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buggi7 cnmcn DG1ROH dh3vj emura iz3lcp JK1NKB K6PBF ofe pe1ozs test test1test1 uz3awb Wojtek33

Folks, I'm happy to join the LCWO community. Here is a simple question: what's the best way to start for a complete nubie ?

If I had to restart from scratch, I would start at 20/20 but I guess most of us started at 20/15 or 20/10 or even slower than that.

Think "don't give up - ever" so you know you are going to do this and will treat it seriously.

It's not the easy exercise which it's often made out to be . . .


Here is how to search the forum. Enjoy!


google site:lcwo.net beginners etc

i.e.

https://www.google.com/search?q=site:lcwo.net+beginners&ei=gMiEZMqNBsudhbIPh8-pmAI&start=10&sa=N&ved=2ahUKEwjKzZLjsbn_AhXLTkEAHYdnCiMQ8NMDegQIGRAW&biw=1920&bih=956&dpr=1

eg.

https://lcwo.net/forum/2549

https://lcwo.net/forum/875

https://lcwo.net/forum/1694

https://lcwo.net/forum/2148/Tips-for-starters

https://lcwo.net/forum/1468

https://lcwo.net/forum/753




You really need to know what your aptitude is - because that's the most important factor and affects you strategy moving forwards.

Unfortunately, actually trying learning morse, is the only way to find out.

The military had a barrage of tests to select only those likely to succeed - but still there were drop-outs . . .


Also you may not find out until lesson 10 or so - if you only "taught" into short term memory and it begins to run out.

so

for the first few "lessons" (exercises) don't move on straight away if you get 90 % in an exercise - make sure it really sank in.




If you aptitude is high try 25/25 - some people learn in a few weeks - but not very many report doing this.

If your aptitude proves to be lower then 20/20 or 15/15

and maybe try 20/15 20/10 if you can't manage those. Note - these are known as Farnsworth training timings, used because :-


Don't go below 10/x because you need to here the characters as a single entity - not a string of dits and dahs

i.e. di-di-dah-dit not dit dit dah dit


The character speed you want is the fastest at which you can EASILY distinguish between the characters - and so remember them.

The wpm speed is the fastest at which you have time to decode at your current level of learning.


If you have "normal" aptitude (fairly low) you may end up choosing between slow-morse ( whilst you learn ) and no-morse. ONLY you can decide.

If necessary you may have to drop to say 15/5 at the worst.
This means more time speeding up a bit later. Is it worth it to you ? Only YOU can decide.



As an alternative view, G4FON https://www.g4fon.net/ advocated learning at the speed you wish to use - 20/20 being a good target.

Not everyone will be able to do this. the drop out rate ( first time around anyway ) seems to be very high - maybe even 90% or so.




You PROBABLY want to learn "head copy" i.e. so you can understand the morse in real time as it is received rather than have to write it down and read it back.

To do this you need to develop an unconscious/automatic response - hear-morse->letter-pops-into-you-head-as-if-from-no-where

You get to this happy state by lots of repetition at decoding until it becomes automatic - repeat-repeat-repeat

There are no tricks, no short cuts no secrets to uncover. Just work at it. Repeat repeat repeat.

It's not putting on muscle though, so forget no-gain-without-pain.

Tired doesn't mean you are building up - it means stop for a bit to recover, then repeat some more.


This is all quite a task and certainly not trivial.
- so be prepared to have to put some time in
- say one or two 15 mins of practice or so per day overall
- but split up into say 6 x 2 minute sessions with a 2 min break between.

If you get fatigued you will stop learning.





Bear in mind ( no particular order of importance ).

You MUST make progress else you will get bored and give up.

If you cannot touch type without thinking about it already then write it down - else you risk learning morse->key-press and will always need a keyboard and read back

Go too slow - waste time. Go too fast - maybe risk stalling at lesson 10-12 and have to restart.


Make sure you choose an audio frequency at which your ears can distinguish the characters. If you can't hear it you won't decode it. You can test this by listening to morse and repeating each character just after it finished ( whilst at the same time listening to the next one ). Try this at 25/25 and 20/20 first and see if it sounds like a buzz and all the same or not.
Doing something with one character whilst also listening for the next character is part of "head coping"


good luck with it.

Let us know how you get on.

Don't give up, ever - it's worth it in the end.


CB