Dear experienced CW operators! Canyoupleasekeepproperspacingbetweenlettersandwords?

If you have problems reading my post title - as I have problems to read some of CW transmissions - it says:

Dear experienced CW operators! Can you please keep proper spacing between letters and words ?​

...like in this educational video:


I realize, that being rookie operator myself, I have "no right" to speak about proper CW code.
But some operators, I would say the most often ones who send fast code (presumably experienced then ?), have the tendency to "glue" all characters together. Which is really really making things much harder.
And... isn't it bad code ?

 

This may be the most revealing "discussion" ever.
Thanks for posting.
73 Shirley ...-.- ..

 

Just spin the dial if you do not like it, And can not copy.

Or learn to copy Morse code better.

 

...--..-....-...-.----......-....----.-....-.-.-.....-.-....-.--.-.-.----...-....--..-.

 

Slow code and fast code is kind of vague. What kind of speeds are we talking about here?

I would not presume them to be experienced. When someone is learning code, it is common for them to be able to send faster than they can receive. But just because they can send faster than they can receive, doesn't mean the sending is very good. If they don't keep a lid on their sending speed, they can develop some very bad habits.

With more experienced CW users, sending fast code, say 25 WPM, is very easy and usually done correctly. However, when they are asked to slow down to say 10 WPM, that can be very difficult. Then they might have more of a tendency to run characters into one another.

 

You realize Morse is an aural language not a visual one, right? Even if your spacing were proper that line would be very difficult to read - but sent to me at 25 WPM by a sender with a good fist = no problem

Dave
W7UUU

 

Listen for a while. If the QSO continues with exchanges back and forth, that means others can copy the fist in question. And, if others can copy it...

I wonder of OP learned Morse with Farnsworth spacing?

Morse code, as Dave says, is aural, not visual. This film gives one an intellectual grasp of the process, but for many of us, correct spacing was learned by emulating the practice transmissions of WWV.

In any case, I am confident that if OP keeps at it until he can recognize whole words at the speeds in question, the problem will resolve itself. Most of us cannot copy 25 or 30 WPM comfortably until we learn to recognize whole words.

I hate it when people find out I know Morse and then they send me cute little text/e-mail messages in periods and "N" dashes and I have to spend a couple of minutes figuring out a fifteen or twenty word text.

 

The problem I describe most often appears with straight key users, sending at about 20..25? WPM (my subjective estimation) - which I believe for straight key is quite fast. And I do not mean reading code at that speed, I mean precisely what I wrote: that people do not keep proper spacing between characters and words.

With paddles it is rare, that characters are "glued". Even at 30+ WPM I have no problems hearing separate letters - even if I cannot read all the transmission at that speed. However I cannot say, that all of paddle operators care about word spacing. CQ very often sounds like this: CQCQCQ DE AB1CDEAB1CDEK

I can read it, yes, but is it good code ?

 

I know, it was just humor.

But when you hear it at 25WPM do you want to get it as
"I prefer others to learn sending code better" or
"Ipreferotherstolearnsendingcodebetter" ?

...even if you are able to copy the latter

 

Believe me I do ...