[Elecraft] K3: An Observation for Struggling Brass-Pounders

[Rob Locher W7GH]

On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:08:24 -0800, Ron D'Eau Claire <ron at cobi.biz> wrote:

> This is a great feature for anyone who wants to hone their CW skills from
> the most basic level on the air. As a  Novice myself back in '52 who  
> could
> barely get through a short signal exchange before my arm 'fell off' or my
> last pencil point broke in my nervous hand I believe that actual on-air
> experience is the fastest way to build CW confidence and skill.

Hi Ron,

Last weekend I had an hour or so to operate in the Sweepstakes.  After
having been licensed about a year, and on the air for nine months, the
2006 Sweepstakes was my first ever contest: talk about jumping into the
deep end of the pool!  (I ended up getting massacred with five QSOs for
zero points; I had mis-copied something in every QSO.)

Anyway, this Sweepstakes I was starting to get the hang of it.  My
comfortable ragchew copying speed is about 15-18 wpm, and my contest speed
is as high as 30 wpm for a simple exchange, or about 22-25 wpm under
Sweepstakes conditions.

Someone had given me a Morse decoder based on IK3OIL's design, which has a
NE567 decoding the tones and a PIC translating the Morse.  Usually it
doesn't work very well, because a crash of static will be interpreted as a
dit.  But when I was working some of the loud stations last weekend with
the RF gain of my K2 turned way down, I noticed that my decoder box was
working perfectly!

Well my new-found toy became a crutch very quickly.  I soon found myself
not even listening, and instead watching the text scroll by.  I switched
it off after ten minutes, and was much happier.

My opinion is that a Morse decoder does more harm than good for a
learner.  Maybe it might be helpful for those first few terrifying QSOs
(which are still quite vivid in my memory), but I think that the learner
would be far better off learning to trust his or her own decoding
apparatus.

73,
- Rob W7GH