[CW] How to get proficient in morse?

[Radio K0HB]

John, that’s a great story.

Not because it has anything to do with morse code, but because it has to do with Grandpa and Grandson.

Reminds me of an old song, “Old dogs and Children, and Watermelon Wine”

73, Hans, K0HB


From: John Westerlage 
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 12:50 AM
To: CW Reflector 
Subject: Re: [CW] How to get proficient in morse?



After reading several of these posts, I finally decided to relate what I'm doing with my four-year-old grandson.


We are currently going through the McGuffey Readers (continuously published from 1836-1960).


After progressing through the fifth lesson in the first reader, it suddenly dawned on me that Zachary could learn the Morse code for each word as readily as he could the printed word.


Using ebook2cw  <http://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html>, I put the whole first reader into Morse at 40 WPM.  That may sound like an excessive speed, but after floundering around for about the first twenty words or so, he "got it."


He never questions the speed, or the method, or anything else.  That's the way he learned it and that's all there is to it.


After about the tenth lesson, when reasonably long sentences started to occur, he had zero problems doing what we call "head copy."  Now he hears entire paragraphs and, while he doesn't use a "stick," he can paraphrase what he's heard with a high degree of accuracy.


When he thinks at all about the difference between spoken language and Morse, he just thinks of it as a secret language that he and grandpa know and use.  He doesn't know that the code is supposed to be hard to learn, so he just does it.


He shows quite a bit of pride in being able to "translate" for his parents and other grandparents what he's hearing on the radio.  He's still quite shaky on that, though, since we haven't spent much time yet on abbreviations, Q-signs, etc.


He's starting to learn sending on my Bencher paddles and my homebrew hacksaw Cootie key.  I haven't yet decided whether to let him try the bug, but intuition tells me it probably wouldn't be a good move at this point.


As soon as he can grasp some electronics, I suppose he'll be getting licensed.


Finally, let me point out that Zachary is no Einstein, [except to his mother  ;-)  ], he's just an average, healthy kid who has had a somewhat unusual environment.


I wish now that I hadn't deleted the MP3s, but he doesn't need them anymore anyway.  I could have shared them, but they're easy enough to redo with ebook2cw.


I hope this helps encourage some folks out there.


John, N5DWI
CW Fanatic since 1956




  -------- Original Message --------
  Subject: [CW] How to get proficient in morse?
  From: "Michiel Wories" <mwories at hotmail.com>
  Date: Mon, October 10, 2011 10:23 pm
  To: "CW Reflector" <CW at mailman.qth.net>


  Hi,

  This is probably a question that pops from time to time. I had been learning morse code a while ago using the Koch method. I was able to reliably copy code at decent speed, but making a transition in copying real QSO’s seems a transition is seems hard.

  I read various articles about the do’s and don’ts and various learning techniques.

  I seem to be able to stuck however, when I am trying to copy a real QSO the brain goes in overload. Not even mentioning sending code.

  What helped you learn this? I realize not everyone learns the same, but I’d like to get some of the collective wisdom of this group.

  I also have a feeling having a practice buddy may help. Is there a system for this, ideally through the internet?

  I have to note I have limited time available. Maybe this is the core of the problem, but if there is a way to get there gradually, I’d love to know.

  Thanks,
  Michiel W7MJW

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