[Boatanchors] Relearning Code

[Rob Atkinson]

Congratulations on taking an interest in CW, which is a fine and
honorable undertaking.  I taught myself the code around 1971 using a
straight key (hand key) and a hallicrafters practice oscillator and a
tape recorder.  I had the ARRL book Learning the Radiotelegraph Code,
which I recommend if you can find a copy.  I worked on a group of
characters every day or two.  I'd spend about an hour every night
sending and sending into the tape recorder.  You don't have to worry
about making words.  Words are okay but random characters are okay too
because at first you don't have many characters to use to make words.
A day later I'd play back the tape to copy having forgotten what I
sent by then.  I continued in this way with review of previous lessons
for a month or so and by then I knew the alphabet and did the numbers
and some punctuation.  then it was keeping with it and getting better
and increasing speed.

I quickly grew tired of the straight key and got a bug.  That was way
better.  I was starting high school and had no money for fancy gear so
I only operated CW for the first 5 years or so.  to get better at CW
just do a lot of operating.

I have not really practiced what I preach.   As I have aged, I have
found the energy needed to operate CW (concentration) and hand muscles
have departed to some extent.  It is a lot easier to yack into a
microphone.  It also takes longer to have a nice QSO so when I  have
free time to operate which hasn't been much, I often slack off and
operate phone.  But CW is great in the dog days of summer when condx
are poor.   Another skill I let lapse was the ability to spell and
think about what I am saying and send all at the same time.  It seems
funny but knowing how to spell is obviously necessary but I don't give
it much thought until I am trying to send some word I can't spell, hi.
So you exercise your brain in different ways.

At some point, maybe not at first but later, you can make CW operating
much more fun in my opinion, by getting vintage gear.  An old class C
novice rig, VFO and a vintage but decent receiver and bug or TO Keyer
and vibrokey paddle make it a lot of fun.  Most hams nowadays run
plastic radios which to me make CW kind of dull.  Of course if you
already have a rig like a DX100 or 32V you are already set up.

re bugs:  I used to think a bug was a bug.  If you want to use one,
you should visit a ham with several and try them if he will let you.
Some have slop, others are crisp and solid.  Some are slow and others
fast with the weight all the way out.  You can have two vibroplexes,
same model but different times of manufacture and they'll feel
different.

73

Rob
K5UJ

On Sat, Aug 15, 2015 at 7:37 AM, David C. Hallam <dhallam at knology.net> wrote:
> I have not used Morse code in about 45 years.  I never was really very good
> at it because I learned the wrong way.  I got my speed up just to the point
> where I could just pass the FCC test.    I operated 15M CW for awhile in the
> mid 1960's but that was it.
>
> Has anyone had any experience with Morse Fusion as a method to learn
> (relearn) code.  As I understand it,  it starts out buy reading a novel one
> letter at a time.  You are not supposed to write down anything, but learn to
> turn the letters into words in your head. Then progress into hearing the
> story in code rather than spoken letters again not writing down anything.
>
> I would like to use CW again, but don't want to repeat the bad habits of
> trying to count dits and dahs and figure out the letter.
>
> David
> KW4DH
>
> --
> There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then
> you've made a measurement.
> If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.
> Enrico Fermi
>
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