[CW] "THE SECRETS OF CW" by Frank Merritt, VE7FPM

[Danny Douglas]

AND FOR THE REST OF THE STORY.   Darn computer went out in the middle of the email :



The only secret to CW is called PRACTICE.  Having taught it to hundreds of boys, I always had to hold back the horror in my face when an adult said he COULDN'T learn.  I wanted to tell him the word was WOULDN'T.  I send characters at 20 wpm to learners, with 5 wpm spacing between characters, and a hand key.  As they gain confidence, I shorten the spacing, and viola, I soon am able to tell them they just passed the code test, at 20 wpm.    In 1985 I did that at the Boy Scout national jamboree, and a group of 8 or so boys, and one adult did that in 3 days.  One to two hours a day. Those same students then spent an hour a day with me, and a wooden black board, learning the rest of the info needed and passed Novice, with one of them also passing Tech at the end of camp.  They wanted it!


The military used tapes, (or records if you are an old guy), and it took 6 months for some of the 120 in my class, to get up to speed and graduate at 20 wpm.  A few never made it to 5 wpm in 2 weeks, and were dropped and reassigned to new military occupational specialties.  Only two of us were hams, so we passed the first day.  There was also typing class half a day, and that too was boring, since I had typed at state contest speed in high school.  Drove me bats.  It did one thing though- ruined my typing, using those darn MILLS. 






N7DC at ARRL.NET
Ex WN5QMX,WA5UKR,ET2US,ET3USA,SV0WPP,VS6DD,N7DC/YV5/G5CTB
QSL Bureau, DIRECT, LOTW Preferred, eQSL used but upload at a courtesy only, as do not use the system for awards.



 

> ______________________________________________________________
>     CW mailing list
>     Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
>     Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>     Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
>     CW List ARCHIVES: http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/
>     Unsubcribe send email to
>     cw-unsubscribe at mailman.qth.net
>     Subscribe send email to cw-subscribe at mailman.qth.net
>     Support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> 
>     =30=
> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/attachments/20170130/142f9e2c/attachment.html>