[Elecraft] Improving your CW

[Robert Boerhorst]

Referring to the original message from Tom, W6WW and others on this =
subject.

In the early 1930's my father was second mate in the Merchant Navy on =
freighter ships. There was a deep economic depression world wide and =
ships were layed up with a lot of unemployed. On ships that went to sea =
shipowners were cutting in the crew where possible. One of the =
measurements was to get rid of the radiotelegraphist (Sparks). However =
to comply with the (International) law they must have a radiostation and =
a qualified radio-operator on board ships bigger than 500 tons. The =
solution of the company my father worked for was to combine the function =
of 2nd mate and radio-operator. So to hold his seagoing job my father =
went to a radioschool for some months (on his own expense) and got his =
ticket as radio telegraphist second class; sending/receiving CW at 14 =
wpm. Subsequently he went to sea in this new job mate/radio-operator. So =
beside his 8 hour bridge watch he to man the radioroom for =
sending/receiving traffic to and from the shorestations.I think they had =
a compulsary automatic warning system for emergency SOS calls. He quit =
the Merchant Navy in 1938 to get a shore job.
He never touched a CW key again since that time, nor did he ever =
listenend to a CW signal.
In 1973 I was training for my CW Ham exam; sending/receiving at 12 wpm =
for 5 minutes. (Sending with a straigt key only). Every Sunday night =
there was an on the air CW training at abt. 14 wpm from an experienced =
CW operator from our local club (also ex Merchant Navy). On one of these =
occasions my father suddenly stood behind me and said: This person has a =
good fist. It appeared to me that my father after 33 years was still =
copying CW at 14 wpm in his head without writing anything down. Also his =
sending was still very good (better than mine) at 12 wpm.

So to make a long story short Tom I think you are back at your 20 wpm in =
no time. Good luck!

73/72,
Robert, PA0RBO





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