Posted: 7/3/2014 3:24:48 AM EDT
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What is the best way to learn Code? |
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What is the best way to learn Code? I'm using the Koch Method and I'm up to copying 6 letters (KMRSUA) at 20wpm. This method works by adding one letter at a time at full speed. I was a little freaked out early on because each new letter really messes you up and your accuracy really drops, even on the letters you know. But after a couple of hours of practice, you're back up to speed and have a new letter. I just wish I had more time to practice. |
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Well, I learned CW in the mid 1980's. No programs on computers since the latter wasn't around! HA! God, I'm getting old.
Anyhow, I built a small oscillator and set to sending the characters. That helped. I also found stations on the air, W1AW included, and copied them. Try to listen to less-then-perfect fists on the bands too. Practice it, listen to it in the background. When you do listen to it try and listen to some faster stuff now and then. 73! |
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Quoted: Well, I learned CW in the mid 1980's. No programs on computers since the latter wasn't around! HA! God, I'm getting old. Anyhow, I built a small oscillator and set to sending the characters. That helped. I also found stations on the air, W1AW included, and copied them. Try to listen to less-then-perfect fists on the bands too. Practice it, listen to it in the background. When you do listen to it try and listen to some faster stuff now and then. 73! |
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What is the best way to learn Code? I can tell you how NOT to learn code. Don't learn it at 5-10 wpm because later you will have to re-learn it at a faster pace like I did. Go ahead and start at somewhere between 20 and 25 wpm. Personally I like 23 and have been working at that for a while. That way each character has its each rhythmic sound, and its slightly too quick to count the dits and dahs, which will really screw you over when you get faster. Use a trainer and add in one new character per day. Just accept the fact that unless your brain is just really wired for it, that it will take 2 months to learn everything (characters, numbers, prosigns) and then a couple more to get really proficient. A website I really like is AA9PW.com, the morse code generator there has many different options and you can listen to QSO's, which will help you get on the air quicker. |
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What is the best way to learn Code? I had great success (when I took the time) using Learn CW Online |
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What is the best way to learn Code? I had great success (when I took the time) using Learn CW Online That's a new one to me. Thanks! |
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There are multiple methods to learn code. Find what works for you.
Mine was to download Just Learn Morse Code. Then used the lesson plan from Zen and the Art of Radiotelegraphy. Stupid name but solid resource. Figure on 20 minutes a day. Beyond that your brain will become fatigued. Focus on copying code rather than sending. Used paddles at first as the learning curve is shorter than with a straight key. Then get on the air and make QSOs which is by far the best practice. |
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I use the G4FON trainer and really like it.
Once you have learned all of the characters, getting on the air is the best way to improve your CW skills. |
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I learned (term used loosely) via a program called CodeQuick. It uses a combination of the Koch method and using phonetics to go with each letter. It worked I guess, but really I can't decode anything without saying the words. "Catch it! Catch it!" = C
I will really say shy away from this method. Learn the letters at 15-25 wpm speed one at a time. That extra translation step has really kept me from trying to use CW more often. The only benefit I can come up with is the fact I am probably one of the few people who can decode CW faster than I can send. 
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Uhh, I had an Apple IIe in 1983. No programs yes, but 'puters were around. Quoted:
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Well, I learned CW in the mid 1980's. No programs on computers since the latter wasn't around! HA! God, I'm getting old. Anyhow, I built a small oscillator and set to sending the characters. That helped. I also found stations on the air, W1AW included, and copied them. Try to listen to less-then-perfect fists on the bands too. Practice it, listen to it in the background. When you do listen to it try and listen to some faster stuff now and then. 73! Yeah..you are right. I forgot about the old Altair 8800 (8008) that I had back in college in the late 1970's. That notwithstanding, the gist of my reply stands. |
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Yeah..you are right. I forgot about the old Altair 8800 (8008) that I had back in college in the late 1970's. That notwithstanding, the gist of my reply stands. Quoted:
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Well, I learned CW in the mid 1980's. No programs on computers since the latter wasn't around! HA! God, I'm getting old. Anyhow, I built a small oscillator and set to sending the characters. That helped. I also found stations on the air, W1AW included, and copied them. Try to listen to less-then-perfect fists on the bands too. Practice it, listen to it in the background. When you do listen to it try and listen to some faster stuff now and then. 73! Yeah..you are right. I forgot about the old Altair 8800 (8008) that I had back in college in the late 1970's. That notwithstanding, the gist of my reply stands. 
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Get the song and listen tonight constantly.....
I used just learn Morse and really learned by getting on the air... first qso I even got his call wrong...don't know who it was...second one got the call right and a qsl card...but had to read his profile on qrz to see who it was I had talked to. After that it was better. |
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Back in the '70s we had cassette tapes, and our "professor" taught us groups of letters from the easiest to more difficult. E T M A N I, then R D U C S O, and so on - then we went home and listened to the tapes the old professor made by hand, which progressed through those groups, and in the lessons he added some cute mnemonics for some of the longer charachters (why, oh why, why, and did he dum dum did he come to mind) The old fellow was a straight key operator, he talked about bugs but didn't use one, and it really showed in the tapes that he made sending at such a slow speed. It had to be tedious making them but it was equally tedious trying to copy, but it was copiable.
I have to admit I didn't spend a lot of time with the tapes. 5 WPM was easy enough without a lot of practice and the Novice exam in 1978 was a few multiple choice questions covering roughly three minutes of text we listened to at the beginning - what was the RST he reported, what was his antenna, things like that. The old professor sort of led us astray on the booklearning side of things, I don't think he had updated his material since 1951 and he was having us draw tube oscillator circuits and things like that, but another fellow I knew stepped in and got us all straightened out on the things we really needed to learn, and IIRC the two of them participated in giving the exam, which we all passed. Honestly at that early stage a Technician ticket was my target (and that is what I held for 27 years, my main interests being repeater building and packet radio) and I never took Morse code very seriously. We were in a fairly remote location and traveling to an FCC office to take the higher class exams was difficult for most of us so it was 1982 before I made my way to the Portland Field Office to try for Tech and General. I took the 13 WPM code test (because who would drive hundreds of miles and not take a shot at it?) but I bombed it pretty bad. On the other hand, the written test was no problem but going in I had full confidence in that, and on that day I reached my target. I went on a complete hiatus from ham radio sometime in 2000, but in 2009 (with some free time between jobs thanks to Obama) the interest returned and in 2009 I filled out the paperwork for the grandfathered General and it was suggested I take the Extra test while I was at it (which I did and passed), and I dug my old gear out from under piles of stuff in the garage and got back on the air. Lately I operate almost exclusively HF phone. But recently I have developed an interest in QRP and CW will necessarily be a part of that - but I'll probably have to relearn some things to be a proficient operator. Though we were taught early on to just listen to the sound and not visualize, I know that I do that to some extent so I'll have to work to get myself beyond that, because it seriously limits the speed at which I can copy. |