[CW] Farnsworth Method

[Richard Knoppow]

     I figured most of this out. When I started to learn I had an 
Army ww-2 vintage book. Most of whats in it is wrong.
     I can copy in my head at about 30 WPM and sometimes faster 
until my ears get fatigued. Writing in caps is limited to maybe 
15 WPM, in longhand much faster. I found typing code is somewhat 
different from typing from text. I work at it but am no where 
near as fast as I am with text. I learned typing more or less the 
right way and am fairly good at it. Mostly I decided some years 
ago to learn to read in my head and that one had to do that even 
if writing it down. At this point letters at 30 still are 
distinctive but somewhere near 40Wpm they are not any more. Might 
be my damaged hearing. I was always able to send faster than I 
could read (not a good sign) and was complemented on my good 
fist. My arthritis gets in the way a little. I think sending and 
receiving are completely different skills.
    I NEVER counted dots and dashes but have seen that method 
actually recommended in some very old books.
    I have a couple of Instrutograph machines and a pretty full 
set of Continental Morse tapes (I think from someone on this 
list). Once in a while I fire it up on a Bud Codemaster. Works 
OK. Of course the individual letter speed and spacing changes 
with the overall speed. I've hooked it up to a sounder and find I 
can't read from the sounder at all. Different skill. I have no 
American Morse tapes, they seem to be very rare.

On 4/22/2019 5:04 PM, Ron.K3PID wrote:
> I agree with Joe! Listen at 30 WPM and forget letters! If you 
> think about it, you can copy CQ in your head at almost any speed 
> because you know the rhythm of CQ. the same applies to short 
> words like THE, Who, Why, QTH, QSO, on and on and on. build your 
> vocabulary not your alphabet. Slow code is teaching bad habits...
> 
> Just my opinion...
> Ron K3PID
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message----- From: Joe Pontek Sr
> Sent: Monday, April 22, 2019 6:34 PM
> To: cw at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [CW] Farnsworth Method
> 
> I believe learning the characters (letters) at a higher speed is 
> best.
> I started, like many of us old timers (62 years), at 5 WPM.
> I switched my teaching method to starting at 20 plus WPM.  It 
> knocked
> off the very bad habit of counting dits and dahs to
> listening to a whole character's sound.  15 WPM is still too 
> slow.  At
> 20 WPM and higher character speeds, you quickly form
> letters into words and progress to higher speeds, which should be 
> your goal.
> 
> And, throw away the pencil!  Driving down the road copying CW, you
> cannot write down CW you copy.  You can copy conversational
> CW at 30 WPM and higher quite easily.
> 
> 73, Joe, K8JP/K5
> 
> On 4/22/2019 6:12 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
>> For quite a long time the Farsworth method of teaching Morse 
>> code has been considered the best. I am writing because I 
>> question that. The Farnsworth method is to send each letter at 
>> the "target" speed but space out the letters to the teaching 
>> speed. In general, letters are sent no slower than 15 WPM at an 
>> speed slower than 15 WPM. All sources of practice code I can 
>> find on the web or on the air use this method as do the 
>> practice programs I've found for running on a computer (such as 
>> the Kotch trainer). I practice pretty much ever day. I have 
>> come to the conclusion that, at least for me, this is not a 
>> good way of getting the code into your head and that it 
>> presents a distorted idea of the rhythm for sending. Also, in 
>> practice, where one is sending slowly because of poor radio 
>> conditions, it does not really help because the quickly sent 
>> letters are no easier to read than they would be were the 
>> entire thing sent at the letter speed.
>>     This is probably heresy but I am too old and too much an 
>> opinionated curmudgeon to care.
>>     I wonder what the thoughts of others on this list are since 
>> we are a group who use Morse (or Continental to be precise), 
>> including not a few who have made their livings at it in the past.
>>     For some reason being good at Morse is important to me. I 
>> will never be a champion but want to get as good at it as I am 
>> capable. I think there are golfers who feel the same way.
>> -- 
>> Richard Knoppow
>> 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
>> WB6KBL
> 

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL