Three unanswerable questions: "What is the meaning of life?"; "Are
there hams in other star systems?"; "What is the secret to learning
Morse code?", and, if 50 people answer your question [likely a low
estimate], you will get 62.87 answers. [:-)
The "secret" really is ... there is no "secret." There as many
effective ways as there are aspiring CW operators. Not every method
works for everyone. Here's a partial short-list of things to investigate:
1. CW Academy, operated by the CWOps group cwops.org
2. Download Morsegen [http://www.g4ilo.com/morsegen.html]. It will
send to you in a variety of modes, including text from a file
3. Make audio files from Morsegen, write them to a USB stick or CD's,
and "read" them while on the way to work or a long trip
4. Send to yourself. Put the K3s in TEST mode
5. Listen to W1AW practice and bulletin sessions [1]
6. Listen to CW contests [2]
7. Have "in-room QSO's" with K3s in TEST with a friend
8. Put a Morse ringtone on your fone. Mine sends the name, if in my
fone book, or the number if not, for calls and SMS. You may not get
much practice unless you get a lot of calls/texts but it sure gets
attention in the checkout line at Home Depot. [:-)
9. Put your K3s in TX NORM mode and start making Q's at a speed you're
comfortable with. I hear a number of 5 WPM CQ's in the afternoons on 20
around 14050.
Note: There is a vast difference between verbatim copy and "head
copy." In a normal QSO, the probability is 0.9964 that the only
elements you'll hear will be RST, Name, QTH, Rig, Antenna, Wx, and "WL
TNX QSO GUD DX CUL 73." The only one you really need to jot down is
name. The only time verbatim copy is needed is in traffic handling.
73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County
[1] A potential issue with the W1AW at increasing speeds is that one can
become obsessive over one's current speed. One needs to forget about
speed, yours is what it is and it will increase.
[2] Speeds in contests will range around 30-35 WPM. However, all that
is being sent is call signs and some very small amount of "data" such as
5NN 3 [fake signal report and CQ zone #]. In the Wed CWT's it's a name
[all short] and 1-4 digit member #, and knowing what's coming next will
improve your copy ability and speed dramatically.
On 10/31/2017 11:26 AM, rkr...@johngalt.biz wrote:
Now that I've given the history, my question to those of you who are
gung-ho on CW is; how did you begin the learning process? Is there
some secret that I missed?
73
Ray
KK4WPB
______________________________________________________________
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
Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
