TIPS ON LEARNING AND OPERATING CW
by
Richard K Leah VE3YW
(Also see video below for deaf or blind hams.)
This is a republication of an article I wrote for “the Canadian Amateur” Magazine in January 1992 and also published in Hagal Amateur Radio Magazine in Israel and other countries including South Africa under my former call of VE3ANB. Please feel free to use and publish this if you wish but I would appreciate being INFORMED if it is used in another publication elsewhere.
I hope this assists all those wishing to learn CW or even those who wish to hone their skills in this fine art of communication enjoyed by millions of hams worldwide.
If you have a morse key firstly, ask someone to LOCK it away somewhere safely for the time being. Until you learn to understand what CW is supposed to sound like, you will surely not be able to send it properly. A good musician always learns how an instrument us supposed to sound before they learn how to play it. There will be plenty of time to send later.
The secret to learning anything including CW is to LISTEN, LISTEN and LISTEN. By listening to code sent well, you will get a feeling for the rhythm of consistent speed PLUS consistent gapping between each character sent.
Morse code consists of dots and dashes but audibly it really is DITS and DAHS. These dits and dahs make up our alphabet and for the purposes of effective communication, also numbers from 0 -9 and commas, slashes, periods and question mark. You will need to know these when in most CW exchanges.
Learn the sound of each character clearly in your mind and very importantly, try to learn each character at a CHARACTER speed of 12-15 wpm leaving a big gap between each character. This way, as you progress, you can narrow the time gap between each character WITHOUT changing the character speed. Trying to learn at a character speed of 5 wpm and then trying to copy later at a higher character speed will only result in frustration and it will make you feel like yo have to learn all over again at a new speed.
Try to get into the habit of writing down each character as you copy it in LOWER CASE letters rather than capital letters. You will save a lot of time doing this. Think about it. It takes more pen strokes to write a capital E than a lower case e as an example of what I mean.
DO NOT translate the character onto paper with dot and dashes (dits ad dahs) and then effect the translation. You need to understand the sound of each character and write that on the paper as a letter or number.
Tune into W1AW code practice schedules. This is a very effective learning tool and the W1AW code practice times can be obtained on their website or at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw-operating-schedule. When listening to the W1AW code practice schedules, make a point of listening to transmission that have a code speed of 15wpm. Before you say “You’re crazy”, but you may only be able to pick out one or two letters in each word BUT when they slow down to 10 wpm, you will be pleasantly surprised that you are copying most letters at that speed. And when they slow it down even further, you will be picking up most, if not all of the letters leaving you with a feeling of accomplishment.
Many people “give up” out of frustration so it’s vitally important that you end your learning session with good feeling of accomplishment and feeling good about yourself and the progress you make in each session. Do not spend more than 1 hour in the learning and listening process as this could result in over absorbing your mind and like a sponge when wet, you will find that you are not grasping the new stuff coming at you. If you find this is the case, WALK AWAY and try later. We all have off days, so don’t let it put you off or give up.
Once you have a grasp for the characters and their sound, send CW to yourself in you head. eg: when you see a road sign saying YIELD or STOP, send it verbally to yourself out loud. YIELD….Dah dit dah dah, di dit, dit, dit dah di dit, dah di dit. STOP…. di di dit, dah, dah dah dah, dit dah dah dit. See what I mean? You might get some strange looks from people by hey! who cares. I found this a great exercise when I was learning.
You should be prepared to spend 30 – 40 minutes a day listening. Set yourself a schedule each day and NO EXCUSES. If you are not prepared to commit the time you are just wasting it and kidding yourself. I never passed an exam with good marks by not committing to study.
ALL OF THE ABOVE DOES NOT REQUIRE THE USE OF A KEY.
NOW: You have successfully learnt how each character sounds and now is the time to practice sending.
Remember, a good method is to again listen to good code and get a feeling for the rhythm and spacing being used. Don’t worry about the speed at this stage Adjust your key and get comfortable and send code to yourself using a newspaper or magazine and pay special attention to the spacing between each character. Make it enjoyable and feel good about it.
Get a local ham to QSO with you and make a point of having a CW QSO every day, It’s a skill and you need to be proud that you can do it. Get on the air and call CQ at your comfortable level. Most who respond will match your speed out of courtesy. Try to send at the same speed as your contact. If they are too fast, ask them to QRS (slow down) , they will be happy to do this for you.
CW uses a lot of abbreviations much like young people do when texting on their cell phones.eg: Thanks. (TKS), For (FER), Very (VY), Good (GUD), Your (UR), Weather (WX), Your signal report (UR SIG RPT) is 599 (5NN). Power is 400 watts (PWR is 4TTW). Note that a nine is sent as an N and a zero as a T in the exchange. Hope to see you again soon (HPE CUAGN SN), And is sent as ES, Best regards is sent as 73 NOT 73’s!!. . You will learn these abbreviation very quickly and use them too. If you make an error, just send a short series of dits and resend the word again. NEVER abbreviate your call sign!
CW is NOT a lost art and can be very enjoyable and EASY. I know hams who choose to use CW exclusively. You will find too that CW has a much more effective way of punching through QRM, QRN and QSB compared to SSB. I have had many QSO’s on CW that I could never have had on SSB. Always remember, don’t be rushed, be relaxed and always use International Morse Code.
Also some links to sites about learning CW: (Just click the links below)
http://www.arrl.org/learning-morse-code
The dits and dahs of Morse Code in the digital age | WANE 15