[Elecraft] [OT] increasing CW copy speed: practice slow -v- practice fast

[Bill Frantz]

As a slow speed CW person, I could probably pass a 13 WPM test, 
but 20 is still a bit away. I should also note that my learning 
disabilities make it difficult to turn a string of letters into 
a word without seeing them on paper or a screen. That 
difficulty, and my inability to spell, resulted in my having no 
novice QSOs back in 1960.  I do have a few observations.

CW is a language, like German or Chinese (both of which I have 
studied). I got to be good enough with German that I could 
understand a conversation without translating it to English. The 
translation process takes too long and you lose the thread of conversation.

The DX vocabulary is very small, and it is fairly easy to learn 
it at high speed. The major words are:

CQ, AGN, ?, UP, TU, and your own call sign.

Contesting has a somewhat larger vocabulary. From the 160M 
contest, we add: TEST, QTH?, SEC?, QRZ, 73, individual section 
names, and probably a few others.

Note that none of these are words in any other language.

To operate in the CW environment doing contesting or DXing, you 
will need to recognize these words the first time without having 
to translate them to letters, just like conversing in a foreign 
language. If you are search and pounce, you can get a stations 
call by listening to it repeated several times. Running a 
frequency means you will have to be able to copy calls the first 
time, at least most of the time.

It might be useful to have a CW training system which drilled 
you in the major vocabulary words for the kind of CW you want to 
use. After you have been using CW for years, you may get to be 
like Ron, AC7AC and be able to have the radio on in the shack 
and just listen to a CW QSO, understanding  without translating.

73 Bill AE6JV

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