[Elecraft] Farnsworth CW

David Toepfer [email protected]
Wed Oct 29 21:37:10 2003


I did not expect all of this feedback.  Thank you all.  :-)

Perhaps it is just me, but I seem to have no problem separating my receiving (I
have been religious about copying in my head) and my sending.  On receiving I
don't seem to have such a problem receiving at slower and regular spacing.  And
I keep my sending as close to proper spacing as I can.  But what I am trying to
avoid is learning the characters by counting elements and instead learning the
sound of each letter, which was my death when I learned at 5wpm tried getting
past 10wpm.

It is not that I don't understand the cadence and it's importance.  In fact I
understand it to be the key to good copy.  The rhythm as far as I understand is
the key to copying above 15 to 20wpm without a computer.  And because of this I
have taken great pains to keeping my sending even and properly spaced.  I just
keep sending and receiving as separate skills in my head.

Do you think I am just going the wrong way?

dt
.

--- Ron D'Eau Claire <[email protected]> wrote:
> That's an excellent question, David! 
> 
> Among those ops who I heard from because they struggled to learn to have
> QSO's on the air after learning CW by the Farnsworth method are a couple who
> are "regulars" here on this reflector. 
> 
> Since I learned the "old fashioned" way, my assessment is based entirely on
> the comments of ops I've chewed the rag with, and the experiences had
> working them on CW. 
> 
> That's why my comments were mostly about my experience working such ops from
> my side of the QSOs and I had nothing to offer about whether the Farnsworth
> system is easier or harder than other systems. 
> 
> The common thread I found was the frustration those ops felt being unable to
> copy when someone started sending to them at a 'true' 10 wpm, or in trying
> to be understood themselves sending spaced-out characters. Of course, anyone
> who learned the Farnsworth way and who was able to quickly pick up the
> proper spacing for on-air operations wouldn't be among the frustrated ones,
> nor would I find them any different from any other CW op on my end. 
> 
> Ron AC7AC
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
> On Behalf Of David Toepfer
> 
> While I no doubt respect the experienced opinion of Ron I also respectfully
> disagree.
> 
> I have my reasons for disagreeing with him, but my inferior experience would
> make them easy to refute as naive.
> 
> What I would like to know is how many other experienced CW ops agree with
> him and why.
> 
> dt
> .
> 
>