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 Mndless
Dont know a thing
Team Member
Joined: Sep 2007  SC, USA
 Posts: 896 Feedback: 100% (4) |
Posted: 4/11/2012 10:58:04 PM
THE IMAGE ABOVE IS A PAID ADVERTISEMENT Well.... enter the MRP40 Morse Decoder... don't want to call it a crutch, and certainly dont want to imply it is a replacement for learning to copy code... but, this little software package is impressive. Have spend some time playing with fldigi, multipsk and a few others... MRP40 - on my system - if hands down the best at pulling code out of the noise. I just made my first two cw QSO's tonight... although I will classify them as assisted because I had MRP40 running. Even though I was making my best effort to copy code, it is nice to know you aren't going to blow the QSO for the other guy. I did rely on the software a few times when things got away from me... but, this is much better practice than the software stuff... Not going to log these as my first official QSO's just yet, there were assisted... but... this does add a level of comfort to the learning curve... and what is really impressive.... 100 W and a windom at 30 ft... 20 mtr CW to Bulgaria and 10:45 pm at night... good stuff right there..... 
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Posted: 4/12/2012 10:07:37 AM
What helped me in the beginning was to find a CW Elmer. A crash test dummy that will get on the air with you and just get some chair time. Get past the 599 73 TU QSOs and have an actual ragchew. One of my first QSOs was with such an Elmer and he forced a 45 minute ragchew on me. When I was done my arm hurt and was mentally exhausted. However the learning experience was well worth the pain.
One of the rules of the CW game is to send only as fast as you can copy. If it's 5wpm then send at 5wpm. No shame in it. I make it a point to look for slow code people and try to work them. As for software assisted CW. Yeah I use it. Have to. Many DX and contesters in the interest of getting the QSO rate up and not wearing out their arm use software rather than sending manually. Cool but show me where they have to send at 30+ wpm. I can't copy that fast. So I have to use software to assist. If you need a crash test dummy I'm here to help. Send a PM with contact info and we'll sked something up. |
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Mndless
Dont know a thing
Team Member
Joined: Sep 2007 SC, USA
Posts: 897 Feedback: 100% (4) Link To This Post |
Posted: 4/12/2012 10:38:33 AM
Thanks HE...that really was the take home leason from last night.... doing the real thing, even with the 'crutch' running in the background was much more helpful than simply using the desktop training tools....
I did find it easier to send a little faster than I can copy... I'm sure I tend to stick with letters and abreviations I know and that moves things along a little quicker than a speed I can consistently copy... sending slower to send the send slow message is really good advice, thx. Going to spend another few weeks trying to further reduce my copy mistakes and then I just might take you up on the crash dummy thing... 
Thanks |
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Posted: 4/12/2012 11:14:56 AM
One other tidbit that was offered to me. Haven't done it myself but if you could get it together it would probably move the learning curve along in a hurry.
See if there is another CW op in the immediate area. Get with him and schedule some air time. While the two of you are working 30m or 40m at 5w, keep a HT handy with a repeater dialed in. Work the key on HF then get a voice critique on the repeater. If both of you have 6m or 2m CW capability then you could run that instead of HF. |
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