I never knew this was possible on CW!

Hang in there, Jim. It took me 2 years @ 45 min/day to pass my 5 WPM test and another year to get to 13 WPM.

To get to 13 WPM, I downloaded one of the morse code tutors that accepted script files. I think it might have been Super Easy Morse. I then wrote a small BASIC program to generate a large text file with 5-character groups having random letters, numbers, pro-signs, and punctuation.

I hand-edited the text file to add the script commands to change the code speed as the file played. I would try to copy one minute at 40 WPM, one minute at 35, then 30, 25, and 20 WPM. Then I would finish up with 5 minutes at 15 WPM.

I would go into work early and spend 10 minutes every morning trying to copy the code. 15 WPM starts sounding real slow after a while. By the time I was ready for the 13 WPM test, I was copying about 50% at 20 WPM. But, once I got on the Advanced bands, I lost interest in upping my code speed.

This method doesn't work for learning the code, but it is quite effective at bringing your code speed up.

73 - Ed

 

A somewhat cheaper method is to construct two small filters one low-pass to the left ear and a hi-pass to the right ear. This spreads the cw signals out across your "Field-Of-View" making it easy to concentrate on YOUR signal.

Jim Hoffman
KA3HQR
jimh@connectandcompute.com

 

Dear Sir, A.D.D.??? ah...the flames continue. I have had my license for 8 years and anticipate being in amatuer radio for the rest of my life. Looking at your age I will likely outlive you and will glad take your place on the bands with my new no code HF ticket when it comes out in a couple of years.

and as for radioweenie??? You must be enviroweenie's anonymous evil twin. Actually that CB'er type QSO you fecklessly elucidated on there...why that sounds so very much like what I hear on 80 meters every night NOW...so what is your friggin' point? Other than that, I have nothing further to ever say to you as you're a self-annointed coward who won't post your name or email address but prefers instead to throw rocks behind shadows, no one hear has any use for you and your ilk.

 

What a VERY impressive young 'un you is! BTW, you are right about Urantia except for one small detail. Urania is Greek for "heaven". And there is a planet right here in this very own solar system named after it. It is called "Uranus" (pronounced "Your Anus"). Happy New Year to you, Woody, and to all the other inhabitants of your planet!!

 

Woody, you will lose that bet badly...

You say a lot of things without presenting any data to back it up. You say that CW is the major barrier keeping people from entering the hobby, and once it's gone there will be lots more people getting licensed. How would you know this? Have you actually ASKED people who are not licensed why they're not interested? I'm sure you have not, because your knowledge would be very different if you had. I think you're just making claims based on believing everybody is motivated by the same things that motivate you.

I DO talk to people about ham radio. Hundreds per year. I keep records of those conversations. I talk to people who have signed up for ham radio classes, so they're already interested. I also talk to people who did NOT sign up for a class, so I can ask them why they never took a class. Or I can talk to people who don't even know about the hobby. Woody, unless you collect this information, you really should not be spewing your opinions, because they're based on your hopes, dreams and fears, and not reality.

So, based on my several decades of teaching classes and seeking students, here are some cold, hard facts for you.

First, let's clear up some misconceptions about the ham radio hobby and the behaviour of those who are already in it:

1) Despite what you might think, the ham population is UP, not down. By how much? Fully three times in the past 25 years. Somewhere in the mid-1970s, the US ham population exceeded 250,000 for the first time. Today, the US ham population is over 700,000. In the 1970s, the percentage of hams who were novices or technicians was 30-35%. Today it's 40%. That's not much difference.

2) Despite the fact that we have a no-code license available today, the percentage of hams who have that license is not substantially higher than the number of hams who held essentially the same license when it did have a code requirement.

3) There is a major lack of interest even once a person's licensed. The bands are relatively dead. I have recordings from the mid-1970s of the various bands. It was hard to find a spot for a QSO on 15, 20, 40 and 80 any time they were open, not just during contests. That's not true today, and the number of hams that are licensed to use those bands is far higher today than in the 1970s. Two meters, also, in the 1970s, was much busier. If there was a 2 meter FM repeater in a city, then it was busy nearly 24 hours a day. Not likely today.

Now, let's look at the behaviours of people interested (or not) in the hobby - this info comes from my many conversations with people trying to get them interested.

1) MOST people have never heard of the hobby. No kidding. Periodically, I do the shopping-mall survey gig. I stand in a mall with a clipboard, with a bunch of questions and ask folks for a few minutes of their time. My questions are things like "Can you tell me what ham radio is?" and "Have you ever lived near a ham radio operator?" sometimes I use the phrase "amateur radio". Other questions include things like "do you enjoy conversations with strangers?" "do you enjoy encoutering people from other cultures", "what preparations do you make in case of emergencies" and other things that might show me if they have an interest that can serve their needs. If it's clear they couldn't care less, I thank them and send them on their way. If something pops up that I think suggests they might be interested in the hobby, I hand them an appropriate brochure, with contact information about the local clubs, ham classes, the ARRL, or sometimes it's a brochure about emergency communications. Based on the surveys I have taken, something like 3/4 of all people have never heard of the hobby. Above age 60 or so, it's more likely that they've heard of the hobby.

2) Once they hear of the hobby, most people are still not interested. If they've never heard of the hobby, they surely don't know about the CW requirement, right? So we'll talk about the hobby, what can be done in the hobby, the entertainment aspect, the public service aspect, the emergency preparedness aspect of it. Still, less than about 10% show any interest at all.

3) Of those who show interest in the hobby, very few are turned off by CW. The biggest objection I get is to the written test. Even if I tell them they can memorize the answers, they are still more spooked by the written test than anything else. Then, some of them are turned off by the idea that they have to get licensed at all, because they think the government is too controlling already. Of those who are turned off by CW (maybe 1/4 of them object to CW), it's NEVER the youngsters who are turned off by CW. This generation of kids, who grew up with computer games shrieking, bleeping and squawking at them, are quite prepared for a series of beeps to hold some meaning - it's in their blood. The ONLY people who have ever objected to the code requirement, of the hundreds I've worked with, are adults who are resistant to learning new things.

4) What REALLY turns the kids off is the condition and character of the hams they meet. Once they get into the class, I see an awful lot of kids drop out. I always talk to them later. They perceive most hams to be fat, arrogant, bossy, militaristic, completely out of touch with reality, and with no more social skill than your average vulture. And I know that when I first got into the hobby as a teen, I saw hams that way too, and I still wanted to be one of them.

Here are some things I've learned from teaching ham classes.

1) All of "our" (local ham clubs) classes offer code as a non-required option. The code practice will be the first or last half hour of the class, so those who are not interested can show up a half hour later or leave a half hour earlier than the rest.

2) Almost everybody volunteers to take the code part of the class. It's a bigger challenge to some than others, but they really sink their teeth into it. If it's a challenge, they're more likely to push their way through it than if the written part is a challenge.

3) We lose most of the kids because they look at the fat, bald, socially inept old men who teach the class, and don't want to be like them. In case you're wondering, I'm not one of them - despite my advanced age I have plenty of non-gray hair, have kept myself fit, and can run a mile in 7 minutes, faster than most of the kids. I'm also a minor local celebrity, so nobody questions my social eptitude!

4) Adults are more likely to dislike the code than the kids. Still, about 3/4 of them want to learn code, and do so. Those who don't, stay in the class and stick with the written part.

5) The single largest turnoff for adults is what I call the "objection to geekiness". Most of the time, they're interested in ham radio because they want to talk to people in foreign countries, or they want to to public service, or they have an emergency preparedness interest. They are willing to understand the equipment well enough to operate it legally and safely. When they go to ham club meetings, they want to hear presentations on operating procedures, or how to say hello in ten languages. Instead, they get lessons in how to internetwork repeaters, or how to build a better beam. They are completely turned off by how much time is spent discussing, being fascinated with, and bragging about equipment.

6) The NEXT biggest turnoff for adults is the political squabbling that happens at clubs. I STRONGLY encourage you to keep your repeater war issues OUT of the general club meetings. There's a nasty repeater war going on in Northern California right now (only 300 miles from me, and I know some of the combatants) that's very ugly, and the ham club is destined to lose. I'm told that the topic is discussed at the regular club meetings at great length, and that there have been several prospective members who chose not to show up again because of it. If there's some ugly club business going on, PLEASE confine it to the club's board meeting, which, of course, is open to all club members (or at least, it should be).

Getting the new licensees on the air. We used to lose a whole lot of new licensees essentially because we let them drop out of sight after they got the license. They still need elmering.

1) Based on my observations, a ham's first QSO should NEVER be on a two meter FM repeater. The vast majority of the dropouts after a few years tend to be those whose first on-air experiences were two meter FM.

2) We make it a point to have someone "there" when the new licensee has his/her first QSO. They can choose CW, SSB, FM, AM, or whatever they want. We always encourage it to be HF - typically 10 meters.

3) Several of us in the club have made it a point to show that a modest station can be effective by maintaining a very small station somewhere in our homes that's separated from the ham shack. In my case, I have a little Icom IC-735 and a small power supply sitting on an end table in our living room. There's a microphone, a straight key, a set of cheap PC headphones, and a spiral notebook with a pen. No PC, no tuner, no antenna switch, no SWR meter. The rig is permanently connected to an attic-mounted loop antenna. To keep the living room installation clutter free, I did "cheat" and built an automatic tuner in the attic with the loop. So new hams can come to my place, and see just how effective a modest station can be. Normally, I'll have them over on a weekend, and will make sure that their first QSO is with a DX station. Most of them want to work SSB, but even then, are usually willing to make the second QSO on CW.

4) We give them a standard "list" of suggested used HF rigs, and offer to help them find one, and if necessary, fix it up for them. Our list includes older rigs without WARC, like the FT-101 and TS-520, and also the earlier solid state rigs with WARC, like the IC-735 (my example) and the TS-430S. We also do our best to keep tabs on anybody who's selling such a radio. In fact, we've made it known around the local area that if anybody is selling such a rig, someone in the club is more than likely to buy it, just so it can be held for a graduate from the next ham class.

5) We make very certain that if they wish, one of us will be at their home when they make that important first QSO.

6) Just so you don't think we're HF snobs, we also include a list of "known reliable" models of FM single and dual band handhelds and mobile rigs. And, of course, our club's website includes "how to" information on setting up both the FM and HF stations.

So there it is from the front, folks. Code is NOT the major objection. If I were to quantify the major issues and topics, they would be:

1) Too few people even know about the hobby. Get the word out.

2) WAY too much focus on equipment. Make the classes and club meetings more interesting by getting off of the "look at the buttons on the latest rig" soapbox, and spending more time talking about operating procedure. It's very helpful to include audio recordings of actual QSOs and emergency operations.

3) Politics raises its ugly head too often. Keep it out of the classes and out of the club meetings.

4) The most visible proponents of ham radio are the ones who seem most out of touch with today's culture. Try to recruit instructors who are better at communicating with the public at large, particularly whatever the dominant culture of your area is. If the majority of your area's population are grizzled old wrinkled, skinny farmers, then recruit club members who look like that to be instructors. If the majority of your target audience is 25 years old, into pop music and driving modified Japanese cars, then find the club member who also plays guitar and drives a Porsche, and encourage him to become an instructor. That's my community, by the way. We didn't have the guitar-playing Porsche driver availalble, so we made do with the medium-distance runner who plays jazz violin and drives an old Camaro. And it worked.

This stuff is based on working with literally HUNDREDS of prospective hams, members of the public who've never heard of the hobby, school teachers and public officials in six different cities over a number of decades. It is NOT simply based, as I think KE4ENX's comments are, on my "gut feel" based on how I, personally feel about what's hard and what's not.

Yes, I do work CW, but no, I am not a member of FISTS. Nor do I take a particular stand on whether CW should or should not be a requirement. This is not an encouragement to be pro- or anti- CW, but rather an attempt to shed some light on reality. If you don't work from reality, then you can only attempt to create a new fiction from the fiction you've already created in your head. I try to base my positions on reality, not gut feel and wishes.

73,

OBP

 

Criminy Woody, the only sophistry I see in this whole thread comes from you!!!

Did you know that SKN was not created to encourage CW??? SKN was created back when CW was the MAIN mode!!! It was a response to hams who enjoyed the ARRL operating event of Field Day and wanted an operating activity about six months away. It might have been "hand mic night" except that when SKN was created, SSB wasn't all that common, FM was almost nonexistent and virtually nobody operated mobile. SKN just fed what the hams asked the ARRL to provide.

And there's a much better way to stop that bleeping noise you hear. Turn off the brain-dead two meter rig - that bleeping are the "discourtesy" beeps on the VHF CB rig you have.

And if you really DO work HF (which I doubt), then I'm sure you never have to listen to those bleeps. You aren't dumb enough to tune down into the part of the band where "they" work CW, are you? Oh, maybe you are.

 

Charles,

The initiating sentence in the article would be offensive only to those with very thin skins. Sadly, this writer (N9AS) is not very good with words (despite being a published author). His article titles do not generally match the text in the article, and the articles themselves bounce around from one topic to another disjointed topic.

Frequent readers of QRZ (and KE4ENX is one) are aware of Art's writing style and usually deal with it. To take his first sentence (which does not fit with the rest of the article, but that is normal for Art) and tear off from there as Woody has done, sure looks like thin skin to me.

Then there are Woody's own inconsistencies...to claim that "CW is a fine mode" and "join No-code International" in the very same paragraph is sophistry in itself.

I agree with your comments regarding the neuroscience comments in the article. They are like Art Bell thinking - a concept inspires science-fiction-esque visions, so the writer takes it too far. They are not scientific comments.

I sure haven't seen any documented evidence that code is driving people away. When you tell your non-ham friends that you are a ham, do they immediately say "I'd be a ham, except that I can't learn code."? Probably not. More likely, they're like my friends, who say, "Why would you want to be a ham operator, anyway? What do you get out of it?"

In a society where nobody learns anything unless it can potentially help bring in income, it's very hard to get people to get into something that's very expensive (face up to it - this is one of the most expensive hobbies in existence), and there's precious little hope of getting any compensation in return.

MB

 

Enviroweenie and KE4ENX are the same person!!!

At least, they write the same way, and display their arrogance and anger the same way. Yes, I'm certain, it's only one guy!

 

I can't believe the number of people suggesting two filters - that's too hard!

An IQ demodulator is the easiest. That sounds hard, but it isn't.

From your receiver, bring out two signals. The final IF output, after the last, narrowest, IF filter. And the BFO. Feed them both through splitters, so you have four signals. So far, this is easy - we've only had to use some resistors.

Now, delay ONE of the BFO signals by 90 degrees. We've added an inductor and a capacitor.

Now, feed both of the IF signals into the RF inputs of two mixers ($4 components from mini-circuits) and the two BFO signals (one delayed 90 degrees) into the LO inputs of those mixers.

The IF outputs of the two mixers go into the L & R channels of a stereo amplifier.

WAY more effective than N9AS's approach.

Now, the more complicated way, but very, very cool is one I saw written up by W8JI (and he has stereo audio samples somewhere on the web).

This one requires two receivers, that are modified. Each receiver gets a different antenna - diversity reception. You have to lock all the oscillators together. Probably, you just disable the oscillators in one receiver and feed a sample of each into the other. The only difference is that the two receivers get different antennas. Now, feed the two receiver outputs to L & R of the amplifier.

As fading takes the signal up and down, the signal wobbles around from left to right. Any other signals wobble very differently.

Has nothing to do with brain left-right issues, and has a lot more to do with the psychoacoustics of how we interpret the spatial location of sound. None of this would work if our brains didn't already have some pre-programming by the years we've spent listening to sounds.

MB

 

I fundamentally agree with you, Matt. Except for the "neuroscience" aspect of your post which you characterize as "Art Bell type thinking". It is true that N9AS is not a neurologist per se. But his idea to employ a binaural two channel arrangement for CW is not at all "Art Bellesque". This is an actual practical application of neuroanatomy that has been known for many years. It is not even new. I found his article to be one of the more interesting ones published here. But i will grant you that the neuroanatomical picture here is very complicated because some of the sensory nerve fibres cross over to the opposite cerebral hemisphere whereas others go directly to the same cerebral hemisphere. To make this matter yet more intractible-- the actual proportion of sensory fibres that innervate in the opposite vs the same cerebral hemispheres is on the order of one-half to each side!! However there exists actual hard evidence that the phenomenon assumed by N9AS is a correct one. And, as i am sure you are aware, neurologists are among the most "hard-nosed" of scientific researchers. However neurologists would never argue with Art Bell-- but not because they disagree with him, but rather because they would be unable to tolerate him for much longer than about 30 seconds in the first place!! ...73 de r.w....

 

i can not think of one good reason why anyone would get into ham raido and then grip about CW you knew that CW was a part of the hoby befor you even got started. i get so tired of people crying about CW if you dont wont to get a sarry 5wpm. get out of the hoby""":"""""""""?????????>>>>>>

 

Just a comment on MB's post. Perhaps our hobby can be expensive, depending on the level that one wants to take it to, but, to be realistic, consider some other hobbies and recreational activities. A boat, ATV, RV will probably cost many times what most hams would spend. Even a good set of golf clubs and a club membership would cost more than a good transceiver. Also ham expenses are usually spread over many years so the prospective ham shouldn't be scared off by that. Used equipment and ingenuity can keep the cost down for a beginner.

The compensation is the same as for any hobby or recreational activity: personal relaxation, change of pace, attainment of new goals, acquisition of new friends, or you name it.

And I am NOT getting into the CW wars!

73 VE5FN