[Fists] How I Learned CW

Wed Dec 19 15:53:36 EST 2012

HOW I LEARNED CW

By Hector ( Luigi ) Perez NP4FW FIST
2531

To me, learning Morse Code is like learning another
language. We went to school and got fluent on English, now is going to be Spanish
and maybe one day will be French or Italian or Mandarin Chinese; who knows.

Be aware that its going to take some time, it is not
going to be easy, it will take dedication and a bit of self control. 

Once you have all the ingredients, make your own milkshake
in your liquid blender and there you go.

In my case and after learning the complete alphabet
plus the numbers and some signs (ej) comma, period, slant bar etc. I started by
just taking some time to listen and doing some copying for just something…
anything; a letter, a word, a number a call a name .

Then one day I decided to go on the air, I could not
resist longer on the listening and apart from that, I was just sick of the
ongoing bulling at the phone bands. It was awful and I just could not take it
no more.  

I though it could be a good idea if I could make myself
a helping tool for some time so I made and index card with the following basic information
to follow while keying:

MY NAME IS   Hector

MY QTH IS   San Juan, PR

YOUR RST IS  
559 (standard to everyone)

I AM NEW ON CW SO PLEASE SLOW WITH ME. PLEASE SLOW

BTO FROM  NP4FW

PLEASE SLOW

K

Those first days were pure agony but it was a real
thrill and paid good results. 

My way of keying went like this at a very slow speed
of 8 WPM, 

CQ CQ CQ CQ DE NP4FW NP4FW

CQ CQ CQ CQ DE NP4FW NP4FW (K) 

Someone came back to me like this (ej) NP4FW NP4FW de
KB2ABC  

Then my turn to answer with my card in front of me

KB2ABC KB2ABC de NP4FW NP4FW

TNXS OM FER CALL

MY NAME  is
Hector agn  Hector

MY QTH   San
Juan, PR agn San Juan, PR

YOUR RST IS  
559 (standard to everyone)

I AM NEW ON CW  
PLEASE SLOW WITH ME   PLEASE SLOW

BTO FROM  NP4FW

K

At that moment, I started copying any information
from him; any which I confess most of it got lost. Nevertheless, I had gotten
at least his name and his call so I ended up the QSO as soon as I could with a
simple … 

Tnxs om vry m for the qso.  Tnxs er 
73 de NP4FW

That was it. 

It was embarrassing; I could hear him keying not
understanding anything until the last part of his sentence 73 de KB2ABC.

From there on, I used to grab my call book find his
address and send him a QSL card.

And so I kept doing that until one day, I felt
ashamed on myself for doing that kind of a poor performance and I decided to take
one step further. I will ask for the other party to repeat his State or to
mention his county to make things a little difficult for me. 

Months went by and as time went by I felt I was doing
better and better each day.

A friend gave me an idea. He said, go up every single
day and try to make at least two qsos. So I did.

Another friend told me: do not lay down your pencil;
keep copying. If you miss something, move your hand to the right and just keep
on copying.

Then another day, while using the same strategy of having
my index card and my “new on cw please slow with me “ strategy I decided to
start working German Stations and Russian stations with their corresponding
long personal names and qth.

Years have gone and go and still, life is not that
easy yet. A head surgery left me completely deaf from my left side  but not even that, has diminish my spirit and
devotion to CW. Even with one ear, I manage to copy by memory quite a few
things, I still use a paper and a pen and I still work cw at just 13 wpm which
is fair to me. On catching a DX or while doing just that DXing, I can go as
high as 24 wpm but… but … when some folks shows up and I feel they want to
ragchew , immediately  I come back to 13
wpm and even slower to really enjoy a qso.

I use the old index card no more, I confess, I can do
great, and I feel a great sensation inside me; like riding a bike without the side
wheels.

This has been my humble story, but that’s the way it
was.

A great Xmas to all

DE: NP4FW