[CW] CW Timing

[David Toepfer]

I have recently been (re-)training myself CW.  I learned for my Novice in the
late 80's (as I recall) but at the waste-of-time rate of 5wpm.  And in this
effort I have done a bit of studying and am working on my own method of
learning.  Of course, the long and short of it is all you need is desire and
commitment and keep doing it and eventually you will be able to do it.  I do
not have the experience to say about the ability to attain good or not with any
arbitrary method.  But one of the things I have noticed about CW timing is that
there is that the timing ratios we learn are interesting, but they seem
arbitrary beyond the dit:

dit		1
element space	1
dah		3
letter space	3
word space	5


But if you have ever taken music you may notice, if you change your perspective
a little, a different relationship:


dit		1
	still start with a unit

space		1
	element space, again, just a unit

dit+space	2
	dit followed by an space
	every dit is followed by a space

dit-space	2
	a rest in the time of a dit+space following
	preceeded by the trailing space from the last element

(dah		3)
	this is defined back from what is defined next

dah+space	4
	a dah exists in the time of 2x dit+spaces
	preceeded by the trailing space from the last element

word-space	6
	a rest in the space of 3x dit-spaces
	preceeded by the trailing space from the last element


     P          A        R       I      S              P          A
_ ___ ___ _   _ ___   _ ___ _   _ _   _ _ _       _ ___ ___ _   _ ___
            
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


The line below the CW for PARIS PA is a dit crack, kind of line when you count
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 in music.  Notice, every element starts on the start of a dit
in the dit track, and every space starts with a space in the dit trace.  So,
simply, if you keep your timing even as in music, with every dit as a dit and
every dah as long as a "di dit", and if you say "dit" in your head between
letters, and you say "di di dit" in your head between words then that is all
you need.  This may seem awkward to someone who already has a fine fist and
intuitive timing, but for a place to start, I have found it useful, as many
have in learning timing when they are learning music.

I apologise if this has been observed before, but I felt like it is something I
should share in case it has not been.

dt
.