Holly cow! Are you serious. We have to listen and learn these sentences? I have problems with long sentences but I guess that gets us ready for going on the air. SESSOIN 11: There are three copying Segments but look at them. Segment 1. [your callsign] de k6rb ur rst 579 nr sf name rob hw? [your callsign] de k6rb k Segment 2: [your callsign] de n3jt ur rst is 5nn <BT> qth mclean va ? mclean va <BT> op is jim de n3jt Segment 3: [your callsign] de w1rm <BT> ur rst 569 569 in ct name is pete bk There was only 3 Sending Segments: Segment 1: k6rb de [your callsign] – ur rst 57n in [your town/city and state abbreviation] - name is [your name] btu k6rb de [your callsign] k Segment 2: n3jt de [your callsign] – ur rst 56n in [your town/city and state abbreviation] – name is [your name] – n3jt de [your callsign] k Segment 3: w1rm de [your callsign] – ur rst 45n wid QRN in [your town/city and state abbreviation] – name is [your name] – w1rm de [your callsign] k I practiced the copying and sending a few times for Session 11 and then I went back and did some Free Form in the trainer at the bottom. Going over the A, N, C, Y, Q, F, P and anything I need help with. I went back and completed Session 1 and 2 again. I'm still having problems differentiating between the A and N at times. I have gone through the copying and sending segments several times and also went through lessons 3 and 4 again. I spent some quality time on sending practicing and seemed to be getting better at the five prosigns, ? / - <BT> <BK>. I am still having fun, not as frustrated anymore but still having issues with certain letters but that is to be expected. I will continue to drive on. It appears that I was not the only one having problems with this lessons. It was the first time that we heard how a CW contact would go on the air and it was shocking how little we know after 10 lessons. We were getting lost and once you get lost it is hard to catch up. It was good to have the instructor explain how most CW Contacts start: CQ CQ de your call your call K. (K means you are finished and someone else can call you) ANSWER: my call de other ops call. Answer: Other ops calls de my call, RST 599, HI, Name is Stacy, Other OPS call de my call K. DE means "this is". Also remember it is easier to send, so send only at the speed you want the other operator to send at or the may send too fast for you to copy. I've been using the free form area in the software and will enter words or letters I having issues with. For example some common words or phrases such as RST, QTH, NR, UR, THE, AND, NAME, IS, QSL Aloha and 73! Read Part 1 Read Part 2 Read Part 3 Read Part 4 Read Part 5 Read Part 6 Read Part 7 Read Part 8 Read the entire blog here Ham Radio Hawaii Facebook Page
I have been following this, glad to see you are seeing success with it. I have been doing 2 9x7 pages of copy a day. I am only to 14 characters so far. I am getting frustrated with blanking out and loosing several characters often. I am not sure how to fix that, it seems to happen randomly and not really associated with distractions. If I slow down alot, like 5WPM, I can get it, but I am trying to keep the WPM higher. At 7WPM total and 15WPM character speed right now.
I can do ok but when the words are formed I can't copy to good at all. You are doing great if you are doing 2 pages a day. Keep at it. We can get it!
We are on week 3 for the club class been getting A and N mixed as well. I seem to copy words better than random clusters of letters. Still slow on the copy 5-7 farns at 20wpm, waiting for things to click. Keep at it and thanks for the blog as I said before it got me back into CW and the hobby again. 73 David
I still get the A and N confused but seem to do better at higher speeds on them. Stay at 20 wpm and the highest Frans you can. I think my mistake was I would lower it instead of just sucking it up and learning it.
Small clarification - 'DE' means 'from'. Keep up the good work, it takes time, like most things worth doing, but you'll get there! Not that I'm 'there' yet myself, but that's what they keep telling me!
I love cw! It's said to stimulate the brain, so I copy the arrl sessions. I'm puzzled why such hoopla with learning code. When my electric shop teacher told me he'd give an A if I got my novice in the first 10 weeks, I sat down with the code machine and passed the exam 5 weeks later. I rarely QSO via cw, but may switch to mostly cw over phone. My main problem is that I can identify code to about 15+ wpm, but can only write to about 10. Good luck to all why love this dying art! Mike
i had give up on learning CW but my Elmer wont let me hihi so its arrl copy and i decode after he sends it to me via PM on Facebook ive been useing the CW OPS offline program so hopefully success
There's one common character that wasn't in your list of common abbreviations. You will often hear "e s" to mean "and". In Samuel FB Morse's original code, some characters had spaces within the character, and the ampersand was one such character. It sounded like "dit-dididit". That ampersand survived into the later American Morse (also called railroad code), and is still used by radio amateurs instead of the "official" International Morse "didahdididit". We use that character to mean, "wait".
I was under the impression it is the same thing. This is or From. W8BFT DE KH6OWL (From KH6OWL or This is KH6OWL).
Yep, the same meaning basically... I'd just never heard it phrased that way. Figured I'd just comment to clarify - again, a small clarification. And again, good luck and have fun!
"I was under the impression it is the same thing." You are correct. From what I see you're making great progress - hang in there!
Whichever way you prefer to think of it is fine--there isn't any test. I always thought of "de" as "from", because "de" is Spanish for "from", and I was learning Spanish in school at the time.
Mike: Good to hear you are putting your finger on the problem issue " writing / recording " the CW message. My current upper speed is above 15wpm, and all my DX is at 5wpm ...( Yes, Novice speed, for CLARITY in the noise.) I have greatest problem "reading in my head" and my best efforts placed (a) understanding the "context" of the message, (b) 'hearing" the last three call-sign characters. ... The "K" and "6" in your call just fall into place in my head. I offer these tips, which work well for me as I "write / record" the CW message: (0) "HEAR" the context of your message, and that will reduce the vocabulary that you may have to deal with ... and "fill in the blanks" later. (1) Try writing your received CW in script , stop using block capital letters. Leave a small gap between characters on the page if you need. I mix in a little Greg short-hand , like a long upward swoop for the "T" ( elimnates the crossing the "T" ). I use a short upward swoop for "i" ( forget the dotting the "i") . I use a short drop down for "k" ( kills two wiggles ). I use various short forms for "a", "n", "k", "w" in order to eliminate an extra wiggle. In the 1950's I could script out W1AW at 25wpm. (2) Also, I write call signs almost in reverse. ie, last three letters come first, then the Area number, and then the call prefix. I would write your call as "VGQ 6 K" . As the call sign goes by, all five characters, I try hardest to capture the last three letters. In summary : In the 50's, I was in the Norfolk, VA, Navy ham club, where the radio ops were "Reading" one minute messages and typing them out ... running speed was 65 wpm !!! As I understand it, these few chiefs had "talent" , "opportunity" on the Navy ships in the WWII Pacific, and they had the "motivation" that only comes when the captain sends down a message "Incoming Torpedoes" !!! So, I enjoy CW as a musical communication form, within my own personal abilities, and I hope you will enjoy the "Journey" also ... within your own personal abilities. Glen, K4KKQ / KK4LPG ( Look me up on QRZ and maybe check my website )
Hello, your only goal should be learning all the characters at the 20 wpm audio speed. That is each character copied at 20 wpm character speed. Once you are hearing all the characters at 20 wpm character speed you can begin to copy groups of characters at 20 wpm character with spacing between each character at 5 wpm copy speed. Keep practicing with extra practice on the character that you are having difficulty with. What method are you using to copy? Hear it and write it on paper (or type it on typewriter or computer with a wordprocessor)? For every character that miss just pencil in (or type in) a dash until you can pick up what is being sent. If you are still not hearing the CW, WALK AWAY. You are not helping by frustrating yourself. If you are very frustrated, you may need to stop practicing for a while. You can come back to it. Have you tried learning a foreign language? When you frustrate yourself, you don't learn. Don't push. It will come some day if you want to learn it. Terry - KB8AMZ, General, QRP/CW OP and CW instructor
