[CW] Head Copy Morse Code Trick from KQ9I

Wed Apr 27 14:04:14 EDT 2022

Thanks for posting this, Dave: I absolutely concur with this observation 
about interpretation of audible information. In fact, it was a 
revelation for me, which I posted about recently on another forum, when 
I realized that I was getting tied up in knots /saying the name/ of 
incoming letters in my mind. I started /visualizing /them instead, and 
within minutes was doing a better job. Apparently the parallel use of my 
brain's "audio circuits" was making it difficult. Unfortunately I can't 
yet keep the image of enough letters ("ticker-tape") to form words, but 
it may simply be that I need more practice. It certainly takes me a 
couple of moments to remember to switch between "mind's ear" and "mind's 
eye", but when I can do it, the improvement in capture efficiency comes 
fast.

Jim says: "I'm */thinking /*about what that word means." EXACTLY! - 
except for me it's about the letters even before the words come! I think 
that it is, paradoxically, from years of engineering, wherein I'm 
accustomed to analyzing all data that enters my head /as it does so/, 
and cross-relating it to everything else I think I know in order to 
determine if  it's valid or useful or not. For CW, one has to "simply" 
copy in the letters/words, make a sentence in your mind, and /only then 
/interpret it. That is /hard/!

Jim's article is the best description I've EVER read of my challenge 
with CW (if I also add a dose of ADHD into the picture), and I'm 
deliriously glad I'm not alone. Based on his success, I'm going to focus 
on polishing my visual capture skill, because I think that's going to 
work for me better than any other method. Of course, I still need to 
complete 100% instant recognition - I'm maybe close to 90% like he was.

I've reformatted the text of Jim's article into a regular adaptive wrap 
below, so it'll be less vertical, and hopefully easier to read...

julian, n4jo.

===

On 4/19/2022 6:38 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. wrote:

*Head copy "trick"*
From: Jim KQ9I 
<mailto:jim.dawdy at gmail.com?subject=Re:%20Head%20copy%20%22trick%22>

This is something I stumbled across that seems to make a real difference 
for me. It may not help others, and it even may be somewhat 
counter-productive at higher speeds.  I am a visual learner, have no 
real good ear for anything and currently can copy CW comfortably at 
10-12wpm sustained, although I can copy the characters at a Farnsworth 
speed of 25wpm.  I am a VERY fast reader, so this "trick" may work for 
others who are strong readers but not great at turning audible CW into 
head copy or even on pen/paper/keyboard.  Also, my memory is awful so 
that doesn't help me with head copy either.

The "trick": When I hear the code, instead of thinking about the letter, 
I */visualize the letter appearing on a blank white sheet of paper in 
front of me. /*Almost like an old-fashioned typewriter slapping the 
letter onto the page, for those of us who remember such archaic 
technology.  For a few of us, the better analogy might even be "ticker 
tape".  And in a sense what I'm doing is visualizing the ticker tape in 
my head, since I don't (obviously) try to keep the whole QSO text 
visualized in my mind, but rather sentence by sentence, like a ticker 
tape that you hold in your hands: the stuff from a few minutes ago 
"disappears" and you're just "seeing" the section of mental "tape" that 
you hold between your hands.

So if the QSO is something like:

*FB JIM UR RST 57N 57N HR IN NYC* *NYC *then that's what I keep 
visualized on my imaginary tickertape/typewriter/whiteboard.  And 
exactly in those kinds of big giant bold letters (makes it easier to 
recall, for some reason).  On paper I'll jot down 57N during a pause, 
because I don't know about you, but I'm constantly forgetting what the 
report was by the time the QSO is over and I have to enter it into the 
log, unless I was copying everything by hand from the beginning.

if there's a *BK* then I "erase" the tickertape and visualize the next 
section.  Rinse/wash/repeat.

Rationale:  I think the thing that stumps a lot of people, and is 
certainly an issue for me, is that in learning CW we are limited by the 
speed our brain processes the audible information.  Now, if you have 
"instant character recognition", which of course is the goal, you 
process EXTREMELY fast because it's essentially your unconscious (high 
speed) brain doing the heavy lifting, and not the conscious  (low speed) 
brain.  Still, what I've struggled with is I hear the code, and 
regardless of whether it's by instant recognition or not (90% instant 
for me now, although I have a few characters I struggle with),  is that 
in trying to head copy I then */think/* (conscious mind=slow), either 
about the letter itself  in order to write it down, or I'm trying to 
decipher the whole word and I'm */thinking /*about what that word means. 
This of course takes time, and that's the enemy because there's more 
letters coming while you're thinking about the one you just received. It 
seems to me, that by visualizing the words on my imaginary 
tickertape/page, I get to bypass that whole thinking process.  I don't 
have to "think" about the text/message or its meaning, because it's 
/right there/ in front of me and I am automatically comprehending 
it.  For example, when I read a book, I virtually never see the 
letters/page in front of me.  Instead, I visualize the scene or think 
about the idea.  Reading the text is wholly unconscious and automatic, 
like breathing.  That's why for me reading a book is like watching a 
movie.  So I suspect I am tapping into that skill or part of my brain, 
but instead of turning written words into images, I'm turning audible CW 
into an image, just like when I read, and those "reading muscles" are 
super-strong, making it relatively easy to "see" the CW and "know" what 
it means without having to think about it.  That's why my caveat that 
for someone who isn't a heavy reader, this may not work so well.  Of 
course, there's always more than one way to skin a cat.

I don't know how this will hold up at high speeds, because 25-30+wpm is 
such a distant goal for me.  I could see where my mental tickertape, 
instead of printing letters prints whole words and you get the same 
effect, though.

73
Jim, KQ9I

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