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​Using lesson five (KMUERS). With the character speed set to 20 wpm and the effective speed set to 10 I can paper copy a group length of 4 without error. If I change the effective speed to 15 and the group length to 2 I can paper copy without error. When I change the group length to 3 I will miss a character here and there but still copy around 90 percent. When I change the group length to 4 I can only get about 80 percent. I miss the first letter, concentrate on that, and miss subsequent letters. I am learning to leave missed letters blank and try and continue but sometimes I just LOSE it!

I want to move on with the settings that will give me the most benefit down the line. I have decided to keep the character speed at 20. My question is what effective speed should I be using 10 or 15 or perhaps 12? What group length should I be using?

Good morning Gerry. This page suggests the use of 20x15, as this approach will be more benificial to you later. I practiced this very same way when I began and it was certainly not easy but I was able to get 90 percent in the Koch drills over time. Everyone is different but this process took me well over a year. Your's could be shorter, or may be longer, however the reason to keep speed up is so you can gain faster speed later, and eventually you will start to recognise by sound, cadence, melody, and your fatigue listening will lengthen. Allowing you to stay focused longer as your mind really starts to accept these foreign sounds that become understanable characters and speech. My goal initially was to be able to head copy at a faster rate one day, and I believe this approach allowed me to do just that. Morse Code is not as easy as I originally believed. But the journey is great, learning and conquering inital tests, later words, numbers and hopefully sentences one day. This is all possible. My advice is to concentrate with 15 minutes every day, stick with it and progress will happen. Be patient, though I know this process can be difficult. I remember being stuck at times for weeks on a particular lesson and one day it just clicked. I would introduce a new letter to the mix and it seemed to make me forget the previous characters, at times this was overwhelming but again this worked itself out too.

One last suggestion, enjoy the journey of learing the morse code foundation, there is no race. Today I am still trying to improve my headcopy and I practice everyday making tiny advances over time in my copy speed, introducing new words in morse for the first time for me to hear. Morse code has become part of my life and my daily routine and I find it magical. I hope you do as well. Best of luck on your CW journey and I hope you find something in this message useful.

Frank good morning. Thanks for the suggestions. I will stay with the 20x15 approach and keep the word length at 3 chars for now. I am 82 and wear hearing aids and having a hard time learning to copy. I have been up through lesson 11 at 20x5 and 20x10 with good success and am now working on getting up to lesson 10 at 20x15. My goal is simple I want to get on the air at 12wpm or so. I have no wish for going faster than that. Hopefully I can accomplish this in my life time :),

Your welcome and I hope you reach your goal soon.