Is there a healthy number of new cw ops?

[M0LEP]

I have tried every wrong way to learn morse, and I think no one learns Morse code longer than me and with no success  

I think I could give you a run for your money there; well over two years this time round, not counting previous failed attempts. One day (soon, hopefully) I'll get there...

[2E0OZI]

Congratulations James on your first CW QSO - it sounds exactly like my first one!  Stick to it it gets a little easier, though I only have 50 or so.

[N2IW]

James, your English is fine. I read your biography on that other ham site. You are doing everything right. Anybody can download ham Radio Deluxe, but to make the investment that you have made in this hobby will bring a lifetime of joy. You're another shining example of the high quality people drawn to telegraphy. Welcome to America and welcome to cw.
             Very best of 73 de Tom, AB9NZ

Thanks for the encouragement Tom, I really appreciate it !

[N2IW]

Congratulations James on your first CW QSO - it sounds exactly like my first one!  Stick to it it gets a little easier, though I only have 50 or so.

I got my second QSO on 40 meters tonight, it was with a mexico Ham and it even counts for IOTA too, what a thrill!  Although it was another "5nn tu" kind of QSO. My next goal would be a "full size" CW QSO! 

[N2IW]

I have tried every wrong way to learn morse, and I think no one learns Morse code longer than me and with no success  

I think I could give you a run for your money there; well over two years this time round, not counting previous failed attempts. One day (soon, hopefully) I'll get there...

Hi Rick, I have memorized the code table (with dot and dash on it) when I was in high school , and I'm 36 now, you do the math!

I read you posts in this thread a few month ago
http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php/topic,82014.90.html

Here's some advise from my not so good experience:

1. At first use a pen or pencil to copy, don't use a computer keyboard until you can copy with pen. maybe this is the second biggest mistake I've ever made in learning Morse Code(First biggest mistake was memorize the code table). Copy with pen will help you connect the code pattern with the letter it self not the key on the keyboard, and it help copy in head too!

2.Practice at lease 30 minutes a day, overlearn is the only way to learn Morse Code! Copy Copy Copy! Wide separated three 10 minutes sessions are better than a 30 minutes session.

3. Don't waste too much time trying to evaluate and get a score! Just copy as much as you can , you will know if your copy is good enough. You can evaluate a two minute session each day if you want to.

4. Try to copy with some noise, I found that I can copy better from my radio than from my computer generated pure code, and better result  in Morse runner than Just Learn Morse(without noise).

5. If you have learned all the characters and numbers and ", . / ?", you may want to copy words, random characters is not so useful for a Ham operator, you can start with 100 most used English words, most software have those.

6.But I believe there is a problem with just copying words, there are some characters that are not used so much, such as "J Z X", so I use Morse Runner, it's a CQ WPX contest emulator , you copy real life call signs(call sign database can be updated) and serial numbers, that I think solve the rare used character problem, and it is so much fun! I use "Single call" mode, you can use "Pile up" or "WPX" mode to practice pile up handling and contest technics     

Most of all, hang in there, practice and have fun!

James

[M0LEP]

Hi Rick, I have memorized the code table (with dot and dash on it) when I was in high school , and I'm 36 now, you do the math!

Oh, I tried to do that over 40 years ago, but, thankfully, never managed to remember it all...

...and I made all those mistakes too.

There's no point in trying to take copy using anything you can't use completely automatically. A good touch-typist could take copy with a keyboard usefully, but mugs like me who type with only a few fingers and need to see the keyboard to do so are far better off with pencil and paper.

I'm not a fan of the Koch "add another character" progression, as it seems designed to help the student grind to a halt, and random groups are unhelpful once punctuation gets mixed in with the set of characters being used.

Callsign traning is more useful than word training, though there's some benefit in training on the common abbreviations encountered in QSOs. QSO files probably make the best off-air training material.

The crystal clear beeps that come out of many Morse training programs are just plain painful. Adding noise is a good idea. However, if you can find suitable activity, listening to real CW traffic beats the lot. Catch, over here, is that most of the traffic is 20wpm or faster, so there's seldom any suitable activity...