[Hallicrafters] CW training?

Sat Aug 24 13:15:04 EDT 2013

There are any number of methods to learn code, some good, some not so much. 
When my kid wanted me to teach him Morse, I threw a key, oscillator, and 
paper with the Morse alphabet and numbers at him and said "go learn it". The 
next day we were communicating in Morse, and a month later he had his Novice 
ticket in hand. These days he uses Morse only once a year (with a keyer and 
paddle, and he's pretty good at it) but KB2SFS and I make a pretty good tag 
team on Field Day, racking up most of the local club's FD score.

WB2AWQ/7

-----Original Message----- 
From: Charlie T, K3ICH
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 9:32 AM
To: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] CW training?

When I with (the original,  RTTY/CW video terminals) Microlog Corp. in
Gaithersburg Maryland, we were contracted by "a gov't agency" to automate
their method of teaching Morse code.  They start with the long letters
first, Q, P, J, L, F etc. The instruction would start by sending only those
characters, then gradually progress through to the shorter characters.  That
way, the impulse to count characters would be diminished.  It also resulted
in eliminating the "change-of-mind" for example upon hearing a "1".  Is it
A, W, J or finally 1?  If you learn 1 first, it mentally forces you to wait
for the word space before making the decision.

The system sent the characters at a minimum of 15 WPM, which I thought was
called the Farnsworth method.

I won't go into the details of how we implemented this, but my 15 yr old son
went from zero code experience  to solid copy at an overall 5 WPM rate in a
matter of about 3 to 4  total hours with 15 - 20 min. sessions!   When asked
to send the code, after a little mechanical practice, he would send the
letters as he heard them, at 15 WPM.

My own personal experience of learning Morse by the worst possible way, of
looking at a Johnson Speed-X printed sheet, made it extremely hard to get
past that 7 WPM barrier.

However, since Microlog was a very small company,  we all had multiple
duties.  I handled customer calls, as well as testing every single receiver
system on the air that we shipped.   It would hear the code, but the screen
display would be delayed until the start of the next character.  In order to
verify it's proper operation, I had to identify the character before the
screen displayed it.  After about a year of doing this, maybe 3 hours a
week, without my realizing it, my copy speed increased to over 25 WPM.
This became evident, and a complete surprise to me,  when I handled the 432
MHz station of K3LNZ/8 during that June's VHF contest.

73, Charlie k3ICH

.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Glen Zook" <gzook at yahoo.com>
To: "Waldo Magnuson" <magnuson at mac.com>; <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] CW training?

If one treats learning the International Morse code as learning a new,
foreign, language that has only about 50-words, learning the code is,
generally, pretty easy. Unfortunately, many people try to learn the code by
"counting" the dits and dahs. Frankly, that is a sure way to failure,
especially getting the code speed much above 5 to 7 wpm.

In this regard, the Koch method, which requires sending each letter /
character at between 15 wpm and 20 wpm but spacing the characters so that
the effective speed is much slower, really helps.

I have taught code classes for well over 50-years and the method that I use
starts with the letter "A", the "B", etc. That way, one doesn't get into the
habit of "counting". The method that uses E, I, S, H, 5 and then T, M, O,
and 0, is a sure way to insure that people will "count" the dits and dahs!

If one listens to the "sound" of each letter the subconscious mind will
start recognizing each letter without the need for "counting"!

Glen, K9STH

Website:  http://k9sth.com

________________________________
From: Waldo Magnuson <magnuson at mac.com>
To: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Cc: Skip Magnuson <magnuson at mac.com>
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2013 6:17 PM
Subject: [Hallicrafters] CW training?

Hi, A recent comment to the forum from a younger member stated "he couldn't
learn CW." I'm older (80) and my speed receiving can't seem to get above 5
or 7 wpm. I was wondering for those older CWers, how many of you got your
training in the service. Just wondering. I guess I just need to practice
more often - that's what I'm told.
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