[Elecraft] CW copying speeds

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Absolutely my experience too, Dave. 

Two observations: I can copy a sloppy fist if the sending is well within
my "comfort zone". I NEED better (more consistent) CW at speeds that
approach my upper limit. So I think it has to do with how many extra
"CPU cycles" our brains have to think about what we've heard before we
have to leave it and go on with the next word. TR, WB6TMY, mentioned
copying high speed CW to me off the list. He might offer some of his
experiences in that area. My sense is that when we are pushing our upper
limit, "perfect" CW becomes more important for good copy.

Secondly, CW CAN be a language, but many, many ops were taught and used
CW more as "human teletype machines" for most of their lives. Anyone who
handled "traffic" had to put down every character perfectly on paper one
way or another and learned to do that year in and year out. I have known
a good number of ops who learned CW in the military in WWII who quiet
good, fast, and who had a hard time making the transition to "head copy"
on the Ham bands. But even ops like me learned using a pencil because we
had to turn in solid copy on paper to the FCC examiner in order to get
our Ham license. And, for many years, I took great pleasure in copying
on a mill  (typewriter), even when I didn't need a "hard copy". 

I've never fully switched from "character copy" to "word copy". I still
hear words like "antenna" as a-n-t-e-n-n-a. Some simple words are heard
as words at higher speeds, but only a few. No doubt that's why the
fastest certificate I ever earned was 35 wpm (and that was copying on a
mill again - but then who gives certificates for "head copy"? Hi!). Even
though I "character copy" in my head, I don't have any trouble following
the copy in my head up to 35 wpm or so. Once I know the word was
"antenna" I remember it that way and can putter around the shack while
copying a sig and follow what the other op is saying perfectly just as
though we were talking. 

At slow speeds, I have your problem of "remembering" over time, and I'll
start making more notes on paper to remember. If I work a very slow
speed station, I notice that I'll stop and start writing down every
character. I can no longer hear a-n-t-e-n-n-a and remember that it was
"antenna" <G>.

And I have a &@#% of a time copying that single-call-sent-once that many
DX-peditions do too! 

Ron AC7AC
K2 # 1289

-----Original Message-----
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.... 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. ....
As for slow CW, I also have great difficulty following the trend of a 
QSO at anything less than 12wpm. ...

73 Dave G3YMC