[CW] Morse Training

Mon Jul 19 16:07:40 EDT 2010

I attended a Morse intercept school, back in 59-60 (even though I knew Morse somewhat, from Boy Scouts, and SWLing and as a Novice).  It was a 6 month course, that included typing, antennas, equipment, etc.  The Morse portion started with 8 hour days.  Started at 8 AM, thru 12PM with 10 minute breaks at 9 , 10 , 11.  Then most came back at 1 PM  and went to typing class, and went on till 4 PM, with breaks hourly.  Those, like myself, who immediately passed the typing test, wound up with code 8 hours a day.  That went on for almost 8 weeks. 

 After that, code continued with 4 hours daily, and other subjects the rest of the time.  The requirment was that we must pass 5 wpm, within the first 2 weeks, to continue the military occupational speciality (MOS).  I asked, the first day as to what happned if we didnt pass 5?  The answer, they would send us on to another MOS.  The Question "What MOS?"   The answer to that was: "Pole lineman, military police, cook"  .  I went in and passed 5 after about 2 hours. 

The final outcome expected was 20 wpm.  Those of us who achieved that earlier in the course, continued to sit and copy on MILLS (typewriters with all CAPS).  I finished with 32 wpm, which was the fastest tape they had at the time.  Being a ham, previously, helped. Also, having taken high school typing, and being a state interscholastic league winner in typing, helped tool :)

As an aside:  You were deemed only to have achieved a wpm speed, if you copied at that speed for 2 minutes,with no errors.  That means 50 letters, in 2 minutes, at 5 wpm.  or 250 letters in 2 minutes at 25 wpm. As your speed increased, you also had to increase the actual time copying so it worked out, that at 25 wpm, (If I remember) we had to copy perfect code for 25 lines on the page.  One line equaled 10 "words"  (5 letter5 code groups equal a word), so at 25 wpm, that equaled the 25 lines, without a mistake.    In this particular class, we did not transmit and were not required to be able to key at any speed.

Later on, I was the commo NCO for a special forces batallion.  In there we were required to only send at 15 wpm.  After my service time, I was employed by the US Dept of State as a communicator, and then a Dept of Defence communicator, and was required to send/receive at 25 wpm, but in all actuallity I had passed 40 wpm receive, and close to 28 send, using a Vibroplex.   Some circuits I copied, during my career, would go for hours at 40-42wpm.   There is no way I can sit and send at those speeds today, but still do copy QSOs in that range.  By copy, we mean WRITE IT DOWN.  Thats not head copy.  I cant remember three letters behind, and head copy might reach 25 wpm, if I am only required to try to remember names, etc. 

Danny Douglas
N7DC
ex WN5QMX ET2US WA5UKR ET3USA SV0WPP VS6DD N7DC/YV5 G5CTB
All 2 years or more (except Novice). Short stints at:  DA/PA/SU/HZ/7X/DU
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  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Westerlage 
  To: CW at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 1:50 PM
  Subject: [CW] Morse Training

  I'm curious about some of the advice about learning Morse.

  I no longer remember exactly how I learned Morse, or how long it took, since I've been using it daily since 1956.  But I do remember that it was a kind of hit or miss type thing - no formal training.  And one day I just realized that I was head copying.

  Nowadays, some of the newer online or pc-based trainers have help files advising not to practice for more than 5-15 minutes at a time.  To me, that sounds like WAY too little.  They also advise not to practice when too tired, too frustrated, too sick, or too whatever.

  But I wonder about the old commercial Morse training schools in the heyday of Railroad or American Morse telegraphers and the military training in International Morse.  

  What kind of time schedule did these training regimes maintain?  Was it eight hours per day?  How many breaks, and how long were the breaks?  How many days or weeks did the training last?  What was the attrition (dropout) rate?

  It just doesn't seem feasible for a commercial or military school to pamper students the way these modern trainers advocate. 

  I sometimes, now that I'm retired, put in a 10 hour day on the air, and never get tired of Morse.

  I'd sure like to be able to accurately tell these new guys how it happened in the "old days."  Any thoughts?

  john, n5dwi

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