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161OS256 ag6aq camr dd9wg dm4kc ea4hfo epibrator gattociao IK5MEI JanKersten KC3SQY morsemorse N0EMP NO1H nwrowe oe7wmz siritinga test ve3qvl Zachsfifth2

I am looking for input from as many guys as possible.

I do not know how to type and have always used the hunt and peck method and am now wondering as I get up in speed is (not knowing how to speed type going to hold me back)?

I am having to look at the keyboard to make sure I am hitting the right keys instead of the screen. For me being a contester, I have for so many years hit that ENTER key as fast as I could in order to keep the RATE meter on my logging software always peaking. I would always look at my last minutes rates and try to up it by 1 or 2 qso's. By doing this it "PUSHED" me for the complete 48 hours.

I basically use the reflexive instead of analytical approach since I really do not have an analytical mind.

I am wondering if I should stop with the cw and learn how to type for 3 weeks or so?

Any ideas?

Craig, AH8DX

Yes, one vote here to learn typing. It can only help.

I am still using "hunt and peck" for PC work but...

it took me 4 months to touch type CW the following way:

I took a touch type programm to see in which sequence they suggested to learn the letters and figures

Then I used LCWO custom character feature to generate 5er groups with those letters for lection 1 etc

Example: for lection1 I had asdfjkl as custom characters, then added gh etc.

I find it very pleasant in contest and training - keeps the mind off typing

Just learned letters, numbers and some special characters ('/') - all I need - and left out the complication of lower/uppercase.

Btw: Had to go this way since I can barely read my hand writing at speeds above 80cpm ;-)

Regards,

Gerd.

WOW Gerd, truly amazing.

The way you just explained your idea impressed me so much that I printed it out and will follow it precisely. It is such a neat concept that you explained I will implement it in two days after a short rest here.

It is comments like yours that make this site a great tool to acheive.

I can learn speed touch typing while continuing to listen and practice cw.


You made my day Gerd, thanks again.

Craig, AH8DX

Hi,

I am not a touch typist but I can type without looking at the keyboard at a reasonable speed.

For stuff like contest logging, and CW training (e.g. MorseRunner, RufzXP), the requirements are quite different than for typing normal text though. Especially when working contests, you don't only have to type calls, but also use the function keys, Insert, cursor keys etc. a lot, often interleaved into typing the callsigns. Which automatically So I guess touch typing wouldn't help much in that case. One of the top competitors at the HST championships told me, that he uses only his left hand to type in the callsigns, and his right hand is exclusively used to press function keys etc.

The one thing, of course, where touch typing would be a very useful skill, is copying code groups. But I am not sure if I am determined enough to learn it :)

Btw, a little off-topic, but there is CW and typing:

http://www.ly4a.com/any-news/2010/06/01/katia-rz9uma-happy-birthday-9-years/

73, Fabian Dj1YFK

HI, just tried this out, right it down with a pen then type it back onto the screen, it still checks the cw code. im not a great typist and dyslexic, but this works fine.
mark

I have learned "touch"-typing on keyboard. I will recommend everyone to learn it; you just write what you want on the screen you look at.
I used http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/tutor/index.php?lang=EN. I will not recommend to do the character lessons there, but instead just paste different textes with the "Practice your own text"-option. It is important to not look at the keyboard, just look at the map on screen to see where the key is, relative to the basic position, and then use the correct finger.
The touch method is not a fancy method of typing, just a good way of doing it. I found it very easy to learn.

But here is my wondering:
I try to learn morse-receiving with the lessons. So I just learn to map sound to key, since I use touch writing. I wonder if this makes it difficult to hear morse later.

Hi Craig,

I learned touch typing 'on the fly' at work. First started some practice lessons just with F and G, and then further expanded it. Looks like Koch.
At home, I practised by mounting my keyboard below my desk so I could not see my hands. It took me about three months before I really got up to speed. Best is that you can directly see at the screen what errors you type and instantly correct it.
I use touch typing solely for my CW training now. It helps me at code groups practices around 20wpm and regular lessons.
A few days ago I ran a touch type speed test by typing some printed text over on the keyboard. I ended up around 330cpm, so it is not likely to block my CW learning process for the moment.

Now relearning CW, I see a lot of similarities in the learning process between the two.

Cheers,
Alex - PA1FOX

But here is my wondering:
I try to learn morse-receiving with the lessons. So I just learn to map sound to key, since I use touch writing. I wonder if this makes it difficult to hear morse later.

Hear hear, I have the same doubts myself.

I am now a touch typist.
For many years I tried in vain to learn to touch type, I'd always go back to the chicken method.

Then I discovered dvorak...

A little background:
The keyboard layout you see before you (called qwerty) is made for typewriters, the placement of the keys is intended to reduce the probability of the arms with the letters on them to jam.

A couple of years after the typewriter was invented, a dane invented the ball head typewriter and this was no longer a problem, but the layout stuck.

Dvorak on the other hand is built so that the letters you use most (in the english alphabet) is where your fingers are already placed.
This makes Dvorak intuitive to use. And with the added bonus of not being able to look down, learning to touch type is much easier.

Windows machines come with US-dvorak already installed, for other languages, jfgi.Linux machines comes with dvorak for most languages pre installed (only for graphical (X) users)

With a txt file open in the background and a bit of non-work-intensive time on my hands, I learned to touch type in about 2 months (2 weeks to write somewhat fluidly).

Now that I have begun to learn cw though, I'm leaning towards using pen and paper for the lessons. But in other uses, the dvorak is working out great for me.

Hope this inspires you to try out dvorak, I highly reccomend you try. It was the only way I ever got to touch-typing

73
Paul OZ6PMB

Alex,

Everyone has different goals. For some, it is just to obtain a speed so that they can get on the air and have nice qso's to communicate. Some try to obtain speeds to operate contests and maximize their score (which I think 35wpm is a nice speed for DX tests; possibly just slightly lower like around 31-32).

For me, it is to copy callsigns with the BEST of the BEST and to reach those speeds that are only dreamt about. I dream of it nightly.

I orginally posed the question here after I noticed certain things happen and I received the information that I was looking for. It came from none other than YFK. YFK basically said forget about it with my case because he knows well what I am trying to achieve.

So, I still am a (hunt and pecker) (I'm a BIG PECKER, Hi!, not knowing how to type but it doesn't bother me anymore now as it bothered me before.

For me, I noticed certain things happen when I really started to get up in speed. I'm talking somewhere around 50wpm or so, I noticed that on many occassions when my concentration was intense that my fingers were automatically going to the right keys even though I still had to hunt and peck the right keys. I started to ask myself more often (how in the heck did I get that call?), I thought if I knew touch typing I could get in a zone, stay relaxed and concentrate and just let my brain hear the calls and touchtype would be automatic. I don't know what thought process would take place because I have no reason to learn touch typing and will never find out.

It has saved me time by not learning it and I can spend that valuable time on cw practice.

Like I said, everyone is different. For me, I have no need for touch typing. I am just fine with the way I am.

Craig, AH8DX

Sure Craig, it was only later this afternoon that I discovered that this in fact was an older thread and likely to be a bit outdated. Regarding the speeds you're at it is clear that you don't need it. For me it is a convenience in learning CW since I can concentrate fully on CW and the characters come out of the fingers automatically.

Just to have an impression of the speeds you're working at, I have set the character speed at 65wpm this morning, with spacing at 10wpm. It was possible to distinguish the single characters, but I have deep respect for people how get those characters at full speed.

Regards,
Alex - PA1FOX

Alex,

65wpm and spacing @10wpm??? WOW, I wish it was that easy!

Craig, AH8DX

If you want to learn touch, you could consider learning the "colemak" layout, http://colemak.com/.
I think this is a good map. Dvorak is actually an old map, which is designed to use the right hand for most typing.

When I started learning touch, I choosed dvorak, but I think colemak would be a better choice.

[forum spam removed]

Now, that's what I call necroposting and spam in one go!

NOT SO
The forum is a treasure of knowledge about learning Morse code.
However: Do not chase proficiency you never can reach. Craig proved this statement.

Wow, that's an old thread indeed! It's got useful information, though, and continuing the discussion here is probably better than making new threads on the same topic.

Regarding touch typing in general, I really recommend it. I've forced myself to make the transition some time ago by getting a keyboard with blank keys, as I was quite fast while looking at the keys and could not keep myself from returning to that behavior. There's a distinct difference, though, between typing while looking at the keyboard and touch-typing. My speed is about the same as it was, but when I was looking I was subconsciously thinking about individual letters, while now I just think whole words and they appear on the screen before me, leaving more space in my head for other things. I wonder if that's what head-copying feels like as compared to character-copying.

That said, I can't decide whether the skill is actually helping me to learn morse or the opposite. On one hand, since I know where each letter is by muscle memory, it doesn't take nearly as much time or mental facilities to copy characters as they are heard compared to pen and paper. On the other hand, I feel like I'm building more of a sound-to-muscle-memory relationship this way, not thinking of the individual letters at all, but rather what key to press. I'm a bit worried that it could hold me back later when learning to copy whole words; my current attempts at word practice basically consist of typing the characters as they are received and trying to guess the word as it appears on the screen. Maybe training on shorter sequences of characters is going to break that trend; maybe not. I don't know.

If you hear morse - letters / words appear in your mind and somehow mysteriously appear on the screen too then you'll be fine.

If you hear morse - letters and words appear mysteriously on the screen and you read them to see what you just decoded,
you will need a keyboard all the time - until you re-learn without one.


If you are unsure then it's not worth the risk IMNSHO

YMMV

cb

I've been typing into the box. "Copying on the mill" the old timers call it.

I think it works better for me than writing on paper, besides, I'd have to key it in for scoring anyway.

That said, I'm a 60 to 80 wpm touch typist after 40 years of computer programming.

Best,
Ed AE2Z