What Inspired You Or Lit Your Fire To Learn Morse Code?

Same here Rick; I couldn't get my ticket til No-Code testing came about. Thank goodness for that!
Been all CW now 7 yrs.

 

It was in the late 80’s when I started high school. I was scanning the hf frequencies on my shortwave radio and thought it would be neat to learn the skill. After a period of time (QST, May 1993 article), I got my Tech Plus in 1992. My motivation back then was that I hated having band limitations, so I learned to go up to 20+ wpm through QSO’s and doing NTS stuff and got my Extra in May 1993. It is still my most used mode.

 

QRP for SOTA/POTA

 

You broke thru the proverbial speed barrier!
Practice does make perfect...

 

W5LZ, and N8AFT---
Your preceding comments nailed it in my opinion.
That's why I enjoy this radio hobby. It is so NOT all that stuff you listed.
Thanks for the thoughts. I was beginning to think I was alone in the world.

 

I got licensed shortly after the code requirement was dropped, though the code requirement didn't stop me from getting licensed sooner. I always thought it'd be cool to know code. I actually started to learn it when I was just a shortwave listener, wondering which morse code beacon I was hearing. The more I learned about it, the more attractive it seemed. It's a skill you get to work on and develop over time, where persistence and discipline pay off. That was appealing to me. Then there was all the paraphernalia of morse code...just think about all of the straight keys, bugs, cooties, single and dual lever paddles. Plus, CW operation always has and always will go hand in hand with minimalist, QRP operation, which has an appeal all its own. On top of that, add the fact that I was interested in homebrewing. If you get into homebrewing, it's not a matter of if but of when you will build a CW transmitter.

The more I think about it, I wonder why it took me so LONG to get into code!

 

As it should be OM....

 

This video got me interested in CW. Simple set-up, low power. Maybe it was the dog.

 

There were lots of high school ham radio clubs in the '30s-'70s. I suspect there are still a few.

In Taylor, where I did not grow up but where I live now, they had a club sponsored by W5LHX, who was a teacher at Taylor High. I knew his name at one time but can no longer recall it. Many teenagers in Taylor became hams because of him. There is a Quonset Hut-style building that still stands in Taylor. It is used today by the Road and Bridge Department, but for many years had a storage space for the high school where LHX kept the spare parts he would dole out to kids so they could make regens and 6L6 transmitters and get on the air. It was known as the "Cave of Parts." When the City cleared all that out about twenty years ago I came into possession of some of the parts, and a copy of the 1950 Radio Amateur's Handbook that has "W5LHX" written on the spine.

I refer the part of the garage I keep those parts in as the "Lesser Cave of Parts."

 

The vy tiny library in Homer Ohio had a copy of the Handbook to loan out when I was an 11yr old.
The High School also had Handbook in their library. There was a club of Novice ops but I never got involved then.
One of the club members did however loan me his Heath novice rx for a weekend. Sure was fun to use and listen to.