[Elecraft] Re: CW recognition (speed increase)

[Fred Jensen]

N2EY at aol.com wrote:
 > A mistake I see too many hams making is that they will practice
 > at one speed until they are 100% at that speed before trying
 > anything faster.

Right Jim, this strategy works poorly at most everything.  Aside from 
the fact that mental and physical skills vary from one day to the next, 
copying CW as an amateur radio operator is not a perfect art, nor does 
it have to be, unless you're handling record traffic.

I once took my neighbor to FD.  He had a trailer whose bed I really 
coveted in the dead of the night in the cold Sierra, we both had five 
kids and it was the Dads' turn to escape (we had planned that, with a 
lot less hardship when we returned home Sun afternoon than we would have 
gotten without the planning).  He had never heard the code before, so he 
was going to log for me (this was pre-computer), I would tell him what 
was sent, he'd write it down.  After about 2 hrs, he was copying the 
exchanges nearly flawlessly ... after all, in FD, they are simple and 
repetitive.  He'd figured out the pattern for the sound of the numbers 
(there's only 10 of them, for Pete's sake, and in those days, call signs 
still pretty well suggested valid vs invalid sections), and he was well 
on his way to copying call signs.  They too aren't real long, and we 
never had any that began with a number.

If you can understand (note, not "copy" verbatim) slow speed code, just 
go for it in QSO's.  Admittedly, there are a few real turkeys in ham 
radio but not very many and the rest of us non-turkeys will gladly stand 
up and help you at a speed you can copy, or maybe just barely, and we'll 
give you fills.  If you need 15/5 WPM Farnsworth just tap it out to me, 
and I can do that.

Best advice I ever got as a 13yr old from Art, W6RMK who was my Elmer, 
was "don't stress, it's a hobby."  Today's W6RMK is Art's grandson, Jim.

Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA CM98lw