Morse Code

Morse Code has traditionally been the most daunting part of a license or upgrade. It is also what Tim is working on now. It won't go as fast as the Technician did, though. Although recovering from that back surgery is still slow, I am up and about more than before.

Morse may seem to be outmoded--and if you read around, you'll find a lot of people who think it's an unnecessary relic. But it remains the one mode that will get through if anything can. It's also easy on bandwidth, and, for those of us who face numerous restrictions on what we can do where we live, it works well at low power.

After deciding to pursue a license upgrade, I began looking around on the internet and talking to people at the local club and elsewhere. This left me just about drowning in advice. A little analysis (an impressive-sounding academic word that means "thinking about it all") gave me a sense of direction. I then raided the internet for a bit of reading on the subject, and, after trying several programs, settled on two.

The best book I've found on the subject is The Art and Skill of Radio-Telegraphy by William Pierpont, N0HFF, now a silent key. You can download it as an Adobe PDF file here. If you'd like to display it on a shelf, or read it in the bathroom or some other place where your computer doesn't reach, you can also order a print copy. This is a superb work, covering history, theory, and practical learning. I can't recommend it highly enough--and as my students know, that's a rare statement.

I also settled on two free programs that play Morse through the computer's sound system. I use them together to learn and practice. I have nothing against tape or CD sets, but they weren't as convenient for my habits. There are some DOS programs out there, and the ones I tried seemed to work well, except that newer versions of Windows are increasingly cranky about working with them, so I they didn't last. While I often wish I had a Mac so I could perform basic tasks like shutting the computer down, I don't, so I can't comment on those. Both of these programs use variations of a method advocated by Pierpont.

The Koch Trainer from G4FON is named for a German psychologist who developed this training method in the 1930's. The basic idea is to learn at full speed, starting with two letters, and adding more as you go. The download page includes a supplemental program called Koch RX that lets you enter the exercises on a keyboard, and then checks them. This sounds great, but I've found using Koch RX to be a hindrance, as I won't be using a keyboard to take the exam (see below).

Morse Cat from DK5CI is interesting if nothing else for the cat that operates the key. This program will play a given letter for you, so you can learn how it sounds. I use this program to learn a new character, and then switch to Koch to drill. Characters are presented in groups of five (three letters, a number, and a prosign; not all need be used in any one group). The default order is not the same as Koch. If you click on the "character set" tab and choose "edit lessons" you can rearrange the lessons (be sure to click "save and exit" when you're done). It also presents some prosigns that aren't needed (at least in the USA)--so check the list against what you need to learn. This also works around another problem: the program presents some two-letter prosigns in the first lesson, which leads to confusion, since you haven't yet learned the letters if you follow the default lesson.

Suggestions at this point, based on general principles of learning and taking exams:

• You aren't learning a new language, you're learning a different way of hearing it. If you look at a chart of code characters, practice hearing them as you do (if you have some musical background, this will come more easily). Learn the sound as a unit, so writing the character becomes reflexive. Thinking in terms of dots and dashes will cause problems.
• Learn at a little more than the test speed. This will give you some extra confidence at the exam. You'll have to be careful to pay close attention at the exam, though--it will be easier to let your mind wander when it's not working as fast.
• Computers are great for learning, but most people do better on an exam when the study situation mirrors the test conditions. So don't just enter the results with a keyboard or in your head--use a pencil (or pen) and write it on paper.
• West advocates, in his books and cassette tapes, learning the characters in an order based on frequency of use--thus . (e), - (t), -- (m) and so on. Koch uses a pattern that starts by learning -.- (k) against -- (m) and .-. (r) and building on that. There's logic to both, but I have found Koch's pattern more useful. You learn immediately to distinguish larger patterns, which makes the rest of it easier.
• Some people learn better when they practice sending as well as hearing. If this is the case, get a practice key and use it (I haven't found anything that will use the computer as a practice key yet).

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