[CW] ARRL SURVEY - Learning Code

[N7DC at cs.com]

I first "learned" morse code using one wig-wag flag, in Scouts.  Now that is NOT the way to learn code either, but at least I knew the dots and dashes combinations.  We also learned how to send and receive using a small "oscillator" which had a light bulb which blinked the code.  That was so we could pass messages at night, when the flags couldnt be seen.  One time we did use the flag at night, standing in front of a car with its lights on.  Weird.

I then joined a small radio club, of high school students, and studied using a hand keyd oscillator.   Could pass close to 5 wpm send, and about 10 wpm receive then.  I graduated and went into the army, where I flunked the E,T,A test ( or whatever the 3 letters were)  The army in its good follow-up, then sent me to communications school, where in 6 months they expected me to pass 24wpm, know all about antennas, transmitters, receivers, props, etc.   I came out of the class as number 2 out of 130, and got my choice of overseas posts (that were available), thus wound up in Ethiopia.  Now wasnt that a good un?

At least, thousands of hams worldwide liked it, when they got a contact from ET2US, later ET3USA.  During that period, I developed my own method of teaching code, running the letters at about 18 wpm, with 5 wpm spaces.  I taught it to hundreds of scouts over the past 44 years, and had one kid who learned so quickly that he knew the entire alfabet and numbers, plus .,? etc. in 30 (YES THIRTY) minutes in his first lesson.  He had never heard the code let alone studied it.  

I have never had a student who failed the code test, after a few hours of one on one study with me sending with a straight key, or later with a keyboard.  Every one of them was there because he wanted to be, and had a reason to learn it - NOVICE.   Too bad, ARRL and FCC decided that was no longer a valid step in the license structure.

Danny