[CW] Code Oscillator CPO was: Request for help

[N7DC]

On 2/7/2012 10:51 AM, wealsowalk at aol.com wrote:
> You do hear them now and then but I suppose you are mostly right.  
> When it comes to obtaining the transmitter, people nowadays just go 
> down to the store and buy a transceiver.
> Bill
> AC6QV
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Manship <mjmanship at iquest.net>
> To: cw <cw at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Mon, Feb 6, 2012 2:06 pm
> Subject: Re: [CW] Code Oscillator CPO was: Request for help
>
> Where do you hear all these non-pure notes?
>
>
> I haven't heard a chirp or a buzz in quite some time.
>
>
>
>
>
> 73 de Mike W9OJ
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 2/6/2012 8:04 AM, N7DC wrote:
>
>
> >  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.
>
>
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> =30=
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> =30=
I guess that my statement was probably a bit too much, but yes we still 
hear some poor tones now and then, and even chirps.  But, with the QRM 
increasing, because of greater numbers of signals on;  the audio we hear 
is not "pure" but often garbled , having been mixed with QRN and QRM.  
Thus,learning to copy code with a pure, non-interfered-with, tone is 
still not preparing one to copy signals with those that we might hear on 
the air.  I often have trained students with not-so-pure tones, as well 
as providing background noises, and manually turning the audio volume up 
and down as I am sending.  That, along with requiring them to write 
every letter down, truly prepares them for off the air copy.  Back in 
the days (seems so long ago) that they had to pass an official test, I 
do not remember one student who failed to do so.  Of course the "fix" 
was in.  I didn't send them to take the test until I knew they could and 
would pass.    I guess that statement is a little wrong too, as once in 
a great while, when it was still possible for one person to test for 
Novice, I would have a class copying and suddenly stop the practice and 
ask each of them to pass in their copy.  If I found one minute of the 2 
or 3 minute , 13 wpm hand-keyed text- they just passed their Novice 
CW.    Usually that was a class of 6-7 or more.  One time, I had a 
one-on-one 12 year old Scout who passed that test - 30 minutes after he 
first started learning the code.  That's right, he learned the  whole 
code, including numbers and was giving back solid copy in one half 
hour.  There are probably some out there that have done it quicker, but 
I do not know any.   It certainly was not unusual for a group to pass 
the  whole Novice exam, code and written tests  with just 6-10 hours of 
classroom study.  Take a look at  Google and "1985 National Scout 
Jamboree" for an article about ham radio there.  The organizers hadn't 
even planned to give a class, but made a mistake by putting me on the 
front "greeting" desk the first 3 days.  By the second  day, I had about 
a dozen of them asking for classes.  I was removed from the regular 
rotation of jobs, and let loose a couple of hours a day to teach code, 
once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  Within 3 days, all of 
them had passed CW and clamoring for the rest of the"story".  So I took 
another period a day, teaching the same subject twice a day, and went 
thru the whole Novice information.  Started from "what is an electron" 
right thru antennas.  And, since the kids knew the subject: the next to 
last day of the Jamboree, I sent  them over to the testing team where 
they took their tests.  This was during the same period that so many 
adults were yelling that they couldn't learn the code.  I contend it 
simply had to do with how most were trying to  do so.

-- 
N7DC

Danny Douglas
n7dc at comcast.net

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