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Amorim65 bill2 briskel CR2022mix happi59 HU IU3FEJ jatamo kb2qlq kl7vx kmekichib4 lw7ek Maly mapetite PU4UAI swenny99 test wa6dwh

Hello all, I have been practicing now for a few weeks and reached lesson 7, but it was at only 12 WPM. I've read here and found it to be true that at 12 WPM, I was counting dits and dahs and then translating that into a letter, and I couldn't get past lesson 7. I've now started back at lesson 1 at a faster pace (can't remember now what it is) but it's at a pace that doesn't allow me to think. When I hear -.- my finger automatically reaches for the K.

So my question is, is this really learning a letter or am I training my fingers to react to a sound?

For those who are making contacts via CW, do you write or type, and if you write did anyone find it difficult making the transition?

Thanks and good luck to all!
KK6OLX

Around 72% of learning is done with your eyes and only about 8% with your ears. Eye hand coordination is easier to acquire than conscious coordination. These factors increase the difficulty of learning MC. I spent my first 50 hours of learning MC drawing out the dits and daws on graph paper so I could visualize the sounds. It didn't make learning faster, but I didn't fall asleep either.

I thought the same thing when I first started training on here. On lesson 20, I finally tried switching to pen and paper and after a few attempts, I was able to copy just as fast as typing. It seems like I'm training my fingers to react, but I am truly learning the letters as I was able to write them down with ease.

Cameron

I have never been good transcribing by hand. The few I knew who were good at it also had a great memory and were better at plaintext.
In fact once you get to plaintext, perhaps start communicating w/others using morse- hearing dialog vs groups your ability transcribe w/pen will increase.

Thanks to all for the responses!

You cannot use your eyes to train your ears, please read "The Art and Skill of Radio Telegraphy"by Bill Peirpont it is free to read on the net, or can be bought for a few euros, it is the best book on CW ever and will save you hours of wasted practice, 73 Rich..

Sure you can.

Once in a while you have to repeat a word 50 times to decode it. It just doesn't happen. Two solutions:

Leave your computer, come back after an hour and you copy it the first time correct. Second solution: record the audio, and decode the audio by YOUR EYES watching the dots and dashes on your screen.

Repeat the word 4 or 5 times, and you recognise your wrong decoding. And never will miss that word again.

Guys rag chewing over 70 wpm learned it by watching with THEIR EYES a decoder in order to release the mental pressure and get relaxed.

https://sites.google.com/site/tomw4bqf/copyingcwover70wpm

Hi Lea,I have read Toms article many times and he is talking about the wall between 40 to 50 wpm, He knows more about Morse than I ever will of course. He says that a cw reader is a crutch to get you over the hump not something that you should use and states also that over 60 wpm a reader will not be able to read any way.Imagine if you were trying to teach a child how to recognize colors, you would not cover his eyes and say to him smell this orange, this is the colour orange, the same is true when you are trying to read using your ears, the eyes do not help, Vy 73 Rich

g4fad, thanks for the book title. I found a pdf online. I had already been making the mistake of trying to learn at the slow speed and thankful I found this site. I'll make my second attempt at lesson one after reading it thoroughly.

Richard's correct to say that Tom was talking about 40 -> 50 wpm.

At these speeds you need to recognize the whole word itself rather than the individual letters, which like all morse learning is done by repetition ; hear noise - associate with meaning - repeat until it becomes a reflex.

The reader allows you to see any word you missed at a glance.

I guess Richard reached 40 wpm without too much difficulty
but
one person's 50 wpm barrier is another's 20 wpm barrier
so
anyone learning whole words with difficulty at 20 wpm will get the same benefit of "morse to word" association which Tom got at 50 wpm, crutch or otherwise . . . . .

cb

Hi All,
No I had to struggle to get to read at 40 wpm, but it was well worth it.If you are interested in getting your speed up there is a lot of information on how to do it on QRQCW net one of the best sites on Morse going, Rich G4FAD..

I suppose it is wrong to think that you copy whole words.

A language may have over 100000 words, you can't remember them all. Above that you shouldn't be able to head copy another sufficient for conversation known language, when you finally master one language.

Furthermore, you should know what is sent AFTER the word is sent and the sound of the whole word is completed.

In my experience that is definitely NOT true. I read words while they are coming in, often able to think what will be coming, and correcting my expectation instantly when it is something else.

When you exercise with "words" on this website, what you decoded it is good or wrong. Recent experiments learned me that the wrong words are often NOT copied after a lot of repetitions.

I am asked to be one of beta-testers of a program designed by pa0wv.

The readme, file sounds:

"Exercising program for QRQ head copy (c) PA0WV

A list of most used common words is in bad.txt, separated bij car return linefeed or 'enter'

Change the batch file tr.bat by adding after P2 /S and /T parameters.
Example P2 /S50 /T600 for speed 50 wpm and tone pitch 600 Hz. Default (without paramaters) is 20 wpm and 600 Hz.

When you enter /TR instead of some fixed pitch you will get a variable pitch, different for each word between 400 and 1400 Hz.

Download all files P1.exe P2.exe P3.exe space.wav and tr.bat in one directory of your PC running under windows. Add bad.txt with the words you want to exercise.

Open a DOS box, go to the directories with the downloaded files, and start the program with the command tr

When windows mediaplayer is covering your monitor screen, make it small down under with clicking on his minus sign right above.

All words you copy all right the first presentation are moved to a good.txt file and removed from the bad.txt file. So finally you
will be presented more and more with difficult words for you.

When you copy a word correct, you are asked to stop (Y), in which case the updated files bad.txt and good.txt are stored.

You don't have to watch the monitor screen, because wrong decoded words are repeated after typing in, and a correct word requires an additional enter to go on or Y to stop.

The program doesn't work on 64 bit machies, without recompilation of the sources.

User comments are welcome on my amsat.org address.

--

I am right now after a week, exercising at random times, on 900 words in good file (detected first time presented) and the rest (2700 words) still in bad file. Really amazing to find out that some common words are not readable after a lot of repetitions with F3, untill after an hour you come back and detect the first time after advancing OK.

I exercise same speed as on LCWO 600Hz 50 wpm.

I think I understand why this sped is a barrier, because, you have to start to read syllabi instead of single characters. That will not happen at 20 wpm for different reasons you can postulate for yourself.

Sheri,
One technique that I find very effective for both sending and receiving Morse code is to sound out characters. This can be done anywhere at any time, either mentally or with the voice. I think it helps reinforce the musical nature of Morse code and improves one's sending rhythm.

Sound out the characters of signs, license plates, people's names, anything, in dits and dahs. David is dahdidit didah didididah didit dahdidit.For more than one dit use di for the first elements, then end with dit. For example, V is di-di-di-dah.

This trains one to formulate code as well as hear what one would be receiving. The dits and dahs emulate the sound of a radio or practice oscillator signal.

We learn better when more than one method of learning is employed. Combining visual cues by writing dots and dashes, sounding out dits and dahs, or just copying in one's head will strengthen one's ability.

Congratulations on your progress.
Keep practicing!
David, N6AN

Thanks David, I have been doing that. I did it without thinking about it and it has been a great help!

Sheri, KK6OLX

I think that you can't help but recognise whole words
but
as you say
you decode as the word arrives . . .

The point(s) I'm trying to make are a little different.

1/ At very high speeds the word arrives before you've had time to start decoding.

Pierrepoint says that some operators remembered whole phrases


2/ One persons very high speed is another persons medium speed

i.e. some people will hear the letters, others just the whole word at once

As a mater of fact readability of handwriting detoriates when you write faster.

A solution could be using some kind of shortscipt, but it takes a long time to learn,

However longhand writing with an easy gliding pen helps considerably.

Most people learning to decode Morse code THINK they can't write faster, but when they write without decoding Morse the ARE faster, that is due to the fact they need thinking time to decode a character, this time accumulates to lowering the writing speed.