[HCRA] Why Johnny can't learn code

[Rick Lindquist]

This is a good basic treatise on learning styles, but the author's statement that "so many
claim they cannot learn code" is misleading and quite possibly erroneous, as some
commenters suggested. When the great code debate was going on a couple of years ago before
restructuring, we at ARRL HQ heard from relatively few amateurs who claimed they simply
could not learn CW or who could learn it only with great difficulty. Most of the anti-code
rhetoric simply dismissed Morse as an obsolete communication mode and irrelevant to modern
Amateur Radio.

My own experience was that when I was first licensed 44 years ago, learning the Morse code
quite an obstacle. Maybe I was more of a visual learner early on, but my theory is that
one's ability to acquire various skills also can be a function of brain development, as one
ages and (it's hoped) matures.

While I operated CW almost exclusively (I couldn't afford SSB gear), I was "stuck"
somewhere below 20 WPM for about two decades of hamming. (I flunked the 13 WPM code test
the first time I went for my General when I was 14.) I plugged away using a straight key to
keep my speed down within the range I could easily copy (I could send much faster than I
could copy).

Eventually I broke the 20-WPM barrier, but not by much. I recall that when the FCC examiner
fired up that tape recorder as I sat for my Extra, 20-WPM code never sounded so fast. But I
wrote down every character. Still, my actual ability remained somewhere between 20 and 25
WPM on a good day--but I was getting good at copying "in my head" by then, a necessity for
operating CW while mobile.

One weekend while I was in gradual school studying for exams in my car at a nice peaceful
location, I turned on the mobile rig during a break. I ran across a fellow sending
computer-generated CW at 40 WPM. It took me a few moments to dawn on me that I was able to
copy every word of it! I confirmed this later by listening to some high-speed CW practice
sessions. It was as though someone had flipped a switch, although I suspect my CW ability
had been gradually improving and I just had not noticed it for one reason or another.
Still, the previous year, I was at around 20-25 WPM, and in relatively short order, I was
able to copy approximately twice that speed. I remember a theory called "brain growth
periodization" that might account for this sort of phenomenon. If only gradual school had
gone that smoothly at the time.

My older brother continues to plug away at CW, and he similarly seems "stuck" at around 15
WPM. He has not mastered the concept (necessary to QRQ CW) of listening for entire words;
maybe that will come in time as it did for me, however. He was licensed twice many years
ago as a Novice and, after a 25-year break from ham radio, he got back into it a few years
ago and now holds an Advanced ticket. Interestingly, as could I in my younger days, he can
send CW at a fair clip; he just can't copy it nearly as fast, and he hasn't learned how to
copy "in his head" either. (I never mastered the technique of copying CW on a typewriter as
the military teaches, although I copy call signs into the logging software during contests
pretty well at 30+ WPM or so.)

Why put yourself through all this? Well, I've found that CW is just a LOT of fun. For
starters, you also can work a lot more DX with a lot less power and effort on CW. I have to
agree with Martin Jue, K5FLU, of MFJ fame, who once told me me he enjoys CW because, "Morse
code is just so different from anything else you do every day." That's what makes it
special to him.

Now that I've gotten reasonably proficient at it, it's even more fun. Much of my operating
the past 20 years has been CW while mobile; I've even done contests on CW from my car,
although I usually wasn't in motion those times.

There are, of course CW snobs. I do not believe, however, that anyone who has trouble with
Morse code--or who simply cannot grasp it at 2 WPM, much less 5 WPM, after making a
reasonable effort--is somehow an inferior being. It's also not for everybody. Some folks
grasp computer programming, too. I'm just not one of them, although I did muddle through a
couple of courses in C. Others have trouble learning a foreign language. That's never been
a big challenge for me.

Morse code will most likely disappear in a few years as a licensing requirement, but I
believe there will be always be amateurs who continue to enjoy it on the air. By not having
it as a requirement to obtain a license, however, new amateurs wanting to get on HF no
longer will have to be exposed to Morse code--and that's too bad in my opinion.

I have to recommend at least giving CW a try, if for no other reason than the tradition
Morse code has enjoyed in Amateur Radio (one good friend of mine calls Morse code "the
essence of ham radio"). There are lots of training aids and lots of methods. More than
likely, one will fit your learning style.

Who knows? You might wake up one day to find you can copy 50 WPM! And somebody's gotta work
all that CW DX in the future.

73, Rick N1RL


"Steve, KB1GHC" wrote:

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> http://www.qrz.com/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST&f=3&t=3718
> Interesting, I recommend you read it.
>
> 73' de KB1GHC
>
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