Taking the CW plunge

[Kaos116]

I just ran across this Morse training program. Gees, I'm rusty.

http://www.g4fon.net/

 

[RUT]

Fear not... it's just like riding a bicycle!

 

[matt]

Don't think this was posted yet:

w1aw transmits code practice on 40 meters. Google "code practice schedule" and it will come right up. You can also download the practice code to copy at your leasure. They transmit starting as low as 5wpm (good thing for me) up to stupid fast speeds. Where I'm at know o the learning curve these longer 15 minute streaches are really helpful. Hoping for a first cw qso within a week or so.

Matt

 

[tele_mark]

Let me know when you want to do a QSO. We could try 40 meters, but from here we could probably do CW somewhere on 2 meters or 440 as well.

 

[matt]

sounds good! unfortunately I don't have anything but 2m fm for vhf/uhf, so it'll have to be on hf.

 

[tele_mark]

Let me know when you want to sked -- any band from 160 -10 meters. Just not on the 17th, that's the NAQCC Sprint Haven't been in one in almost a year for dealing with a cat dying of lymphoma (shit -- another cat thread).

 

[oneswithfunes]

http://www.kkn.net/~n6tv/Text_vs_Morse_Leno_2005_05_13.wmv

 

[cockpitbob]

Lost my CW virginity tonight

I've been studying/practicing CW for many months. Except for call signs and other collections of random letters or numbers, my copying is OK past 10wpm. So, tonight I found someone on 40M calling CW at my speed and decided to put him through busting my cherry. I think he said he was running only 10W and he was fading in and out, so copying was a struggle. What realy suprised me was the trouble I had sending. It wasn't the Morse part, but just SLOWLY spelling a word in my head and not loosing my place and leaving out letters that was hard. My contact was very, very patient.

The guy at our club that teaches a CW class says it's hard to learn because you really have to build some new neural pathways, and there's no fast way to do that. It felt like hard work, but fun. I think I'll be sticking with it. The best part is, now I don't feel like the punchline in Zappa's joke that ends with "He's just a no-code extra."

 

[Martlet]

Congrats!

CW can be fun. It's a dying art, though. Do it awhile and it comes naturally.

I've been doing more PSK lately.

 

[cockpitbob]

Story from my dad. He was in the Navy in WWII stationed in the South Seas.

A large number of ships were anchored in some south seas harbor getting ready to move in a day or 2. Everyone was boored. The night sky was a broken overcast with lots of individual low clouds. One guy aimed his Morse signaling light at a cloud and basically said "Hey Joe on ship #22, this is Bill on ship #88, you there?" His friend answered on the same cloud. Pretty soon, every cloud contained a different conversation between ships. Must have been quite a sight.

 

[Parker Duofold]

I've been studying/practicing CW for many months. Except for call signs and other collections of random letters or numbers, my copying is OK past 10wpm. So, tonight I found someone on 40M calling CW at my speed and decided to put him through busting my cherry. I think he said he was running only 10W and he was fading in and out, so copying was a struggle. What really suprised me was the trouble I had sending. It wasn't the Morse part, but just SLOWLY spelling a word in my head and not loosing my place and leaving out letters that was hard.

Congrats on your first CW QSO. I made my first in 1965 and have really enjoyed CW my whole ham life. The more Qs you make the better you will become. For starters, write out what you want to say and send while reading that text. It's not cheating! You'll have it made when you hear "di-dah" and immediately write (or think) "A". You will have eliminated the middle step of hearing "di-dah", thinking "that's di-dah and di-dah is A".

73,
K1AJ

 

[cockpitbob]

Congrats on your first CW QSO. I made my first in 1965 and have really enjoyed CW my whole ham life. The more Qs you make the better you will become. For starters, write out what you want to say and send while reading that text. It's not cheating! You'll have it made when you hear "di-dah" and immediately write (or think) "A". You will have eliminated the middle step of hearing "di-dah", thinking "that's di-dah and di-dah is A".

73,
K1AJ

Thanks for the words of encourgement, and that's exactly what I've done. I actually wrote a few canned QSO lines and printed them out on heavy paper to keep handy for when I get a short circuit between the headphones.

 

[cockpitbob]

Anyone else working on their Morse skilz?

The Gloucester club gives Morse classes every winter. One guy has been doing it for 20 years and has taken the shame of being a "no-code" off a lot of hams . Last weekend I passed the 13wpm test and missed the 20wpm by 1 question in the 10 question quiz. There is no longer any Morse ratings or certifications so I'm trying for 20wpm just as a personal goal. It's been a lot of work so far. My biggest problem is focus. I'll be chugging along copying everything I hear, then my mind will drift and suddenly the beeps just become background noise. It's a great mental challenge.

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