In places I’m not even sure it is English, but it certainly makes a high art out of recursiveness. That’s the problem, really, it confuses flashy language for insight. Insight tends to be reductive in that it strips away the unnecessary. Flashiness buries the essential in fireworks…now I’m doing it! 
Brian
Dear Santi,
I don’t think there’s any need for you to call CQ SOTA QRS.
As long as your CQ call is sent at 8-10-12 WPM you are implicitly telling everybody that you work at low speed and you want a low speed reply. As it’s been written earlier in this thread, any operator answering to your slow CQ call much faster is simply rude, unpolite and a little bit stupid too, I would say, because he/she should know that you probably won’t be able to copy his/her fast morse code.
Imagine someone CQing on voice in English. Would it make any sense answering to him in Spanish or Japanish for instance? Not at all, it’s unpolite and stupid because the most probable thing is that he/she is CQing in a language he/she can understand and doesn’t want any answer in other language he/she doesn’t understand.
Santi, I’m delighted everytime I copy you either chasing or activating on CW and you can be sure that you will get a QRS answer from me when I’m at home -because I have a good speed control knob in my keyer- and a farnsworth answer when I’m activating from a summit, because it’s not so easy for me to reduce the FT-817 internal keyer speed in the middle of the pile-up. Farnsworth means that my characters will be sent at the same speed (usually 22-23 WPM in my activations) but the spacing between characters and words will become longer, so your brain will have more time to think and recognise each character, which is what it’s really necessary when copying mose in the begining.
Finally, let me recommend you to try doing at least one QSO per day, but not a SOTA or DX style QSO, where the exchange is usually Callsing UR 599 TU. What it’s necessary to improve is practising at longer QSOs. First try QSOs where you’ll exchange callsings, reports, names, QTH and perhaps WX info. After a year doing this type of QSOs you’ll feel confortable enough as to start talking about other things, but this is not easy particularly if done in a foreign language.
Good luck, Santi and I’ll be looking forward to copying you many more times either on SOTA QSOs or regular/standard QSOs.
Best 73 de Guru
That! very good description and it helped my moral too 
The perfect QRS key for the bonus point time!?
(found on AT Sprint yahoo group)
I’m thinking of making some winter gloves with fingertips like this!
Stage 1 (up to about 10 wpm): The code is memorized as a code, not a language, and is stored in Short Term Memory “look-up table.” Faster than that, the next letter is sent sooner than the short term memory can be accessed. (Old Novice license, 5 wpm)
Stage 2 (up to about 18 wpm): Consistent frequent usage causes the mind to elect to move the learning into long-term memory. This has a quicker access time. The transfer occurs subconsciously during one’s sleep. Once this occurs, strangely, the learner suddenly finds they can copy faster, and continued practice quickly leads to improvement up to the new speed ceiling. this is why the speed of 13 wpm was selected for the old general class license. You can not copy 13 wpm until the transfer into long term memory has taken place. Hence the speed choices for General (13 wpm) and Extra (20 wpm, just above the next plateau).
Stage 3 (up to about 27 wpm): Further continued usage at higher speeds causes the whole process to move from long term memory into the language center of the brain. This is a more complex change and may take longer. It will happen more quickly for some who is still in the neurological developmental stage for language development (younger than 15). This is much faster, but note that the sender is still SPELLING at you. You do not hear words.
Stage 4 (generally up to your Haas (echo suppressor) limit, likely between 45 and 55 wpm): In this stage of learning you begin to interpret whole syllables and even words at the same time. Now you genuinely copy code as another language. Once into this stage, you can, with practice, increase speed readily until limited by the brain’s built-in echo suppressor, known as the Haas Effect. About 10% of people don’t have this at all, they are not limited in this way, but will have difficulty understanding speech in a eho filled hallway.
With this understanding you will grasp better just what is going on. Note that those who devised Farnsworth and Kock methods did NOT understand the above, though they were aware of the plateaus.
You will also recognize what Farnsworth is trying to do, which is to get you to hear letters as a sound rather than an interpreted cipher from a look up table. I frankly doubt if you can have success learning code without learning the cipher first. I can not imagine interpreting code and not knowing what the cipher actually is, and i may be wrong. I personally think that one isn’t really ready for Farnsworth until they have the code memorize, and probably already in long term memory, but that’s an opinion.
You have it in long term memory, so I would think you are ready for Farnsworth, but in my opinion, not for Koch, and you need to be writing down the letters to interpret words later.
You pass from stage 2 into stage 3, using the language center, by frequent (not necessarily long episodes of) practice. Many five minute episodes in a day is worth MUCH more than one hour long episode. All in the world that is happening, is convincing your brain that this is in regular use, and might as well transfer into the language center.
Going from stage 3 to stage 4, true language, copying syllables and words that transform in your head into meaning, the goal of the Koch method. My opinion is that this can not take place until already in stage 3, but others have more experience with the Koch method than I and might disagree. Regardless…
Once IN stage, easily recognized by being able to readily copy on paper, usually by printing, 20-25 wpm, though sweating a bit and concentrating plenty, THEN a trick that I find helps for moving on to the highest stage is this…
There is a reason you are printing. That is, you are copying discrete letters. I found when I learned way back when that I could NOT force myself to use script which is obviously faster. After a while, and I wasn’t getting faster, I decided that I must FORCE myself to script the copy. Lo and behold, within moments of starting by golly writing in script, B-A-N-G, I was copying over 3 wpm, and within a week was copying 40 wpm, and equally amazing, I could begin to sit back and hear someone talk to me!
P.S. That all important practice…
frequent short sessions is more valuable than one long one
SENDING is just as effective as receiving. You still have to THINK of the letter and form it. I used to be walking down the street, and I would spell in Morse things I saw, signs I saw, under my breath of course
Hope this is helpful to many!
[quote=“KT5X, post:67, topic:12306”]Hope this is helpful to many![/quote]Thanks. An interesting analysis, and probably explains why I found the “Morse is a language” assertions made by some folk so bleeping unhelpful; it always seemed to me that learning Morse was like learning to read and write again, and nothing at all like learning a new language.
The random-character groups used in training methods like Koch also put the emphasis entirely on individual character recognition. Only training involving meaningful text (whether plain or using abbreviations) stands a chance of being interpreted as a language, and that may partly explain why I started making progress when I abandoned Koch. The random-character groups may have been a fair part of the problem.
73, Rick 5Z4/M0LEP
I think Guru has got it right. It took me a full 2 years to learn, in order to get the 12wpm exam, and I then decided I would use no other mode, as it cost so much time to learn.
But the best learning I did was in a group at the HQ of the Rolls Royce Radio Club at Barlick (Barnoldswick). They were great, and the thought that every week I was expected and welcomed into the club made learning together with others effective and fun. And we didn’t normally touch a key, only received code sent from a book (incl ‘racy’ novels!). This, of course, was added in to all the daily practice from computer or off-air.
If you can, get together with a group of learners and ‘seasoned senders’ who know what they’re doing, and enjoy it, however long it takes.
Les g0nmd
I’m wondering if getting a group together on Skype would be helpful for Morse code tuition. No need for transceivers, no QRM/QRN, or even licensing problems. The only real issue would be time zones and personal availability. Much better feedback loop having someone there you can ask questions of, or get to shift speed when needed. Run “real” QSOs back and forth.
Just tossing this out as a notion, anybody care to comment?
Bruce - WB8OGK
Hi Bruce,
I think it would. Why not.
However, my personal feel is that given that we are radioamateurs and our communication fields are the ham radio bands, we should do it on the bands.
We see ham radio friends getting together on the bands everyday for chatting about antennas, rigs, DX, anything.
Why not ham radio friends getting together to play with teaching and learning morse code?
As I explained earlier in this thread and some other before, that’s the way I learnt it back in 1985, on 2m FM.
Later I taught morse code to other colleagues the same way, on 2m FM.
No doubt, a local QSO for the teaching & learning group on VHF would be easier to establish than an international group on HF but less easy doesn’t mean impossible. It’s just a question of will.
I can offer myself to teach morse code to a small group of up to 5 people on a 30-40 minutes daily basis until the characters, the numbers and the punctuation symbols are learnt, then providing a basic QSO cheat sheet and making a few basic QSOs. From this point onwards I’ll consider my teaching role finished and it will be up to each individual ham to keep on practising and improving their skills.
Depending on the location of the interested hams to take part on this, we will try to find a possible time and frequency to do it.
Any other want to offer themself to teaching morse code?
Anybody interested in learning?
Let’s see how many want to learn and how many teachers we can have…
Would this be of use for anyone printed a copy of myself to keep handy.
http://git.dl7bj.org/Documents/blob_plain/8d6c1be9b3f3f98a057e8a6721888f802cfef1f9:/CW%20QSO%20Cheat%20Sheet/cw-refcard.pdf
You might find this useful.
I’ve just found a super 3hr 14minute video of π (Pi)
Whilst it would have been nice to put it into 5 figure groups and speed it up a bit, it’s very relaxing as it is.
Good practice if you’re struggling with numbers.
I’ve only done the first 30 minutes, but it’s a keeper if you need something different to relax to.
Pity there are no cut numbers. Maybe one I need to produce.
Almost reminds me of all those hours taking wx ship reports 
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231…
Enjoy
Pete
Gosh!
Reminds me of poetry.
Pi…, rhymes with why?
Sorry, just came back to this. The problem with learning from plain language is that you find it difficult to avoid being predictive, you follow the text and anticipate what comes next, giving your brain a fraction of time in which to think what the morse characters will be for the anticipated letters. You copy p-r-e-d-i-c-t and you know that what comes next will be a space or an s,e or i. You get an i and you know the next letter will be an o followed by an n and if the context is right possibly an s. You cannot predict random letters so the brain doesn’t have that little bit of extra help, which is why random letters seem harder.
Brian
and is the only way to learn morse (IMHO). That’s how I was taught morse in the Merchant Navy and RAF.
Glyn
If you can’t receive random letters how the hell do you copy a call sign?
[quote=“G8ADD, post:75, topic:12306”]which is why random letters seem harder[/quote]…and when you’re working at (or just beyond) the top end of the speed you can manage, a little help can go a long way. Also, meaningful text is more interesting to copy. I like to have a few callsigns (which are as near to random as you’re likely to need to go) thrown in for good measure, but I found trying to learn using purely random character groups was tedious, boring, and frustrating, and boredom and frustration are not conducive to learning.
that depends on the individual and how serious they are to learn the code
I agree Rick. Make it meaningful and motivating. It shouldn’t need to be gruelling proof of the learner’s commitment or determination.
Lots of comments about “the only way to learn morse” are perfectly valid - but do reflect the era in which the code was learnt. The advice is good advice - for the situation when that person was learning, 20/30/40 years ago.
Today is different. We have much more sophisticated software available. We have paddles and keyers. And most significantly, you do not have to pass an exam at any minimum speed to get on the air and use it!
So my own successful (and incredibly enjoyable) method of learning CW - by actually doing SOTA activations at 10wpm - would not have been a possibility back then. Upon reaching 10wpm back then, I still wouldn’t have been allowed on HF.
Out of all the “entry-level” CW activities you can do - SOTA chasing, slow speed practice nets, participation in “simple” HF contests (CQWW CW being the obvious example) etc - I found that the easiest by far was SOTA activating. This was because all the chasers cooperate with MY speed and MY style of operating. It is far less stressful or demanding than one might instinctively imagine.
[quote=“G4CFS, post:79, topic:12306”]that depends on the individual and how serious they are to learn the code[/quote]I’ll grant you the first, but not the second. Folk learn in different ways. If a particular path isn’t working for someone, then nothing is gained by persisting along that path; try something else. If you’re really serious about learning something, you’ll find a way.