I received an email from Carl 2E0CWC asking if there was a Mentor in the Midlands to help him with his Morse, to which I replied “NO” but I would be willing to Mentor him by email and asked him to send me details of his Morse Proficiency and Problems. This was his reply: Continue reading
Our first session commenced in early November with a class compliment of eight. We started with single character sound recognition at a speed of around 14WPM. This procedure was continued for about three weeks when five letter groups were next introduced still at around 14WPM. Continue reading
Happy New Year and lets make our New Year resolution to help others achieve the same enjoyment we get from using CW.
I have had good news from Tom EI5CA about the Morse Class he started late last year and he has ended up with 5 students dedicated to learning Morse. Well Done Tom and hope you will share your experience with us.
I am giving a presentation using Microsoft Power Point at my own club in February which will then be the start of a club Morse Training Group for all levels of CW, I seem to have plenty of interest at the moment for it.
If anyone wants my Power Point presentation I will put a download on this site once I have polished it up.
I would like to hear from anyone else starting teaching Morse and how it worked out for them so either comment on this post or send me a message.
Keep pounding the pump handles and encourage others to learn how to do it in 2012
A Happy and Prosperous New Year to All
Ian G4XFC
This is something that I do in my head like a lot of experienced Morse operators but the subject of writing it down has reared it’s head a couple of times recently. It is very rare that I write anything down these days as most of my work is down on a keyboard, but the times I do pick up a pencil I would find it difficult to copy 20wpm. Continue reading
After a recent email from Bill W5WMB about his progress in learning Morse code and how he was starting to copy in his head, I realised that the subject of copying Morse code in your head needed a bit of coverage to avoid any misconception about it and not to try and do it too early in the learning process.
Most experienced CW operators copy most of the QSO in their head and only write down the relevant parts of the standard contact RST, Name and QTH. When you are skilled enough to do this, all of a sudden CW becomes even more enjoyable and suddenly you are talking to people using CW without really thinking about it. You should find it quite easy to follow a basic QSO without writing it all down as it is usually sent in a standard defined format.
Before you think about copying Morse Code on your head, you should be competent at copying CW speeds at about 15 words per minute with no problems. If you have to think about the Morse characters then you are going to find it very hard to try and read it i your head as you will have an even longer thinking time and remember that reading Morse code should be a reflex action to gain any sort of competence.
One of the hardest things to do is to find enough confidence to throw away your pencil but when you have done it, the Morse experience becomes even more pleasurable but don’t try it to early in the learning process.
At LCWO.net you can learn Morse telegraphy (CW) online in your browser. You don’t need to install a program on your computer, and you always have your personal settings available, from any computer on the globe with an Internet connection. You can also easily track your progress by means of different statistical functions. For the learner a course is available using the Koch Method but it is also a good site for any Morse operator to advance his skills further and it is free to use. Continue reading
One of the biggest hazards of learning Morse is the Crib Sheet or Flash Card with the character and Morse equivalent written down for you to look at. You can learn Morse code with these aids, but you can’t use it and end up with the counting syndrome again which leads back to a previous post “Still Counting?“. Morse is a language and should be listened to. Continue reading
I was helped to learn Morse by G3GCU an ex Bomber Command RO
about 1952. I well remember him saying that slow, machine accurate
Morse is NOT the way, one has to learn letters at say 12-15 wpm from
day one, with big gaps to keep the WPM down to what you can handle.
Like the phrase “six teenagers” which gives three different meanings
if said too slowly, as the brain tries to interpret what it has
already got.
Regarding tried and tested methods, I once heard of someone who had
“always” taken the hot ashes out in a bucket. On day his son-in-law
bought him a polythene bucket !!!!! He blamed the son-in-law, not the
method.
73’s
Barry G3JGO
Thanks Barry the more messages and comments we get the better for the Crusade.
Your Morse Aptitude is your personal ability to learn Morse Code and some find it easier than others to learn. Most armed forces professional Morse operators would have taken a Morse aptitude test before they started learning, this is because the government did not want to spend lots of money training someone who was going to find it very difficult to learn. If you failed the aptitude test you were redirected to another occupation. Continue reading