[TenTec] 'Real CW?' - What's TT to do?

[Scott / W4PJ]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <K4IA at aol.com>
  What would be your favorite  recommendation for a newbie?

I have told numerous 'newbies' over the years.  I say, get any HF rig or
receiver and tune down near the bottom of 40 or even 20 Meters and find a
couple of good CW ops ragchewing at a speed that is way too fast for you to
copy.  Just let it run while you go about your business.  Wash dishes, or
cook dinner, or play with the dog, whatever.  Anything but concentrate on
trying to copy the code.  Just forget about it and let it run in the
background.  After a while you'll start catching bits and pieces. "ing"
"er" "ous"  those suffixes that are everywhere, and after that you'll start
hearing words.  "The" is the most common, but you'll start getting those
whole words without trying to get dits and dahs and spelling things out in
your head letter by letter.  When that starts to happen, congratulations.
You are finally starting to speak the "language" just like any other
language.

Congratulations, and welcome to a world-wide fraternity of CW ops where our
spoken languages, cultures, religions, races, all those things that seem to
divide us, no longer matter and where we all share a common bond.  Morse
Code, like a secret handshake, you're now a member of a very special "club."
And anywhere you go in the world, you will have friends.

Best rig these days for a newbie?  That's hard to say without knowing the
newbie.  I had a Hot Water 16 and one 40m rock.  And a Laughin Idiot HE-30 ?
I think that was the number.  Call CQ and then tune all up and down the
band.  What a blast!  Today?  I might recommend a Scout.  Not too expensive
if the newbie loses interest after a while since it doesn't take a whole lot
of effort to get a ticket anymore.  Anything too easily acquired these days
has little value to the holder.  Maybe recommend a kit and be an Elmer
helping them to build it themselves.  That would create "value."

Cheers
PEACE
Scott / W4PJ