Learning morse

I like the idea of tapping on the steering wheel. How about actually tapping out the code for the letter? If there is still enough space between them, that might be another way to help cement them in your brain.

Glad you are having fun! Only 22 letters to go… :thumbsup: It gets easier once you have enough to muddle through some plaintext and QSO format exchanges.

found this thought it was kind of neat and some of you diy qrp lightweight enthusiasts may think its a good idea.
http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=28801
a lightweight diy iambic key.

not for me though. my training today was at 10wpm spacing/timing and character speed of 20wpm with 4 characters over 2 minutes i can get 89% copy correct over 5 minutes only 79.6% correct. will have to stay on 4 characters for a few more days. with my slower timings i can get 100% copy rate.

I like that you are listening to CW while driving to work! Filling that otherwise redundant time with CW definitely accelerated my own progress. The driving is the most important thing, so of course you will “zone out” for much of the journey. But it’s still going into the subconscious and doing you good.

I burned k7qo cw course onto CD and listened to that one way home. It goes up from a,b,c etc it has 1 track of a then 1 track of b then 1 track of a+b etc. Got up to a-f test before I got home and started to have issues copying it at 100%. Hopefully doing different character sets in car and at work on phone will not be detrimental.

Well done so far Anthony, but be wary of expecting too much too soon. Take your learning at a nice steady pace & don’t burn yourself out by trying to go too far ahead of where you are.

Learning to read before learning to send is generally accepted as the best way to go. One tip I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread yet is that to read (& send) Morse well, you really need to recognize the rhythm of the characters. An easy way to get your brain recognizing the rhythm is learning how to “speak” the characters correctly.

Basically, instead of saying “dot” & “dash” which are both around the same length when spoken, use “Dit” & “Dah” as they are closer the the 1:3 ratio of standard Morse.

For example, rather than saying “dot-dash-dot” for the letter R you should say “dih-dah-dit” as your brain will take in what each character should sound like much easier. This really comes into its own once you know all the letters & numbers as it can be used for practice anywhere there are words or letters to be read. One example would be during a journey to work where there will be registration plates on other vehicles that you can say out loud.

As Tom mentions above - Driving the vehicle safely should be your top priority

Even at your stage of learning this may help with the rhythm:
For example with the 4 letters you have learnt so far, if you see any of those letters in a number plate simply say them out loud:

M = "dah-dah"
K = dah-dih-dah"
R = "dih-dah-dit"
S = “dih-dih-dit”

If you find this helps you now then keep it up, if not then maybe leave it until you have all the characters under your belt.

In any case, don’t give up, you will never regret learning Morse, It’s Brilliant! :smile:

Best of luck & best 73,

Mark G0VOF

I’m really enjoying the k7qo CD in the car. It’s characters at 17wpm but at 5wpm speeds. My steering wheel and door handle is my morse paddle. I know I have to be patient which is something Im not when I want to learn something. Why can’t it be like the matrix and just download the knowledge in a few seconds lol.

I agree with just listening. Try putting on CW even while doing chores or paperwork in the office/shack. You may be surprised at how you pick up letters subconsciously.

I can share my experience. I have passed my CW exam 20 years ago and since then I hardly used it. Now after all those years I wanted to make CW QSO. Sure enough I was rusty so I had to learn nearly from the start. At this it helped me a lot the Koch method that can be found at LCWO page. Have started with 2 letters and gradually I have included numbers etc. But this was just half of the job done. The second half is to get the CW keyer and start keying on a monitor. I have found out that just listening to CW is not enough, you must get involved with a keyer, this made a difference - at least with me.
So I have turned on my TRX and I was pretending to firstly receive call sign and then make a QSO with it (keying on monitor). When I was confident enough I went alive.

So, for a start go to LCWO page, login and make your account and watch how your CW knowledge grows, but also get yourself a keyer and start keying - good luck.

73 de Jure

well I’m still enjoying the K7QO cw cd in my car. I’m up to understanding A-J fine and can sort of do A-V. This is at 5wpm but characters are around 18wpm. Currently going back through the CD from A-j upto A-V again. 99% of my training is taking place in the car at the moment. decoding with no paper and saying the letter out loud or in my head and sometimes tapping it out dual paddle style on the steering wheel or other part of the car.

Still need to stop the “Oh i know this one what is it. . dih-dih-dah-dit oh yes F” meanwhile 5 other characters have gone by.

73 Anthony

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I am one of the “learn it before you send it” exponents. I consider it to be in the same category as “engage brain before speaking”. Don’t worry about those moments when you lose track - just press your reset button and carry on. I still get the odd glitch now and then, usually when I don’t track the rhythm of the incoming morse… not all sending is perfect of course, Then you get the equivalent of the regional accent. :wink:

Keep up the good work.73, Gerald G4OIG

Well I thought I’d share my current morse learning with you.
I’m still doing 99% of my learning in the car from CD and the K7QO CD course. I’ve got up to A-Z so definitely this is the furthest I’ve ever got with learning the code. I’m up to doing 2 letter words/acronyms (track 41) on the CD and it’s starting to come together. The second letter sometimes helps with decoding the first character, sometimes I get each letter individually and sometimes I get the 2 letter word as a word like To and ok.
It’s still not very fast but once I get to numbers ill be able to practice call signs then I might venture on air with my slow morse.
I’m enjoying learning and I can tell a big difference between when my minds tired and when it’s not when morse is on. That’s when I turn it off.
Thanks for the advise on the forum, this time learning the code is still fun and I’ve got further than I have ever got before.
I also sound out car reg plates in Morse too, just without the numbers at the mo.
Thanks all
73
Anthony

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