How Did You learn the Code ??

[n2ize]

I learned the code at an early age by sending. At a rather young age I could tap out code very fast, but I couldn't copy code to save my life. Often while listening to people talking I would tap out what they were saying in code.

It wasn;t until I was an adult...In my 20's, that I FINALLY learned to copy code. I'm still not the greatest at copy, although I have been good at times up to 15-20 wpm. But my sending has been excellent. When i first got on the air many of the old timers (some ex-navy ship radio operators) all remarked that I had a very good fist. Of course when they would start talking to each other in supersonic code speeds I was lost. :-D

[KG4CGC]

I learned code 3 times, never tested on it, forgot it everytime.
How? I wrote it out on paper and emails. I see characters. If I was a musician, it would have been a no brainer but I never trained my hearing like that.
Had people tell me you can't learn it that way. I did. You can forget just as easily what ever manner you learn.
I'm visual. What's your excuse?
Hello,

[NQ6U]

I haven't yet--I'm a no-code general. I want to learn, though, because watching a friend with a novice ticket working a CW QSO back in 1967 or so was what got me interested in ham radio in the first place. Code is cool.

[kf0rt]

I learned it at age 13 to pass the novice test (5 WPM in 1969). Instructor was a guy named Darrel who worked at a TV repair shop -- he smoked like a house afire and had a Swan Cygnet set up at the shop. Could almost swear that his callsign was WØMGQ, but I've got callbooks for 1969 and 1974 and that call isn't listed in either.

Darrel said the best way to learn was to send. Get your code practice oscillator and send the front page of The Denver Post every night, you'll come up to speed fast and the receiving part will just happen. He was right. This was before keyers were real common, so it was all done with a straight key.

Got licensed and with no moolah for voice gear, a number of us teenage ops got pretty good with CW. We had a nightly CW "net" for some time on 15 meters and everyone was set up for full break-in -- it was a hoot. At my best back then, I was probably fluent at 25 WPM or maybe a little more. In fact, when I took the Advanced test the first time (failed the written), I copied the extra 20 WPM code test 100%, and it was easy. Was 17 then (1973) and when I retook (and passed) the Advanced a few months later, the 13 WPM test was a slam-dunk. Loved that stuff.

Today... not so good. I think I can still copy 13-15 WPM after decades of non-use and no practice. In contests today, where folks are running 25-30 WPM, I can usually get the exchange in three tries. Ran a bunch of CW during Field Day a couple of years ago and it worked out okay, but CW is really something that requires practice to maintain proficiency and speed. Believe me... if you work KFØRT in a CW test, I had your part of the exchange before I ever called. It'd be bad practice to waste your time with my lack of skill.

Might be fun to get back into CW, and I'm pretty sure the speed and proficiency would come back with use. But Darrel was right... The talent comes from using it. I'm pretty stunned that I can still copy it at all.

[n2ize]

I learned code 3 times, never tested on it, forgot it everytime.
How? I wrote it out on paper and emails. I see characters. If I was a musician, it would have been a no brainer but I never trained my hearing like that.
Had people tell me you can't learn it that way. I did. You can forget just as easily what ever manner you learn.
I'm visual. What's your excuse?
Hello,

No excuse here. .

[KG4CGC]

No excuse here. .
I'll wager that you're visual as well.

[W4RLR]

Still learning. Right now it is on the back burner while I study for Extra, which has also been on the back burner while I tended to long neglected honey-do projects.

[NQ6U]

Still learning. Right now it is on the back burner while I study for Extra, which has also been on the back burner while I tended to long neglected honey-do projects.

Boy, does that ever sound familiar...

[KJ3N]

Never really "learned" it. Passed 5 WPM and threw the key out the window. Haven't touched it in over 18 years. Might try and learn it right before I die. :hand:

[W3WN]

LSDP.

Livingston (NJ) Student Development Program. A set of weekend classes that various groups gave to teenage and pre-teen kids who wanted to learn something. A group of hams from the long-gone Livingston ARC W2MO gave a Novice class for 10 weeks. I was already an avid SWL and just getting interested in ham radio, so this was almost a no-brainer.

I was in Scouts at the same time, and I was in a group working on our First Class badge. When it came time for the communications part, everyone else did (and then immediately forgot) semaphore. Of course, I picked Morse. I was told that I was the first member of the troop to pick that in years, so after I passed, they retired the J-37 straight key and gave it to me. I still have it.

I remember building a one tube, 3 Watt, 40 meter "peanut whistle" transmitter based on an article in an old CQ magazine, using a 117N7GT tube. Actually worked. Only my younger brother insisted that he had to "play" with the electronics as well, so my mother let him rewire the thing one day when I was at a club meeting. Next time I went to plug it in, sparks everywhere & we blew a fuse (OK, circuit breaker), and that was the end of that.

[w2amr]

I signed up for a 9 week novice course back in 87. They gave us a couple of characters to learn each week, then gave us the 5 WPM code test at the end. Passed the 13 WPM test the following year and got my general.

[N2CHX]

I started learning it when I was about 10. First on paper and then with code practice tapes and sending with a code key. Like everyone else, I send better than I copy. My first two years as a ham I did nothing but CW on 40. I think I peaked at about 18 WPM. I will only use a straight key, I don't like paddles or anything but a straight key.

[N8YX]

Via this:

http://www.freeinfostuff.com/DX160/dx-160.jpg


With one of these connected to it:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/filters/2082lrg.jpg


But not an MFJ. Mine was homebrew.

Slicing and dicing 40M CW signals in the late 70s - with usage conditions what they were, along with a drifty BFO, drifty main tuning and barn-door-wide IF selectivity - was not the stuff for those who are easily frustrated. But a good audio filter was a remedy, as was a steady hand on the band spread tuning dial. Managed to ace the General/Advanced code test with perfect copy and at the time should have gone for Extra. But that's another story.

I repeated this feat in the late 80s to boost my code speed to 20+ WPM for the Extra exam. Rig was a TS-820S and it was much better as a learning platform. I spent a considerable amount of time using the rig for CW QSOs, most of them on 20M and up - and the majority of them DX.

Last night I had the '751/R71 pair tuned to the low ends of 80 and 40, respectively. 500hz filters engaged on both...DX stations and their callers in each receiver's passband. I left them on as background music of sorts. I could pick out enough characters at 40+ WPM to keep up with what was going on, and I haven't actually operated CW in a number of years. Maybe I'll have to make use of that neat Icom internal keyer... :chin:

[kb2crk]

i learned by sending and receiving from a set of old 45's. it took my 5 years to get up to 5 wpm and i took my novice in jan of 87. passed the tech gen written in march of the same year but did not use code much. got married in 90 and was out of the hobby from about 91 to 94. when i got back in i started working on the 13wpm and never did get past 12. dropped out of the hobby again in 98 (due to having to sell the equipment to pay bills) and did not do much until the general requirement was dropped to 5 wpm. i have not used code since,

[N7YA]

I learned by tuning the coastal stations and cruising their traffic bands as a kid. I logged lots of weird goodies on the bands back then. Took the test for 5wpm in the last year of FCC testing, got my tech and got on the air on CW right away. I passed the 20wpm the following year at the very first VE exam in the nation, but not the general written. Kind of embarassing, really. But i flew to Fairbanks and took the general there in the states 2nd test and passed the written. Didnt take another til '98 when i upgraded from gen to advanced, then to extra in 45 minutes.


I betcha i couldnt do THAT twice! :lol:

[KC2UGV]

I learned CW by connecting my rig to my computer, and letting it do the decoding... Nobody has noticed so far, and likely nobody would have, had I not said anything here :)

[w2amr]

I learned CW by connecting my rig to my computer, and letting it do the decoding... Nobody has noticed so far, and likely nobody would have, had I not said anything here :)BOOOOO.

[kb2crk]

I learned CW by connecting my rig to my computer, and letting it do the decoding... Nobody has noticed so far, and likely nobody would have, had I not said anything here :)

if i could remember how to send i would probably do the same now....

[KC2UGV]

if i could remember how to send i would probably do the same now....

The PC does that too :)

[n2ize]

I learned CW by connecting my rig to my computer, and letting it do the decoding... Nobody has noticed so far, and likely nobody would have, had I not said anything here :)

I learned by letting my rather primitive 1980's computer translate text into code. It was the only path to a license then. 13 wpm for general or bust

[n2ize]

I signed up for a 9 week novice course back in 87. They gave us a couple of characters to learn each week, then gave us the 5 WPM code test at the end. Passed the 13 WPM test the following year and got my general.

WaY 2 go George

[n3aiu]

I learned it by myself to get to a 13 wpm general. I then started handling traffic on CW nets (EPA and PTTN) to improve my speed for my 20 wpm extra and 2nd class radiotelegraph. I got to the point where I could write down 25 wpm and read in my head up to 35 wpm on a good day.

[kd8dey]

I got about 3/4 of the way through the code using a mfj code trainer before they dropped the requirement.....

[w2amr]

WaY 2 go GeorgeStrange, I was stuck at about 8 wpm listening to tapes. So I began making several CW contacts on 40 or 80 every morning . Before I knew it my speed was up to 13 or so.

[n2ize]

Strange, I was stuck at about 8 wpm listening to tapes. So I began making several CW contacts on 40 or 80 every morning . Before I knew it my speed was up to 13 or so.

Believe it or not I wrote a computer program on my old Atari 800 to teach me the code. You could set the pitch, the speed, the spacing. You could also have it send certain specified characters, a range of characters, or random characters generated by the program itself. You could also type in characters, words, sentences, etc. and it would send them in code. As an added bonus it would also open a text file and send it as code. I would occasionally have a friend enter a text message, save it to a file and later on I would have the program read it and send it as code,

Part of the fun was writing the program. The other part was actually using it to teach me code. Of course I also used the more conventional methods... like using tapes, W1AW or, listening to hams sending CW on the air.

[kf0rt]

Believe it or not I wrote a computer program on my old Atari 800 to teach me the code. You could set the pitch, the speed, the spacing. You could also have it send certain specified characters, a range of characters, or random characters generated by the program itself. You could also type in characters, words, sentences, etc. and it would send them in code. As an added bonus it would also open a text file and send it as code. I would occasionally have a friend enter a text message, save it to a file and later on I would have the program read it and send it as code,

Part of the fun was writing the program. The other part was actually using it to teach me code. Of course I also used the more conventional methods... like using tapes, W1AW or, listening to hams sending CW on the air.

I wrote a program, too, but it was after I already knew the code. Some of the OF computer guys here might remember a company called Instant Software. I want to say this was Wayne Green's company (CQ Mag fame?), but my memory is a little sketchy on that. You wrote the program, they'd review it and if it passed muster, they'd market it and give you a cut. Early version of the App Store! Submitted the program to them and some months later heard back from them. They liked it, but wanted it to teach the Farnsworth method. So, I spent a weekend adding a Farnsworth mode and sent the revised version back to them. Two months later, Instant Software was out of business -- never heard back. That was 1979 or so. Apple ][ and Integer Basic.

Today, I have no idea what the screen even looked like.

[NQ6U]

Hey, John--how did you handle the timing issues on the Atari 800? I used to have one too; it was a lot of fun to code for but I found that I could never get the duration of audio notes to stay constant. The thing was so underpowered by today's standards that the timing would change depending on the load on the processor.

[N9FE]

Six months, an hour a day. I filled up three full size notebooks. Still can't send on nothing but a straight key.

[kb2crk]

The PC does that too :)


but what would i do with my heatkit keyer paddles.....lol

[W2NAP]

played around on 2 meter with CW on the ol TS-790A i had. I got up to maybe the 10WPM range. then times got hard and i had to start putting everything up for sale. been years now since ive had anything worth while.

[n2ize]

Hey, John--how did you handle the timing issues on the Atari 800? I used to have one too; it was a lot of fun to code for but I found that I could never get the duration of audio notes to stay constant. The thing was so underpowered by today's standards that the timing would change depending on the load on the processor.

Hmmm... I don't remember doing anything specific to address timing. Matter of fact I didn't notice any discernible changes in timing when the program was running. At least none that I could remember. It was so long ago that I did this. I stopped using the Atari before I got the program fully perfected. Maybe I'll write another one, in Lisp or Assembly, Perl, or C.

Yeah, I know I could download one. But it would be good to write one because it will help keep some of my programming skills alive. I haven;t been programming much at all these days.

[W3WN]

Strange, I was stuck at about 8 wpm listening to tapes. So I began making several CW contacts on 40 or 80 every morning . Before I knew it my speed was up to 13 or so.

The best way to increase your speed is to start making contacts. As you become more accustomed to working people, your speed will increase without conscious effort.

[w2amr]

The best way to increase your speed is to start making contacts. As you become more accustomed to working people, your speed will increase without conscious effort.That's pretty much how it was.

[K7SGJ]

When I was a kid, a new guy in my class, had just moved in across the street. He had been a ham awhile and he is the one who got me interested. To learn the code, I tried to memorize a new letter every night while trying to go to sleep. I'd also review all the ones I had learned so far, and just kept going through the alphbet faster and faster. Then to practice sending and receiving, we each had an old Navy key with a 60W lamp in our bedroom windows. Of course we keyed the lamp with 110vac. Got pretty good at the visual, but also listened to a lot of cw on my RME-84 to learn the sound of it. The RME was a dog, but it was dirt cheap, and all a 13 or 14 yo kid could afford.

[W5GA]

I learned in Scouts when I was 11. I used to translate street signs, highway signs, license plates and so on to get it cemented in my head. Anymore, I dust off my mic once a year or so, just to make sure it still works.

For those that are wanting to improve, get into the CW contests and copy people that are sending a tad faster than you are comfortable with. You'll be amazed at your improvement over a weekend.

[mw0uzo]

Learning here too, its a long and torturous process for me. Slowly getting better, can head copy at low speeds, faster with paper. Got a CW only rig (wilderness radio) to keep me going. Not really used it in anger yet though.

[N7YA]

If you want to use it in anger, hook up the microphone. :lol:

[NQ6U]

For those that are wanting to improve, get into the CW contests and copy people that are sending a tad faster than you are comfortable with.

I tried that but I couldn't find anyone sending at 20 WPM--words per month.

[W7XF]

Well.... I do know code for the most part...8-10 wpm is my comfort level... but with my little problem, I totally froze up at VE sessions... in fact, before the code was dropped altogether, I had passed the General theory exam 4 times, but bombed the code every time. Guess I'm more into the technical aspects than code.
I do prefer iambics over straight keys, though.

[WØTKX]

I learned it in the Scouts as well, along with semaphore... used that right angle flashlight. But I learned it "wrong" in the alphabet order, visually.

When I got my novice I noticed the visual "look table" in my head crippled me to maybe 7-8 wpm. My best Elmer was a CW whiz, and taught me the Signal Corps "speed printing" method. I also used the typewriter. I never really got much faster than 18 wpm or so, 100% h.ard copy. I was a QRP enthusiast back then as well, because I could go camping... with my first Ten Tec, the PM-2a

I did use a bug, but relied more on an old J-38. I used to get compliments on my sending... maybe because I played music as well back then? :dunno:

Years later, after the 26 year hiatus from ham radio, i discovered that 10 wpm or so was easy, I never really forgot it. Started playing with paddles and a keyer, and still can use a straight key. And I started listening at higher speeds. I also taught a code class on the local repeater which really helped. Never did the Farnsworth method until I started teaching... wow did THAT make a difference for my students and my skills. I can jump right in at about 17-20 wpm now because I re-learned it the "right way". The visual look up table is gone.

Just before the test went away, 7 of my "students" passed the 5 wpm. I was thrilled. One of them is a 40+ wpm contester now.

I have SKCC 1068 but I don't use CW very often in QSO. I do listen quite a bit. When I do use it, I prefer a mellow ragchew, and since the accident I play with the straight key more than the paddles. Used a bug as a kid, but I have a terrible swing now... so I stick with the paddles or the straight key.

But I really prefer voice ragchews to anything... even digital modes are not as much fun as cutting it up with a big group and laughing.

It's just seems like more of a personable conversation to me. Wouldn't turn down an Islander CW sched tho.

[n2ize]

I used a 2 finger strap on key against a solid conductor. I made it myself. I would drum out the code with my index and forefinger.

[NQ6U]

I used a 2 finger strap on key against a solid conductor. I made it myself. I would drum out the code with my index and forefinger.

A strap on??

Oh, a you mean a key. Whew, had me worried there for a minute, John...