[SFDXA] QRQ or Copying CW over 70 wpm - Tom W4BQF

[Bill]

/Tom became a SK a few months ago.//His QRZ page is still up/
//

website:
https://sites.google.com/site/tomw4bqf/home

QRQ or Copying CW over 70 wpm

*QRQ = FUN = QRQ*

*Tom - W4BQF                CW is for REAL HAMS! 
<https://sites.google.com/site/tomw4bqf/home>*

Quite often I am asked "How can you copy CW at 70 wpm and higher?" Since 
it's pretty insulting just to answer by  saying "Practice, practice, 
practice", I normally wind up emailing back a synopsis on how I learned 
to do it. Others have used different methods of achieving QRQ copy by ear.

What I have to say on this subject is only my own personal opinion, 
which normally does not agree with everyone else!

I really don't believe in the various methods of learning code. I think 
learning to copy high speed code is much simpler than following someone 
else's method of learning to copy QRQ. What I am sharing with you is 
things that I found to work for me.

There are some basic's I think one MUST learn, and the very first one is 
you must learn to copy ONLY in your head. That's very important! From 
there you can begin to increase your copy speed. So copying in your head 
is a MUST. Jotting down notes or 'key words' is fine to remind you of 
something you want to respond to during your QSO.

QSO'ing at 70 to 120 wpm is literally no different than having a 
conversation on the telephone; you are  just doing it using a different 
language! No sending call signs (except as required) and no sending 
'bk'. You don't do that on the telephone! Speaking on a telephone is 
operating duplex, therefore why not do the same thing on CW?

A second most important thing you must do is have a radio that has 
excellent full QSK at high speeds.  Simply because when operating QRQ, 
you MUST do it in duplex! You don't stop and take notes when your 
conversing on the telephone, so why do it when your operating QRQ? The 
radios that I know of that can run full QSK at speeds over 100 wpm are 
the Ten Tec Corsair II and the Icom IC-781, and they do it flawless. In 
my opinion, full QSK is not at what speed you can hear another signal 
between dots, but at what speed can you hear your fellow ham trying to 
break you! Hearing between dots is a fine criterion for speeds below 
about 40 wpm, but is inconsequential over 60 wpm. Unfortunately the more 
digital circuitry that is added to modern transceivers, the less high 
speed QRQ capable they become.

All high speed code (above about 55 wpm) is sent with a keyboard/keyer 
or a computer keyboard, simply because one just cannot consistantly send 
'clean' code by hand on a key. Consistently 'clean' code makes for 
easier copying! I've been a CW operator for over 55 years but I am not 
one of those 'old goats' who claim that sending CW by any other means 
than using your had is not 'real' CW. 'Real' CW is a dot and  a dash, no 
matter how you send it. The idea here is how you copy QRQ, not how you 
send it!

Most computer programs that are capable of generating CW are, for some 
reason, not designed to exceed about 99 wpm. And most computer programs 
generate CW either via a serial port or a parallel port. Using these I/O 
ports causes an inherent problem for smooth CW generation. A computers 
CPU produces random (to us) interrupts which almost always stops 
activity in any I/O port FIRST! This leads to a 'stutter' sound in 
generated CW coming from these I/O ports. VE6YP, who is the author of 
the program I've been using for close to 10 years, is the only program 
author I know of who has found a solution to this problem. In his 
program, YPlog, he generates CW via the computer sound card, which is 
never interrupted by a computers CPU 'house-keeping'. The user builds a 
very simple audio detector and transistor switch to key his radio. This 
system works very good to over 160 wpm.

The reason you first want to learn to copy in your head only is because 
when you get to speeds around 50 to 55 wpm, you have to teach your brain 
literally to change it's method of interpreting code.(And it takes a 
while to do this!) Below about 50 wpm, you are still hearing a dot and a 
dash to form a word. When you are copying at 60 wpm and higher, you do 
not consciously hear a dot and a dash, you literally hear a word. At 
that time too, you begin to have to be in, what I call, the 'flow of the 
conversation', just like you are when your talking on your telephone. If 
you send me code groups at 70 wpm, I could not copy most of them, but if 
you and I are in a converation at 70 wpm or higher, THEN I can copy 
pretty solid.

To increase your copy speed, I recommend a code reader...and don't be 
shocked by that! The reason I recommend a code reader is because the 
process of learning to copy from about 50 to 60 wpm is where you 
literally have to teach your brain to copy code in a different way. The 
problem at these speeds is if you miss a word, your brain automatically 
freezes and tries to 'guess' at what that one missed word is. While the 
brain is trying to decide what that one word is, many more words go 
flying by, and you actually get very confused and lose track of what is 
being sent to you. When you start using a code reader, a first you're 
going to just read the screen, but subconsciously the brain is 
associating the dots and dashes with what your reading on the screen. 
The more you do this, you will find that the less you read the screen, 
but only glance at it when you miss that one word! This gets you over 
that 'brain freeze' that is caused by missig just one word! Once you get 
to copying around 60 wpm, when you DO miss that one word, your brain 
realizes it, but then just continues to copy, ignoring or filling in 
that one missed word.

Don't worry about a code reader being a crutch, simply because when you 
get to where you can copy around 60 wpm, you will find that you can then 
copy code better than a code reader! A code reader is not very good at 
handling high speed code in the presence of normal band noise of your 
receiver. About 60 to 70 wpm and they are not capable to keep up anymore 
because of noise crashes, but your brain can easily filter out the 
noise. A code reader is an 'aid' to helping one learn to copy code 
faster, it is NOT a crutch!

*[[just for info: Although you will not be conscience of copying dots ad 
dashes, if the sender mis-spells a word, somehow your brain will notice 
that. Say the sender sends the word 'will' as w'E'll, your mind will 
notice that one dit that was missed, but you will have trained your 
brain to ignore that one missed dit, and it will continue copying. I'm 
not truely sure of this but I think somewhere above about 70 or 80 wpm, 
since your mind is now really in the 'flow of the conversation', you 
probably are not literally copying every word that is sent to you, but 
your brain is copying enough to make sense out of what is being said!]]*

Two big things about QRQ: 1) You HAVE to make it just another FUN thing 
you want to do with your hobby. 2) You are not going to learn to do it 
over night! But *anybody* can learn to do it.

I got started doing QRQ sometime in the late 60's when I heard two hams 
talking to each other on their regular skeds on 40m, at 100 wpm. I 
thought it was just very fascinating, and just decided that was 
something I WANTED to do. And it took me about a year to go from 30 wpm 
on my keyer to over 60 wpm. That includes the time it took me to change 
from a QWERTY keyboard to a Dvorak style keyboard. The neat and fun 
thing I found, is that once you get to where you can copy between 60 and 
70 wpm, your mind seems to just open up to copying QRQ. Going from 60 
wpm to say, 100 wpm, seemed to be a breeze compared to retraining my 
brain to get through the 50 to 60 wpm 'brick wall' we all have to go 
through.

I really don't know how fast I could copy, but I used to have QSO's with 
KB9XE and NU2C at about 120 wpm and could fully understand what they 
were saying. NU2C tested me once and he would send me two questions, 
which I had to answer both, then he would go up about 5 wpm . Finally at 
145 wpm, I got only one of his questions! I have read that recently a 
German ham did copy a call sign being sent my RUFZ (a high speed 
competition program) at 200 wpm! Copying CW at high speeds, either 145 
wpm or 200 wpm, is one thing, having a conversation at those speeds is 
something quite different.

Again, two things. You have to make this a fun-thing, you have to want 
to do it, and it can get pretty frustrating at times. You have to be 
willing to spend the necessary time on the air working at improving your 
copy. That is the only way I know of that you can do it, as there are no 
short cuts. Interestingly, of the maybe 10 hams that I know that operate 
at high speeds, none of the have any interest in records or reconition 
for their QRQ ability. They all simply do it for the enjoyment of it.

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