[Elecraft] OT: Decoding high speed CW

[Richard S. Leary]

Jim, Paul
Paul, Jim is correct. Practice, practice, practice, then sooner than not you
will be copying in your head.
Jim's ASA training and experience works for him. For me it was USAF CW
Intercept and over 7 years experience. I don't use skimmers or cw decoders.
My K3 has one, and to be honest, I use it very infrequently, mostly to check
on the other guys/gals speed when it gets up there. I may have to hear a
call more than once, at 35 or higher, but not often. It's usually the
QRM/QRN that gets you. Then there's the QSB. Ever copy "weak" sigs Jim? 
Do your practicing "On the Air", not by machine, if you can. W1AW code
practice is good, and there are others out there I believe as well. Start at
a speed you can copy fairly well, then work up from there. I wish you well,
and welcome to the world of CW.
Jim and I might even have to chat off list. Have to figure he was in Germany
also.
Take care and have fun.
73,
Rick, W7LKG

-----Original Message-----
From: Elecraft [mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jim
Sheldon
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2016 05:44
To: Peter Pauly
Cc: Elecraft Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] OT: Decoding high speed CW

Peter,
None of the decoders out there, including the better ones (internal to the
K3/K3S and the KX3) decode CW even close to accurately unless the conditions
are ideal and the sending operator is close to perfect in his/her sending so
the ultimate answer is "suck it up" and learn to decode it in your head.

If you rely on the decoders, you will have difficulty in actually learning
to copy in your head and you will get enough call signs wrong in your
contest logs that they could even be rejected due to too many "busted"
calls.

That being said, as for the decoders, I was a Morse Intercept Operator
during the first 6 years of my 20 year Army Security Agency career.  I had
the copying of Morse code drummed into my head 8 hours a day, but that was
copying mostly 5 letter or number coded groups on a typewriter. 
  It took a large amount of money to train us electronic spies, and the NSA
decided to design a decoder to replace us, figuring that a computer could do
a better job.  They spent several millions of dollars on this electronic
black box (back in the 60's) and discovered that the human brain was a much
better decoder than a machine could ever be.  Every little static burst
would disrupt the decoding and it would take a few characters to catch back
up.  Also, if the code wasn't being sent by automatic means (in those days
that was a punched paper tape) and the receiving conditions weren't very
close to perfect (almost never happens these days and even worse back then)
the decoder output gibberish.  
After a couple years of mostly abject failures and after spending millions
of dollars, they abandoned the project.

Wayne and others have done a marvelous job of computer coding, allowing the
firmware in Elecraft's radios (and other stand-alone devices) to decode CW,
but the above conditions apply to them as well as to NSA and NSA spent a
heck of a lot more money trying to achieve perfect copy than Elecraft had in
their coffers.  Bottom line, use it for occasional help, but work at
learning to read it in your head yourself.  It isn't as hard as most people
make it out to be and all it takes is practice.  That's the absolute bottom
line, it takes practice.  If you are willing to go the extra mile and put in
that practice, the rewards will outweigh the initial frustrations.

73 and good luck,
Jim Sheldon - W0EB
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