Stick with it Brother, i learnt CW when i was 15 years old, some 42 years ago and i am still in love with this mode ! I like your homemade 'sideswiper' style key ...... Good luck on becoming a 'code' warrior and Best 73 from France.
Thanks for the tip on the key. Im looking for my first key and this might be it. Im using a couple apps on my phone and an old gordon west cd to learn cw. After a while the m's and i's sound like a's and n's for me.
My R's, S's and U's I have the hardest time with so far.. But I'm sure with time I'll get it.. But yea I was super surprised how good that key looks and is put together. Like I say I can't compare with those high dollar ones but for me starting out it's a great compromise.and I looked at cheaper ones too. That one looked sturdier than those.. looks cool on my desk and it functions. Lol
Very nice. You are doing it the correct way by listening to the sound that each character makes. As you noticed, you can tell immediately when error is made in your call. Shortly you'll be copying in your head. My advice is to stay away from printed morse code. Morse is for the ears not the eyes. Enjoy your journey.. Fernando N2FQ/6
Thanks. Yea I found that out about printed right from the start.. I play music by ear so the music of cw is setting quicker for me that way. As soon as I added paper I immediately went into trying to count dits and dahs in my head.. I can see also when I add a bunch of new characters in the listening.. I may not recognize a bunch of it together right off, but will immediately recognize a familiar tone/character. even if I'm slow to say it's a L or P or a S or H for example. I'll get there. Only been right over at a week even though it feels longer lol
Putikeeg is geek-it-uP in reverse! I have the same key. Differt color. Get you a set of feeler guages to help you with your adjustment. Best bang for the buck. I put a block of steel under mine too! Great quality for the $. 73 de KF4LBG Larry in North Florida 😊
I've definitely been trying to find a good way to do that. I realized I was trying to push myself and taking on too many letters before getting the others really really good, thinking of I'll eventually pick them out.. So I've went back a little to regroup.
When you get good enough, fast enough you will stop hearing individual characters and develop a library of whole words that you recognize just like hearing someone speak.
That's what I'm hoping for.. I had a really good day yesterday after spending some time with the key.. I went over all the letters I know trying to find my rhythm practicing my call sign, name and add if I was listening to my random koch app.. Then later I went to my listening sessions and was picking the letters out much faster in my head... Listening to cw on the rig last night though (arrl practice code) it was really hard to distinguish anything but a lot of unfamiliar letters and numbers.. But one day I'll get there. One day.
One draw back i see that may however hinder me, is I have to insert spacing between characters or my brain just won't keep up or decode them quick enough. I'll be 3 or 4 letters behind.. But I plan on shortening that distance gradually as I go and learn more characters
I had that key... I didn't like that the paddles were spaced too far apart... There's another key of almost exactly the same design and price, the the paddles are closer together. Makes it easier on the hands.
good luck my brother with the CW
73
Stick with it Brother, i learnt CW when i was 15 years old, some 42 years ago and i am still in love with this mode !
I like your homemade 'sideswiper' style key ......
Good luck on becoming a 'code' warrior and Best 73 from France.
Thanks.. Love all the encouragement I'm getting
Thanks for the tip on the key. Im looking for my first key and this might be it. Im using a couple apps on my phone and an old gordon west cd to learn cw. After a while the m's and i's sound like a's and n's for me.
My R's, S's and U's I have the hardest time with so far.. But I'm sure with time I'll get it.. But yea I was super surprised how good that key looks and is put together. Like I say I can't compare with those high dollar ones but for me starting out it's a great compromise.and I looked at cheaper ones too. That one looked sturdier than those.. looks cool on my desk and it functions. Lol
Very nice. You are doing it the correct way by listening to the sound that each character makes. As you noticed, you can tell immediately when error is made in your call. Shortly you'll be copying in your head. My advice is to stay away from printed morse code. Morse is for the ears not the eyes. Enjoy your journey.. Fernando N2FQ/6
Thanks. Yea I found that out about printed right from the start.. I play music by ear so the music of cw is setting quicker for me that way. As soon as I added paper I immediately went into trying to count dits and dahs in my head.. I can see also when I add a bunch of new characters in the listening.. I may not recognize a bunch of it together right off, but will immediately recognize a familiar tone/character. even if I'm slow to say it's a L or P or a S or H for example. I'll get there. Only been right over at a week even though it feels longer lol
You should get a metal sign or poster that has the morse code decrypted, anything around 5-15 words a minute is able to have good communication
Putikeeg is geek-it-uP in reverse! I have the same key. Differt color. Get you a set of feeler guages to help you with your adjustment. Best bang for the buck.
I put a block of steel under mine too! Great quality for the $.
73 de KF4LBG
Larry in North Florida 😊
Pick up a roll of shelf liner from dollar tree. It looks like a mesh screen. It will help with the key from sliding around.
Thanks.. I fixed it tonight.. Glued a thin layer of rubber from an old mouse pad to the bottom of that chunk of steel.. It stays put pretty good now
Just stay with it. Even if you only work on it for five minutes a day. The secret to learning CW is to be consistent every day.
I've definitely been trying to find a good way to do that. I realized I was trying to push myself and taking on too many letters before getting the others really really good, thinking of I'll eventually pick them out.. So I've went back a little to regroup.
When you get good enough, fast enough you will stop hearing individual characters and develop a library of whole words that you recognize just like hearing someone speak.
That's what I'm hoping for.. I had a really good day yesterday after spending some time with the key.. I went over all the letters I know trying to find my rhythm practicing my call sign, name and add if I was listening to my random koch app.. Then later I went to my listening sessions and was picking the letters out much faster in my head... Listening to cw on the rig last night though (arrl practice code) it was really hard to distinguish anything but a lot of unfamiliar letters and numbers.. But one day I'll get there. One day.
One draw back i see that may however hinder me, is I have to insert spacing between characters or my brain just won't keep up or decode them quick enough. I'll be 3 or 4 letters behind.. But I plan on shortening that distance gradually as I go and learn more characters
"I get to here and then I fall back to here"
I have this paddle. It is a $200 paddle for $80. The build quality is superb.
For my first key im pretty impressed. I was thinking to get a really good one I'd have to spend way more..
I had that key... I didn't like that the paddles were spaced too far apart... There's another key of almost exactly the same design and price, the the paddles are closer together. Makes it easier on the hands.
Being new to them I haven't even thought about the width of the paddles.. But got me wondering nite