[CW] Learning Morse
Danny Douglas
n7dc at comcast.net
Tue May 27 10:28:15 EDT 2008
As your know there are probably dozens of ways to teach/learn the code. I
somewhat developed my own back in the late 50s/early 60s. It you take a
book, written in English, and counted up each of the characters in our
alphabet you would find that several letters come out way ahead of others,
Just think of what is right here in this message alone. When that is done,
you will find that the letters: E T A I O N S, normally come out from E
being the most, to S being 6th in the list. At the end are Q,Z.Y, etc. Ole
man Morse wasn't so dumb about that. Think of the values given those
characters. E being used the most in the book, also has the shortest
character - a simple dit. T, second in the list with a simple dah. etc
etc.
So, lets teach the beginners with what they need the most, and the quickest.
I also had never heard of this guy Farnsworth, or "his" method of sending
fast dits and dahs, with extended space between them. I guess I must have
re-invented it. But, doesn't that happen more often than you would think?
Good ideas just crop up, over and over.
Anyway: sit down with the beginner(s), and an oscillator, and a hand key.
Give them paper and pencils and start-. Send an E, while sending it, say
it out loud. Do that over and over, until all the students can quickly
print it. Then add T , and send that many times, again waiting for them to
write it down. Now add A to the mix. Don't just send a slow A, but send it
at 20 wpm. then wait from them to write it down. Once they get the hang of
quickly printing your letters you can start actually increasing thruput
speed right here. Send your 3 characters over and over, giving them less
time to write them down, as you go along. Once the are 100 percent perfect
copy, add the the I to the mix. Send it several times, then mix it in with
the other characters, once at 100 percent again, add the next character. Do
that all the way thru the first group E,T,A,I,O,N,S. Now is the time to
start sending whole words. Make up words from that group of letters - and
there are a whole lot of them available. Now you are finished with.
Normally, that takes somewhere between a half hour to an hour. The fewer
the students - the shorter the period needed.
The next session, go back thru these letters a few times, at the beginning.
Repeating them, one letter at a time, several times. Send a few words to
insure they haven't forgotten what has already been taught, then start
adding the next group, one letter at a time. By the end of the second
session you will have taught 13-14 letter - plus added the period and
question mark. Make up short sentences and/or questions from those letters.
Again you will have spent another hour or so, and they KNOW half the
alphabet. The next two session you will have taught the "harder" but much
less used letters, and insure you use those new ones a LOT at the end of the
session, throwing in the easier letter now and then, to insure they have
used every letter as they go along. As to numbers. I normally use one
session to teach those, also insureing they know the period, ?, -, /,
comma,. During the last session, I normally send several sentences, and
radio exchanges, to get them used to that. and at the very end have them
simply practice copying my hand sent code. Supprise Supprise, I collect the
printed copy, and check it, and advise them they just passed 5 wpm.
(normally sent - by that time - at 20 wpm characters, 13 wpm spacing. I
have had whole groups suddenly find they passed the requirement (or what
used to be the requirement) for their license.
The character groups, as taught are:
E T A I O N S
U R C D G K L ?
B H W M V P F
Z Y X J Q /
NUMBERS 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0
I have also, at times, taken that last group of letters and mixed them in
the above groups. You do need to send them a LOT when you are mixing them
in with the previous group letters, to insure they get many more tries at
them, than the other characters, toward the end of the sessions.
Does it work? Yep! I have NEVER had even one student fail to learn to copy
code with this method, if they stayed with the program for at least 5 full
sessions.
I taught a group of Scouts, sitting under a tree at the nantional jamboree
site, this method, and at the end of the 3rd session - every one of them
passed 5 wpm for Novice. (Back in the day when one ham could give the
tests - since I was the only one there with them). Not only that, but after
the code was passed, we spent an hour a day on theory, antennas, etc. (one
session in the morning - same session repeated in the afternoon , in order
to get them all in) for the next 4 or 5 days, and EVERY ONE of them passed
their Novice test, when I sent them over to a volunteer team the day before
the end of the jamboree. One of them also took and passed Tech.
I had one boy, in my troop in Ethiopia, who sat with me, using this code
method, and went from not knowing a thing about Morse, to passing his Novice
code test,
IN 30 MINUTES. Usually, I throw the code sessions in, for a half hour or
so, during a one or one and a half hour class on amateur radio. Teaching
code half the period and technical stuff the other half. With groups of 10
or more, that usually takes a solid 4-5 months of study, one hour a week. I
dont teach the test. I teach the knowledge of what the questions mean, so
its NOT memorization of questions and answers. By the time they graduate,
they know how to design, and have built antennas, code oscillators, learned
to solder, identify parts, etc. As shown above, they COULD learn it faster,
but putting the time and work into it, encourages them to stick with it
afterward.
I do little of that, anymore. What with the code going down the tubes, and
the one-day Extra class sessions, I have become disenlusioned. Ocassionally
my club asks me to come out and teach a code class, and I do, but havent
done a Scout session in several years.
Danny Douglas
N7DC
ex WN5QMX ET2US WA5UKR ET3USA
SV0WPP VS6DD N7DC/YV5 G5CTB
All 2 years or more (except Novice)
Pls QSL direct, buro, or LOTW preferred,
I Do not use, but as a courtesy do upload to eQSL for
those who do.
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Ring" <n1ea at arrl.net>
To: "CW Reflector" <cw at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2008 12:38 AM
Subject: Re: [CW] Learning Morse
> OK, Danny, what is a good way? I'm all ears - except for the foot in
> my mouth! Yours recommendation is for stinky fish - so I gather you
> have a better way.
>
> 73
>
> DR
> N1EA
>
> On 5/26/08, Danny Douglas <n7dc at comcast.net> wrote:
> > My answer: Break it in half, wrap in newspaper, bury as deep as you can
> > dig.
> >
> > Danny Douglas
> > N7DC
> > ex WN5QMX ET2US WA5UKR ET3USA
> > SV0WPP VS6DD N7DC/YV5 G5CTB
> > All 2 years or more (except Novice)
> > Pls QSL direct, buro, or LOTW preferred,
> > I Do not use, but as a courtesy do upload to eQSL for
> > those who do.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "David Ring" <n1ea at arrl.net>
> > To: "CW Reflector" <cw at mailman.qth.net>
> > Sent: Monday, May 26, 2008 10:22 PM
> > Subject: [CW] Learning Morse
> >
> >
> > > Someone asked me what to do when they had a CD of 5 wpm Morse code.
> > >
> > > This is what I replied.
> > >
> > > Go slowly. Learn the lesson completely before going onward. I know
> > > you want to learn, but about three (3) letters a week to learn is
> > > about right. If you have a key and oscillator, you might want to
> > > "tap" along with the Morse.
> > >
> > > You know: Copy the Morse down. Look at it again while it plays. If
> > > it is not correct, correct it. Then when the Morse plays, tap out
the
> > > code on the key while you are listening to it and looking at the
> > > letters on the paper!
> > >
> > > This way you involve your 1) ears, 2) eyes and 3) hand/arm - three
> > > things are learning!
> > >
> > > I teach the longer "letters" first - I start with zero 0, then 9,
then
> > > 8, O (letter), 7, Q, Z, (Comma), G, M, 6, /, X, (BT) =, B, D, Y, C,
K,
> > > N, T
> > >
> > > I don't have my list anymore, but the idea is to help the student
> > > "LISTEN" to the whole code element. Since the student was taught
zero
> > > first, he will listen to all five dashes before deciding.
> > >
> > > The dots can also be done:
> > >
> > > 5, 4, H, 3, V, S, F, 2, U, I, 1, P, J, W, (AR) +, (STOP - period) .,
L, R,
> > A, E
> > >
> > > I usually mix some of the second list into the first list because it
> > > gets boring having each character start with a dash - but the first
> > > letter (5) doesn't get listened to! It is "the character that starts
> > > with the dot) - so it is always 5 - which is what I don't want to do!
> > >
> > > I hope this helps!
> > >
> > > 73
> > >
> > > DR
> >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > CW mailing list
> > > CW at mailman.qth.net
> > > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> >
> >
>
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