[CW] I DID IT

[George, W5YR]

You bring back memories of the hours I spent with my Johnson Speedex hand
key and homebrew audio oscillator sending along with W1AW. Took me nearly a
year, starting in mid-1045,  to get to 13 wpm both sending and receiving,
but got the Class B ticket the first time around!

Three months later - working nothing but 20 CW - I was doing 25-30 wpm with
an ancient bug. Practice *does* make a difference!

73/72, George
Amateur Radio W5YR -  the Yellow Rose of Texas
Fairview, TX 30 mi NE of Dallas in Collin county EM13QE
"In the 57th year and it just keeps getting better!"
<mailto:w5yr@att.net>





----- Original Message -----
From: "David J. Ring, Jr." <n1ea@arrl.net>
To: "Tom Crawford" <TMCsail@sbcglobal.net>; "CW" <cw@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2003 3:44 PM
Subject: Re: [CW] I DID IT


> Congratulations Tom!
>
> I struggled with 4 words per minute for quite a while!
>
> The important thing many hams would like to express is that CW gets much
> much easier around 20 to 23 wpm, then it becomes a language about 23 wpm.
> It becomes a crazy melodic syncopated melody of meaning which beats the
> pants off of anything else we know.  It is so cool when you get up to that
> speed.
>
> But there are other joys - I loved learning to send on a hand key at 5
wpm -
> I used to mimic W1AW (off the air!) with a code oscillator - I sent right
> along with the radio by reading my QST magazine!
>
> Have fun!  Work some of the old timers - there are guys alive that used to
> work SPARK.  Yes!  Go talk to some of them.
>
> 73
> David Ring
> N1EA