2 equine phrases come to mind regarding this thread:
no point in flogging a dead horse
you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make it drink
73
Victor GI4ONL
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You can lead a dead horse to water but you can’t flog it a drink?
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Or…
You can lead a flogging but you can’t drink a dead horse!
I think someone’s not been flogging a dead horse Andy, but flogging you a famous grouse - and you’ve been drinking it
Anybody already proficient in morse code might dismiss this as an overextended thread, but to those suffering anxiety over their lack of progress every new post will be eagerly scanned in case it provides a vital clue to get them progressing again.
Brian
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This white horse goes into a bar and says to the barman “Pint of lager please.” The barman looks at the white horse and starts to pour out the beer and places the glass on the bar. “That’ll be £3.45 please.” As the white horse is giving the barman the cash, the barman says “Do you know we have a whisky named after you?”. The white horse puts down the glass and says “What! Eric?”
I’ll stop now…
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Yes and by the time my brain has figured out that lot the incoming CW is halfway through the next word 
Give me random groups any day, much easier… Or is it just me?
de Paul G4MD (still trying to regain lost skills 30 years too late)
Fair comment Brian - but now that this thread is 25 days old can those who are learning tell us how much they have improved over that time, and what methods have been used to bring about that improvement and how long have they spent on the daily grind of listening to Morse in some way, reciting car number plates, or whatever method has been used… There should have been a measurable improvement in character recognition and receive speed if learners had had the discipline to knuckle down on a daily basis, even if only for 15-30 minutes practice, in my opinion.
73 Phil G4OBK
You illustrate my point very well Phil. We are no longer in an era where the “only” way or the “best” way to learn is in the concepts of “daily grind”, “discipline”, “knuckle down”, “30 minutes practice” etc. These do indeed work, but they are very old-fashioned ideas now as regards learning, and have a tendency to demotivate rather than to inspire.
I have demonstrated a way to successful learn CW (for SOTA purposes) that is motivating and enjoyable, and does not require any of these uninspiring and unnecessary “daily grind”, “discipline” and “knuckle down” ideas. The professional research I have done in connection with my dayjob over the years informs me that learning is most effective when the learner is inspired, motivated and immersed in enjoyment. I constructed my CW learning to tick those boxes - and it worked.
Like Rick, my progress was slow when I was forcing myself to do disciplined 30 minute drills every day. It rocketed when I started enjoying myself!
[quote=“G4OBK, post:89, topic:12306”]There should have been a measurable improvement[/quote]I guess I’m at the very bottom of the class; measurable improvement over a year, maybe, but over three and a bit weeks, nothing clearly noticeable above the noise. Here are a couple of graphs from lcwo.net (words and callsigns) tracking my progress over two years or so:
I’ll be interested to see how much my proficiency has changed now that I’m back from Kenya and able to use those exercises to practice again. Whilst I was in Kenya the only practice I got was from listening on the bands…
The bottom chart shows you can copy call signs at around 20-22 wpm and have been able to do that for some 200 attempts.
So where’s the problem?
My enjoyable reward for doing the practice was a martini or malt.
Of course, the more rewards I awarded myself, the slower the improvement. But hey, it was fun.
Sorry Rick I don’t understand the charts as I haven’t used the software. Andy seems to know it, and thinks you have made progress.
For Tom - daily grind or not it worked for me and I would still commend the method today, old fashioned or not. Also bearing mind that when I was learning Morse I was a short wave listener and not a licenced amateur so as well as the daily 15 - 30 minutes a day practice for five months I was looking for amateurs on HF in QSO who were sending CW slowly enough for me to copy, so as well as learning Morse then I was also learning basic QSO procedure and ticking off the DXCC Countries heard or Oblasts or whatever took my fancy in CW mode - adding interest to my learning of the Morse.
73 Phil
I am with you Phil. When I was a young trainee Radio Officer on my first day at college on the chalk board was A-Z 0-9 plus all the punctuation. The morse instructor told us to write it all down and remember it because tomorrow we start with mixed groups of 5 (letters, numbers & punctuation)! An hour a day and within 3 months we are at 25wpm. This is not meant as a brag but a demonstration of dogged determination can work for some, maybe not all. Pre-empting or predicting is a dangerous practice to get into even when you are a competent cw operator and something I would never encourage. Don’t read the text, write done the letters - the best piece of advice I was ever given (relating to morse). Copying live QSO’s is OK but just write what you receive and DO NOT try to read it - if you do you will miss the next 3 or 4 characters.
Good luck to all those trying to learn the code. Check out www.lidscw.org for a good resource and forum.
Glyn
I started to learn the Morse alphabet the second week of January. I have been spending as many segments as I can each day, 5mins at a time using CWSpeed an iphone App. So far I have 8 letters + SPACES with about 85%-90% accuracy, I keep the character speed at 18WPM with the Gaps making it an effective 8wpm when I have new characters. When I go back a couple of characters, I can increase the WPM to 12 without issue, I do that to prove I learned it.
Anyway, the comment I’d like to add is that I have found that I have already become accustomed to the “sound” from CWSpeed. When I use other software like G4FON, "just learn Morse code"or LCWO it takes a little time to become accustomed. But ultimately, I think it’s good to mix it up.
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Mostly, I can manage a SOTA activation provided the chasers follow the script, because then I can listen for and write down only the information I need, but if they throw in too much extra information then I can get lost very quickly. I’d like that not to happen…
[quote=“MM0FMF, post:92, topic:12306”]So where’s the problem?[/quote]Something those particular exercises don’t test; mainly the ability to sustain copy at a particular speed for the length of an over. My main weakness, when it comes to listening to Morse, is short-term memory; I need to write down what I’m hearing before I forget what I’ve heard, so I’m limited (in QSOs) to how fast I can write/type what I hear, and I get lost if I get behind…
[quote=“G4OBK, post:94, topic:12306”]don’t understand the charts[/quote]I guess it boils down to any overall slope up to the right indicates progress, but the horizontal axis covers roughly two years. My main point was that you might be able to track my progress over some months, and say whether I’m improving or not, but you probably couldn’t say that with any confidence over just a few weeks…
That is caused by predicting or anticipating what is going to come next. Do not try to read the code just write down what you hear.
In my opinion in order to be able to read Morse you first need to LEARN it!
Is it just me that thinks this, or have I got it completely wrong?
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So speed is irrelevant - what a relief!
Brian
I think you are doing the hard part now…learning the letters initially. I can tell you from long experience both in CW and foreign languages in general…the hardest thing for me to overcome is the fear of making mistakes. Once you resign yourself to the fact that initially you will make a few (or a lot in my case…but really hams are among the most patient and forgiving test subjects I know) it is really not that bad. You start getting interested more in what is being said and less in missing a few characters or mis-sending your own name! I really think there is no replacement for a 3 WPM on the air QSO. Just get out there and try it once you have your letters down. It’s only terrifying the first few times. After that you start to really have fun with it. Keep it up!
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