Are you copying in your head, or writing it down?
What I found really helped me make the switch to copying in my head
was to let a digital unit copy along with me. Normally I wouldn't
look at the screen but if I missed something important, I could look
up at it so that I could carry on an intelligent coversation.
No matter whether you are writing it down or copying in your head,
seeking out contacts a bit faster than your speed is the best way to
improve your ability, if that is your prime objective. OTOH, staying
in your comfort zone might be more enjoyable and will eventually
improve your speed.
What **really** picked up my speed way up was operating the traffic
nets. Then you HAVE to copy everything exactly, especially since at
that point I was operating in the high level, high volume EAN net and
it would be embarassing to ask them to slow down or to repeat a lot.
The top level net operators are very capable folks! A month or two of
that and the 20wpm test in front of the FCC engineer was easy.
But you are right, nice casual rag chews are an enjoyable way to
improve your cw speed.
FWIW, when I started copying high speed cw in my head (over 30wpm), it
was a totally new experience: cw became more conversation like and
very enjoyable! Sadly, most of the ops were a lot older than I am
(53 at the time) which does not bode well for the future. Most were
retired mil or commercial cw ops.
73, Ken WA8JXM
> From: obrienaj
>
> Although Morse code is not the "digital" mode this group usually
> focuses on, I wonder if any of the members are interested in CW
> operations and the occasional sked ? By some miracle, a few years
> ago, I managed to pass the 13 WPM code test in the USA. I must have
> eaten good brain food that particular week because I went from a
> poor 5WPM capability to getting everything right on the 13WPM test
> in just two days of practice before the test.
>
> My CW skills these days are such that I can at least operate CW
> contest and work CW DXpedtions but my rag chew skills still require
> much work. My brain tends to tire after a couple minutes and
> copying and sending declines. I'm real bad at sending "from my
> head", and tend to forget just where in the particular word, I am
> ("antenna" becomes "antna" for example). The CW experts tell me
> that regular rag chews are the best way to slowly improve, so if any
> of the group here are interested in CW let me know.
>
> If you posses no real CW skills and would like to start via some
> slow CW on-air practice, feel free to also contact me or other
> members here that might be interested.
>
Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to Telnet://cluster.dynalias.org
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