[Elecraft] Learning CW

Wed Feb 20 13:01:01 2002

Thom, we share a similar background in getting started on CW.

The first thing I did was to build a code practice oscillator like my Elmer
(W5QN SK) had and buy a good straight key: a Johnson Speed-X. I then taught
myself the code, to a large measure, by sending the characters over and
over until they sounded "right." Of course, I was influenced by what I
heard when Bill was working his rig on 10 CW (this was 1945!). When I was
able, I bought a little Hallicrafter's S-20R receiver and began to copy
W1AW and to send along with them with the QST article before me that they
were using for text.

Bottom line: my code education was based as much on sending as on
receiving. It took me about a year to prepare for the 13 wpm Class B exam,
but I passed it and immediately got on 20 CW with "the big boys." After a
few weeks with the Speed-X, I acquired an old Vibroplex bug and taught
myself how to use it - Bill had a brand neww Original Deluxe and could make
it sound like a tape machine! In a matter of a few months, I was in there
on 20 working at 25-30 wpm and thinking nothing about it.

In all this, while there was no overt effort to use extra spacing between
characters, I did unconsciously  emulate the Farnsworth approach without
realizing it. But I had no problem copying "regular" code from W1AW and on
the FCC code tape for the test.

Like you, once I had a fist like a tape machine - used to give Novice code
tests and taught code for the Air Force for a couple of years, most of it
using a straight key for teaching and then tapes for student practice. But,
those days are gone forever . . . I can still do pretty good with the
paddles and keyer, but I am sure that the computer keyboard will claim my
efforts eventually as the arthritis progresses!   <:}

72/73/oo, George W5YR - the Yellow Rose of Texas         
Fairview, TX 30 mi NE of Dallas in Collin county EM13qe   
Amateur Radio W5YR, in the 56th year and it just keeps getting better!
QRP-L 1373 NETXQRP 6 SOC 262 COG 8 FPQRP 404 TEN-X 11771
Icom IC-756PRO #02121  Kachina #91900556  IC-765 #02437

All outgoing email virus-checked by Norton Anti-Virus 2002

[email protected] wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 20 Feb 2002, Ron D' Eau Claire wrote:
> 
> > Finally, and here I'm about to spear a "Sacred Cow" among modern Hams, I'm
> > not all that enamored of the "Farnsworth" system in which characters are
> >
> > To this OT, it's like fingernails on a blackboard. And few, if any, ops on
> > the air will do that.
> 
> It seems a 1000 years ago(actually 40) when I learned the code...I had no
> tapes, no elmers, just a battered old Boy Scout Merit badge book.
> 
> But, I did have a receiver...and I did my darnest to copy those weird
> sounds.  As I listened, I realized that some of them sounded nice....there
> was a certain rythmn that made it EASY to copy.
> 
> Mind you, I knew nothing of the proper spacing, character speed and all
> the good technical stuff, but as someone who played percussion
> instruments, I had a sense of what sounded good and what sounds appeared
> to "work" with others.
> 
> So, as I started sending using the same spacing that I heard from the
> "good" signals...and, while it's no longer true, people complimented me on
> my fist.
> 
> Sorry for the long memory...but if I were to learn the code again...I'd
> try to find pleasent sounding signals...