Brian’s problem doesn’t sound unique or special, it sounds like the
normal learning barrier people hit. Relentless bursts of practice it
what it takes, but limited to 10min sessions followed by hours and
hours of nothing.
This is what I was told in 1962. In 1964 when the B licence appeared I decided to take a holiday from banging my head against a brick wall! I don’t claim it is unique or special, it just doesn’t go away when treated with the usual prescription!
This is what I was told in 1962. In 1964 when the B licence appeared I
decided to take a holiday from banging my head against a brick wall! I
don’t claim it is unique or special, it just doesn’t go away when
treated with the usual prescription!
I have heard a lot of anecdotal evidence that some people find morse difficult or impossible to learn. I had wondered if it is linked to musicality eg people who find it difficult to recognise or repeat a tune also struggle with morse - but I seem to remember from another thread you mentioning that you are a musician, Brian?
Basically we see here one maverick professor and a trust pitted against the weight of educational opinion. This is similar to the Global warming debate where one meteorologist and a glaciologist plus a few high profile non-scientists (such as Monckton) are pitting themselves against the weight of climatological opinion. David against Goliath might be a fun spectator sport if the issues aren’t important: where they are important it seems more logical to go with the expert majority. Dyslexia is a description, not a disease, it has been described as a syndrome, being a collection of symptoms with no known (as yet) cause, and it can be treated - I know this because two of my three kids were dyslexic but now read reasonably well and for pleasure though it took until their mid teens to work. I know nothing of this “intensive phonics” process but would be inclined to be suspicious because I remember the harm that was done by clinging to “ITA” for so long, but it is not my place to judge.
Wow, what a complex thread! Yes, Adrian, I play (or played as I no longer do gigs) clarinet and saxophone, and have played in symphony orchestras, theatre, concert, dance and jazz bands. I also used to compose and arrange, and could read a score and hear all the instruments in my head - haven’t done that for some time but I doubt it has decayed much! Best of all was jazz improvisation, composing on your feet - what a blast, it took hours for me to come down to Earth again afterwards! So although I often see the meme linking difficulties with morse to poor musicality I believe that it is nowhere near that simple…in fact I sometimes think it is the other way around, my brain might be trying to force the rhythms of morse into music!
I once worked with a fellow who was in the military and attended one of the military code schools where you copy code 10+ hours a day. He was doing good and able to copy near 20 wpm.
One day he was sitting in class copying code and the next thing he remembers, he was more than a mile away from the classroom and running as fast as he could with all of his classmates chasing him. It was near the middle of a hot muggy summer day and he was also completly soaked from sweat. He tried to go back and copy the code later, but is not able to. He was not even able to recognize any characters even at slower speeds.
I had wondered if it is linked to musicality eg people who find it difficult to
recognise or repeat a tune also struggle with morse
I’ve heard enough counter examples to be fairly confident that musical ability is not necessarily a help when trying to learn morse, and to suspect that in some cases it might even be a hindrance.
This is similar to the Global warming debate where one meteorologist and a
glaciologist plus a few high profile non-scientists (such as Monckton) are
pitting themselves against the weight of climatological opinion.
I find Jeremy Clarkson’s point of view more compelling on that subject.
I’ve heard enough counter examples to be fairly confident that musical
ability is not necessarily a help when trying to learn morse, and to
suspect that in some cases it might even be a hindrance.
Brian’s reply strongly supports that view too. It is really interesting, though, that something which appears at first sight to be really very simple causes such a variety of experience.
For the record, I found it neither easy nor very difficult. It took me a few months of effort, culminating in a few weeks of panic leading up to the test ;o)
(Yes, Brian, we do seem to have drifted away from Summit NW-031, through linguistics, learning processes, music and morse code. Sorry for my part in the hijacking, but it has been an interesting journey :o)
Adrian
And dear Jeremy’s degree in climatology was obtained where? Honestly, Walt, he doesn’t even understand how car engines work! When it comes to matters like this I don’t bother with the press or follow the blogs that endlessly recycle bits and bobs, I go to the journals and read the papers, I follow the science, and I’m worried.
Myself and Gerald have some lovely 1 and 2 pt hills for you to
come and try in Galloway, don’t we Gerald?
Yes, definitely! I have already introduced Paul G4MD to Galloway
ground… and told him that he’s had it quite light so far. The
tussocks were relatively widely spaced on our last round of hills. The
ground that I love (not) is when the tussocks are so close together
that you can’t tell whether you are putting your foot on top of them
or whether your foot will go through the surface vegetation into
stinking bog water that hasn’t seen the light of day for a
century… and your knee is then level with the top of the
vegetation.
Sounds like fun Gerald. However, I may just give it a miss this year
Aye, there is much worse to come west of Dumfries!
I’ll be thinking of you, when I’m working a pile-up from the comfort of
GM/SS-272 Arthur’s Seat, using MM6MMM in June
Just a thought, but I wonder if I can get a take away delivered up there, from the local curry house?
Well, I see the moderators job as maintaining good behaviour rather than topic discipline, Rod, to me a wide ranging thread is like having a chat with mates over a few bevvies, you don’t know where the conversation is going next but it will be lively, stimulating and friendly!
In reply to G8ADD:
Brian,
Fair enough, in which case I will make my own observations to add to the CW part of the thread.
I have just given up trying to learn Morse for the third time, in spite of encouragement from members of the local radio club. I find, even after weeks of practice using well spaced out characters, that I just go blank and have no idea at all what character has just been sent. My first efforts were back in the early 1970s with little success at all, hence the long delay in converting my RAE into a call sign. I have no musical talent at all and a poor sense of rhythm (dancing - no way!) and assumed until your comments that this was the reason for failure. Evidently there is more to the problem than this. I shall have to settle for PSK and carry a computer instead of a linear amp
In reply to G8ADD:
Brian,
Fair enough, in which case I will make my own observations to add to
the CW part of the thread.
I have just given up trying to learn Morse for the third time, in
spite of encouragement from members of the local radio club. I find,
even after weeks of practice using well spaced out characters, that I
just go blank and have no idea at all what character has just been
sent. My first efforts were back in the early 1970s with little
success at all, hence the long delay in converting my RAE into a call
sign. I have no musical talent at all and a poor sense of rhythm
(dancing - no way!) and assumed until your comments that this was the
reason for failure. Evidently there is more to the problem than this.
Every possible way to learn morse has probably been tried over the years, but I don’t remember hearing anyone recommend the method that I used (probably for good reason :o)
In case it helps anyone as a different approach - I learned the characters from a book, rather than by listening to them. Then I practiced sending them. Once I could send at what I judged to be 12 WPM, I sent random groups of five onto quarter inch tape. Once I had a few yards of tape, I cut it and spliced it into a loop, and then played it relentlessly. The characters sounded familiar from all the sending practice, and some of them I could pick out immediately. The others slowly crept out of the muddle until I could copy all of them. I would look through my copy, notice which letters were absent, and then listen particularly for them in the random groups. Obviously there would be better options than tape nowadays!
…Has anyone here used morse optically eg from a signalling lamp? I’m just wondering if that is a different experience, or do you “hear” the flashes?
