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LCWO Discussion Forum [Atom LCWO Forum Feed]

This is a simple discussion forum for LCWO users. Feel free to use it for any kind of discussion related to this website.

Thread: Problems at the 3rd lesson

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Posted: 2014-04-03 17:11
Hi,

I am training reading CW for 1 month now (20WpM, 10WpM effective).

Till now, I haven't managed to get past the 3rd lesson, as I need way to much time to write down the previous letter. Even if I write on paper: same problem.
I have to hear the lesson at least 10 times to get nearly everything right. I've also tried to reduce the effective WpM down to 5, but I think that's the wrong way to go, as this makes it even more difficult to speed up later on.

How did you guys manage writing down the letters fast enough?



Posted: 2014-04-03 20:08
What i did was, i started at 10 wpm, and went through all the 40 lessons.
After that i increased the speed to 11 wpm, and started with lesson nr 1 till nr 40.
And after that you keep on increasing the speed every time you start all over.
It takes some time, but i learned it that way.
When i now listen to the morsemachine, i can take up to 32 wpm.
Word training is also a good way to learn.
I start at 18wpm, walk through the whole list of words, and in the end i get to 37 or even 40 wpm.
Just listen to the signs untill you recognize them, and then go on to the next word.
Repeat as often as requierd.
And most of all: keep on going on, every day, for at least 15 minutes.
But yes, it can be very anoying if it doesn't go the way you want it to go :)
Good luck !



Posted: 2014-04-04 02:32
Be patient, try to write listened english words at end of each word play at whole. You need to train "mental" buffer. This helps you to get time for writing short letters as E and I. Some people use for criticaly short letters special symbols in handwriting as dot for E or flapped L for T etc. But buffering is very handy skill for higher receive speed. Today PC keyboard is more common than handwriting, but for not skilled typewriter it is still not too much time for finding letters on keyboard... 73 OK7DR


Posted: 2014-04-05 07:16
I am also learning CW and have learned much from the contributors on this forum and of course the tools that Fabian has provided here at lcwo.net are excellent. I have been at it now for about 7 weeks. I started at 20wpm character speed and 10wpm effective speed and it was taking me about 1 day to "learn" a new character. I thought I was doing pretty good. However when I began to have problems around lesson 10, I slowed down the effective speed. I continued on this way to lesson 20 but now my effective speed was down to 5wpm! I thought long an hard about the 2 paths ahead of me: should I continue learning the elements at 5wpm effective speed and then begin again at 7wpm and then again at 9 wpm, etc. etc. OR should I stay at lesson 20 and work my self back up to 10 wpm and then finish the 40 lessons at 10wpm effective speed?

I decided to stay at lesson 20 and work my self back up to 12wpm based on some good advice from G4XFC. After running through a new element each day for about 3 weeks, it has been humbling and frustrating to spend the last 4 weeks at lesson 20, but I am now working at 12 wpm effective speed (always at 20wpm character speed). I'm at 85% accuracy right now and as soon as I hit 90% I'm moving on to lesson 21. I hope to stay at 12wpm effective speed, but I will allow myself to move down to 10wpm (but no lower) to learn the element, but I won't move on to the next lesson until I've got 90% accuracy at 12wpm effective speed.

That's just what I've decided to do and it's probably not the right answer for most others, but I wanted to share my roller coaster ride to encourage others to stay with it. It can be frustrating, but it can be rewarding!

I also wanted to share some of the subtle skills that I'm learning to appreciated through this experience:

1. My goal is to be operating at 15wpm real speed before I begin making QSOs. Fabian (and others) recommend using 20wpm characters speed and 10wpm effective speed for good reason. Although I'm not musically inclined I think of morse characters as musical notes (even though they are all the same tone). The letter "i" is a different note than the letter "r" and I need to master each note before I can understand the melody of others or make my own music.

2. I've come to develop a better sense of instant recognition of the characters. This has taken me lots and lots of repetitions on Morse Machine, in the Lessons and with Code Groups, but there have been times when my fingers just found the right key without any conscious effort -- it hasn't happened a lot, but it was a really cool moment when I finished a 3 minute drill and thought to myself "thats about 15% wrong" and after hitting the "Score Results" button I find out I'm at 8% and ready to move my effective speed up another notch. Very cool.

3. One of my biggest obstacles to making real progress was letting go of my mistakes. When I was working at 5 wpm effective speed I picked up the bad habit of hitting the backspace key to correct my mistakes. I've come to the conclusion that this was deadly to my CW learning. It took me a long time to let go of missed characters. My mind would freeze, I couldn't hear the next character and my fingers would begin moving in all different directions mindlessly looking for a key to press - zombie fingers. This was my personal low point, but I stuck it out, making promises to myself that no matter what I was not going to press that backspace key anymore and that leads me to my next discovery.

4. Re-syncing with the flow of characters. Once I missed a character and overcame the instinct to correct it, I needed to get back into the flow before another character or 2 or 3 went by. I see this ability to quickly re-sync with the flow as a separate but equally important skill as letting go of mistakes. I'm still working on both of these re-active skills as well as the next skill which I see more as a pro-active skill.

5. Developing a mental buffer of characters in your mind. Because some characters are very small (I hate you letter "e") and some are long ("=" is my friend) I need a mental buffer to smooth out the ups and downs. When I'm able to buffer a character or two, I also think my accuracy has greatly improved. The first time this occurred for me was another one of those "ah-hah" moments and I'm in constant pursuit of replicating that process, that flow. Sometimes it works, sometime it doesn't, but I'm working at it.

That's what I've learned so far. I've still got a long way to go, but it's been a worthwhile journey. It has taken me a solid month to master a single lesson (lesson #20) and it might take me the rest of the year before I make my first QSO, but that's OK. I've learned a lot more than just the dits and dahs that make up the Morse code. I've come to deeply respect and appreciate those who have gone before me, to show the way, to develop tools like lcwo.net and to share their words of encouragement on forums like this. Thank you one and all.

Mike
W9MIC




Posted: 2014-04-05 17:58
They all probably have started the same way as we are doing now Mike :)
So keep on trying.


Posted: 2014-04-06 23:41
kwave:
How did you guys manage writing down the letters fast enough?


If you're writing down exercises long-hand then write words (even if they're nonsense ones) without lifting the pen(cil), using your normal handwriting script (which is probably joined lower-case letters), and accept that the fastest speed at which you can train is limited by your handwriting speed. If you can't write (or type) random characters faster than X wpm then there's no point in trying to do the exercises any faster than that. For me, X was 15 on a good day...


Posted: 2014-04-09 00:11
Thanks for the well-written comments, Mike, especially notes 3 and 4. I have to learn to let go quickly when I am confused over a letter and go on. Your first paragraph is also right on. But, for me, I have to go down to 5,6,or 7, (character speed = 20) and work up to 10. My progress is a little slower than yours. I think we all keep trying until we find a system that works.


Posted: 2014-04-09 17:27
phil7, I have found "progress" to be an elusive term in my CW training. When I was at 5wpm effective speed I thought I was doing fine. I was making progress in learning new characters; however, I wasn't mastering them and I realized that to become operational I needed to master them. The next question was when -- after I had learned all 41 characters at lcwo.net or master them as I go. I don't think there is any right or wrong answer. I decided to pick up the pace now even though it was going to make for a longer journey to complete all the lessons.

I say this because as I increased my effective speed up to 6 and then 7 and then 8 wpm, it was a roller coaster ride. Some days I could see my accuracy increase as well as my confidence. The next day -- without any change in speed -- my confidence and accuracy left me and it was disheartening. HOWEVER, I believe even on those dark days I was making progress. My brain was being put under stress by the increased speed and it had to slowly rewire its pathways to handle the new pace.

For now I am content in performing my exercises 30 minutes in the morning and 30 at night. If progress manifests itself with increased accuracy results, then great; if not, that's OK too, because I've seen the results of perseverance in this endeavor and I know lcwo.net is the right method (for me). The results have appeared and will continue to appear -- that I'm sure of and I hope you share in my belief.

Keep the faith man.

Mike
W9MIC

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