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.

[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.

[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.