Posted: 5/16/2011 11:45:44 AM EDT
| I bought this iphone app today, and so far it's going well. It's 5 bucks and I think it's money well spent: AA9PW HamMorse |
I have a free CW trainer for my Driod and having learned a couple languages I have to say it all starts with one part and is built upon that. There is no way to download it into your mind, you need to practice and get as much exposure as you can. Don't give up and eventually you will learn! 
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I went from knowing only two letters of code, S and O, to sending code on the air in 6 months.
I used "Just Learn Morse Code" in conjunction with the lesson plan of "Zen and the Art of Radiotelegraphy. You'll spend the first few months just learning to copy code and getting up to speed on receiving. Once I went through the lesson plan only then did I practice with the key. Found out very quickly that I can send much faster than I can receive. My drill was two to three times a day, 20 minutes per session, working through the lessons. 20 minutes max. After more than that the focus it takes to hear the morse note starts to mentally tire you and you start making errors. It does get easier with time. You will hit brick walls where you just can't get that next character down. Work through it. You will have days when you have brain lock and characters you know you know just don't come out. Give it a rest and come back tomorrow. For a break download some of the 5, 7.5, and 10 wpm sound files of the ARRL code practice transmissions. Good practice for copying sentenances rather than the random letters of the lesson plans. A lot of that high speed stuff you hear on the CW portion of the bands is machine created. Meaning it's keyboard to keyboard through software. Ignore that stuff. Go find the slow speed QSOs in progress and copy what you can. After a while you will have an AHA moment and it all comes together. When you finally decide to get on the air, do not fear. CW guys place the craft above themselves and will work with you as much as you need to assist you in becoming a better CW operator. My first CW QSOs were in the middle of a SKCC contest. To a man each one was more than glad to help a new guy get air time. Go for it. It's one of the most satisfying things I've accomplished in a long time. |
