[Elecraft] Farnsworth Method

[R. Kevin Stover]

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You are correct.

The Koch method is about learning morse at full speed 25wpm characters
spaced correctly for 25wpm overall speed. With the G4FON software you
can choose any speed you want. Learn two characters to 95% then add one
or two till you get those "mastered".

I was also a Farnsworth victim. I could copy characters pretty well but
if you messed with the spacing to speed it up or slow it down I went in
the tank. I actually flunked my first code test because of it. They
started with the V's which I copied perfectly then the test started
13wpm characters, 13wpm spacing. I went into brain lock. I couldn't make
my hand write anything. Before I snapped out of it totally the test was
over. I was so mad I didn't even sit the 5wpm test.

That was an early volunteer examiner session and it was a mess from the
start. The room they chose for the CW testing was a 60ft long conference
room with 12 ft ceilings at a local hospital. The "sound system" was a
worn out portable cassette player at the front of the room. I did have
two opportunities to copy what was being sent, the first as it passed my
ears from the front, and the second was the echo off the back wall.

After intensive on air copy with my fathers rig, no Farnsworth anything,
I did finally pass my 13wpm test, then 20. I didn't start to build speed
till I discovered G4FON's software.

I'm convinced newby's should be using the Koch method rather than
Farnsworth. It forces you to recognize characters rather than individual
elements of characters and translating. You don't have time to translate
so you never get into that bad habit. When someone has learned code with
the Farnsworth method, reducing the spacing to increase the overall
speed takes away precious milliseconds that they were using to translate
what was being sent into characters then finally stitching those
characters together into something meaningful.


David Ferrington, M0XDF wrote:
| My understanding is that the Koch method is about learning code at full
| speed from the outset, but starting with just two characters and
| building up from there. I'm using G4FON's Koch program, but kinda mixing
| the two; koch & Farnsworth - I'm learning characters at 20 wpm , but
| with Farnsworth spaceing which reduces the actual speed to about 10 wpm.
|
| And I'm working up from there. The one problem is trying to understand
| chars sent at 10 wpm - all the timing of each character seem wrong.
|

- --
R. Kevin Stover, ACØH
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