I’m learning cw too and appreciate all the tips and opinions.
In addition to G4FON and JLMC I’ve also used K7QO’s Code Course CD by Chuck Adams (http://k7qo.radiotelegraphy.net/). This is not my favorite method but I like the fact that I can download it to my MP3 player or cellphone and listen to it anywhere.
73
Mads
In reply to GW0DSP:
In reply to M0GIA:
One thing I was told, which I believe to be true, musical people find
it easier to learn, I play guitar, I wonder if anyone else finds a
correlation with being musical and learning cw quickly?Mike GW0DSP
My experience suggests you should take that with a pinch of salt, Mike. I passed my RAE in 1962 but there were no morse classes at that time so I worked at it with a friend: I hit a barrier at about 10 wpm and never surmounted it. At that time I was learning clarinet and was getting to grips with grade 8. Since then I have played as an amateur or for beer money in orchestras, dance bands, pit orchestras and jazz bands and combos, mastered saxophones (usually went out with tenor and soprano) and both wrote and arranged music. Coming back to CW after a forty year lay-off I could still remember the code but still had the barrier. At present thanks to the G4FON software I can copy morse in the teens for a short time, a minute or two, then mental fatigue sets in and my brain closes down for the night. There is progress but it is agonisingly slow. So in my case musicality seems not to have been a help!
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Very interesting about the music and i too play well have a guitar i strum a little have done for years and the hardest thing i found with that was rythmn!
I have copied a few call signs on my own but now where ready to have a go on my own. when i listen on the radio its nearly always just a bit too fast but im sure it will get better and i feel now i have made a start.
Good luck Mads hope there is plenty of info in this thread to help you along the way. Sean M0GIA
Music. Here I agree with Mike DSP and disagree with Brian ADD, but as with other personal experiences above, it’s down to the individual.
I was a full-time professional musician until I began teaching in 1994. Everything from holiday camp summer seasons (I met Marianne at Pontins in Jersey, 1990 - she was the holiday camp nurse, I was the bass player in the band), theatre pits, pantos, rock bands, recording sessions and working mens clubs Peter Kay style. As soon as I started with the CW, I equated the dots to quavers and the dashes to crotchets, the gaps to quaver rests etc. I soon found that memorising characters and then words was just like memorising musical phrases.
To estimate the speed of on-air CW, I mentally compared it to the tempo of “The Hustle”, which is known to be 120 beats per minute. In CW terms, this equates to 12wpm.
So yes, I have found that my experience as a sight-reading musician, was/is beneficial to my progress with CW. Sight-reading music, BTW, I feel must be very close to the same brain connections as for reading live CW. The former is visual rather than aural, so the particpant’s preferred learning style (ow, work stuff again) could be critical, but that instant conversion process from dots (slang term for written music) to performance, and from heard CW to language has got to be similar.
These are my favourite CW-music links:
http://www.bobbysbrane.com/animation%20fun/animations/YYZ%20video-Rush.wmv
Tom M1EYP
I realise everyone is different and learn at different speeds but how
long did it take to go solo on the air with CW? I would like to hear
from ALL CW ops.
Hi Sean
I did use the G4FON program for learning the code. It took me about 1 month or
so to learn all the letter/numbers. Then I did practise by lisening to cw qso’s
on the air for about 1 year before my first cw qso. I am not a musician so
probably why it took me so long time.hi. Got my license in 2003 and active
since 2004. cu on the air soon. Good luck with the practise.
de Aage
In reply to M0GIA:
In reply to M1EYP:
I realise everyone is different and learn at different speeds but how
long did it take to go solo on the air with CW? I would like to hear
from ALL CW ops.
Hi Sean
I started to learn the Morse Code at the end of the 1940’s
as a small lad when we lived on the east coast and I found
the marine CW beacons by turning up the reaction on our old
Marconi TRF radiogram. I finally took the Morse test at
Portishead in 1985 and passed, but like Brian, I found that
barrier at about 10wpm, and have never had the confidence to
use CW on the air. However, I am using the LCWO on line
learning system and have found quite a bit of improvement, so
also hoping to start using CW in 2009,
Anyone beat 60 years?!!
Vy 73
Dave G0ELJ
In reply to M0GIA:
In reply to M1EYP:
I realise everyone is different and learn at different speeds but how
long did it take to go solo on the air with CW? I would like to hear
from ALL CW ops.I have now taken this as a winter project and being realistic looking
at the months ahead somewhere like summer with a basic QSO ie exchange
calls RST.Sean M0GIA
Hi Sean.
I got my license in 1962 (DJ8EP) and had to fight hard to pass the cw-examination. I thought that I would never use CW on the bands.
However, I was still going to school and had no money, my equipment was a homebrew 5 watt AM -tx and a 1-v-1 receiver for 80 and 40. At daytime it was possible to make QSOs in AM with that equipment, but not in the evenings.
This is why I soon used cw, and it was possible to make qsos in that mode all night long. In other words: I got solo on the air with CW from the very beginning.
It was certainly easier at that time, because everyone could see (from the callsign) that I was a newcomer/greenhorn, and all QSO-partners slowed down.
I have been reading some place that it is a matter of politeness to make QRS if the caller calls at low speed. I always do.
But I cannot see that this is normal practice any longer. OK in a contest, but I cannot see any reason why a SOTA-activator or “normal” DX-station should insist keeping up the speed when answering to a slow call. Don’t tell me that high speed all the time is necessary to give more chasers a chance to make a QSO. Chaser-comments at 24 words per minute like “gm Emanuel, tu for the summit, ur rst is 579 579 579, ufb sigs” take much more time than “ur 579 579 tu” at 12 wpm.
Well, my point is that all experienced cw ops should care and demonstrate that they appreciate EVERY contact and encourage others through QRS to become/stay active in cw.
Regards
Mike
In reply to LA5SAA:
Well, my point is that all experienced cw ops should care and
demonstrate that they appreciate EVERY contact and encourage others
through QRS to become/stay active in cw.
Regards
Mike
This point is one which angers me Mike. I always qrs by means of wide spacing if a chaser calls me at slower speeds. I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority of cw ops do likewise but unfortunately there are some who don’t qrs. Newcomers to cw must be encouraged, if that means slowing to their speed then slow down, give them the support and keep them interested in the mode. It’s all about communicating, not a race!
Mike
In reply to GW0DSP:
In the recent Global Simulated Emergency Test that took place on November 8, the maximum speed for CW was 15 WPM. So if you want to tell something that everybody should understand, you should QRS first. It is easier to send fast CW than to receive it, especially if you need to write it on paper.
73, Jaakko OH7BF/F5VGL
In reply to F5VGL:
Thanks for all the replys which has shown me that there is no right or wrong way to learn CW, use what works for yourself is what seems to be the way to go.
As with anything else in life there will be those that just take to it while others will find it harder at this moment i think im somewhere in the middle.
Good night lastnight as i managed to copy a call sign at 14WPM so a new speed for me!
So far i have only good words for CW ops who i have worked all encouraging and incredibily patient. Sean M0GIA
…as you saw again this evening Sean. Congratulations on reading the callsign correctly, going back to the OK station’s CQ call, and successfully working him on 40m tonight.
You are closer than you might imagine to sitting down and working through 5, 10 or 20 QSOs independently. And it’s MUCH easier to do that as a beginner on a SOTA activation. That is because YOU are in the chair, and the chaser stations are all calling YOU.
Next phase in your CW development: start getting up earlier in a morning. Go for a little walk. Sit on that local hill. Eat up the fresh air, feast yourself on the views, allow yourself to be intoxicated by the tranquility and solitude … and make ten or twenty contacts around Europe on CW!
It worked for me. You know it makes sense. UFB.
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
That was probably my best CW contact to date with copying the call in the fastest time.
Last day at work Tuesday until the new year so chances are more radio to be played especially CW for the practice. Sean M0GIA
A few more independent CW QSOs, and you will be hopelessly and permanently drawn into the “dark side”. You have been warned.
Tom M1EYP
New ones today, for your G3WGV CW table (cos I’ve not sent you a copy of your log yet):
20m: RA, HA, SM, UR
I know there’s also OK to be added on 40m from the other night, and another that escapes me.
You should have taken your turn on 17m this morning. Like shelling peas on there! I understand though, that you’re still in that phase where 15 minutes of CW makes your brain hurt for a couple of hours. I don’t have to go far back to recall that feeling, and it still happens now, whenever G3CWI deliberately sends me a random question when I’m on a summit. Although, to be fair to Richard, he was on his best behaviour in every contact today. Remarkably, he followed me around working me on every band/mode slot he could. Not sure if he’s moved to Connahs Quay…?
CW is coming on well mate. That’s another batch of live SOTA activation CW QSOs under your belt, and your reading and sending has come on no end since the last time we went joint SOTAing with the key, on Gun SP-013 last month.
As your CW teacher, I am officially giving you a day off tomorrow. Not because I think you should have a day off, but because your Trish will murder me if I get you doing any radio stuff tomorrow! I’ll ring you at home when we’re QRV on The Cloud on 2m, then you don’t have to check the PC.
Tom
In reply to M1EYP:
A sneaky 2m QSO will be Ok with Trish but to dissapear would not be a good idea unless someone wants to get rid of me?
Looking forward to the weekend activations and will be in touch re bands etc. Sean M0GIA