[CW] Learning Morse Code

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Learn Morse Code! Switch it up. Write letters down, don't write them down.
Listen to an eBook, make one here: http://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html …
<https://t.co/IQsGMRhVOf> or play one of these: https://
starling.us/free/morse/  <https://t.co/eaMTjOguhN> the K8YD Morse Page -
full of good stuff.

He has interesting advice.  I agree with it, after you learn to copy 100%
then you can "get the gist of it" or pick up needed words like call signs
and RST for pile ups, but you need to be able to copy accurately.

As K8YD points out;

Write it down. Write all of it down all of the time. Making hard copy is
Morse code’s original purpose. Western Union telegraphers did not just
listen and then speak the gist of what it was they thought they had heard.
No one would pay for such sloppy service. They wrote everything down. Back
when I was still in the navy I went to school in Charleston SC where they
taught me how to build mines. My barracks roommates for a while were a pair
of radiomen going to code school. From the very beginning they were tought
to make hard copy of all they heard. This they were trained to do on
typewriters, the point being that you can still type even at the highest of
speeds. So then, hard copy. That is the goal.

On a related note, know also this. When on the radio someone asks, ‘Do you
copy?’, what that properly means is, ‘Are you making a record?’ Which is to
say, writing it down, typing it out, or engaging the printer. When they are
wanting only to ask if you can make out what they’re sending, then is when
they ask instead, ‘Do you read?’ It never fails to annoy me when Hollywood
gets that dead wrong. Even worse is when they say, ‘Over and out’, which is
exceedingly rude. Saying ‘out’ means, ‘I now leave the air.’ Which is to
say that that I now go away, I no longer listen, usually because of turning
my radio off. Whereas ‘over’ means ‘It is now your turn to talk.’ We must
keep our meanings precise: read/copy mean two different things, as do
over/out.

Sorry for that little diversion. I just needed to vent for a moment.
Ahem... So then, hard copy. It’s faster and you make fewer mistakes. And
such few misakes as you make will matter less, because you won’t stumble.
How that works is like for typists. Old time secretaries typed 90 wpm by
training their fingers to respond directly to what was seen with the eyes.
They didn’t think too very hard about what they typed because that just
gets in the way. Better was just to let the text flow from sensory input to
tactile output. Best is to detach one’s awareness of future and past and
float lightly upon the current of now. A meditative state, if you will. If
the mind is busy analyzing, trying to keep up with the instant of now, then
it is certain to stumble upon each and every surprise. So then, do not
decypher words letter-by-letter. Don’t be trying to read a word until after
that word is done. Don’t read it until after the following space. Then at
the soonest. Better yet, read from two or three words behind. Meanwhile let
your subconcious route signals from ear down to fingers. If you learn to
just let it flow from ears straight to paper, this without thinking, then
any little mistake that you do make won’t give you that instant of panic.
Avoiding the panic prevents a stumble. Panic over a single letter cause
those stumbles which cost the whole of a word. Loss of a word gives an even
bigger panic, tripping the listener up so badly as to lose the next word
also. It’s a chain reaction that way. So then, don’t listen to the word
now. Read it instead after it’s written. Likewise only write a letter after
hearing all of it. Write it smoothly, not fast and jerky. Write it while
you are hearing the letter to follow. In short, be a follower of what
you’re hearing. Write the letter you’ve heard while you are hearing the
next. Read only whole words after they’re already written. Do it like how
you follow a person, from a distance, not stepping right on their heels.

Learn signals by the sound of their rhythm. This you can’t do at 5 wpm, nor
yet even at 10 wpm. Space them apart as slow as you like, but hear each
separate signal sent at a fast speed. Hear them so fast you don’t have time
to count dits and dahs. Hear them like little snatches of music. Let your
subconcsious attend the distinction, each by its rhythm. Then train your
fingers to write it all down, but to write smoothly. Don’t write in haste.
There’s no need to finish the letter you’ve just heard before the next
letter begins. Learn to follow behind whatever you hear. Write it down one
letter behind so that you’re not trying to guess. Read what you’ve written
two or even three words behind

Learn them in groups a few at a time. Don’t add another until the ones
already learned sound like letters and not combinations of dits and dahs.
Move on like that. There are programs other than mine to help you with
that. Mine is mainly to help you build speed. Or to regain speed you once
had but since have lost. However you learn, though, get in the habit to
write it all down. Let your subconscious route the signals from ear
straight to fingers. If ever you build your speed up to 30 wpm and higher,
then maybe you can’t write so fast. A typist could keep up, though, I’m
certain, since that is what the navy required. Time enough then, to just
relax and maybe listen only by ear. But since you’re here, reading this
now, chances are good you’re not there yet.

He also recommends these sites:

*Visit: *  DJ1YFK   <http://fkurz.net/ham/ebook2cw.html>   DL2KCD
<http://www.schlaupelz.de/Alice_in_Wonderland.html>   K7QO
<http://www.k7qo.net/>   AC4FS
<http://www.hotpeppersoftware.com/downloads/pom_downloads.html>   AA9PW
<http://aa9pw.com/morsecode/>   G4FON
<http://www.g4fon.net/CW%20Trainer.htm>   K5TR
<http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr/audio/sprint_practice/>   AH0A
<http://ah0a.org/AH0A.html>   M0TRN   <https://github.com/sunny256/cwwav>
  W5BRB   <http://c2.com/morse/>   W0UCE
<http://www.w0uce.net/Morsecode.html>   SMRCC
<http://www.smrcc.org.uk/Morse/morse.htm>   SKCC
<http://www.skccgroup.com/member_services/learning_center/>

The last SKCC link has to appear dark because I selected from that side to
copy the buttons :-)

There was an exceptional page on Morse Code teaching that I failed to  send
on, or bookmark.  Memory has it that it was associated with the Potomac
Valley Amateur Radio but it's no longer there, or perhaps never was there.

73

DR

N1EA
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