[GreenKeys] early automatic Morse to Baudot equipment?

[Richard Knoppow]

    I have had to struggle too. I now have poor hearing which 
gets in the way. However, a couple of questions and suggestions:
    Do you try to copy faster than 15 WPM? If not do so even if 
you don't get much of it. Listen for individual letters and short 
words. Then try the slower speed again.
    15 minutes a day is probably not enough. A practice session 
of around 15 minutes is enough, longer is too fatiguing, but do 
it perhaps three or four times a day separated by enough time to 
rest.
    I sometimes can read very fast, maybe 35 WPM but after a few 
minutes it becomes hash and I must stop. Other days I can read 
maybe 20 WPM as a limit.
    Some people claim to reach very high speeds right away. 
Either they are gifted or are lying. I think it needs steady 
practice for months to get to the higher speeds.
    Around 15 WPM seems to be a common plateau. The way around it 
seems to be just start listening at speeds you can't quite copy. 
Find out where it all turns to hash and go a bit slower. After a 
while you will begin to "get it".  After many years I have come 
to the conclusion that reading code is a very complex mental 
process. That receiving and sending probably use different parts 
of the brain. Perhaps high speed receiving uses a different part 
than slow receiving. Can't prove any of this. However, it seems 
to be fairly common for old time commercial operators to be able 
to receive code via a typewriter and talk to someone at the same 
time. I've heard about this so many times, some first hand, that 
I believe it. I have trouble talking and driving at the same time.
     Just keep at it and you will get there.

On 9/5/2019 7:47 PM, Paul Heller wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Sep 5, 2019, at 4:54 PM, Harold Hallikainen 
>> <harold at w6iwi.org <mailto:harold at w6iwi.org>> wrote:
>>
>> I still enjoy CW and am on the air almost every night improving 
>> my skill
>> in this in-demand area!


-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL