CW-QSO (5)

Breaking In……….
Breaking into an ongoing conversation is also possible, although rarely successful. Breaking into a QSO on CW is much more difficult than on phone. It is rarely done on CW. Some folks will think you impolite and ignore you, many newer hams will have no idea what's going on and consider you to be QRM. If you want to try, the standard method on CW is to wait between transmissions and then send "BK" for break, or better yet send, "BK de W5ZYX" if you have enough time. Allowing a third person to break into your contact can be confusing, especially for new hams. These "roundtable" QSOs are easier to manage on phone, or in the controlled environment of an organized net, like an NTS traffic net. But don't worry, breaking in is rarely encontered on CW. For those new hams who later move from CW to phone, be careful about using the word "break" on phone or SSB. On phone many hams use "break" to interrupt a net or a conversation when they have an emergency to report.
"Break in" has another meaning in CW. It refers to the time it takes your receiver to recover after you stop transmitting. Most modern transceivers have what is called full break in, meaning that you can receive instantly after transmitting on CW. You can even receive in between the dits and dahs of individual letters. Full break in CW even has its own Q signal, QSK. Years ago radio receivers had a several second delay before you could receive after transmitting, in order that your sensitive receiver was not overloaded by your nearby transmitter. Full break in CW is taken for granted today, but it is one of many technological innovations that today make ham radio so much easier. Such as dual VFOs, digital readout, automatic tuning, or one of my favorites: direct frequency keypad entry.