[CW] Reading With the Ears

[levandowski]

I learned CW at age 12 by looking at the various groupings in the ARRL's "Learning the Radiotelegraph Code" publication and sending the letters to myself.  Then I would listen to W1AW on my AC-DC National NC-60 and try to identify the letters.  Eventually, I got all the letters, numbers and a couple of punctuation signs.  Finally, I was able to pass the Novice exam at 5 wpm.

Six years later, when I was 18, my code speed was up to 20 wpm.  I joined the Navy and became a Radioman. They sent me to Radioman School to relearn Morse Code THEIR way at 18 wpm.  THEIR way was by listening only.  Clearly, it was of no value to me at this point.  I graduated top in the class since I was already faster than anyone else!

So they sent me to "High Speed School."  Those who learned "the right way" seemed to do a whole lot better than me.  I found myself actually visualizing Morse while copying it.  This has dogged me all my life.  I always figured I probably just had some weird learning deficiency.  I just can't get above 25 wpm or so, no matter how much I try so I've given up.  At age 70, I'm surrendering to my fate.

I can copy in my head,  I can write Morse in script and I can copy Morse on a mill -- no problem but all this I do comfortably at 18 to 22 wpm;  with some stress between 22 and 25 wpm (approx) and that's it for me.

I really respect those ops who sail along hearing entire words in Morse while carrying on a conversation.  I'll never be that good!  

On the subject of copying amongst many CW signals -- that, fortunately, has never been a problem for me.  I can pick a signal out of an incredible pileup and just stick with it.  So at least I can "brag" about one useful aspect of my Morse ability.

73, Stan WB2LQF

> On March 15, 2019 at 1:25 PM Richard Knoppow <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>     I find this interesting, my own experience is that reading by 
> ear and reading by writing it down are different; learning one 
> may not teach you the other. I think sending is still another 
> function, it is reasonably well known that one can be good at 
> sending and not receiving or vice-versa.
>     No one seems to have done research, or at least none that 
> I've seen, about the difference between reading tones and reading 
> from a sounder. I think they are different. I add to this the 
> combined skills of being able to write code on a typewriter.
>     I am also curious about the correlation, if any, between 
> translating code and understanding speech. Also, what difference 
> is there, if any, between people trained to use a pictographic 
> written language and a phonetic one?
>     In general, I think translating code to words is far from 
> simple or trivial despite having been a fairly common ability.
>     Another thought, inspired by the note about QRM: I have 
> watched an "expert" CW op who was just paralyzed if he heard more 
> than one CW signal. I am not such an expert but have always been 
> able to distinguish among several signals with different tones or 
> even different rhythms. I think this is not an unusual ability. 
> What say others here.
>     Reading Morse seems to be far from a trivial process.
> On 3/14/2019 8:23 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:
> > An interesting article, thanks to Shin, JA1NUT.
> > 
> > Modern neuroscience has shown deciphering Morse code is identical 
> > or comparable to reading printed matters. The problem is how and 
> > what to write with it. Only 599 or meaningless numbers?
> > 
> > 
> > http://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2012/09/reading-with-ears.html
> > 
> > Shin is a retired physician and an excellent Morse operator.  He 
> > likes to rag chew, listen for him an hour before dawn on 40M 
> > around 7021 to 7033 kHz.
> > 
> > There's QRM in Asia on exactly 7020 kHz.
> > 
> > 73
> > 
> > DR
> 
> -- 
> Richard Knoppow
> 1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
> WB6KBL
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