[Elecraft] Re: Improving your cw (was the international treaty thing)

[Tom Hammond]

I can heartily echo Ron's comments!!!

TRUE case in point...

The 21 year old daughter of a local ham (WO0O), came out to our FD activity 
to mostly watch. She had, JUST THE NIGHT BEFORE, learned all of the CW 
characters. Now, this might seem a bit difficult to believe, but she also 
had a strong basis in music, and folks with a musical background generally 
tend to learn CW more easily.

Anyway, Diane spent (almost) the entire Field Day period in the Novice/Tech 
CW station with her mentor for the weekend, Frank (WB0TPN). At the start, 
Diane was a bit squeamish about getting on the air, but Frank urged her to 
do so, and so she did, even though her CW copying proficiency was barely 5 
WPM at that time. Diane finally poked her head back OUT of the Novice/Tech 
tent early Sunday afternoon, once we'd turned the generators off.

The next day, Monday, our radio club held license upgrade exams. Diane set 
for the Novice exam BUT she took (and passed with flying colors) the 13 WPM 
General class CW exam. She now holds N0PHE.

All this, having only spent the weekend in the Novice/Tech CW tent. Need I 
say more?

Oh... she also had a LOT of fun while she was learning!

73,

Tom  N0SS
___________________

At 08:41 AM 6/26/03, Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
>I'm not much of a contester, but if you want to improve your CW
>proficiency... including learning to relax a bit on the air... make some
>field day contacts!
>
>Now's your chance. No one really cares if you are sending upside down with
>your left foot. All they want to do is figure out the exchange and get you
>in their log. You get to "talk" to another station via CW, and it's a quick,
>simple contact that you can be done with in a hurry, then take a deep breath
>and go on if you want.
>
>If you simply can't be understood in one contact - or miss the other guy's
>data - no matter. You aren't trying for top score and lots of contacts get
>lost in the scramble of QRM/QRN/QSB anyway. So you go on to the next one.
>
>And I can guarantee you that every station with whom you are able to
>complete an exchange will be grateful to count you in their log.