[UK-CONTEST] Morse, age and hearing etc

[Roger Cooke]

Hi.

   I know of two amateurs that convinced the authorities they were unable to do the Morse test due to
their dyslexia. Obviously they never used Morse, but they did get their full licence and were able to use
the HF bands.  Rumours were rife of course!   However that's history.
  As we get older, hearing obviously drops off, the HF frequencies suffering in particular. At around 20 it
is possible to hear up to 20kHz and when I was that age, I used to receive Morse at about 800Hz to 1kHz.
However now I am 71 (yuk)  I prefer a much lower note and usually settle around 400Hz. I too had a hearing
test a year ago as I was curious how much my hearing had suffered as I ran a band for 40 years so was in
a high level of sound for long periods. I was pleased to find that my hearing was fine, but stopped at around 
15kHz.
  As for the dyslexia, some of the early learning of Morse suggested learning opposites, A & N, B & V and 
so on. One person I was teaching learned exactly that way and it took ages to get him out of that habit.

As for text dyslexia, I had a very good friend who would insist on putting G3LID on my Christmas card!!
  When I got back into RTTY contesting again, I lost count of the number of people insisting on calling me
G3WDI or G3TDI, but that was N1MM's dyslexia in CHECK.

  Try 400Hz for CW, works for me.

 
Regards from Roger, G3LDI
Swardeston, Norfolk.