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ag6aq AJ7BH Alex1964 ARAKI bg6qgo DL7TBR HB9HYB hobartjim iz2aje janvi jk3mvn jm1tqh kf5alo LB9JJ Lordof5WPM Martine masa220124 Mote mumpsimus N2KRO OE2PFN Oe5mzl oz6abj R3XCZ sp2mki sp8it SQ9OKG TacticalTimmyAdventures ym

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When I moved down from 20/15 to 20/12 I was able to get it 100% correct. No errors!

I was wondering if there's some sort of plan I should follow to get up to speed.

Up to 20/13 now. I guess this is the way to go. Keep upping it and then go to the next lesson at 20/12.

Hopefully I'll be proficient in time for when my QCX is delivered.

Hi Oliver

You seem to me to be doing fine for three months of a learning a new strange art.

That being said I think its probably best to get through all the exercises before worrying about speed.

Try writing freehand. See if you can listen whilst writing.

Have you tried 18/18 ?

Decode lots of morse. It's a case of repeat repeat repeat until it happens as a subconscious reaction, without you thinking about it.

Don't extect it to be a quick or trivial exercise - unless you have a high aptitude . .

good luck, enjoy,

let us know how you are getting on.

YMMv as ever

CB

On to lesson 7 now. The addition of letter A has not been an issue so far. When I'm tripping up it's been on the previous letters so going to stick with 7 for a little longer. Up to 20/14 with lesson 7.

Just got to keep plugging away like you say.

I've also been decoding callsigns on SDRs and then checking RBN to confirm. If the signal is clear I'm getting the vast majority within two rounds of CQs. Hopefully this will help too.

An important point I think is that while the experiences of others are often helpful, it seems to me that this is a very individual experience and the best way to progress can be different for each person. On the other hand, M0WAS and I do seem to be having somewhat similar experiences.

I've also be at it for a few months, and probably don't put quite enough time into it each day. Today I moved up to lesson 9. My strategy was (is) to find
the speed at which I feel my progress is 'steady'. At the moment it's 20/14, though I occasionally up the words rate just to see what happens and usually have the same experience of 'losing it' in terms of copying accurately. I was helped by realising that until you submit your transcript the 5 letter groups (which is what I using at the moment) repeat so if I
lose the plot at some point I can restart the exercise and pick it up again from where it all went wrong.

Also, I never go on to the next lesson before I have scored 100% over several exercises.

Nick

I don't think you should play it back again, just score it and run it again.

I'm up to lesson 14 at 20/13. I will up it to 20/14, then 20/15 then start the next lesson at 20/12.

I realised that when I'm struggling, that's just learning. If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.

Sometimes all that's needed is a good sleep and it's magically a bit easier the next day.

Hello, I am also lost getting 80% of the lessons right and when I go to the next lesson it is because there are about 3 or 4 with zero errors, I pass the lesson, but at 25/9 speed more than 9 I am already lost... .I will be doing well….practice and practice right? Not knowing is what it takes…..lesson 17…

This is all correct - no one knows anything about you - so how can anyone advise you what you should be doing.

Also the main factor in learning morse is APTITUDE, which comes from a mix of the full range of the different factors involved eg.

motivation ( are you in two minds now after all this time exercising )
correct level of concentration ( do you sit down to lcwo and start dreaming or thinking about work tomorrow ?)
relaxing and letting you brain do the work ( without letting your imagination drift)
hearing ( can't hear it - can't learn it - do your ears distort sudden noises like bips or do you need to choose a better audio frequency ? )
headphones ( comfortable ? / distorted sound ? too loud/soft ? )
background noise ( are you listening for what the kids/dog are doing )
disturbances ( are the kids or dog actually doing something ? )
are letters / spelling your thing anyway ?



We can however point out a few traps - like :-

getting keyboard bound
wizzing ahead as far as exercise 10, then finding it didn't sink in properly and that now you need to re-do it all
not making progress and giving up due to boredom


The drop out rate seems to be rather high - maybe 90% of starters think it's easy to learn morse, and get disillusioned.



Generally we advise getting through the exercises well before you get fed up ( if not ASAP ) - and then worrying about speed.

i.e. not doing a exercise at 25/12 than 25/ 13/14/15 etc

So you don't have to exercise at 20 or 25 wpm. 10/2 will do if it gets you through . . .


If it's quicker to get through the exercises, you may be better at 18/15 ( try 17/17 ) than 25/12.

Then think about speeding up - when you can decode whole passages of text for practice.


Don't worry too much about "i s h 5" issues either at this stage.

As you become proficient and your hearing gets attuned, morse will seem to get slower somehow allowing you to speed up . . .


Note:- YMMV - we don't know anything about you ( did I mention that ? )


If you are one for tricks-of-the-trade, then try a faster rate then you can handle for a couple of mins
- then drop back to your normal rate for the lesson session.
Seems to help some people.


In the end though its - repeat, repeat, repeat, until it becomes second-nature and you can decode without really having to think about it.

It's worth it in the end.

Good luck - enjoy.

Let us know how you are getting on . . .


CB