[CQ-Contest] Learning Morse

[Greg Davis]

Hi Rick,

I'm probably not going to be able to help you too much, but I operate
cw 98% percent of the time.

20-22 WPM sounds like a pretty good idea to start with, that way
you'll learn the characters as a sound rather than a combination of
dits and dahs.

During most contests the average speeds, I'd guess are from 25-30 WPM
and in the biggest contests, some stations might run 32-35 WPM but
rarely faster than that. If you could operate in the mid to upper 20
WPM range you can definitely jump right in to almost any cw contest
and over time work your way up from there.

I learned at a much slower speed writing everything down and then as
my speed increased I went to copying in my head, so I didn't really
have the same problem you did there but if you can start by copying in
your head you would have a big advantage there!

I didn't use any "methods" to learn cw, I just jumped on the air and
started making QSOs. Sure, they were rough at first, but after a few
they started getting better and before I knew it, I was hardly missing
anything!

Good luck and hope to hear you on cw soon!

73 de Greg N3ZL

On 11/9/08, Rick Kiessig <kiessig at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've decided to learn Morse, mainly with an eye toward contesting.  I tried
>  and failed many times years ago, using the approach recommended to me at the
>  time - cassette tapes.  I recently discovered the Koch method, and have been
>  using the G4FON software, but I have some questions:
>
>  -- Since the Koch technique has you learning at full-speed from the
>  beginning, what's a reasonable speed to aim for?  What's the range that you
>  might see in a typical contest?
>  -- I've started at 22 wpm, and find that the speed of my handwriting is
>  often not fast enough to keep up, and keyboarding is even worse.  The only
>  way I could imagine going faster is to copy entirely in my head.  How did do
>  you get past that hurdle?
>  -- Are there any other approaches to learning that I should consider, or
>  perhaps better implementations of the Koch technique?
>
>  Thanks,
>  73, Rick ZL2HAM
>
>
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