[Elecraft] Learning CW

[Sander Wissing]

Isn't this list great?  By this morning I already had 24 responses, and
that in less than 12 hours! And I just downloaded the digest with
another about a 1000 replies in there.  Pretty soon someone will blame
me for starting this thread ;-)

Anyway, a quick summary maybe...

Just about everybody agrees that reading cw is the first priority, this
needs to be practiced from perfect morse, preferably machine code.  This
is why I was looking for a software program to use when we send to each
other, rather than sending morse ourselves.  Gee this sounds confusing
even to me!  I mean one person types on keyboard, PC sends morse, other
person listens.  

Many people said not to learn using exaggerated inter letter spacing,
but to concentrate on getting the morse rhythm.  This also sounds like
excellent advise, although I was inclined to use the Farnsworth method.

Straight keys also scored surprisingly high, I expected everybody to
support starting out on a paddle.  I will need to think about this (and
buy a straight key...).  But I will probably start with the straight key
and see how far I can get with that.

Also, thanks Rick for the site explaining how mode B iambic is supposed
to be implemented.  And I thought I knew exactly how mode B works.  This
also explains why some of the faster operators swear by mode B.

Thanks David for the mention of ultimatic.  I had come across this some
time ago, but had largely forgotten about it.  I am currently using the
keyer in my Icom 706, which has only one mode (Iambic A (Someone pls
correct me if I am wrong)), so I will have to find a keyer that has
ultimatic.

Quite a few people gave undoubtedly good advise on increasing code
speed, but I am not yet there.  I am still learning the characters, just
want to do it right the first time round!

So, I will let you know how it goes ...

Thanks
Sander Wissing
ZR6SW