One of my passions in this hobby is CW and I try to work that mode as much as I can. In the beginning of the pursuit of my hobby, I learned Morse Code and worked quite a few stations in that mode. But, life gets in the way and I got away from my goal of doing at least one CW QSO each day.
The pattern that set in was: learn Morse Code, use it, have fun, get busy, get away from it, forget much of it, relearn it, use it, have fun, get busy, get away from it, ..... --- ad infinitum!
ENOUGH!
I had to find a better way. It occurred to me that the local CW nets met daily and gave me a chance to practice code each and every day for a real purpose. I began monitoring the local nets and, after a month or so, got up the courage to try to check in. Man, that was a rush! Scary but, well, we all gotta die sometime! So, I bit the bullet and checked in! Screwed that up pretty bad, at least, in my opinion. But, the NCS didn't seem to mind and welcomed me into the fold.
So, now, wow, I am the "cool dude" and have checked into the following nets and have been (I suspect grudgingly) added to the roster - such as it is:
Utah Code Net, 3570 KHz, daily, 0130Z
Mountain States Net, 3570 KHz, daily, 0200Z
Idaho Montana Net, 3572 KHz, daily, 0245Z (start early check in)
