[Elecraft] Fastest: Paddle or Bug (OT)

[Morrow, Michael A.]

From: "Ron D'Eau Claire" 

> I'd be darn proud of that certificate too!!

So would I.  The *true* test of Morse copying skill includes the ability to
record what is being received.  In the heyday of commercial and military
Morse operations, there was NO value to "head-copy" Morse if the operator
couldn't also record the message!  A 60 wpm head-copy operator who could
only record 20 wpm was only a 20 wpm operator.

I find pencil copy to be very difficult past 25 wpm.  It's just too hard to
write legibly at that speed.  I have also always found sending decent Morse
to be much more difficult than receiving Morse.  Poorly sent, idiosyncratic,
swinging code does not reflect well upon the associated operator.  Spacing
and weighting irregularities (especially by bug operators) seem common.  I
exclude, of course, age- or medical-related key control problems.

> BTW, when I took my commercial radiotelegraph test in the 50's, we
> got five letter code groups too at 20 wpm INCLUDING that %$#@& 
> punctuation we never used on the Ham bands!

When I took my Second Class Telegraph exam, the requirements were one minute
perfect send and receive out of a five minute session of 20 wpm plain
language (PL), and 16 wpm random code groups (CG).  The First Class license
and the Aircraft endorsement required 25 wpm PL and 20 wpm CG.

I enjoyed learning the Morse for punctuation : ; ' - = ( and ).  The US
Coast Guard HYDROLANT and NAVAREA notice-to-mariner CW broadcasts used a lot
of these symbols.  US Army MARS bulletins were machine sent in CW 20 years
ago, and sometimes these symbols were used (unintentionally, I think).  They
would give people fits who were trying for perfect copy!

I found the 16 wpm random code group test to be far far harder than the 20
wpm plain language test.  One had to receive 80 consecutive random
characters without error to pass, so just five or six errors in five minutes
of otherwise perfect copy would be enough to cause failure, if the errors
were spread out just right.  Obviously, one can't look back at a string of
random characters after sending stops to fill in or correct characters the
way one could with plain language.  I'd much rather take a 30 wpm plain
language test than a 15 wpm code group test.

I used the FCC office straight key for the sending portion of the test, and
I just used pencil for the copy portion.  I made up my own random code group
practice tapes on a portable cassette recorder and used that for practice.
It would have been very nice to have had the MFJ-418 Code Tutor available in
those days. (BTW, the MFJ-418 is the best CW copy training device I've ever
found.  I still frequently use one to enjoy high-speed Morse practice.)

Every once in a while the radio club that is managing KPH fires it up on
500 KHz and sends some "press". That sure is fun to copy again!

I enjoyed copying the mariners' info broadcasts from NAM, and the evening
world news broadcasts from WCC.  Even selected stock quotes were sent, all
at about 30 wpm.  That was more than 20 years ago, but even within the last
10 years there were weekly radio officer union bulletins being sent.  About
12 years ago one of the US radio officer unions sent recruitment packages to
holders of US radiotelegraph licenses offering training (with pay) and
sea-going billets.  This may have been associated with the "Desert Storm"
efforts.  I think I still have that package somewhere.  If I'd been 10 years
younger at the time, I'd have been tempted, even though long-term radio
officer career possibilities were non-existent.

It's only been since July 12, 1999, that all regular US commercial telegraph
activity stopped.  There are still a couple of CW coastal stations in
service (Cuban and Israeli coast stations can still be heard).  I think the
continued use, though rare, of maritime CW by a handful of nations is what
limits the release of the 420 to 510 kHz band to other uses.

Unfortunately, the ham bands are now practically the only regular source of
radiotelegraph usage.  But generally speaking, the copy there is far less
interesting than what could be found on the old 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 22 MHz
maritime CW bands just a decade ago.

As an aside, in the late 1970s the US ballistic missile submarine squadron
to which I was attached started a program for their radiomen to improve
Morse skills.  Few of the radiomen on my submarine could do much more than
recognize Morse characters sent very slowly.  I believe the thought process
behind this skill improvement program was that, were nuclear missiles ever
launched, most of the normal fancy computerized communications systems would
become unavailable shortly thereafter.  One submarine with which I am
familiar had to use an officer from the propulsion engineering department to
conduct CW training sessions for the radiomen, since he was an active ham
and the person on board with the best Morse proficiency.  But now-a-days,
the US Navy doesn't even have the Radioman rating anymore!

73,
Mike / KK5F