Zen and the Art of Radiotelegraphy

[LB3KB]

Hello All,

As one in the later stages of the learning process ( painful QSOs) I wanted mention one thing that made a difference for me.
I used the Koch trainer and also "Just learn morse code" programs. Both do what they are supposed to do; teach the letters and numbers at a reasonab;e medium wpm rate.
However I feel that I lost some ground trying to master coping using these.
If I had to do it over again I would have went to W1AW code practice and listening to live QSOs as soon as I could do a reasonable job of recognizing the "sounds" as letters.
Listening to actual content is more fun and challenging than random letters. Once i made the transition, i was attempting my own QSOs a month later. The ability to copy seemed to improve dramatically for me.

That was my experience, you mileage may vary...

Once again, you imply that Just Learn Morse Code only offers random letter groups.  This is what I responded with the last time I noticed such a claim from you:

I'm not following you.  Just Learn Morse Code has many options for generating random words, abbreviations and also anything you could manage to put on a separate line in a text file.

There are options for having it send random lines of text, or a whole book if you want to.

You can paste text copied from any other program and have Morse code generated for it without having it in a file.

There are options for "recording" any and all of this to audio files, and you can have a transcript generated as a text file if you want to.

This is a lot more versatile than anything you can get from somebody else's static file collection.  You can adjust any of a number of settings to suit your preferences.


There is also a help file included, that briefly explains how to use most of the options.  Select Contents in the Help menu to see it.


73
LB3KB Sigurd
justlearnmorsecode.com

[K8AXW]

After 57 years of ham radio, using mostly CW, there is one question that I cannot answer with any degree of confidence.

That is, "Which is better? Learning to copy clear text (words) or random letters/numbers."

I started out in the military where I learned to copy code groups or meaningless groups of letters and or numbers.  When this type of copy is performed, it is easy to "zone out" and simply react to a sound.

When I got into ham radio and started copying clear text I had a terrible time because I found myself visualizing words in my head that quite often were wrong and it would cause me to lose focus.

I'm inclined to say that it would be best to learn clear text vs. random letters/numbers because then it wouldn't be necessary to relearn or unlearn a process as it is when using some 'code learning enhancement' like Koch or Farnsworth.

[AC2EU]

Hello All,

As one in the later stages of the learning process ( painful QSOs) I wanted mention one thing that made a difference for me.
I used the Koch trainer and also "Just learn morse code" programs. Both do what they are supposed to do; teach the letters and numbers at a reasonab;e medium wpm rate.
However I feel that I lost some ground trying to master coping using these.
If I had to do it over again I would have went to W1AW code practice and listening to live QSOs as soon as I could do a reasonable job of recognizing the "sounds" as letters.
Listening to actual content is more fun and challenging than random letters. Once i made the transition, i was attempting my own QSOs a month later. The ability to copy seemed to improve dramatically for me.

That was my experience, you mileage may vary...

Once again, you imply that Just Learn Morse Code only offers random letter groups.  This is what I responded with the last time I noticed such a claim from you:

I'm not following you.  Just Learn Morse Code has many options for generating random words, abbreviations and also anything you could manage to put on a separate line in a text file.

There are options for having it send random lines of text, or a whole book if you want to.

You can paste text copied from any other program and have Morse code generated for it without having it in a file.

There are options for "recording" any and all of this to audio files, and you can have a transcript generated as a text file if you want to.

This is a lot more versatile than anything you can get from somebody else's static file collection.  You can adjust any of a number of settings to suit your preferences.


There is also a help file included, that briefly explains how to use most of the options.  Select Contents in the Help menu to see it.


73
LB3KB Sigurd
justlearnmorsecode.com

Sigurd,

I think that "just learn morse code" is a fine program. It taught me the basics- and quickly too.
Thank you for putting it out there for all to use! 

I wasn't speaking of your program specifically, but musing about the benefits of copying live QSOs vs random letter groups or even machine generated code texts that "JLMC" or W1AW provide. People are not perfect CW senders, so the sooner one can hear the code in all of it's variants, the better.
If you can't find a QSO at a reasonable speed that you can handle, then yes, "JLMC" and W1AW machine text are fantastic alternatives!
I hope that makes the point clearer.

Sorry if I offended you. Keep up the good work!

[LB3KB]

Don't worry, I'm not offended.  I am pointing out that Just Learn Morse Code offers a lot more than random letter groups and a lot more than a static file library, in response to messages that imply the opposite.


I agree that copying real QSOs is a good way to get used to copying real QSOs, and it gives you real experience with real conditions.


73
LB3KB Sigurd
justlearnmorsecode.com