[UK-CONTEST] Improving CW Capability

[Danny Higgins]

Many years ago (30+) when I was at Racal we wrote a program for the PDP 
which would send random 5 letter groups.  You entered your target speed 
(e.g. 35 WPM) and your starting speed (e.g. 25 WPM).  The letters were 
generated at the target speed but sent with longer gaps to meet the 
starting speed.  If you typed the letters correctly the speed would very 
gradually increase (the gap between characters decreased).  If you made 
a mistake the speed increase would stop and the letter that was wrong 
was weighted so that it occurred more often.  After a while (if you got 
things right) the weighting would gradually return to normal and the 
speed would slowly start to increase again.  This would either get your 
morse up to your typing speed or your typing up to your morse speed (and 
hopefully improve both).  I converted this to BASIC for the PC about 20 
years ago and sent it in to RADCom, but the response I got was that 
members would not be interested in typing in 2 pages of BASIC commands.

--... ...--

Danny, G3XVR

Cooper, Stewart wrote:
> Thanks for all the replies and help. Like Peter here, I read the dots and dashes, translate them, type them in. I can do this quite fast if it's just callsigns, and I'm not tired. I thought there might be an 'easy' way of improving, but I pretty much knew the answer - practice make perfect. I haven't ever reached the point hwere I can hear whole words, but that's where I want to be.
>
> I like N5KO's post (http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/CQ-Contest/1996-02/msg00580.html) where he said (with regard to contest operating):
> o Know the code.  50 WPM conversational is a nice milestone --
>   note:  don't try this at home with pencil and paper.
>
> I do find listening to the likes of K7QO's MP3 files is worthwhile though, as I really don't want to have to rag-chew with anyone just to improve my CW!
> 73
> Stewart
> GM4AFF
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Peter Bowyer
> Sent: 30 March 2007 13:08
> To: uk-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Improving CW Capability
>
>
> That strikes a chord for me. When I'm tired I often find myself
> remembering the dots and dashes for a split second while the next bit
> of the processing chain translates thenm into letters, then hand
> movements in order to get the call into the log. When I'm on form, the
> intermediate step of needing to identify the letter shrinks to almost
> nothing, and the dot/dash pattern sends my fingers in the right
> direction on the keyboard. Then there's the stage of looking at what
> you just typed to see if it makes sense.....
>
> As for Stewart's question - I don't know of any technque for improving
> competent CW other than practice - MorseRunner etc are a good
> substitute for the real thing. If there were a magic pill, I'd be
> first in the queue - my CW is just about good enough for busy
> contesting/DXpeditioning but I'd love it to be much better.
>
> Peter G4MJS
>
>
> --
> Peter Bowyer
> Email: peter at bowyer.org
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