[Elecraft] OT: Decoding high speed CW

[Bill Frantz]

All - I'm about to write a president's letter for our local club 
publication on learning CW, and this entire thread is a good 
source of ideas. Thank you.

Peter -

I learned 5 WPM in 1960 for my novice license, but never used 
it. I learned 5 WPM again in 2001 for my extra, but didn't start 
using it until 2013. TX5K is the first CW QSO in my log and 
W6SQQ is the 2nd QSO and first rag chew. My learning CW at age 
70+ is definitely an example of old dogs and new tricks.

Now I am mostly operating in contests and chasing DX with about 
the same abilities as you have. I can use a straight key up to 
about 18-20 WPM, but I haven't gotten the timing right for a 
paddle. Most of my sending is from K3 memories or my contest logger.

My survival strategies are:

   In contests I only search and pounce. I can hear the other 
op's call many times and get it right. I'm working on getting 
good enough to run.

   With my 100W and wire antennas, I get a lot of chances to 
listen to DX stations handle other callers. It is good practice 
to try to decode the call signs they're working. (It also helps 
locate the caller in the pileup.)

   I use the K3's decoder and display in the P3's SVGA. That 
keeps the decoded data from disappearing off the screen before I 
read it. (Note that the SVGA display can't be used if the 
computer is also reading the decoded data via the K3 utility or 
some other program.) The K3's decoding acts as a check on my 
head decoding.

   If the DX is only rarely identifying, I see if I can find him 
on the QRZ.COM DX spotting network. It is a lot easier to verify 
a call sent faster than you can read than it is to copy it.

LS is absolutely correct (below). When you get to 20+ WPM, CW is 
no longer an encoding system. It is a language of its own and 
should be approached like any foreign language. The big win for 
contesting and DX is that the vocabulary is so small. For things 
like 5NN, TU, CQ, DE, TEST, UP etc., I don't even think of the 
letters. The CW sequence is a spoken word and understandable as such.

I'll keep hanging in there and hope you do too.

73 Bill AE6JV

On 3/28/16 at 8:10 AM, lstavenhagen at hotmail.com (lstavenhagen) wrote:

>As for copying in one's head, I know I'm drifting slightly off topic, but
>just a couple tips for free that helped me:
>- the key to getting above about 25 wpm on plain language is to start
>learning the CW for entire words or parts of words: "the", "and", and
>segments like "tion", "ing", etc. Instead of discrete letters, learn what
>entire words or frequent endings sound like. Then in a pinch you can decode
>individual letters that you may have missed by not having to decode the
>familiar-sounding ending or even guess from context what the entire word is.
>- for call signs, which are basically just code groups, be familiar with the
>patterns - 1-2 letter/number/2 or 3 letters, etc. That will help you store
>those and limit the amount of brain power you have to devote to decoding a
>call at high speed. Not infallible but it helps.
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