[CW] ARRL survey.

[David J. Ring, Jr.]

Ron,

I finally understand why you've been having so much trouble.  It always
baffled me because you like (love?)( CW, but you've been saying how
difficult it has been for you.

You said it in this message - "I learned it as dots es hyphens on paper not
as sounds..."

Me, too.  I couldn't copy 1 wpm that way.  I went for two years until I went
to a local ham radio class whenere the instructor told me that I had to
LISTEN to the SOUND and then write it down.

I know people say "copy by the word"... but this fellow copied by the sound,
letter by letter - and he could type about 120 wpm, so he had no problem
getting the W1NJM Society of Wireless Pioneers code award at 55 WPM during
the now defunct "High Speed Qualifying Runs" that W1NJM ran with the SOWP.
(* www.sowp.org *)

But listen to the sound.  Turn a radio on, and listen to some code.   Maybe
these days it is best to buy a program that plays code because there isn't a
code source that's on 24 hours a day like NSS used to be when I was
learning.

The First Word I "heard" at 20 wpm (I could only copy about 3 wpm at the
time!) was "THE" - I recognized that "thing" flying around again and again.
I finally had to listen to it about 20 times before I was able to write down
the "dots and dashes" to verify what I was hearing - but there it was
finally:  DAH    DI-DI-DI-DIT   DIT ... and then it came over the radio
again, "THE" and I heard it was a "group".

That showed me that I could "get" faster code - something that I doubted
then.

73

DR
David Ring, N1EA


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ronald KA4INM Youvan" <ka4inm at tampabay.rr.com>
To: "cw" <cw at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2004 9:45 PM
Subject: Re: [CW] ARRL survey.


> While there are some people with legitimate problems that prevent them
from
> learning CW by ear, I can't possibly believe that 90% of the people who
> complain about having that problem actually do.  I believe that most of
the
> people who "can't" learn CW just don't want to commit their time to
learning
> it.

   I worked to learn Morse code from 1957 until 1973 when a chum had code
class
in his kitchen.  I have always been able to send faster than I could
receive.
   I drove everywhere whistling every sign (billboard and street) that I
saw, I
could copy about 1 wpm.  I learned it as dots es hyphens on paper not as
sounds,
I needed HELP to learn morse code.  Listening to 40 meters was gibberish the
entire time.  I am NOT musically inclined.  With a 12 inch high stack of
books
on Morse code I could not learn it by my self.  I didn't know how to learn
it!

   I have met thousands of people (since 1957) that told me the same thing,
most they were a novice for one year, and couldn't relearn the code at 13+
so
they lost their ticket forever.

   Since WWII HAMs have mostly not taken the time to help beginners how to
be a
HAM.  We lost a LOT of good HAMs because of the attitude: "I did, they can."

   My friend Orbra W4BIN built a receiver, heard Morse learned it without
any
help from anyone, I wish I could have, I couldn't.
   I love Morse code, I am not gud at it.
-- 
        73 (= Best Regards) de: Ron ka4inm at tampabay.rr.com
     100% LINUX, since July, 1997   SENT Time and Date are UTC
        Visit my HAM Web SITE at: http://www.qsl.net/ka4inm

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