[Elecraft] Farnsworth Method

[Kurt Cramer]

Ron & All,
 
I too was a novice in the early '50s. In fact I received the ticket in late December '51. What a Christmas present! At about that same time I finished the first semester of my freshman year in high school. I was taking a music class. The teacher gave me a good grade and then suggested that I change to a shop class next semester. I still can't dance, or send/receive CW very well. I did operate quite a lot and got the General ticket by the next Summer. It took two trys. The first I had some strings of characters in the lower 60s, but none of 65! I'm sure you will tell me I just didn't stick to it long enough. This may have happened because my father was licensed and there was the 75A2 receiver Harvey-Wells AM transmitter on ten meters during one of the best sun spot cycles of all time. 
 
Kurt



> From: ron at cobi.biz> To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net> Subject: RE: [Elecraft] Farnsworth Method> Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:58:50 -0700> > This is a very interesting thread to me because it seems like us "dinosaurs"> really went through the same process you folks are experiencing, but we had> a different venue.> > I doubt if I could copy *anything* but 5 WPM CW when I got my Novice ticket.> But I had a whole slice of 80 meters where almost everyone was sending at 5> WPM! 1952 was a l-o-n-g time ago and I won't pretend I remember it well, but> I suspect most of us had very little tolerance for sending at various> speeds. I do recall the challenge of working "that guy" who normally sent a> bit too fast for me, and finally having a nice QSO. > > Like you folks today, we could copy CW in our way, but had very little> flexibility in what we heard and how we heard it. That came only with lots> of practice.> > We were lucky in that regard: we had the Novice bands where everyone was> practicing together and, when I got my Novice ticket, those bands were> *busy* with stations. We weren't working DX (most of us were running a> couple of watts on 80 meters and happy to work stations 100 miles away!). We> were just trying to have a good QSO and get ready for the 13 WPM General> license test before our Novice license expired (Back then the Novice was> granted for one year and could not be renewed: it was upgrade of go silent.)> I managed it during my summer school break that year, thanks to all those> guys on the Novice bands. > > We no longer have the huge number of new CW operators all concentrated into> a 50 kHz segment of the CW band trying to figure out what each other is> sending. FISTS and similar organizations do yeoman service helping new> operators build their speed, but it still takes practice, practice and more> practice. It was years before I could be working on a rig at the bench while> "reading the mail" on the CW bands in my head from a receiver going across> the room. > > It's a situation where the process of becoming proficient in CW has to be of> as much interest as actually operating CW. In that way CW is like learning> any second language. > > And you have some tools we didn't have. A few lucky guys back in the 50's> had access to an "Instructograph": a code sending machine with a wind-up> motor that passed perforated paper tape over a set of contacts that keyed a> code practice oscillator. My neighbor and I were able to use one briefly:> and quickly memorized the few tapes that came with the machine! Then his Ham> Dad took pity on us and put his brand new state-of-the-art tape recorder to> work recording some CW for us to practice on: all sent by hand on a straight> key, no doubt. In subsequent years I helped a number of newcomers get their> Novice tickets by holding code practice sessions in which I sent CW by hand> on a straight key to groups of students in the yard on pleasant summer> evenings.> > I hope for you who are building CW proficiency it's as much fun in its own> way as it was for us. I'm sure that it's as satisfying once you have the> flexibility to jump into a CW QSO with 90% of the Hams out there. > > It's a never-ending process. I've related here before the story of visiting> KPH, a coastal radio station in California, and one of the operators jumped> up from his position to chat for a bit. I could hear CW bleating away from> his phones. After a bit he turned and sent "R" on the key and the bleating> continued. Then he excused himself to return to work. Then he sat down at> the mill (typewriter) and hammered out the rest of message he had been> copying in his head: not plain text but dates, addresses, phone numbers and> the like. He ripped that message blank out of the machine, put in another> and furiously pounded out the start of the next message until he "caught> up". > > I was amazed. I still am. Clearly he wasn't copying words, but characters,> and remembering them while carrying on a conversation with me. Such> operators typically wore their phones back off of their ears so they could> hear what was going on around them, and carry on conversations with others> as needed while copying CW. Like most commercial operators, the speed wasn't> all that fast -- usually something between 10 and 25 WPM -- but he could> copy virtually any fist, no matter how bad. In the maritime service with> shipboard operators of all proficiency levels, many of whom spoke English as> only their second, third or fourth language, the ability to copy the most> abysmal fists on the first try was an important skill.> > I can't match that ability, any more than I can chew the rag at 70 WPM. Not> yet anyway. But what I can do on CW is a huge amount of fun for me. It has> been ever since I passed the 5 WPM Novice test years ago. > > Isn't that what Ham radio is all about?> > Ron AC7AC > > > _______________________________________________> Elecraft mailing list> Post to: Elecraft at mailman.qth.net> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.> Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm> Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com