Following our club (FAR) helping all six candidates to pass the recent foundation exam, new chasers should be heard soon from the Furness area. This has sparked interest in CW.Dave G3VUS and myself will be running slow morse in the evening starting at 2000 local tonight,13 Oct on 145.300 +/- other users. These will be tone modulated fm and so copy-able by anyone with a 2m fm rig. Dave, whose qth is on high ground with good takeoff will be the main transmitting station with myself as “LEGAL” receiving station. (no broadcasting here sir!)
Please feel free to join in and give us a call,mcw or phone and let us know how you are doing. We will judge the response and if needed we will run the lessons several times a week. Think of all the extra chaser points you could collect on cw.
cul
Rob
G4RQJ
In reply to G4RQJ:
I will be on rob as you well know I think im going to find this very stressfull as i find it hard to distinguish the dah from the dit this could end up like the game of chienease whispers …at my end anyway
In reply to G4RQJ:
I’ve found http://lcwo.net to be very useful for learning and brushing up morse. As a result I’ll hopefully soon be using it on the air for SOTA. Maybe even this weekend if the weather cooperates. I’ll definitely be /P/QRS though.
In reply to G4RQJ:
Hi Rob,
I did take a listen myself for the first 15 minutes or so. I couldn’t hear you, which is hardly surprising given the path between us & power levels, but Dave G3VUS was S4 & perfectly readable with me here in Blackburn.
The level of the sidetone was spot on & he was still easily readable when a couple of other stations started up on the same frequency for a few minutes early on.
I am no morse expert by any means, but I did find the 3WPM text very easy to read (as I should do)while doing some other work, but I didn’t really have time to listen to much beyond that. My problem is that I can’t write fast enough to record all I hear at 15wpm+ but my brain cannot covert the letters into words quick enough for me to do away with writing things down completely. The more I use it, the better I get though, which I suppose is true for anyone.
That said, I am doing ok, & I do enjoy every CW qso I have, although I am no good at “conversation”. I aim to read the “necessary” parts of what is sent to me, for SOTA, that would be Callsign, RST & Summit reference, & the other bits do fall into place over time.
For those just starting out with cw, it may seem daunting, but stick with it!
Although most amateur CW qso’s are carried out at 20wpm+, a lot of SOTA cw qso’s are carried out at slower speeds simply because your fingers can get cold on a summit 
Once you have learnt the letters & numbers, try listening to some cw on the air, & try to pick out callsigns, or maybe just prefixes, so at least you will know what country the station you are listening to is in.
Build up from where you are, don’t expect to be be fluent straight away. It takes time, & more importantly, you need to use & listen to CW regularly. Treat it as if you were learning a new language & you should do OK 
Best of luck to all just starting to learn, & Thanks to Dave G3VUS for the transmission, I hope it is appreciated
Best 73,
Mark G0VOF