To my utter shock I got an immediate reply by station UA1ACO from St. Petersburg, operator Vlad. He was so kind to really key slowly and beautifully formed to it was easy to understand him.
As the TS830 does not have a builtin keyer I had to use my Junker straight key and I was so nervous that I almost forgot my own callsign. He however must have understood me as he got name and callsign right.
This so much made my day! Must do that again!