Well done, sir ! I am totally agree with audio learning.I think this is the only method to learn very well.I learned Morse code, in the Romanian army, in the year 1985.It take one month, but, at the end of this time, all of us (soldiers), obtained the brevet.Now, I am 55 years old, and I still hear good (ocasionally), all these sounds.Respect from Romania, Bucharest ! And please excuse for my english, which is not so good.
The first thing makes me remember, I had a friend who had this mental thing so no matter how hard he tried he called read words at all, he knows what letters are and look like but he can't read. But he's a very fluent speaker and has good education already
Thanks a lot for your useful advises. I only don't understand why the bird in the backgroud audio has been making a lot of M and T letters....73 de IZ7VHF.
I still remember the point where I put down the pencil. It was during my 20 WPM test 30 years ago. I was frantically scribbling when I started falling behind and knew I would not catch up. So I just started writing key words and answered the questions from those meager notes. That's not quite putting the pencil down, just loosening my grip a bit, but enough to get 'em all. N8CPA
Thanks for the excellent advice, I fully agree with those recommendations. I am learning for over 5 months now according to these points and, slowly but truly, I do progress. This is an excellent way to go and study, may you be heard.
Thank you! Wonderful advice. I had earned my Novice license over 50 years ago, I was a kid, couldn't afford a radio, never got on the air. I never lost interest and now, I can afford a radio and I'm studying for my ticket. They no longer require code, but I still want to use it and this sounds so much better than juggling individual letters in my mind while trying to listen and write. Thanks for pointing me in this direction.
My navy training was such that I could 'read and type' Morse far better than I could write it on paper, and at greater speed. As we had a cover over our hands when we learned to touch-type, it got so that Morse reception became an almost unconscious process. Added to this, we often didn't copy plain English words but coded 5 letter groups, so there could be no guessing as to what a word is or was if we missed a letter or so. Of course, for me, all over this was more than sixty years ago. That said, I can still read and send Morse.
Glad I found this, I’m just starting out. I realize now that Morse is not a code, and it’s not a written language, it’s a language that is ONLY SPOKEN. No one ever sits and writes out the lines and dots. The writing (if you do write it out) is English or whatever other language you’re using, you’re translating in your mind from Morse, but never actually writing Morse. It’s only heard and “spoken”, with the key being the voice. Learning the lines and dots is just creating an extra translation, like 1) hearing dahdidit 2) thinking ok dahdidit is long short short or dah dit dit, and 3) ok long short short or dah dit dit is D. That’s double or triple the amount of mental work you need to be doing. D in Morse code is NOT “long short short”, or dah dit dit, it’s the SOUND dahhdidit (spoken quickly) Or bahbudup, or whatever. The spelling is irrelevant cuz it’s not a spelled or written language. “D” is pronounced “dee”, when kids are learning English, you don’t tell them D is pronounced “deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeyyyy”, so why would you tell a Morse beginner that D is pronounced “dah dit dit”? It isn’t. It’s dahdidit (fast). Thanks!!
Weeell, you still "draw" or "type" dots and dashes on your keyer. Yes, your hand doesn't hold a pencil and there's no paper or screen to hold copy what you "wrote" or "typed" for you to read back using your eyes, so, it's not a "written" language in the linguistic meaning of the term. It's certainly not a recorded and read language. But with how literal and technical you get beyond the linguistic term, it's literally a written language after all. And not a "spoken" language, either. You don't literally and regularly shout your dahdidits in normal Morse communication, are you? Point is, don't mix literal and technical uses of a word.
I learned Morse Code back in 1989, in order to pass the Novice test. I went from studying the written portion, and learning code, to passing the test some 10 days later. However, that was no major accomplishment, at all. The written portion of the test was very basic, and I only got to maybe 7 or 8 WPM on the code, with the requirement being only 5 WPM to pass. I learned by the then much accepted method of using Gordon West's cassette audio tapes. It worked, but I had major problems trying to build speed after I passed the Novice test. The bottom line - take the great advice in this video, and save yourself a lot of time and headaches. If you wanna be acceptable at Morse Code, there's just not enough time to be thinking about 'Dits' and 'Dahs.'
Great advise Scott, unfortunately I started completely wrong 40 years ago and I am still counting and visualizing. I wish I could clear everything from CW out of my brain and start again from scratch. 73's de ON7QF
Good points. I was learning it wrong by identifying code visually. I stopped practicing for a while and now I’m 100% audio learning code. Your points are spot on. Thank you. 73
All very good, thoughtful advise. When I learned code back in the 70's I hit a "wall" at around 20 wpm until I dropped the pencil and started listening to 30 wpm and suddenly realized that at those speeds I was actually hearing words, not individual letters. By the time I took my Extra exam in 1981 20 wpm sounded slow compared to what I'd become accustomed to. Continue to push yourself above your comfort level and much greater speeds than you ever imagined become possible. Stay inspired! 73 de N9MB
I understand the uploader's intent of adhering to the hearing art of Morse Code. I was wondering if it is somehow just not doing an overall study though. I will use an analogy. The art of Music a person can learn an instrument, but how they play can be through ear, chord symbol and notes. Doing all three is great, instead of specializing on just one. Depending on what the individual's specific goals are. My view on Morse Code priority is first and foremost 1) Hearing, then 2) Light 3) Pressure and finally as an option 4) Written.
Imagine if your code class (USN airborn communications class ) was copying five charector blocks composed of letters, numbers and punctuation marks . fq4b, tdiew z0qyp ect. When you got to 8 to 12 wpm a roadblock occured and after a few days of fustration somthing happened to how we interpreted the sounds. IT was like a switch got flipped and we ended the six weeks at 18wpm copying "unwords " . Nowadays im unable to copy code at any speed without a typewitter , Its a fasinating view of the complexity of learning which is another "hobby" worth the time.
When I first took the exam at 5 wpm I almost failed because I practiced at around 10 wpm. I thought the exam was going to be easy. Wrong. I could barely copy at 5. It was too darn slow. Of course now I'm relearning but this time I started at 20. But I realized just yesterday that that was too slow and bumped it to 25. I will be taking KW4JM's advice an try out the "Wordsworth" method.
I believe most people hit a brick wall because they do not know it well enough. No matter how fast or slow the code is, you must have instant character recognition. If you do not, you will always struggle with Morse code. Whether fast or slow. To get instant character recognition requires a lot of practice. Slow and fast.
i love how all the comments are people who were in war and had to learn morse code for the army yearsss ago and theres just me ,15 and wanting to learn morse code cause why not
Learning Morse sounds just like learning typing: letters first, letter combinations, words and phrases, larger and larger groups become graspable without attending to the smaller parts.
Absolutely love your #1 - lose the visual. In my "prime CW years" I was able to send/receive over 25 wpm but that was only after struggling to get my brain to catch up to my keyer.
I learned CW by writing it down, it has slowed me down. My dad was a radio operator on a navy ship, he could drive a car and carry on a cw conversation
Something that helped me tremendously was listening to random QSOs on WebSDR sites using a phone app when out and about. That helped me learn to deal with different fists, QRM, QRM, QSB, etc. I can copy QLF much better than some friends who trained using purely computer generated code.
I came after your review of the Te Ne Ke and the algorithms presented me this video as well. I came to the same conclusion a few weeks ago -- that I need to start hearing words and not characters. Morse Code is a language and we learn languages by words, not characters. Can you imagine learning Spanish using the a-m-i-g-o approach? Nope. Well done sir!
Was taught Morse in the British Army in the 70s. It was all encoded in 5 character cypher, with very little plain language text, so never really got beyond 18 wpm as you had to write down cypher . Still remember the rhythm of some of the more common words..... it was really a bit like being brainwashed. Was converting everything into l morse in my head for months after each of my 2 courses. Probably only take me an hour or so to get up to 12 wpm. Some good suggestions here, I'll use them if I get the urge again!
Interesting to hear so many interested in Morse code, after it is no longer required ! Fortunately, I was licensed while it was still a requirement, so it was something you did, if you wanted to become an Amateur ! Many claim that C.W. kept them from becoming Hams ! But when you listen to them speak, and share their knowledge, many Extras don't know what a novice should know ! And got their license by using a computer to memorize the answers, with little, if any, practical application ! It is what it is ! I have always felt that many are missing out, when they sell themselves short ! Many are just plain lazy, as evidenced in other aspects of their lives ! Nuff said !
I've been pondering trying to learn code, but assumed that there were likely some more efficient ways than others to approach it. Your sharing of your experience learning it and tips on how to proceed was just what I wanted. Much appreciated. 73
With all due respect, I believe you're overthinking it. I agree that learning words is a good tactic to raise up your speed (although I've personally never tried it). Otherwise, the best way is to practice, practice, practice, putting down your received characters on a keyboard (you're right about using a pencil - you can't go fast enough). In Tech school, we had a fellow student who could only type at 15WPM, but could copy code at 30WPM. This disparity was actually quite common. One other thing ... CW operators today are accustomed to clean code. But what do you do when you're copy someone who's sending garbage? How do you copy such an operator? (Hint: you know what he's gonna send it before he does). The answer is more and more practice. Good luck!
What a wonderful tutor! Great advice and motivating notes from someone who seems, he knows what he's talking about. Thank You so much Sir! Happy Dx ing. 73's de VK2xxxx
I see your mag loop in the background, I have made three so far, they have changed my ideas about portable antennas, they are amazing for their compact size, 73's, good CW vid.👍
I learned Morse code about 55 years ago. It comes to me by sound and just flows out of me thru my hand. I don't even think about the letters. About 25 years ago I had a interesting experience. During my time at the Merchant Marine academy I sat in on a blinker light course that was a requirement for deck officers. I didn't have much trouble except that I had to mentally convert what I saw to dits & dahs before I could write down the letter. DE KØRE
Thank you for your video. I'm a total novice, half way through by basic HAM licence training course and I want to take the CW test as well (so I've started studying) - but I am soooo enjoying this journey! I'm excited to say I can tap out code that should be decipherable. But my listening at this point has been limited to words or phrases that I've seen in roman characters. I am very apprehensive about starting to listening to code (that I haven't seen written down) but that's the actual objective I suppose! Your vidoe has cemented for me the importance of building my listening skills and I will do exactly that. Thank you for your time Sir.
An older person talk about learning morse code, makes it much more proper to me, as they may have properly learned it and had a lot of time with morse.
Excellent video. I'm 2 weeks from taking Technician Exam which I'm ready for. I'm gravitating to CW and you have provided very strong and wise tips for a beginner like me.
Thank you for sharing this info. Like most things in life, there are no shortcuts. I play with a CW phone app but now desire to take it to the next level.
You are absolutely correct. I attained my General lic in 1985 or 6. I was copying code at 23 wpm when I took the 13wpm code test and still only got 70percent on the test. But, still passed. So sorry I ever let my lic expire 13 years ago.
Thanks for an interesting and informative video. I have just now subscribed to your channel. I am a DXer and occasionally use the low VHF beacons as indicators for DX signals higher in the bands on TV and FM. Many of the VHF beacons use Morse Code.
I was trained as an 05b radio telegraph operator at Fort Gordon. Georgia in 1972. I had copied 31 word groups per minute and was working on 33 when I finished my training. They told me I was close to an Army record. The code was coming so fast that I would write another 12 to 15 letters after the code stopped. When I got to my duty station in Germany I was transferred to the M.P.'s and never sent or received code again! Now, 50 years later, I can only remember SOS. I don't have any interest in re-learning the code but I was hoping some of my buddies in that AIT group might see this and contact me.
Thank you for insightful video. I'm a new ham. I got my tech ticket a month ago. Last week I started learning Morse code after a lifetime of admiring people that communicate over long distances with CW. I've been using the techniques you've outlined but I found the Koch/Farnsworth via a small Android app. When I first started I had trouble with 5 wpm. Now I'm working through the Koch sequences at 18/5 and even that seems slow now. Thanks again for the advice. 73 de KN4KAW.
Cool video, thanks for making it! Not quite sure but it feels like if you dont have your letters straight in your head it's hard to just copy words. The analogy is that when you're reading a book there might be words you don't know the meaning of but you can still read them and find a definition of them because you know the individual letters, just an intuition. I'm almost done with learning letters anyway so I'll finish this up :d
I learned the old way with a G3 friend starting at 6 wpm and in 3 months got up to 15 wpm for my 12 wpm test which I passed. I was listening to the AA9PW 25-30 wpm news bulletin but it seems to be discontinued. I can't write at 20 wpm so had to lose the pencil. I now read in my head and make important notes only; name, QTH, signal report etc. Bill, G4GHB.
An excellent and encouraging video. I recently decided I need to make CW something I can enjoy and have been intimidated a great deal based on how I learned it back in the 1980's to get my first license -- and never used it again. I upgraded to Extra after code went away. Everything you've said makes sense and I will be pushing forward "soundly" using your suggestions. Thank you.
I am glad I found this video! 5WPM between characters, and the individual characters sent at 25WPM is an excellent combination! It is really helping me learn code fast! I am using the app “Ham Morse” on my iPhone to implement this tempo and speed.
I am pretty sure that the GNU/Linux program morse is what is generating the morse code on LCWO and I think using the morse program being a command line program has even more features than LCWO and is more flexible, here are some examples of how to use it and (man morse) has good instructions or just type morse without any flags for the instructions. This will tap out the alphabet in order A to Z and repeat 20 times, in groups of 5 at a character speed of 25 WPM & effective speed of 5 WPM whilst displaying each character in morse A.- B-... C-.-. etc seq 20 | xargs -Iz echo "ABCDEFGHILKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ" | morse -lm -w12 -F25 -n5 -v0.2 Same as above but letters at random: morse -rlm -w12 -F25 -n5 -v0.2 -CABCDEFGHILKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ This will sound out and show the Morse of each letter of the alphabet at random and then ask you which letter you just heard: morse -rlmsd -w12 -F25 -n5 -v0.2 -CABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Thank you. If I am not wrong, the author of lcwo.net also wrote a command line program to convert text files (actually ebooks) into mp3 files. You can specify both spacing between letters and spacing between words, while leaving the character speed unaltered.
Completely agree with everything. Learned from the tapes at a slow rate, and got far too used to decoding by trying to translate into patterns. I was proud when I passed the 13 WPM test to get to general class back in the day, but I couldn't get past that hump to get to 20 WPM. Now I know why, and I wish I had learned it differently.
I was a Morse Code instructor for the military. Taught all 4 branches for 4 years. The requirement to graduate was 20 GPM which is around 24 WPM. They had to get 96% on the lesson 2 times within 60 minutes or 16 tries. We also required them to stick copy (pencil) at 16 GPM. They had to learn letters, long numbers, cut numbers, back slash. There was also a format that you must follow otherwise you have no chance at passing. The course was a 70 day average but we gave students up to 125 if they met standards. I was fortunate to learn fast. I graduated in 18 when I was a student. All of this was basic Morse. The advanced Morse is much more technical. Some people think it's boring. To me it's music.
That is impressive. Thank you for this comment. Would you consider doing a video on one or two of the techniques you used? I would be very interested to try them myself. Scott
@@kw4jm699 Thanks. It would be difficult to do a video. Ours were computer based training. We would identify characters that students had trouble with (mostly S and H) and create special lessons adding those letters more frequently. They sat for 8 hours a day listening to beeps. I tried to get my hands on a CD that had a similar program but no luck.
I am at the very beginning of both trying to learn morse and writing a morse app as I learn. Great info from both video and this comment. I like where you mention spacing the words out more. Just at listening stage using 30wpm char, 13-18 wpm farnsworth. Find I am not connecting the chars in words at too large char spacing, but find the word spacing too close. So thing of doing a slightly modified farnsworth, close enough char spacing to connect chars into words with long spacing between words to make word separation obvious and allow the brain time to absorb the word. Similar to what you mention where you space out the words with 8 spaces.
when I was in us navy radio school we had to learn the code and touch type in three days but we could not copy words as most of the navy signals were 5 letter coded groups pretty much only weather reports were plain language we still copied coded groups at 28 wpm and better and in the coast guard on weather patrol we mostly just sent 5 group number weather info Im just starting to copy words in by head at 80 years and having a great time
I am not sure if this is considered “head send” or not but 23 years ago when I was practicing CW to take my general test (at 5 wpm) during my long commute into work on the 405 in So Cal I would practice converting to CW text from the highway signs I passed while I was inevitably stopped in traffic, this seemed to help my learning to receive. I ended up barely squeaking through my Morse portion of my general test and promptly forgot what I knew afterwards. However now I am wondering if I should learn it all over again and try and maintain the knowledge as I am retired and have some time.
