Ham radio operators have a "contest" on new year's eve called Straight Key Night. The idea is to use archaic wireless equipment and communication methods to have a few nice long conversations, known as QSOs (amateur operators use a set of arbitrary 3-letter "Q signals" for abbreviations). If you don't have archaic radio equipment you at least must use a "straight" key (as opposed to an automatic key that makes sequential dots and dashes with a single movement of the key lever).
In addition, many contests consist of simply passing a few bits of information to prove you made a contact and move on to the next station as quickly possible but just the opposite is true of the SKN contest. The top prize for SKN is to get the most votes for "best fist" - best sounding Morse code produced by a straight key.
I haven't had the opportunity to partake of SKN for a few years but this year it was quite a pleasure. Conditions were fair on 80 meters (the 3.5 MHz shortwave band) and I managed to have 45 minute conversations with one station just a few miles away and another down in California.
The California operator was just one month younger than me and we were both licensed in 1963 - quite a coincidence! He was quite good with a straight key, if a little slow, but fortunately didn't mind me sending at 25 words per minute (quite a challenge to keep up for any length of time on a straight key). What was even better is our signals got quite strong as the 45 minute QSO progressed. It is always more fun when a signal is "pounding in" than when you have to "dig it out of the mud".
In the end my wrist got a bit sore, but it was well worth the pain. I'll have to do it again next year. Happy New Year!
.-.-.
