best way to learn cw

hey all, what is the best way to learn cw with no prior experience? i dont know very many of the characters.
thanks
kd8oqm

 

I learned using a set of CDs from Gordon West. They were pretty good and after a few days of listening I was able to copy abou 5wpm.

 

G4FON has worked great for me so far.

 

Learning CW

I learned E I S H 5. All the dits. Then, T M O. The dahs. That teaches you to 'count' along to read the code. After that, I went to some of the combos like N D B (dah-dit, dah-dit-dit, etc). Flip it around and you've got A W J (dit-dah, dit-dah-dah).

Anyway, you get it. I learned that way and it worked. CW is my only method of operation.

 

Excellent first post.

Welcome to QRZ Forums.

 

That's what I did, too. And worked with a friend who was also learning (we became Novices together), so we'd "send" back and forth to each other just by vocalizing the code:

Di-dah = A
Dah-di-di-dit = B

etc.

We promised to only use "code talk" when we walked to school (about 40 mins) and back home after school (another 40 mins) every day, and never use "real English."

After two weeks, we were both going 10 wpm without ever listening to a tape, a CD, a computer program or a radio.

Passing the Novice test after that was very, very easy.

 

Far as I can tell, there are at least as many answers to this as there are CW operators...

I doubt there's any particularly easy way. I've made more progress with LCWO than with any of the other things I've tried, but even so it's a twenty miles barefoot and uphill both ways through blizzards in summer and winter kind of learning experience...

See also the CW question and Guessing Is Killing Me! threads.

 

This is exactly the way I learned it in 1977 too. It worked great. When I teach my son to do it, I'll do it exactly the same way.

paul

 

Good for you! And have him find a friend to learn with, it makes it twice as easy. That's what I did, and went from zero to 10 wpm in 2 weeks, maybe a bit less.

We were both at 15 wpm or so by the time our Novice tickets arrived in the mail, and wondered why all the Novices were going so slow.

 

It would be great if I could be his friend!! Unfortunately, if he is anything like my 14 year old daughter this is highly unlikely!!

My "14 year old" knew the code at age 9, but she had absolutely no interest in getting her ticket, just playing around with Morse code. Now she has a cellphone and "texts" all the time. If you think about it, it is really not that different than we were doing when we were kids (using a "code" to communicate with others by something OTHER than telephone and being completely obsessed with a "new" form of communication).

Steve, I know you have been through this too, TIMES FOUR!!!

paul