As others have said, on the air practice is the best way to improve your cw. I'm going to probably irritate some people when I say this, but QRP is not the best choice for someone who is learning cw.
What you need are lots of QSOs. It's much easier to get them with 100 watts than it is with QRP, especially if you don't have a better-than-average antenna. If you are 54 years old, you probably have other things to do with your time than be on the air 12 hours a day, so at least in the beginning you need to make your time count. You can get an older transceiver for a couple of hundred dollars or less, or a local ham will lend you one. If you can put up a full size horizontal antenna at a reasonable height (at least 30') that will help too. If you try to make QSOs with 3 watts and a shortened vertical you will struggle. After you become proficient at cw you can take your KX1 backpacking, throw wires into trees and have a lot of fun. On 8/6/2010 5:28 AM, EMD wrote: > > Hello fellow Elecrafters, > > I was able to finish building my KX1 with your your help! After spending > much more time off the air than I planned I think I'm ready to give CW a > try. For more months than I would care to admit I have been learning CW > using lcwo, and my MFJ morse tutor. It took me a while to get through all > 40 lessons and I'm still not that great, copying about 80% with a character > rate of 13 wpm and an actual wpm of 5. I still have trouble with 'F' for > what ever reason, maybe my 54yr old tin ears or rapidly advancing age or > both. > > I understand on 40m a good frequency to get a patient ear is 7114. Is there > a similar frequency on 20m? > > So if you hear me out there I look forward to making my first CW contact. > > Thanx in advance for your patience. > > 73, Ed > KE7HGA > > Forgot to mention I live close to Baltimore MD -- Vic, K2VCO Fresno CA http://www.qsl.net/k2vco/ ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
