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I've been stuck on the 15-16 wpm plateau for ages and while this would sound like a reasonable achievement, it is still not good for me to become confident to go on air.

Previously, I used to type the characters back on the LCWO interface, then, at the beginning of 2023, I started writing character on paper and then typing them on LCWO. I do this with word training and callsign training and with QRQ, Fabian's offline program for Linux.

It's over a year now and I haven't really found any improvement. I do 3-4 sessions a day, most days of the week.

Hi oc

The avoid typing "tip" is to stop people who can't already touch type
(that is to say people who can't just think of a letter and type it)

becoming keyboard dependent due to learning an association based on which key goes with which morse character,

rather than decoding the letter in their head and typing it automatically without thinking about it.

We cannot tell what anyone is like - so all and any "advice" is as-is based on anecdotal reports of previous problems.

The keyboard "issue" seems to be quite common, but I expect is far from universal.

You are certainly putting the time in.


Other tips reported include listening to faster morse for 30 seconds before exercising, which seems to have the effect of making your exercising seem slower
but which would also start to get you away from learning just to decode morse at one speed, which may be another trap.

Another, in my view, is the audio frequency vs your hearing response; any distortion of the sound will add to confusion, especially if it is random.

What happens if you listen on air? Most QSOs are rather formulaic with the same abbreviations, but enough different for it to count as exercising.

cb

I also found the frequency of the tone made a lot of difference, probably because my hearing is not the greatest.

My bet is that would make you "normal", then, as far as learning morse is concerned.


I have previously suggested, as a hearing test, listening to the morse then just repeating it back to yourself - WHILST listening for the next char at the same time, but not trying to decode the first char.

If you can't hear it to repeat back then you won't be able to decode it.

In my view, the repeating back means that you are keeping it in your memory, and you may well find that after a period that keeping it in your head means bit you are decoding quite a bit of it without even trying - which is probably what you are trying to achieve . . . the char just pops into your head seemingly from no-where.

Also, this mini two-things-at-once exercise in keeping the morse code in your head, may well be a first step towards head decoding; certainly it is a component.

The main issue though - is to make sure that your ears are getting the raw material.

We can all remember tunes etc - so I don't think the learning is the main issue,
and OC is certainly putting in the time, and has been doing so for a year or more;
so I think we need to work through the whole process from end to end, just to be sure . . .

YMMV

cb

Here's a thought. From another forum, a more experienced user commented that on air they only write down the call sign and possibly the location. The rest they just listen to, similar to a normal conversation.

Writing it down is part of the learning, but would you need to write down everything if you were on air? Listening and understanding what it is being sent would be the priority.