Chris, I know enough people who did their Morse to 15wpm rx/tx to pass the UK 12wpm exam when they were in their 30s. Then they dropped out of amateur radio for whatever reasons and came back when they were mid-60s and older. They all said it was noticeably harder recovering their CW skills than they thought. They all got there in the end. But again, it does seem to be harder as you get older. Not impossible just harder. Of course retirement means you should have loads of time to spend on this. But we all know retirement means less time not more
LCWO is what I used to improve my speed. But one of the best ways, and it really seems scary at first, is to go out and activate using CW at a slow speed, say 10WPM. Sure youāll be scared and ask for repeats and will make mistakes and get stressed. But the chasers wont care. They wont laugh or snigger because theyāll see you for what you areā¦ a future resource to give them more summits and points. Youāll be surprised just how much help and support chasers will give you. Keep doing it and it gets easier and you get faster. Others will tell you the same, get out out and do it live.
I used the free app Morse Mania to learn CW, starting a few days before my 69th birthday. It worked for me and I still use it three years later every now and again for refresher training.
Thanks so much for the input. I have been considering trying LICW; I have heard lots of good reports on them and what they charge seems quite reasonable.
Thanks so much for the reply and the encouragement! I think your definitely right āif you want to learn how to swim, jump into the deep endā as they say. I look forward to one day being that guy helping others climb the CW mountain.
Passed my Morse test in 1979, passed theory and regs in 1980 first licence came in the post 13/11/1980. This is year 44 for me on air, year 11 of SOTA obsession.
The Morse test was the most nerve racking thing I ever did in a class room.
Regards
Ian vk5cz ā¦
I learnt Morse together with a local ham, Iād cycle to his house and then use his FT736 to take part in a Morse practice net on FM. Later I had lessons with Jack, G4ZVD who was mad keen on Islands Of Scotland Award (IOSA). One for Andy @MM0FMF, I remember Jack chasing GM3VLB and going off on Scottish island trips of his own using Zodiacs to get on the islands.
HF was my main interest, I was fascinated ever since a physics teacher at upper school had worked an Italian station on 20m using an MFJ9420 to a simple vertical on the school roof. I didnāt even realise that communication outside of the country via RF was possible until that point. I started learning Morse almost as soon as I had got my Radio Amateurās Examination pass.
I had literally a handful of CW QSOs under my belt until the late 2000s when I was egged on my @M1EYP to do a CW activation of Great Whernside, G/NP-008. Tom had said just go for it, donāt worry about the mistakes. I was elated after my activation, the chasers were very patient and I got through it OK. I then got interested in the LA1KHA Challenge and I was simply forced to do Morse in order to take part. I started activating at 10wpm but my speed soon increased.
In 2012 I got my first KD1JV Mountain Topper kit and the default speed is 20wpm. Honestly, I was too lazy to change the speed and so 20wpm became my usual speed.
Iāve struggled for years with Morse, being predominately self taught, I picked up a few of the bad habits like counting elements for numbers. Morse is not easy for me but Iāve just been determined to stick at it. I feel that I can bluff enough to seem competent, LOL. Learn enough to survive on air and then just do it as often as you can seems to be the path to success.
Thatās interesting Barry, I took my test at the radio station at Portpatrick so perhaps it was the same person. I doubt very much it would have been a generic signature.
Colin, having worked you a few times I can say your Morse is very good now so your efforts paid off.
On Morse bad habits, thatās something we all need to guard against. Sending Morse is like driving a car - once weāve been doing it a few years itās easy to pick up bad habits (like making the word spacing the same as character spacing or running characters together) and we are the last ones to notice. Itās like body odour, it takes someone else to point it out to us.
A good test is to record yourself sending random groups of letters & numbers (so you canāt memorize it) and listen to it later.
Edit: Just found it and it is stamped (like yours) āMaritime Radio Services Divisionā, signed A Busby and dated 3 May 1983. Looks as if they are issued centrally.
I wonder if they kept a record and were crossed checked back in those pre-computer days?
It looks like 30mins work to forge a pass slip and if that was all you needed to send along with the fee to the initially the GPO then the Radiocommunications Agency and they didnāt check a central registry then it would have been trivial to blag an A licence
I know that people who had passed their Morse test in the UK and had a full licence of the time but let it lapse had a real job trying to prove they were entitled to their old call if they didnāt have the old licence and / or had moved home. Say passed in 70s, lapsed in 80s and wanted it back in the 90/00s.
I have a pass slip like Colinās should someone ask.
When I left the hobby around 1990 I kept paying the Ā£20 fee per year to ensure I would never have to take the morse test again. I was very pleased when they abolished the annual charge. When I came back in 2017 I could go straight back on the air.
Colin, Iāve heard your morse and its perfectly fine. As you would expect after 25 years.
My morse journey started in 1966 aged 16 when I joined up and was trained to be a Radio Operator in the Royal Navy.
Here are a some of my results in morse and a couple of other manual skills.
Under MMXāManual Morse Receptionā is the required pass marks = 20 wpm at 94% (20/94) and immediately below that my actual score at 20wpm (96%) Below that my score after a year at sea 96% And right at the bottom of the column my marks after 3 years at sea = 99% accuracy,
Under MTX āMorse transmissionā the pass score in basic training 15 (wpm)/ 80% - this might seem a low standard but learning to send well on a straight key is slower to master and the RN I assume, knew that once you were actually operating with morse youād get better. Right t the bottom my score at sending was 23wpm @ 100% accuracy.
The other columns relate to: FRX = Flashing light reception,
MKX = Morse Keyboard Exercise , which meant typing morse directly onto a typewriter and not by hand.
BKX = Touch typing on a mechanical imperial typewriter
TTX = touch typing on a Teleprinter
The tests were probably all around 15 minutes or so and would have consisted of mixed random groups of letters, numbers & punctuation, special signs etc.,
by the time I was 21 I could read morse and copy it by hand at 36 wpm and could send 26wpm on a key with 99.5% accuracy. (I can only manage about 18 - 20 wpm now Iām 73)
I left in 1974 and never touched a morse key again until I became a ham in 2016.
Ofcom probably considered that the revenue was less important than reducing the administrative overhead. The cynics among you [like me] will conclude making us non-fee-paying weakens our influence in future decision making.
Amateur radio has never been a protected service so paying a fee makes no difference. The fee was to cover the costs of manual administration. Now itās all online itās much cheaper.
I donāt know what you mean by a āprotected serviceā. This is not about primary/secondary status or the militaryās right (acknowledged by the ITU) to camp on any frequencies. In service provider/service user relationships users tend to be given more consideration by providers when users are paying for it. Itās just my hunch. No one can predict the future.
When the cost of administering the collection of fees and issuing pieces of paper is greater than the fees you charge you have two choices.
Make the fee large enough to cover your costs. Hams would not have liked that.
Or change how you administer the services so the costs are amortised into the those paying big fees. Introducing a universal licencing admin system reduces the running costs such that ham licences can be free. Thereās an upfront cost to pay for the admin system but you get the people paying serious licence fees to cover that.
If you really want to be given consideration then start paying commercial rates. Say Ā£500/year for each ham band you want to use. Iām QRV on 80/60/40/30/20/17/15/12/2/70/23/13/3 so thatās Ā£6500/year to be given consideration.
I agree with all that except for the last word which should be āa token feeā.
It is (or was) a sliding scale. Obviously, big profit-making corporations should and do pay big fees for exclusive use of big sections of highly sought after RF spectrum. By contrast, non profit-making hobbyists should (and did - for ~100 years?) pay a small fee for mainly non-exclusive spectrum. That not only covers (or partially covers) the providerās admin costs [which is much lower now it is automated] but it shows RAās have a privileged resource.
As a retiree Iām on a limited income but didnāt resent paying a token fee. I think weāve moved another small step to being like Citizens Band users and loss of prestige and long-term influence over the RF resources that affect our hobby. I donāt lose sleep over it. Thereās no short-term problem, Iām alright Jack and enjoying AR especially SOTA.
Absolutely this! I remember my first try at a CW SOTA activation. 10wpm I was operating at, but I made 20 QSOs on 40m CW. I was as high as a kite! And then even higher when I got home and read some very kind comments on the Reflector from the CW legend Roy G4SSH (now sadly SK).
I always say to people, (as Colin says), donāt worry about the speed or the mistakes - the chasers (a) want the contact and (b) are genuinely pleased for you, and supportive of you. Therefore activating SOTA is the best and most effective form of CW practice imaginable! (Within a fortnight of my debut CW activation, my speed had rocketed from 10wpm to 18wpm!)
Morse, I suppose, is a lot easier for me (or should be) being a musician. By and large thatās true, and Iāve noticed aspects of the learning process that are accelerated by āpiggy-backingā existing connections in my brain from the music stuff. However - CW is still not an easy skill, and I still have moments when Iām just not āgetting itā, and have to keep sending āSRI AGN?ā
So ābluff enough to seem competentā is about where I think Iām at too.
