[UK-CONTEST] Improving CW Capability

[Don Field]

I have been humbled by watching Trey N5KO in my shack, ragchewing at close
to 50wpm with an OH through dire QRM on 40 CW, while holding a conversation
with me! But he, like many other top US contest ops, started on the traffic
nets, something we never had in the UK. And he did so as a teenager. Like
learning a language or learning to play a musical instrument, I suspect CW
ability is best learned while young. But for those of us who are already of
a certain age, there is precious little we can do about that!

Hope to see some of you tomorrow evening at the CDXC dinner.

Don G3XTT

On 3/30/07, Cooper, Stewart <coopers at odl.co.uk> 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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