[CW] ARRL survey.

[Gerry]

> ... I learned it as dots es hyphens on paper not as
sounds...

Aha!!!!!!!!!!!!

My guess--  The Lookup Table is the reason you're unable to
increase your copying speed.

A guess I'd bet my house on, based on my own bitter
experience.

Before you read the rest of this, read Dave Finley's article
"So You Want to Learn Morse Code" at
http://www.ees.nmt.edu/sara/sara/finley.morse.html


--------------------------------------------------------------


I too learned the code "the wrong way"--
    --first, I "memorized" it from a printed list of dots and
dashes.  (I did know enough to sound them in my head as dits
and dahs, but still I was looking at the dots and dashes)
    --second, I'd practice sending.  It didn't seem hard,
since I had it "memorized".  e.g., If I wanted to send "S" I
knew that was di-di-dit.
    --then I tried to copy.  It DID seem hard (unless the
speed was glacially s*l*o*w).  e.g., if I heard di-di-dit I
did not know BY REFLEX that that was "S"--  I'd have to
consult the "table" I'd memorized, sort of like "Let's see,
that's dot-dot-dot--  is it A (dot-dash)?...no...is it B
(dash-dot-dot-dot)?...no..." and so on until "is it S
(dot-dot-dot)?...YES!!).
    --through practice I got to where I could use this method
to copy 5 wpm and I got my Novice ticket (back when it was
one-year non-renewable).  I got on the air, and through brute
practice I got to 13 wpm and passed General.

Did you ever wonder why the test was at 13 wpm and not a nice
round number, such as 10 wpm or 15 wpm?  (And why Canada's
test was at 12 wpm?)  Because 13 wpm has been found to be the
"plateau"--  the absolute maximum speed at which one can copy
using The Lookup Table--  the speed beyond which you CANNOT GO
using The Lookup Table.

My advice--  START OVER--  learn the code "the right way"-- 
build reflexes in your brain that respond to the SOUNDS of the
characters.

Morse code is not something you SEE.  It is not something you
READ.  It is something you H*E*A*R.

Learn to copy at a speed that is too fast for The Lookup Table
to work.  20 wpm.  Build the reflexes.  Erase The Lookup
Table.

Two ways you might go about this--
    --the one I recommend is to download Ray Goff's very fine
(and free!) program from
www.qsl.net/g4fon.  It employs the Koch method (mentioned in
Dave Finley's article). You start copying at 20 wpm, but with
only two characters.  When you're getting them by reflex you
add a third, then a fourth ... until you've got 'em all.  (The
program offers slower speeds.  DO NOT USE THEM.  You'll only
reinforce The Lookup Table.)
    --another way I've heard recommended is to copy general
text at 20 wpm.  At first you might only get one character out
of every thirty, but stick with it and you'll start getting
one out of twenty-nine, one out of twenty-eight, one out of
....... .  And you'll start recognizing whole words like
"the" as WORDS, not as a series of letters.

You've expended great effort burning the The Lookup Table into
your brain.  It's BURNED in.  It's not going to give up
without a fight.  When you try copying at 20 wpm, when you
miss a character (which you certainly will at first) you will
probably find yourself powerless to avoid holding the
character in short-term auditory memory and running it through
The Lookup Table--  by which time you'll miss the next ten
characters.

Fight The Lookup Table, and eventually you'll get rid of it.

73 de W3GERry