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

[Kevin Stover]

Absolutely there are differences in how peoples brains are wired.

My brother got his license 15 years ago.

He was a music major and is a band director, all of the rigs in his 
shack have the side tone set to 440 Hz, A above middle C. It's been a 
musical tuning standard for ages. Once he got the tone of the cw being 
received and sent set to a standard he knows quite well his CW abilities 
just exploded. He moved past me like white lightning in his copy 
ability. He's doing 40 wpm without breaking a sweat, is net control for 
the Iowa 80m CW net and mastered the Vibroplex bug inside of a month.

I'm coming up on my 25th year licensed.
I'm an IT guy, network engineer.
I've always been math/logic and  mechanically inclined.
I can sub-net IPV4 networks in my head.
I struggled learning code. I bought both the ARRL and 73 magazine tapes.
My first try on a morse exam was a flaming failure. 5 wpm test set up in 
a huge auditorium at the local hospital.
We all sat at the front listening to a boom box...and the echo off the 
back wall 60' away. I locked up.
I did finally learn enough to pass the 13wpm test and later the 20 but 
it took a lot of work.
I found the Koch method and the G4FON software 10 years ago. I can now 
do 30 wpm comfortably, 40 in a contest.

The Vibroplex bug my wife bought me still taunts and insults me. I'm 
much more comfortable with the single lever paddle I have and my Winkey USB.


On 12/7/2015 8:12 PM, Robert G Strickland wrote:
> Don...
>
> For sure, individual differences make for a big difference, both in 
> the rate of learning and the appropriateness of any one approach. I 
> think we all agree that "stretching your current copying speed" is the 
> only way to get faster. That's certainly my experience. I think my 
> curiosity comes down to how much "stretch" is the sweet spot 
> [individual difference aside]. Lots of stretch - few characters/words 
> copied, versus some stretch - most characters/words copied.
>
> Speaking of individual factors... I was just practicing with Rufz and 
> noticed how long I "hang" on the first character which inevitably 
> leads to subsequent errors. So, I pushed myself to almost "ignore" the 
> first character and move right along. Overall error rate dropped 
> significantly. So, yes, lots going on. Nothing beats practicing, for 
> sure. Have a good day.
>
> ...robert

-- 
R. Kevin Stover
AC0H
ARRL
FISTS #11993
SKCC #215
NAQCC #3441


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