[CW] Code Oscillator CPO was: Request for help

[N7DC]

I believe that using a tone that is not so pure, and in fact rather 
raspy is a better way to teach code.  After all, the student is going on 
the air, and more than likely not going to hear a whole lot of pure 
notes, and without QRM.  In fact,  I just taught a group this past year, 
with which I had each Scout build his own oscillator out of pieces 
bought at Radio Shack:  a pizzo buzzer, battery holder, and wire.  Along 
with a couple of nails and a screw or two to hold it all together.  The 
key was the cover piece off the back of computers that normally covers 
the hole where circuit boards plug in - bent to a shape where one end is 
screwed into a wooden board that is the base of the keyer, and the other 
end is bent upward slightly to allow it to be used as the key - touching 
another screw or nail, which completes the circuit.  Cheap, effective, 
and every boy passed their test using their own homemade keyer.

Of course, one is unlikely to use something like this for an adult 
class, but it WAS fun and enjoyable for the kids to get involved, and 
each of them earned the Signalling Merit Badge, which had been brought 
(for just one year) after a 30 year hiatus, to celebrate Scoutings 100th 
birthday.

Getting a ham license, after extensive electronic, antenna, etc. theory 
is next on the schedule. None of the memorization of answers, without 
knowing what it means,for them.

-- 
N7DC

Danny Douglas
n7dc at comcast.net