Robot CW

The radioclub has a CW robot since 1998 for bilateral telegraphic links on the 10m radio band. Frequency is 28,110kHz in JN18bw.

QSO logs are available here:

• Logs sorted by dates
• Logs sorted by callsigns (pdf)

Diagram

What is a CW robot?

The robot is made from a vertical antenna, a transceiver on fixed frequency, linked to a computer running a program. This program decodes morse coming from the receiver into strings (and the other way around). The decoded strings are compared to the ones stored in a database in order to generate the right answer according to what was received, and to transmit it into morse.

The robot imitates a real telegraphic operator by trying to sound like one and adapt in several situations. It has to:

• decode a transmission not always perfect (timing issues)
• manipulate at the same speed as the correspondent
• check the validity of the callsign, check the right repetition of the callsign and check if the QSO has already been made
• keep track of calls and archive them
• answer questions aksed by the correspondent
• when a received message is not understood, it repeats what it heard
• create a QSL card on a website to confirm the bilateral communication and keep a log file on a website
• make beacons (CQ) at regular intervals giving instructions on how to make contact