[Elecraft] OT: Decoding high speed CW

[lstavenhagen]

Just a quick point of clarification (since I did my graduate work in a
similar field). I would say it's more like a "pidgin" language in contesting
exchanges, yes, but in a regular QSO, CW is still basically just an encoding
system for the underlying language the QSO is in. 

The only difference is in the representation of the "items" of that
language: they are now represented by CW rather than the sounds made by the
human voice. Putting it another way, you're not having to relearn English
when you take up CW, but only a new representation for the "pieces" of it
(words and parts of words). 

That would explain why, for example, your copy speed will drop (sometimes
dramatically) when the content is blocks of random letter/number groups
instead of plain language, or if you're reading the mail on a QSO in another
language like Spanish or German (and you don't speak those languages). 

And (though by now you know where my comment is going hi hi) why your copy
speed can drop dramatically when it's 90% call signs like in a contest.
You're not totally at sea, since we have a definite and small set of
patterns to go by with calls and the format of contest exchanges (regarding
my 'pidgin' judgment above), but that's why contest QSO's kind of need their
own copy practice...

73,
LS
W5QD

Bill Frantz wrote
> 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.





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