[Elecraft] Farnsworth Method

[David Wilburn]

I'm just starting to move away from where you describe.  Been stuck 
there for too long.  Koch helped me a bunch.  Using the G4FON 
software, when I was traveling, I would sit in front of the TV at 
night and every commercial (there are a lot) I would mute the TV and 
start G4FON sending common words, and I would type them.  It helps 
that I can touch type.  I would often have to go back and read what I 
had copied, and was amazed at some of the complicated words.

Three things have helped me, though as far as QSO's digressing from 
the script, I still have trouble.
*Contesting
*MP3 player
*Listening while otherwise occupied

Contesting - they go fast, and I have to often sit there and listen 
over and over.  But it is a chance to get a lot of practice in a short 
period of time.  You are listening for your call, and then any 
exchange, this is all after you figure out their call.  Start at the 
top of the CW band (where they are going slower) and work your way 
down.  Morse runner is good for this too.

MP3 player - I get the archived MP3's from W1AW and load them on my 
cell phone MP3 player.  I can then, when driving, on when I have a 
moment, sit and listen to them.  Often at a faster speed than I can 
copy everything.  Makes me stretch my abilities.  Even if I just copy 
pieces, I am happy.  Then when I go back in speed, it seems much 
easier.  I will often let this play at night when I go to bed.  Have 
to watch that though, as too much code at night, and I start dreaming 
in morse, and that is REALLY weird.

Listening to the radio while doing other stuff - I have a rig in the 
car, mainly for listening to 20m cw.  I work from home and will, at 
times, let the rig run and just listen and copy bits and pieces.  Just 
today, with the rig on in the vehicle, and driving along, I was 
copying good chunks of a QSO, in my head.  Guy's name was Evan, and he 
lived in Horseshoebay, TX (that was a tough QTH to copy by the way) 
and I _think_ that is near Austin.

It is funny you mention copying words.  I first noticed that when I 
was active on FISTS.  The sound of the word FISTS is _very_ 
distinctive, and I learned that first.  But then I started noticing 
other words.  One that was initially quite painful was "his".  The, 
is, and hr came to me pretty quick, followed by fb.  To this day, Q 
still messes me up.  You put a C in front of it, and I am just fine.

Great thread.  Know I'm a bit late, but really enjoying it.



Dave Wilburn
K4DGW
K2/100 - S/N 5982

"A dead enemy is a peaceful enemy.....blessed be the peacemakers."


G4ILO wrote:
> I'm glad it's not just me that has this problem. I struggled with Morse for
> years due to the way I learned it to pass the test, running each letter
> through a "lookup table" in my head, which was too slow a method for
> anything above 12wpm.
> 
> Thanks to using what I understood was the Koch method (which seems pretty
> much like your Farnsworth method) I have re-learnt the code so that I can
> now instinctively recognize letters, numbers and common punctuation at
> around 20-25wpm. But I still get hung up converting the letters to words at
> that speed.
> 
> If you spelt something out phonetically to me, I would copy it letter by
> letter and would have to have a second look at the whole thing when you
> finished, to get the word itself. It's the same in CW, and by the time I
> have done that I have missed the first couple of letters of the next word
> and get flustered and it takes a while to pick it up again. I don't seem to
> be able to copy letters AND be working out what the word could be at the
> same time. (The XYL says it's because men can only do one thing at a time,
> women can multi-task...)
> 
> It's easier copying on the air because the actual vocabulary used in most
> contacts is quite limited and you recognize words like like NAME, QTH, RST
> and so on. But I can get thrown if someone has a QTH I've never heard of. I
> stick to contests or working DX where the exchange is predictable. I'm
> afraid to return to a CQ, never mind call CQ myself, in case I get someone
> who wants to chat and I can't follow the conversation.
> 
> -----
> Julian, G4ILO  K3 s/n: 222 K2 s/n: 392
> G4ILO's Shack: www.g4ilo.com
> Zerobeat Ham Forums: www.zerobeat.net/smf