Yet another go at learning morse. Main issue with the tools I’ve tried is they require internet and/or a PC.
Anyone recommend an android morse trainer that runs off-line (with no internet)?
Trying MorseForge at present which is promising, but only supports practicing receive and there may be better options out there.
Will need something to practice sending too. Anything out there use touchscreen to practice either straight-key or paddle-style sending? Shouldn’t be too different to using a VK3IL style pressure paddle …?
What about a QMX or truSDX and a key to practice sending on the go? And you will be motivated to learn so you can start doing QSO’s.
What is your objective? Activate SOTA? Contesting? Or ragchewing?
If you want to learn the basics in order to activate SOTA/POTA, I would recommend LCWO (needs internet…) or any other software based on the Koch method (I can’t say which one for Android). Then, try Morse Runner for hours and hours till you can receive callsigns with some confidence. In the meanwhile, have some drill sheets to practice sending with a real key (a truSDX I think would be ideal).
It always depends on what is your goal, but if you wish to activate, you can achieve it in a couple of months of good, day-by-day practice.
Edit:
Doing a quick google search, I was able to find some apps for Android using the Koch method:
IZ2UUF Morse Koch CW
DS1UOV’s Morse Trainer w/ Koch
This is where I would probably start if you need an offline app.
I know this is not an Android app, but if you have interent access you can run it.
I found it very useful and good.
I started at 32wpm so you cant count dots and dahs and learn sound of the letter. Farnsworth speed set at 5 with additional gaps if needed.
I also found this order of learning better than Koch, although you can choose to use it too.
Select session S1 and after day or two add another till you get all sessions in.
After 2-3 sessions you can start learning simple words too.
Of course once you progress you increase Fansworth to improve your ICR.
Sending, don’t worry you will send faster than you can copy. It is always the case. Morserino32, truSDX, QCX, QMX will be great as your learning companions.
Hi! I’m the developer of MorseForge. The full POTA and SOTA simulator, including both hunting and activating modes, is already in development right now. I know that does not help you immediately, but it is coming soon.
Thanks for trying the app out. I really appreciate it and cannot wait to get that full feature set live.
I downloaded MorseForge android and was using it on my bus journey to work.
I noticed that the audio is fine from the phone speaker but if I plug in the USB-C to earphone adapter with earpiece I miss the first part of the character. I guess it’s an adapter problem but wonder if there is a start delay setting I could adjust to take account of that ?
Otherwise it is a good time for me to practice whilst sitting on the bus but I don’t want to disturb the other passengers.
I would go further than this. There is no point trying to send at all until you can receive at least 10-12WPM comfortably, preferably a bit more. Indeed it is bad practice for all sorts of reasons, not least the risk that you think you are sending good Morse (when you don’t yet know what it sounds like). Consequently there is a risk that you come to rely on a code reader (which is a really very bad way to try to read Amateur Radio Morse).
Once you can read Morse Code, sending it will come naturally and with relatively little difficulty.
Ooh that’s interesting. I’ve had a lot of beta testers use all sorts of wired and wireless headphones without issues. Can you maybe message me with some more info like you phone model, and your earphone configuration? It might be a hardware issue that I can’t do too much about but I’d be happy to look into it!
I’m using a Samsung A16 phone and Betron earpiece microphone setup via a USB-C to TRRS and USB-C spliced cable to allow phone charging at the same time. The adapter was bought from Am***n but is generic and unbranded. I guess that might be the problem.
And special thanks to WU2L for all his good work on MorseForge. Of the ones I’ve tried so far, this is the simplest to use. The best feature (though sorta-cheating) is the automatic changing to extended keyboard when playing extended / numeric characters.
I also tried N5SLN’s Morse Trainer, but forever having to switch keyboards each time an extended character comes up drives me nuts. By the time I’ve managed to get the keyboard back to Alpha-numeric afterwards, I’ve missed the next letter! The settings claim to allow you to disable non alpha-characters - but that setting seems to be completely ignored in KOCH mode.
I will look at MorseMania - the support for sending looks promising.
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What do I want morse for? Well, initially to chase, working towards activating SOTA. So no rag-chews for now, just the ability to reliably complete SOTA exchanges.
I acknowledge all the points about not transmitting until I’m 100% confident at head-copy. But at the same time unless I actually have a tangible reward in the not-too-far-distant future (getting on air regularly and completing some simple chases), then there’s a real risk that I’ll get busy at work, or run-down & tired, or home-life commitments will intrude, and yet-again the training-for-the-sake-of-training regime will slip and I’ll be back to square one. So for now: reliably copying ZL and VK callsigns, reports and the other formulaic niceties of a SOTA exchange is the goal.
SOTA chasing is a lot simpler than rag-chewing. If you can recognize your own callsign (and partials of it), catch signal reports and a very few other things (like AGN, REF, thanks and 73), and send your own call, signal report and sign-off then you probably know enough to start chasing.
Activating obviously also requires you to catch others’ callsigns (and S2S REF exchanges) but not that much more, so anything that helps you work on callsigns will be useful, with bonus points if it lets you use common SOTA callsigns.
Hey Andy! Sorry for the long delay. I’ve been thinking about this issue this whole time. I think I might have nailed down the issue. I’m guessing it’s similar to what some wireless headphones are also experiencing. Some bluetooth headphones will drop power when the audio signal is silent or nearly silent and the time it takes to ramp that power back up can sometimes clip the audio. I’m not positive this is the same issue your setup faces but I’m hopeful. Working on a potential fix now for the next patch.
Also I am unsure about the advice waiting to pick up a key before being able to head copy.
Mind muscle connection is different ability to cognitive head decoding of morse. The receive ability is of course most important, absolutely to come first.
I’m very nervous about keying well to make the first QSO right now. We are all different I guess !