Others may differ with my advice, but I'm not sure you really need to "finish
the alphabet" before you start listening. As a suggestion, start listening to
W1AW's code practice sessions - even the "high speed" ones. (Yes, I
said "the 'high speed' ones.") Tune in a code practice session and then go
about doing something else in the room - reading or whatever, leaving the CW
going in the background. Several things will eventually happen: 1) you'll
start finding yourself picking out things like "QST", "W1AW", and "now xx
WPM" - even at 35 WPM! (Copying "CQ" at much higher than one's normal copying
speeds is another example of what frequently happens.) 2) Listening to higher
speeds will make the slower speeds seem - well - slower. As an example, a few
years ago I helped the widow of a good friend sell his equipment. A recently
upgraded (5 WPM) General bought a transceiver and an HF vertical, and I
helped him install things as part of the deal. After we installed the antenna
and hooked things up we sat down in his radio room for a few minutes break. I
was sitting close to the rig, so I tuned it to W1AW, which happened to be
just starting an evening high speed CW session. We chatted with the code
practice in the background for a while; then I turned to him and
said, "Roger, how fast do you think they're sending?" He replied, "That
sounds slow enough I think I could copy it." He was astounded when I
said "that's 20 WPM." 3) As your copy improves, you'll likely even start
copying simple whole words as a unit instead of as individual letters. 4) For
future reference: while it can be somewhat frustrating at times, the advice
I've seen for improving copying skills is to listen to speeds where you're
only copying 50-75%. Finally, while writing down all of what you're copying
is needed initially, once you become more seasoned and gain some speed you'll
find CW becomes more of a conversation where you take a few notes here and
there (just like on 'fone).
Above all, just relax and enjoy it - don't make it a "chore". If you start
getting frustrated, take a break and come back to it later. While it seems
tedious now, somewhere down the line it will "click" and become really
enjoyable (at least it did for me.)
73, Al
On Mon July 2 2012 4:09:53 pm Richards wrote:
> Thanks Paul. I will start listening as soon as I finish the alphabet,
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