[Elecraft] CW copying speeds

Tue Feb 18 04:22:24 2003

Interesting mails on this subject. I was particularly interested in 
the comment that poorly sent CW makes copy hard at the higher speeds 
and I would agree with this. I can copy (in my head) comfortably at 
35wpm or maybe faster with good CW. However there seems to be a trend 
with some DXPedition operators to send attrocious CW far too fast, 
often with rounded characters and poor spacing. They also only tend 
to send their own callsign, once only, once in a blue moon and you 
have to wait another ten minutes for the repeat.

As for slow CW, I also have great difficulty following the trend of a 
QSO at anything less than 12wpm. Copying in the brain rather than 
writing it down does not work very well at such speeds, the grey 
matter loses the thread very quickly. And it is a very long time 
since I have written anything down. CW is a language, would you write 
everything down word for word if you were listening to somebody 
speaking?

Great stuff, CW!

73 Dave G3YMC

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