The Art and Skill of Radio Telegraphy   =

A Manual For Learning   Using   Mastering And Enjoying The International Morse Code As A Means Of Communication  =

     Copyright  2002 William G   Pierpont   N0HFF  =

     This file only provides some parts of the original book =
     
     This file has been considerably edited   e  g   replacement of most of the punctuation marks by appropriate numbers of spaces = 
     
     It has been edited first by Chuck   Broadwell   W5UXH in 2016 and then by Thomas   MARTIN   DF7TV in 2025    to achieve a smooth flow of Morse Code audio if converted from TXT format to Morse Code AUDIO format =     
     
Is the Radiotelegraph Code Obsolete  ?      

Outsiders and some of those looking into Amateur Radio often ask this question Isnt the Morse code obsolete  ?      Hasnt modern technology displaced it  ?      Back in 1912 nobody balked at learning the code it was simple then  if you didnt know the code you couldnt even listen and understand   much less communicate   by wireless    But today it refuses to lie down and die    Why  ?    Not only old timers   but many newcomers have found that it is a skill worth learning   a pleasure just as any other skill    There is a real sense of pleasure and achievement in communicating this way    Some find it an excellent means of escape   a way to forget immediate workaday problems and completely absorb ones attention      There is practical value also    It can get a message though where other methods fail    Operators have long known that Morse code signals penetrate distance   and go through interference and static where voice signals cant hack it    This is why low power QRP enthusiasts find that it is far superior to voice    Besides this   the equipment required   both transmitting and receiving   is much simpler and smaller   uses less power   and in an emergency can often be built up from simple   available parts      These factors did not escape the Russian communists    They were also deeply impressed with the reliability   simplicity and lower cost of equipment for code communication and ease in maintaining it    In the same line of thinking   their military radio gear has all been vacuum tube type to avoid potential damage due to radiation    Therefore   through the years they have popularized and promoted learning the Morse code and developing skill in its use    It was included among their civilian sports activities    Contests and prizes were offered to the best and fastest operators    This would assure them of a pool of skilled   high speed operators in event of war    Several years ago a couple of American soldiers who were amateurs were taken captive from a ship which was too close to North Korean shores    They were surprised to find that very many civilians in that country readily understood code      In recent years our own military seem to have awakened to all this   and have again started to train some personnel for Morse code operation    In addition   they have realized that Morse is an effective means of communicating during periods when the enemy is jamming    There are other advantages also    It uses the next to narrowest signal bandwidth PSK31 uses less but requires a computer    which for amateur use means more channels are available within a band    It has  much superior signal to noise ratio   and in addition   an operator can soon learn to separate mentally filter signals   which are very close together by differences in pitch   speed and style of sending     


Learning the Morse code An Overview  Where are we are going  ?      

If you are looking for any magic   any secrets   any tricks here  or hypnotism  you wont find it    What we do offer is just practical   time tested working methods   which together take advantage of all that has been learned over the years about how to teach and learn the Morse code efficiently and well      George Hart   long time code expert with ARRL   put it this way The greatest obstacle in learning code is the method used      Ted R    McElroy   teacher and long time code speed champion   said that any normal person can easily achieve 25 wpm    This is an easily achievable and reasonable goal    One who can handle this speed comfortably is a good operator      The original American Morse code of 1845 was designed to communicate to transmit over the telegraph wires any and every kind of written message or information in letter perfect   number perfect   and punctuation perfect form    It was recorded as a wiggly line on a strip of paper tape to be read or interpreted by eye    Very soon the operators discovered that they could read the recorders noises accurately by ear   and so in time sounders slowly began to replace the recorders      Not very long after this   beginning operators became so skilled that they began to chitchat easily over the wires among themselves   much like radio amateurs do today when they chew the rag    That kind of freedom should be our goal  easy   natural use of the code to communicate   similar to the way we read and talk    Thats where we are headed      The code is not a new language    It is the language you already know   written in sound patterns instead of patterns of ink on paper  it is your own language    You will learn to read by ear the language you already read so well by eye      This is lesson one  it is most important always to think of it this way  EVERY CODE LETTER   NUMBER AND SYMBOL IS A UNIQUE PATTERN OF SOUND      Psychology teaches us that when we start to learn something new   if we think of it as being EASY   it will be easy    The best teachers never hint or suggest that there is anything hard about it   and their students learn it quickly   usually within a week or two    They also make learning it FUN    We learn much faster that way   so think of learning it as fun  enjoyable    If you want to learn it  you can      Our FOUNDATION is the alphabet   numbers and punctuation marks    Learn these SOUND PATTERNS so well that when   for example   you hear dah dah dit you immediately recognize it is G    This is basic   but dont stop there    Code is to communicate and we dont talk in letters   but in words    Words are our smallest thinking units    Even while we are still learning to master the alphabet we can begin to recognize small common words   such as the and of as words when we hear them      When we first learned to read   we could already talk   but reading was something new   and it took a little effort to learn    At first we had to spell out each word   then try to figure out how to pronounce it   and then remember what we had already deciphered while we tackled the next words until we had laboriously read the whole sentence    The beginning stage of learning the code is that way   too   but it doesnt need to stay that way    Words are written as strings of letters   one letter after another    But we dont read them that way  we read the word    If we couldnt spell we couldnt write either  or else we would have to use hieroglyphics    Words must become our units of thought in Morse because words make sense and they are easy to remember      Reading code   like reading print   becomes much easier and faster when we have learned to RECOGNIZE WORDS instead of spelling them out as strings of letters    A good reader reads words   and even strings of words at a glance    We can learn to do it many   many others have    We are hardly conscious of the letters   which spell out the words we read so easily now    Our attention is focused on the THOUGHTS written in print   and our reactions are to the ideas expressed      When we begin to reach this stage with Morse code   we are beginning to become proficient    So our plans are    to learn the alphabet of sound patterns so well that we recognize each letter instantly   then   to learn to recognize most of the words we hear as words   and finally   to learn to listen to the stream of code as we would to someone speaking to us in words and ideas      That is proficiency   whatever the speed is being received    We can learn to do this at any speed    Our goal should be to learn to use the code so that it becomes easy and natural   like the way we read and talk    


Part ONE  Learning the Code   Chapter 1   How to Go About it Efficiently   

This Chapter Is A Summary to Prepare You to Learn   Learning the Morse code is acquiring a NEW set of HABITS    It is a skill subject governed by the same principles that apply to learning tennis   shorthand   typing   playing a musical instrument   etc    Regular consistent   repetitive PRACTICE sets in concrete what we do and the way we do it      Some people have managed to master the Morse code without any help    Others have used poor methods   and both have all too often given up when they came to a plateau   short of proficiency    Today methods are available which almost guarantee success   and a number of fine courses exist using these methods      These principles are outlined below and will get the beginner off on the right foot and bring him to proficiency    If you are one who has gotten stuck   use them to get back on track    They offer the most rapid way to success in learning the telegraph code and achieving a real mastery of it      PREPARED  prepared with the right ATTITUDES   and with knowing WHAT to do and HOW do it    This can mean the difference between success and failure     1 Your ATTITUDE toward learning is crucially important It is essential PREPARATION for success       Have a CAN DO IT attitude   because it is easy to learn    If you dont tell people that learning the code is hard   it wont be    If you really want to learn it   you can    Approach it as if it were impossible to fail    Motivate yourself      Keep a RELAXED ATMOSPHERE   free of tension   pressure   and any sense of hurry and anxiety      ENJOY the learning process itself      PICTURE YOURSELF BEING SUCCESSFUL      Comments Whenever we think of anything as hard   it creates a stumbling block   and that tends to discourage us     Most people find that competition during the initial stages hinders learning     In actual reading and copying code   any anxiety or undue concern about getting it all   or too intense interest in what is being received   or trying to outguess what is coming next   can cause us to miss out some of what follows     People who do things well do not struggle with them     Relaxed receptiveness works     


Get your first impression of the code characters by LISTENING to them  BY EAR  the way you will actually use them      Throw away all printed code charts and any trick memory methods people offer  they will inevitably slow you down and may even discourage you as you advance      Comments The reason learning the code by eye or by mental pictures will slow you down is because our visual and auditory hearing memories are completely separate from and unrelated to each other    Trying to learn by charts or sounds likes slows down learning because they make us go through one or more needless steps each time we hear a character    In both cases the mind has to go through a conscious analytical or translation exercise for each signal    See Chapters 4 and 13     

From the very first   learn to hear each code character as a UNIT OF SOUND   a whole pattern   a rhythm      At first each character should be sent fast enough   preferably from about 18 to 25 wpm or even faster   for us to hear it as a unit   and with a wide space before and after it    Never   never try to analyze it into parts    This is most important    

The Code Character is the Letter      For example   when you hear di dah and recognize it immediately as being A  you are hearing the letter A    Associate the code signal with the printed letter so intimately that when you hear or think of the one   the other immediately pops into mind    Our mental equation should be immediate   like this   di dah A    and A di dah      Instant recognition is what we strive for      THESE FOUR PRINCIPLES ARE ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL     

Concentrate On One Aspect at A Time      For example   dont try to learn to block print or typewrite while you are learning to copy     

Learn To Receive the Code Accurately  this is our primary goal      In receiving we must wait until each character or word has been completely sent before we can correctly recognize it    We must develop that patient   receptive state of mind that allows us to recognize each character instantly and accurately as soon as it has been completed      

Listen only to ACCURATELY SENT CODE      Accurate character formation  timing  is essential for efficient learning    Proper spacing between letters and words is as important as the correct formation of the characters themselves and becomes even more important as speeds increase    At first it is best to listen to cassette tapes   computer or keyboard generated code    If you have a teacher follow his advice      If you listen to poorly sent code you will needlessly distract the mind by forcing it to try consciously to figure out what the characters are supposed to be    Once you become proficient   you can learn to read such sending    Likewise   in the early stages of learning avoid all distracting noises   and interference   such as static and other signals      Sending becomes relatively easy after you have a good timing sense    It is also easier because you know in advance what is coming next    However   listening to your own sending at too early a stage may hinder learning because the characters are not being sent accurately enough     

Plan for regular daily PRACTICE PERIODS      The learner needs to know exactly WHAT he is going to do and WHEN    Make them SHORT ENOUGH to prevent fatigue   boredom or discouragement    SPACE them widely enough apart to let what you have gained sink in    Practice is building habits lets practice only what is right      We all have our ups and downs    Some days we will do better than others this is just a part of normal learning   so dont let it discourage you    Its better to put off practicing to advance at a bad time if youre tired out   sick   down in the dumps    Make practice material enjoyable  interesting in variety and content     

LISTENING and COPYING      If you are studying alone   start out by just listening without writing down anything    See section 2 above    Listen to the signal and say the name of the letter or number out loud immediately after you hear it    After you get familiar with all the letters and numbers so you feel somewhat comfortable recognizing them   then practice writing down each letter or number immediately after hearing and recognizing it thats called copying    See Chapters 7and 8      

Teachers differ on the best way to start out    Your teacher or course may start out having you write down each character as you hear it    Either way is to help you associate the sound with the letter or number    Sooner or later you will want to be able to do both      In any event   as skill increases we are going to have to learn to copy    At first it will be letter by letter    But that will prove to be too slow as our skills increase     In order to advance we need to learn to copy behind that is   to be writing down what has been heard while listening to what is being sent    This only needs to be a syllable or two or a word or two behind   even at high speeds  this takes the pressure off    For many people it seems to develop almost automatically as they practice and use the code   but most of us need help    There are several exercises   which can help us    See Chapter 8

Some hams started out copying everything   and have become so tied to their pencils that they just cant seem to understand anything without writing it down first    That is an awkward way to converse Throw Away Your Pencil is good advice    It forces us to learn to receive by just listening    I knew a ham who for over 60 years couldnt receive without a pencil    When he became almost blind   he had to learn  and he did   very quickly We need to learn both ways  to copy and to listen    So what if we miss a few words here or there  ?     We can still get the gist of it    Remember  even the best operators sometimes miss a word or two      

We gain SPEED by the right kind of practice      It depends on more and more nearly instant recognition   first of characters   then of words and finally of larger units of speech and thought    To advance in receiving speed we must push ourselves    Short bursts of speed work best  even as short as a single minute at a time   rarely more than 3 to 5 minutes    If you want to increase your speed   listen to code at a speed faster than you can get it all   and pick out all the words you can recognize    In copying   pick a speed just a little too fast for at least part of your practice time    How fast you want to be able to receive is up to you    Set your own goal      Remember   however   that the goal is COMMUNICATION of intelligence   not just speed for the sake of speed     

We advance in skill after mastering the letters   numbers   etc      by learning to HEAR WORDS AS WORDS instead of just strings of letters      This is the second stage in mastering the code    Most people find it already beginning even while still working to master the alphabet   as they recognize little words like of and the    We need to extend it to include at least the words we use most often    Start by deliberately listening for and practicing them until they become units of sound and recognition heard and sent as words      Our list of 100 most common words is a good place to begin see end of Chapter 4    Practice them by listening to them   and as you send them over and over  until when you think of the word it just seems to flow naturally as if you were reading or writing it    Practicing with these common words seems to help the brain begin to learn to handle many other words as words   too    We can extend this skill by practicing some of the word prefixes and suffixes   such as pro   per   com   ing   tion   etc    The bigger the units of sound we recognize as units the easier receiving and sending become      This kind of practice   with careful regard for spacing and timing   will prevent forming the sloppy habits some hams have fallen into as they run the letters of short words together like a single complex character   and also when they forget to space between words    These things make reading and copying very difficult   and as speeds increase   can make it almost impossible     

OVER LEARNING is the secret of real proficiency      It is achieved when we simply receive and send in code with the freedom and ease that we have when we talk   read and write   virtually unconscious of the code as code at all    One old time operator   when asked whether the other ham had used a certain word   replied that he didnt remember the actual word  he had the thought clearly in mind   but he couldnt remember the exact word    That is a mark of the expert      From the language arts we learn how people become fluent in a foreign language    It is by  R E P E T I T I O N   saying the same sentences over and over   with or without little variations until they become automatic    Or in other words   just BECOMING SO FAMILIAR WITH IT that it seems natural    When we reach that point   no matter what our top speed may be   we have achieved a mastery of the code    It is a goal well worth our efforts      These points are expanded and explained in considerable detail in the rest of Part I    If you are a beginner   go immediately to Chapter 3

Chapter 2 will help you understand the whys of our recommendations   and the further chapters are yours to grow on      Experience has shown that under normal conditions   like riding a bicycle   once your code skill has reached about 13 or more words per minute wpm it is never forgotten    You may become rusty but the skill quickly returns      How Long Will It Take Me to Learn  ?      Those who have been taught using these principles and methods have taken from a minimum of one week to an average of about three up to eight weeks to achieve a satisfying 15 to 20 wpm working speed    People are different in background   in attitude   in approach to learning   in interest   enthusiasm and drive   and in what they want to do with the Morse code once they have learned it    All of these factors play a part in the time it will take    The main thing is to WANT to learn it   whatever time it may take   to realize that it is EASY and to want to USE it when it has been learned    Those who just learn it to get a license   and do not intend to use it will probably find it not useful within a year or two    Yet some of them may even find that it is interesting  really interesting and worth while    Some have done this already    Read Chapter 12      Code is a pleasure when we know it well    It is an art worth acquiring      It Is To Be Enjoyed  

Chapter 2

Principles of Skill Building and Attitudes for Success   Two factors are of primary importance in building a skill efficiently   

1 Right mental attitudes  

2 Practice  doing it the right way from the very start      Neither one alone will maximize success    Here we apply these principles to learning the code      We Are Building A Set Of Habits  Skill building is generating a set of habits    It begins at the highly conscious levels of letter by letter   number by number   etc    Gradually your skill will build up  sometimes by sudden breakthroughs    More and more subconscious control takes over and there will be less and less conscious thought about it    

As it becomes more and more automatic   your full attention can be given over to the thought content   the ideas expressed while listening   and when copying   you may find yourself thinking of something altogether different      Telegraphy is a skill somewhat like playing golf   a musical instrument   typewriting   etc    It is learning a set of habits   which can be called into operation whenever desired   and which work automatically and without conscious effort when we want them    It has an active and a passive aspect    It is active when we are sending   and passive when receiving    The goal is to become able to receive and send as easily as the expert does  he is comfortable about it  just as if he were carrying on a conversation      Skill is developed by consistent   repetitive practice of materials which become increasingly familiar letters   numbers   words   punctuation   etc    Never practice error Only correct practice is beneficial    This builds confidence and proficiency      Our major focus will be on learning to receive which is listening with understanding or by writing it down    Ultimately conscious thinking of the code must be eliminated   and we respond automatically    Then sending will be easy   too      Anything that produces tension or requires thinking   interferes both with the learning process and with using the code     Relax   In the process of learning   minimize tensions by having a clear picture of where you are headed  the goal   what you are going to do and the steps youre going to take to get there    Take little steps   one at a time  small enough that you know you can do each one    Introduce new material little by little   in small enough bites that you dont feel overwhelmed  yet not so slowly that it becomes boring    

Provide enough variety to keep it interesting   and introduce new items as soon as you are ready      Take it easy    Especially in the early learning stages keep things at low key   comfortable and free from strain    Some people learn faster than others   so it is a good idea to avoid all competition because it tenses us up while you are learning the new game of the A B Cs in sound  learn at your own rate      Avoid all unnecessary tensions because they tend to distract our attention    That also means  we need to get rid of all kinds of distractions   worries   duties and anything else that makes us feel concerned   so that we can concentrate on what we are doing    That makes learning easy      Relaxation and confidence go hand in hand    Each promotes the other    Easy does it    When you know you are doing the right thing in the right way   this promotes confidence   and that makes learning easier      There are many schemes to learn how to relax    They generally begin by learning to pay attention to specific parts of the body one after another   such as starting with the toes and feet and going upwards   to legs   abdomen   chest   arms   hands   neck   head   face   eyes   etc    As you concentrate on each part   first tense it so that you know what tension feels like   and then deliberately release that tension and recognize what relaxing it feels like    With practice this can be done in a relatively short time   an almost all at once action    Breathing can also be coordinated so that deep inhalation   followed by exhaling easily is thought of as producing relaxation    Try it      Develop A Good Mental Attitude   Anticipate success    Nothing succeeds like success    In order to succeed you must first believe that you can do it    Everything possible must be done to guarantee success at every step   and to prevent any sense of discouragement or failure from developing    Never even suggest that learning it could be hard     As for errors   ignore them   except that when they are persistent they merely point out where more practice is needed    With the right approach and right practice you cant fail      Mental attitude is critical We should approach every aspect of learning with interest   enthusiasm and a positive can do outlook    Anyone who really wants to learn the code can learn it    If you have the ambition to learn it you have the ability to do it    A feeling of confidence is vital to achievement   and must be guarded carefully    If you think you can   you can      Dont fight negative attitudes   such as anxiety   fear   worry and doubt    But if you do feel any of them   admit it   and then ignore it and let it die of inattention     Make learning fun    Enjoy the learning process itself    When I am so eager to learn that I can hardly wait to get going   how receptive I am and what energy surges up Watch how youngsters play and learn as they play    They are good models theyre relaxed and having fun    They dont pay any attention to mistakes    Imitate them and enjoy learning the code    That makes it even easier   and more enjoyable     

Stage One  Learning the ABCs   Our first impressions are the strongest and most long lasting    So be sure your very first exposure to the code signals is right  by hearing it    Otherwise   it may raise a roadblock   a plateau   somewhere along the path which will require us to go back to line one in order to advance       Code is sound  heard with the ears   not read with the eyes      Listen from the very beginning only to perfectly sent code until you have mastered it      To advance rapidly your mind should hear only consistent patterns of sound    This hammers it into the mind   hearing the same character formed exactly the same way each time    Poor quality code will tend to confuse the mind   distract your attention   and slow down your rate of learning      A recent study by Dr    Henry Holcomb of Johns Hopkins University on learning new skills says that after first learning how to do it   engage in routine activities of some other kind to allow a five hour time period in which no other new skill learning is attempted    He claims that experiments show that it takes about six hours to permanently transfer the new learning from the front brain to permanent storage in the rear brain    This is something to try and see if it helps speed up Morse code learning    He also added something we already should know that it takes lots of practice to learn rapid   complex   and precise hand motor skills      Develop a sustained attention    Attention to the thing in hand is the starting point of all learning      identify what needs attention   and  do that   focusing on it alone   and do it early in the practice period when energy levels are highest      The more interesting the subject is   the easier it will be to concentrate on it    Direct your mind to go where you want it to go by stimulating your interest      A stop start technique will help you gain control of your attention span and lengthen it    It works this way When attention lags   dont fight it   but stop all thoughts and clear the mind   then let your interest and enthusiasm start it up again fresh and naturally    If the distraction is one that you can identify   clear the mind by either settling it at once   or by setting it aside to handle later      It is impossible to try NOT to attend to something   such as a distraction    Attention to it will only make it more distracting      It has been suggested that the mind resembles a portable builtin computer   but it is far superior    It can do feats of information processing and recall unequaled by the largest computers    First we must debug it and get rid of any old bad attitudes about the code and replace them with a positive can do and enjoy it outlook    Next   feed it with a lookup table of sound equivalents for the various characters   and were in business an automatic motor response to the audio signals we hear di dah and immediately visualize and write A    Dont put an artificial limit on your speed of comprehension     


Stage Two  Practice   

Once the fundamentals are well in hand and our speed is increasing   we need to apply pressure in short bursts in order to advance    At this stage begin with a few minutes of warmup at a comfortable speed   and then use familiar materials to try for a burst of speed for a minute or two at first    Keep it short to minimize the discomfort    Then drop back to a more comfortable speed   and you will find the mind responding faster      Avoid practicing when too tired   ill   or all upset and distracted  little or nothing will be gained and it may even discourage you      It takes time for associations to develop    Be patient and learn at your own rate    Some days will be better than others for various reasons    Progress will not be uniform   but that should not bother you because you know about it beforehand    When you feel good and can enjoy it you will advance the fastest    On days when you dont feel very good it is best not to push   but rather to work at a comfortable level which will give you some sense of accomplishment      As these processes improve   conscious thinking tends to drift away   and we need to keep the mind focussed on what we are doing in order to advance    But ultimately   conscious thinking must be completely eliminated and response become automatic we no longer even think of the code itself    Thats proficiency      More About Attitudes for Success   Achieving our best performance in any skill   including telegraphy   is a personal matter    We need to l observe how we think and act when doing our best   and then 2 learn to control those attitudes and actions so that we can use them when we want them      While each of us behaves as an individual   there are definite principles   which will greatly speed up our success as we adapt them to ourselves    At first they may seem awkward and unproductive   but if we stick with them  improvement will begin and grow much more rapidly than without them    Attitudes are critical   and for best results we need to individualize them   fit them to our very own needs    We can lay a foundation for positive attitudes if we do the following   Feel confident   it promotes learning    If you have an opportunity   watch a skilled operator   observe how calmly and quietly he goes about it    He is in no rush   and is not concerned about missing anything    He goes about it just as if it were everyday listening and talking    Instead of filling the mind with problems   worries and concerns occupy the mind with the way things should be done    In learning   build confidence by taking one firm step at a time   telling yourself   I can do this      Build a sense of achievement   that good feeling of doing something well    As a guard against frustration be sure to provide periodic successes   with simple little rewards for each    Keep a record of the goals and your progress as you see your progress it will help build positive attitudes    Give yourself some little reward after each practice session     

Picturing Success Is Strong Preparation For It   

Mentally practice the thoughts   feelings and actions necessary for good performance and you will greatly speed up achievement  a valuable tool to accelerate learning    How can it be done  ?    In a general overall way you may picture yourself quietly and without strain listening to the incoming signals and easily recognizing them as the printed or spoken letters and words they represent   and as sending wellformed characters without hurry or strain    Picture yourself doing it   and doing it well   like an expert    It helps to have a real model in mind    Watch or imagine a skilled performer a telegrapher if you can find one at work    He isnt in any hurry    He isnt flustered or concerned   he just does it and enjoys it    Repeat and rehearse this picture often in your mind      There are at least two ways to use this tool    One is to sit back and relax and deliberately form the picture    To get started   set up a general overall picture first    As you continue practicing the mental picture of how you want to do   add details   making it more and more realistic until you have a solid lifelike picture in mind    See yourself doing it   how you will do it step by step    The more vividly you can mentally see   hear   and feel it as you rehearse the picture   the better the results will be   how doing it right looks   and how it feels    This is not mere wishful thinking   it is building up a working pattern to become realized in time as you continue actual receiving and sending practice    This kind of mental picturing can have much the same effect as real practice    It creates memories   models of the behavior as you want it to be  but it is   of course   no substitute for real practice    actually doing it      Another way is now and then to see brief snapshots of yourself receiving and sending while you are doing other things such as driving   walking   working   etc      not making any particular effort to fill in details     You may want to try it right after you have learned the sounds of the first group of letters    Sit quietly in a chair   close your eyes   relax   and imagine you are hearing each letter sound just as you heard it   taking them one at a time   and immediately recognizing it or writing it down with a pencil    Make the picture as realistic and vivid as you can   even to imagining the feeling the pencil writing on the paper    Feel a sense of satisfaction of doing it right    Three to five minutes practice this way at any one time is probably enough    You can then repeat this kind of mental practice with each new group of characters as you learn them   and it will greatly strengthen the habit you are trying to build      When you know the whole alphabet and have a clear mental picture of how each character should sound   you can mentally practice visualizing short printed words and then imagine hearing them spelled out in code    Feel it in your mind as if it were actual  a mental sending practice      Mental picturing practice may be extended to prepare you to minimize distractions   such as static   interfering signals   noisy people in the vicinity milling around   being watched closely   etc    Prepare for these by picturing yourself calmly receiving and sending while extraneous noises  talking   shouting   crashes  are all around you Think of what a warfront operator would have to contend with It may also be used to help learn to copy on a mill typewriter or keyboard   and other aspects you may need to meet     All this is preparatory and supportive of real practice   not a substitute for actual practice by doing    The goal we seek is for the use of the code to be as natural and easy as talking   reading   and writing    These mental images take some real effort and practice    Dont expect instant results   give it time to grow    

Laying the Foundation   

Lets Begin With The ABCs  Laying the Foundation Many good ways have been developed through the years for learning the telegraph code easily and efficiently    Our purpose here is to present the very best ways to learn it efficiently and to compress the learning time to a minimum    It is too bad that so many hams have learned poorly and as a result have not been able to enjoy it   as they should    The trouble often began by imagining that code would be hard to learn   or by learning it in an inefficient   or roundabout way   such as visually   by sight   rather than by sound or by sound alikes      Everything depends on how you set about learning it    It is much more difficult to go back and unlearn something   which was learned wrong   than it is to learn the right way from the very start    Trying to learn by oneself without any guidance as to how to do it can make things all the more difficult later    Most learning trouble is due to ones attitude   the method   or the teacher    One expert wrote The most difficult students at Harvard were those who had learned the code by themselves by practicing alone without guidance      The Telegraph Code is an Alphabet of Sound    It is learned by hearing it    When we learned to read our language   it was   or should have begun by first learning to recognize the ABCs by sight    Telegraphy begins by learning to hear and recognize the ABCs by sound    This difference is important    Code is learned by hearing it    Recognition of the sound patterns is the name of the game    For example   when you hear di dah as A   without translating   you are thinking in code    The sound is the letter    There is no reason ever to see the code in written form    So throw away those code charts all of them    Burn them   Saying the letter immediately   or writing it down immediately   each time the ear hears it is one of the ways to build the code habit quickly    We need direct association between sound and letter    Anyone who is stuck on a plateau because of having learned it visually or some other inefficient way will have to learn it all over again by sound    It is unfortunate that some still try to learn it this way    To teach it this way today is inexcusable      It is Easier Than You Think     Someone wrote Mastering the art of code communication is ten times easier than learning to talk  which you did by about the age of two    You arent learning a new language   a whole dictionary full of strange words   and sentences where the words are all scrambled up    You are just learning how to read your own language BY EAR instead of by eye    Its no big job      Almost anyone who can learn to read can learn the code    There is no such thing as a normal person who wanted to learn the code and couldnt    I cant learn the code nearly always translates into I wont commit myself to the time necessary to learn it   or that a person doesnt really want to   even though he may think he does    Age   whether young or old   and intelligence   bright or dull   are no barriers    Youngsters of four or five can learn quickly   and oldsters of 90 have succeeded   too    You wouldnt want to admit that a four year old or a 90 year old could out do you   would you  ?    

It doesnt require superior intelligence   just right application      Most handicaps   such as blindness or even deafness   have not stopped those who want to learn    Deaf people have been able to learn and receive using their fingers on the driver of a speaker at 30 wpm or on the knob of an electromagnetically driven key knob bouncing up and down at 20 wpm    Even some people with dislexia have been able to learn to a useful extent    It is easy if you really want to learn it and then go about learning it in the right way    Any person of reasonable intelligence can learn the Morse code and become a very good operator   able to copy it with a pencil at 25 wpm and send it clearly   smoothly and readably      There is no real justification for the statement that some people just cant learn the code    They dont want to    Its a matter of motivation   the secret of learning any skill    If you are one of those who tried in the past and somehow didnt make it   or got stuck at 8 or 10 or 12 wpm   take heart    Forget what you previously learned   and start over with the principles set forth here   and you will succeed      Some Naturally Learn Faster than Others   just as some people have a knack for learning to play golf or tennis more quickly than others   so some have a special knack for learning the code    They catch on more quickly   but most of us take a bit longer    Kids tend to pick out the sound patterns easily and naturally without straining   so they learn very fast   

MOTIVATION  

Nothing beats enthusiasm to learn    Stir it up  eagerness    Couple that with determination   and failure is impossible    If you want to so badly that you can almost taste it   you can do it    If you are teaching it   take advantage of any latent fascination with the idea of a special skill   secret code for communicating many youngsters have it and maybe some older people   too    One lady who later became a code teacher said she got started because the code sounded like fun    One man found that the very idea of communicating his mind to another by intermittent tones is most fascinating      A sense of achievement and the intimacy found in code communication make the effort a lot of fun    CW is fun if you take the time to learn and to be comfortable with it    Be motivated    Fix it in your mind that you can do it    Then relax   be willing to learn at your own rate   refusing to compare yourself with others   and take time to enjoy the learning process    Make it fun    Trying too hard or trying to hurry can create a kind of tension   which impedes progress    Take it easy    Keep it leisurely    The more you expose yourself to it and the less hard you try the better and faster youll become good at it    You cant help succeeding    Enthusiasm and determination will win out   The sudden beginning of WWII required a lot of operators in a hurry    Many Amateurs volunteered and served directly as operators or by teaching new recruits    However   the attitude of some recruits was often indifferent or poor many of the draftees had no desire to learn it   and some even disliked the idea of learning it at all    No wonder it took them so long to learn and a good many failed  Telegraphy is a skill whose success depends greatly upon the right attitude      

One schoolteacher demonstrated the code   both sending and receiving    The class got so fascinated that they managed to learn 14 characters in that one class period    No code students   no longer under pressure to certify code ability   who have been given a taste of the way it used to be by listening   have often gotten interested and want to learn at least a few letters to start with    Quite a few no code licensees   after having had some fun operating   are looking for more ways to enjoy ham radio the Morse code doesnt look so abstract to them as it did before      Learning the Morse Code Is Similar to Learning To Read  Learning the Morse code is much like to learning to read by eye    Learning to read print has several stages of skill level       First we learned to recognize the individual letters   and could slowly spell and sound out words      Next we began to recognize and read many common short words as words   instead of having to spell them all out      Before long we learned to recognize short phrases of the   etc    and some of the longer words as whole words      Finally an expert reader can read whole clauses   sentences and even a paragraph as a unit of thought   almost at a glance      This gives us a clue as to how to go about learning and improving Morse code skill    The essence of code learning   like language learning   is familiarity  which means overlearning    That is   learning to the point where it has become automatic   without thinking about what you are doing the dits and dahs   or even the words    The highest skill comes when you just seem to be hearing words and sentences and you are conscious only of the ideas being expressed  that makes communicating a most worthwhile and gratifying goal    But it doesnt mean you have to become a speed demon      THE MORSE ABC S ARE PATTERNS OF SOUND  The Best Beginning is by Listening     Phase One is Learning To Recognize Each Letter And Number As Soon As We Hear It the ABCs of the alphabet of sound    This is the goal of stage one of code learning building the foundation    The code must be thought of as sound patterns      If you have been having trouble   the moment you begin to think of code solely in terms of sound patterns   you will have made much progress    A printed letter is a combination of lines   which form a shape    But children are not taught to recognize the letters of the alphabet by pointing out the various lines which make it up   they are taught to recognize each letter as a whole   at a glance    The same principle applies to learning code each letter and number is a unit of sound   a unique sound pattern   a rhythm   different from every other letter or number    Each code character has its own unique sound pattern   just like spoken vowels and consonants do      Morse code is SOUND PATTERNS   to be heard by the ear    Any method of learning the code which uses the eyes such as charts for memorizing the code   or some other scheme such as rhymes or soundalikes   etc    will prove to be a serious handicap to later progress    This is because it makes us translate   something we must do consciously    If you have been doing it by  thinking dit dah stands for A    you have been thinking in terms of separate dits and dahs    That makes it hard    So forget that there are such things as dits and dahs and learn to think in code sound patterns    Start training yourself like this every time the ear hears the sound pattern di dah you think A   and if you are copying   the hand writes A    With some practice   like a good operator   you will find that the character just seems to come to mind from nowhere    Proceed directly from sound pattern to letter   with no intermediate interpretation of any kind    It may help if you whistle or hum the sound patterns    

Laying the Foundation   DELAYED PERCEPTION and INSTANT RECOGNITION  

There is one obvious difference between reading by eye and reading by ear    While a printed letter is to be instantly recognized at a glance   a code character cannot be recognized until the whole pattern has been heard  at the end of the short time it takes to send it    We must hear it out      Two important factors are involved here    The characters must be heard at speeds that compel us to hear them as complete patterns   as wholes   not as strings of dits and dahs  Tests have shown that speeds of at least about 13 wpm are required and that faster speeds are preferable 18 to 25   The spaces around them must be long enough to make the sound patterns stand out clearly and distinctly   This is why the so called Farnsworth method is used making the spaces between characters quite wide at first and then gradually reducing them to the standard    Combining these two ways we soon recognize that   while we know that the sound patterns are formed of dits and dahs   we never allow ourselves to try to analyze or count them      We must first consciously listen to each letter until the mind accepts it as a complete letter without there being any kind of conscious thinking about it involved    We forget the dits and dahs and just listen to the patterns   the rhythms    So   the ears glance is a little longer than the eyes  it hears each sound pattern separately because of the wider spaces which separate it from the preceding and following sound patterns      These spaces are very important  they make the sound pattern stand out    That pattern or rhythm of the letter is to be heard as a whole over a short period of time   and cannot be recognized until the whole pattern has been heard as a complete pattern    We must hear it out before we can identify it    When we get the sound patterns well fixed in mind it is good to listen to faster and slower speeds and hear the letters roll out      Listen Only To the Best Quality of Code  In the early stages it is very important to listen only to the most perfectly formed code you can find    The ear and mind need to get intimately familiar with the rhythm pattern   consistently formed    Poorly sent code gives a sloppy   irregular rhythm which tends to confuse the mind and slow down learning    Dont expect to develop any real speed listening to hash    Listening to poor sending on the radio has sometimes discouraged learners because it distracts the mind by compelling us to think consciously about the details instead of the wholeness    We have to slow down    Listening to poorly sent code defeats the learning process    Later   with improved skill   you will probably be able to understand most of the poorly sent code    But for now avoid it    This is also why you should not try to send code yourself until you have a good sense of timing     

Getting Started  

There are several ways to introduce the student to the code    One highly effective way to create the right impressions for the beginner is to dictate a sentence or two   spelling each word out in ordinary letters at about a 20 wpm rate for him to write down   like this   Y O U  A R E  G O I N G  T O  F I N D  I T  I S  E A S Y  T O  L E A R N  T H E  M O R S E  C O D E      The teacher then assures the students that they will do equally well as they learn the code    All we are going to do is to change the names of the letters instead of Y   that letter is going to sound dah di dah dah   and so on    Now the student is ready to learn the first few letters by sound      Another good way   because nearly everybody can quickly recognize the difference between a few words sent at about 20 wpm   to begin the first session   is word recognition send a simple word or greeting such as Hi and a goodbye   such as 73    Send each one at say 20 wpm half a dozen times until everyone gets familiar with its sound   then send them randomly and have them say the words    Then stick in a different word like the and see if they protest    Tell them what it is and send it few more times    This can whet their appetite and show that them that it isnt hard those sound patterns really mean something      For people who are afraid that they cant learn to identify sound patterns   some have suggested that V and B be compared by sound initially by sending them alternately      What Characters Shall We Begin With  ?     Teachers disagree on this    Some suggest that taking the simplest characters first such as E I S H 5   and then E T I M   etc    helps to build up a feeling of confidence    Others point out that this may lead some students to try to analyze the longer characters   so they recommend beginning with longer characters such as Q 7 Z G   0 9 8 J P   or the numbers 1 2 3             This has the advantage of compelling the student to wait until the whole character is completed before identifying it     Perhaps a good way would be to start with a couple of short letters first   and then go to the longer ones and meet both goals    No matter what order is used in teaching   each character must stand on its own feet and not depend on comparing it with some other character in order to learn and identify it     The important thing   of course   is to hear the characters at speeds high enough that they are heard as complete unified patterns   and preferably at first to present in the same lesson characters which have quite different patterns of sound so that there will be no attempt to compare them       

Methods to Go about Teaching  

There are at least two ways to start out a listening only at first   and 2 listening and writing it down    For those who learn by themselves   one experienced old time teacher wrote The beginner should listen to the sounds until he becomes sound conscious    He should not write anything down for a week or two   but concentrate his efforts on recognizing the sounds    He can already write   but he cannot write with any degree of ease   if at the same time he is trying to do something else which he is not familiar with such as recognizing code characters     As a beginner   he would hear a letter   take a short interval of time to decide what it is   with the result that when it comes to him   he quickly tries to write it down and misses the next letter    Wait on learning to write it down until you can recognize the letters as letters   and this confusion will vanish    Learning to read code is recognizing the sounds immediately   that is   the letters    This is wise advice if you are studying by yourself      Probably most teachers prefer the second approach in a class situation    Such might be   for example   the following taken from actual teaching procedures   

The teacher says This is F and then F is sent    Then he says Now here it is again    Write it down with your pencil each time you hear it    He repeats it several seconds apart quite a few times before taking up the next letter   which ought to have a quite different rhythm pattern   such as G   introduced in the same way    Then he sends these letters in random order until the students get them right about 95 percent of the time    

Next   he introduces a third letter followed by random letters learned   and so on for a half dozen or so at a session   however many the students can do without confusion or becoming fatigued or bored    Note Each one should write or print the way he usually does      

The teacher sends a dit and says This is a dit    It is the letter E    Now here it is again write it down each time you hear it    Forget that it is a dit  it is the letter E    Then he simply sends E a number of times as the students almost automatically write it down    Then Now we will hear the letter I    Listen    He sends I    and says This is a I    Now here it is again    Write it down when you hear it    And so on through the group for that lesson    After each new letter has been drilled in   there is random letter practice   using all the letters previously learned    Finally   because even for the first lesson he has chosen letters that can be used to construct small words   he sends these words with the instructions Now here is a word    Write down the letters just as you did before    He waits a few moments while the class writes it down and says Now then   you have copied the word  And so on to the end of the first lesson of 30  45 minutes    Subsequent lessons follow this general pattern until the alphabet is completed   etc     

Laying the Foundation   

Most sound recordings for selfstudy introduce each letter something like this when you hear di dah   say A to yourself each time you hear it   as soon as you have heard it    Do the same thing for each new character as it is introduced    Then they begin   for example with the first letter F sending di di dah dit and saying F   di di dah dit F   and then follow with a long string of Fs alone for the student to say F after each one   before taking up the next letter      Whether learning with a teacher or in private study   repetition to the point of familiarity is vital    A teacher can usually judge quickly from student behavior how many repetitions are needed    For the selfstudy student it is probably good to overdo the number of repetitions of each character before going on   but dont do it thoughtlessly    Some teachers use up to a dozen to two dozen such repetitions of each new character before going on    Since the whole superstructure of telegraphy is built on this foundation  be sure it is solid and secure    Repetition sets in concrete what we practice    Do it wisely    Repetition with attention builds expert skill   making the connection between stimulus and response so strong that the response automatically follows the stimulus      In these early lessons a little game of oddball may help    It goes like this the same character is sent 5 or 6 times in succession   but at one place a different character is sent    The students   who are just listening   not writing   are to hold up their hand when the oddball is heard    A few minutes of this can liven things up and give variety    It can be extended to short words   too      Learning on a one to one basis with a good teacher who can tailor each lesson to the student makes possible the strongest initial impressions of the sounds and rhythms of the code characters and to concentrate on any weak areas    The teacher can also safely introduce use of a key earlier than otherwise   

Character echoing method to reinforce learning   

Teacher says Listen as I send the character  He sends it and says its name as he sends it    Now listen as I send again and again   and say its name each time as soon as I finish sending it       

Next   Now listen and write the letter down each time as soon as I finish sending it     

Lastly   Take your key now and send it back to me each time I send it   and say its name as you send it    It is important that steps 1 and 2 have enough repeats of the letter so that the student has a clear feel for the proper timing when he comes to step 3    

The teacher will insist on accuracy of sending    For those studying alone   there are a number of good code learning tapes and courses   as well as computer programs   which have great flexibility    E   g      a code computer program   which can project the printed character on the screen an instant after the character is heard   can encourage the student to mentally see the letter as soon as it is heard    See Chapter 18

If some students think that certain characters sound alike   send them several times alternately so the real differences stand out    Typically the alphabet and numbers may be covered in a series of no more than five lessons    Everything possible should be done to make learning interesting and fun   and to avoid any sense of boredom or needless tension    One teacher says I write words on the board and the students sound them in unison    It is like directing a choir   a fun class   where everyone feels good about practicing the code      If one is expecting to do a lot of copying in use   starting out by copying on a typewriter has the advantage of a better link up between code   brain and typewriter key than between the brain and a pencil    When this stage of learning has been completed   the foundation  quick recognition of every character by its sound pattern  should have been laid   and a speed of at least about 5 or 6 wpm achieved    All the pieces are now in hand for the students to be able to practice with normal English words and sentences   ready to build up speed and greater confidence by practice    One may then begin to reduce the spaces between words   which will speed up the overall rate of copying      Every effort should be made to stimulate a sense of success in the student all along the way    This makes learning so much easier and faster    Let them taste success    Forget errors praise achievements    The goal is INSTANT RECOGNITION OF EVERY CHARACTER    That is what the next stage is to carry us forward to    If there are letters you dont recognize quickly enough now   go back and practice listening to them until you do    This will save you time later      

The teacher should explain at each new step exactly what is to be done and why   so the student will know what is expected of him    Back in 1895 some psychologists asked expert telegraphers What is the learners attention mainly directed to as he progresses  ?    Their answer was   

1    At first you hustle to get letters  

2    next you look for words    

3    later as a fair operator   you are not held so closely to words   but can take in several words   a phrase or even a short sentence as a mouthful   and  

4    Finally as a real expert   you have such automatic perfection that you pay practically no conscious attention at all to the details of the code   but concentrate on the sense of the message   or to transcribing copying it while our mind thinks about other things    

Building the first floor on the solid foundation   

Gaining Fluency in Code to a useful 15 wpm Level   

By the time you have reached a steady speed of about 15 wpm you will have a useful and comfortable communicating tool    This will require practice of what you already know   and you will have to push yourself in little spurts to speeds where you cannot get it all at first to reach this goal    Such bursts in speed should be no longer than about one minute at a time   and you will be surprised how effectively this will help raise your receiving speeds      

Instant Recognition  

The first secret of increasing your receiving speed is to shorten the time it takes you to recognize each code character as soon as it has been completely heard    The shorter that time interval is   the faster you will be able to receive    Aim to make it instantaneous    If You Do Not Instantly Recognize the Sound of Any Character   You Have Not Really Learned It Yet    That is the one character you need to practice on until you know it immediately    The goal of practice and drill from here on is to speed up your recognition of characters   and then of words   to the point where you can both read them easily without writing   and copy them down more and more automatically      

Anticipating  

In ordinary listening and reading many of us habitually anticipate what the next word or sentence is going to be   and we are ready to jump ahead or help out    Most of us can do this without losing anything that actually comes next what actually does follow just replaces whatever we anticipated    By contrast   even at high speeds   the code signals are so slow compared with the speed we think that for some of us anticipation can create a severe mental block   causing us to miss out completely what actually comes next    In the very slow speed learning stages this risk is greatest      If you become conscious that this habit is interfering with your receiving at any point in learning or later use   you should take immediate steps to prevent it    This is most important in the early stages when we are forming code habits    It will require discipline to concentrate on listening strictly to the incoming signals    See next section for help in preventing anticipation    However   if you are conscious of anticipating but that it is not in any way interfering with actual reception   the best thing is to forget it and keep concentrating on the incoming signals    In this case   anticipation will not hurt    We also tend to evaluate what we are hearing or reading    This is natural and should not be discouraged if it does not interfere with reception    A tendency to anticipate does tell us one good thing we havent reached out limit yet and can learn to read code faster if we go at it in the right way    See Chapter 11 for further discussion of this      

What Kind Of Material to Practice  

Most of the materials for practice should be in regular English and as INTERESTING as possible    Have a VARIETY in every practice period so that nothing becomes monotonous    Select the kind of material you intend to be working with as you use the code    To prevent anticipating what is coming next   during the early phase of learning   some practice material in each session should consist of non English    Three to five minutes per session is long enough for this   unless you intend to be working with enciphered messages  it must not be used to a point where it becomes boring      

International amateur call signs   Q signals and common abbreviations make good practice   because they are somewhat random   but realistic and also useful    Reverse English is good because it keeps normal letter frequencies by sending words and sentences backwards     

You can hardly anticipate those words The 100 most common words   listed at the end of this section   make excellent practice    This not only makes you familiar with them and gives you a boost in feeling at home with the code   but also it will help you gain further proficiency as you continue to advance    Work with them alongside other practice materials until you recognize these words   or most of them   at once as words  patterns of sound that have meaning in code    Along with the 100 most common words practice with some of the common phrases   such as of the I am   etc    See Chapter 22

Once again we must emphasize the importance of REPETITION      

The best way to get these common words impressed as units of sound to the mind is to repeat each one a number of times before going on to the next one    Use a keyboard or computer to generate a tape   on which each word is repeated from at least three to five times    Space the words widely enough apart that you will be able to say the word each time after you have heard it    Then listen to that tape over and over again   saying each word to yourself as soon as it has been sent    Practice listening to it until the words come as easily and naturally as if you were sitting   listening and talking    Make yourself thoroughly familiar with them      Other Ways  Several other simple practices can help you gain familiarity and confidence    One of these is to read road signs and ads you see while driving or riding   whistling them aloud or mentally to yourself in code    If you have friends also learning   try whistling code back and forth among yourselves as conversation    There are lots of other possibilities  find them and make it fun    For example The Two Way Word Game This is a good speed builder   and works this way the instructor sends a word and student sounds out the word to himself see phonics   Chapter 7 as the letters follow one after the other to build up the word until a space comes to show that the word is completed      For example   the instructor sends the word was    As the student hears W he thinks w   then as he hears A he combines them WA to think way   and finally as he hears S and then silence   he thinks the word was    Then the student immediately sends it back to the instructor    The student writes nothing down    Begin with two letter words   then four or more letters as the student catches on and speeds improve    Remember that it is a game    Make it fun    Never again will you try just to retain the letters in a word   but rather the sounds of those letters   putting the sounds represented by the letters together as they come in       

How Long And What Kind Of Practice  ?     Keep practice sessions short and with some RESTING time in between  doing something else  such as into ten minute practice periods   followed by a five minute rests    Three or four such periods per session are adequate at the early stages    They can be lengthened gradually so long as fatigue does not set in    Remember that fatigue and boredom tend to defeat rapid advancement      Teachers are divided as to whether it is better to major on receiving practice without copying or to major on copying    The best course would seem to be to do some of both    Some teachers insist that the student not copy for some time after initially learning the characters    They prefer for him just to listen    The idea is to build up and strengthen sound pattern recognition without the distraction of writing    See Chapter 7 and Chapter 8

As for sending practice   it is best not begun until the student knows how good code sounds    The sound patterns need to be firmly enough established in mind that the student can imitate them without the discouragement of hearing his own poor character formation and bad or irregular spacing   and also to minimize criticism    It seems best to defer using a key until a receiving speed of about 10 wpm is reached    At all times aim for beautiful   perfect sending   where the timing and rhythm produce accurately formed characters and spacings    Aim for it   and dont be satisfied with anything less    See Chapter 9

One good form of early practice sending is to listen to a character   then send it   hear the next and then send it   etc    Another helpful way is for the student and teacher to send a short series of words or sentences simultaneously   aiming to be in unison      Copying has the advantage of verifying accuracy of recognition and identifying areas needing improvement    In the early stages the use of random groups is best because it avoids anticipation    Listening practice   without writing anything down is of great importance and value    To gain skill this should be done at speeds almost as fast as you can receive by just listening   and with frequent short burst of listening to still faster sending    This will help the mind get used to more rapid recognition      It has been found that it is GROUPING which largely determines how fast one can receive code    What doesnt MAKE SENSE tends to slow us down    At almost any skill level   random characters will be the slowest   and isolated   unrelated or unfamiliar words come next    The highest receiving speeds are achieved with connected text   and it tends to be receivable at twice or more the speed of scrambled letters    Even nonsense sentences can be received fairly fast because they have a familiar pattern    It is the coherence of a grouping that helps speed up its recognition      There is another factor   which we should be aware of    It is this when we are practicing by listening to the radio and must strain to get the signals  because of weak signals   interference   static or poor sending trying to figure out a bad combination or to recall some word previously sent   this brings the conscious mind into action   to try to reason things out    As the conscious mind works harder and harder   the receptivity of the unconscious mind tends to cease    This mental friction interferes with advancement in the earlier stages of gaining speed   and may even bring all receptivity to a stop    Whenever you must strain to get the signals  because of interference   static or poor sending  to try to figure out something being sent   this brings the conscious mind into action to try to reason things out    As the conscious mind works harder and harder   the receptivity of the unconscious mind tends to cease    This mental friction may bring all receptivity to a stop     

FAMILIARITY with what is being sent makes learning easier and faster    Words that are unfamiliar to the operator are more likely to be read and copied wrong    Progress is about 50 percent faster using connected text than words alone    Many more mistakes are made with nonword letter groups   which are not words than with normal texts      Getting Stuck  To have a plateau means to be stuck at some speed    It may be just a temporary condition   which is passed over with a little more practice   or it may be something that stubbornly refuses to yield    Several different factors may cause the stubborn kind of plateau    A plateau is the result of interpreting the sound as something other than the letter itself    Someone has written that it is the condition where the conscious mind is fighting to translate   while the subconscious mind is quietly trying to get through and tell you its got perfect copy    A plateau is a battle in the mind   with the conscious mind trying to translate the dits and dahs and not being able to keep up   while the subconscious mind is quietly trying to get through and tell you its got perfect copy      At speeds of around 7 or 10 or so wpm it usually occurs because one is translating the code characters first into some intermediate form such as a mental picture and then translating that again into the ordinary letters    That is a two step operation which takes more time than the proper onestep operation does e   g    di dah is A    Such a situation is often the result of using one of the old and obsolete learning methods Again   when the characters are initially sent too slowly the student tends to count the dits and dahs and analyze them in this way    I have known old time operators who by long practice routinely counted the components of all the longer characters to identify them at speeds up to as high as 20 wpm   or faster Thats the way they learned them   but what a waste of time and effort Counting and analyzing both tend to keep the conscious   analytical mind involved where it should not be    This will slow us down and tend to bring on needless fatigue    One experienced old timer wrote Once you start becoming familiar with code sounds as in speech   there are no plateaus      The 100 Most Common Words In English  go am me on by to up so it no of as he if an us or in is at my we do be and man him out not but can who has may was one she all you how any its say are now two for men her had the our his been some then like well made when have only your work over such time were with into very what then more will they come that from must said them this upon great about other shall every these first their could which would there before should little people   Six of these words take the same time to send as the number zero 0 are him men on so no    Fourteen more of them are shorter still the its to   us am if   as be we an   me at is   it    Twenty short words    Listening to   copying and sending the 100 most common words is good daily practice    Also the 100 words makes good typing practice      Passing Examinations  Our primary interest here is to help you learn and use Morse code so you can fully enjoy this beautiful mode of communication    Passing exams is of secondary interest   though necessary to obtain full licensing so you can enjoy conversing by means of Morse code on the air    Many students who have started out with the recommended 20 wpm minimum character speeds have found that they were able to achieve 13 wpm within as little as a week or two of intense guided practice    It is important to know what to expect in a license examination the format of an exam   the types of questions asked   etc      so you can practice them and not be surprised    Such materials are available for current examinations from the ARRL and other sources    These things will not be treated here    The only one who fails is the one who does not try again until he succeeds    If this is your problem   learn where your weaknesses lie and practice to overcome them for the next test    Many a ham has tried two   three or more times before he passes    Dont give up    

Practice To Gain Proficiency     

When you have reached about 15 wpm code will have become a useful tool for communication You will have become an operator     However   it is pretty slow   but now you have come to feel some satisfaction of mastery   and can see that to be able to handle somewhat higher speeds will greatly improve your communication skills    How shall we go about it  ?     Mere repetition wont do it    We need intelligently directed practice  it must be done in the right way    This is what we discuss now      How Far Do You Want To Go  ?     For the sake of discussion   we may divide advancement somewhat arbitrarily into four stages   which we will call    a good operator up to about 25 wpm     a skilled operator up to around 35 to 40 wpm     an expert up to about 60 wpm   and   over 60 wpm a super expert      Each stage should bring increasing personal pleasure in accomplishment up to whatever point you feel satisfied with and have no desire to go further      You determine where that point is    Advancing is by changing gears like going from low gear where we recognize characters   to 2nd gear where we recognize small words and some common syllable as units of sound   3rd gear where we have increasing freedom from conscious spelling and sense of increasing pleasure as one hears and sends words pretty much as words   and then finally overdrive where we are hardly conscious of spelling except occasional rare words or proper names   and are hardly conscious of exactly which words are used   but mainly of the ideas      Reaching higher speeds will turn out to be easier than you might suppose    It is mostly a matter of determination   right approach and practice   and building on what you already know    Your rate of gain will depend mostly on how you go about it   and will be about proportional to the square of the time invested    So   how far do you want to go  ?    Remember it is not speed   but accuracy that counts     We want to communicate    Time is lost by mistakes   whether in sending or copying    So take one step at a time   and when satisfied   stop    When we read a book   the bigger the bites we take   the faster we can read and understand    It is the same in telegraphy how much can we take in and immediately perceive as a unit  ?    How big are the units  ?    This determines how fast we can receive the code    It is the COHERENCE of the groupings what makes sense  which makes for rapid recognition    Whenever something doesnt make sense it tends to slow us down      Word recognition is what makes a proficient operator    The real alphabet of the expert telegrapher is largely one of words   it is his language   and interpreting it is as easy for him as talking and listening    See Kinds of Practicing for an exercise to help develop this    It cannot be stated too often that The skilled operator does not hear the dits and dahs   but only the letters   words   sentences    RELAX and ENJOY  IT    We need to remind ourselves   that if anyone else can do it   we probably can too    How  ?    The pro in code is completely relaxed he knows he can read and copy it   even while doing something else    He hears it like the spoken word and often can even remember it well enough to copy it down later if he needs to    He doesnt get get tensed up    He is a good model   whatever speed he has achieved    If you know one   imitate him and keep relaxed and enjoy the challenge of advancing all the while you are progressing    If you dont know any expert code operators   watch any skilled performer   a violinist   a pianist   a tennis player    See how easily he goes about it      ENJOY the experience of learning    Make each practice period fun    Those who engage in the learning process with a carefree   unhurried   unworried attitude and enjoy it progress the fastest    So dont press your ultimate objectives   dont try too hard   this will hinder our advancement    Be content to go ahead a step at a time    We need to let go any unconscious resistance   and permit our subconscious minds to function without interference    The more we give ourselves permission to let go of any concern and the more fun it is   the better we will do    Someone has written When Im fresh and right on it which means he is all keyed up and going to try too hard   my code speed is really bad   but when Im tired I can keep up with the best of them because he has let go    Please review Chapter 2 for details      One ham who is a doctor wrote Communicating in Morse is special    With my headphones on listening   usually with eyes shut   I feel that Im communicating without talking or hearing voices    After a long day of talking and listening its pleasant    The message seems to come in a whisper or even represents to me something Im remembering rather than hearing    I no longer formulate what I want to say and then translate into code for my fingers to send    It doesnt feel like it is coming from the conventional speech centers    The thoughts just come out  relaxed communication      

Make Each Practice Period A Step Forward  

In pushing for higher speeds   advancement is pretty much up to you    So what follows is directed to you    However   the principles expressed here are fully applicable to a teacher at any level from beginning to the highest level    Try to plan your practice periods so that you can see or feel you have accomplished something in each and every session    Maintain a positive attitude    See how far you have come    Imitate the good beginning teacher who shows his students how the bits and pieces will soon fit together to make words   and how the context can help to fill in whats missing   and how to learn from failures  things that need more practice  and to learn from them how to do better next time      Encourage yourself to keep going and not give up    Know you can succeed    Visualize success and be encouraged    It also helps to provide some small reward after each practice session    In developing speed   we need to push without pushing too hard or for too long at a time   just a minute or two    It seems best to start a practice period with speeds faster than you are comfortable with   pushing when your energy is initially high to recognize sound patterns more quickly   then slowing down a bit to a more comfortable rate    This way you will be able to see your improvement  growing    Keeping a record will help you see your progress      

Learning does not stop when a practice period ends  it continues on for a while afterward as the mind continues to digest it   provided that we relax or do something quite different    So space your practice periods widely enough apart to give learning a chance to maximize      Kinds Of Practicing  There are several kinds of practicing we can do   listening practice     copying practice     sending practice   and   mental practice      Lets consider each one  Listening Practice Listen   Listen   Listen to well sent code    Listen at every opportunity as well as at planned practice sessions    Listen to the radio   to tapes   to computer generated materials    Do it whenever you dont have something else to do which requires conscious mental activity try it during lunch   while driving  listen and enjoy it    There are several kinds of listening  first   listening at any speed where we can understand all or nearly all of what is sent   next   there is listening at speeds where we can read maybe 75 percent of it   and finally there is listening to sending so fast that we can only catch some letters or a word here and there      Each kind is valuable to us    Our purpose in listening at easy speeds is twofold    We want to feel comfortable with the code   just as we normally read and talk without struggling with how we do it    To become comfortable we need to get familiar with the everyday day words and expressions   how they sound    Engaging in personal QSOs  over the air or through a wire  is one way   and it provides a strong motivation    We need to feel comfortable   too   at various speeds   from slow to as fast as we can handle it    Listening over this range helps gain this familiarity    This is a second goal    But take it easy      When we let the mind be quiet and just listen to very fast code   letters and words will soon begin jumping out at us    Want to hear them    This stimulates the mind    Learn to see them on your mental blackboard    There is a limit as to how fast we can spell words    Give yourself permission to let go of the need to consciously recognize each letter    The less we try   the better and faster we can become    That is   let the subconscious   automatic mind operate without restraining it by conscious interference and control      Listen at every opportunity to good sending even if it is somewhat too fast for you to get it all    Listen    Listen    Listen while doing other things that do not require close mental attention    Let your ears be filled with good code signals    Dont let ourself get all wound up keep relaxed     The mind is strange  it relaxes when asked to perform at a rate lower than it is used to   but tends to tighten up when asked to perform at a level which it thinks it cant quite hack    The essence of code learning   like language   is FAMILIARITY  which means overlearning    That is   learning to the point where it is automatic   without thinking about how we are doing it the dits and dahs   or even the words    The highest skill comes when in reading by ear   we are conscious only of the ideas being expressed   just as if we were talking    This is communicating at the highest level     

Word Recognition Practice   

Are anticipation and delayed perception related  ?    We previously noted that we must not attempt to identify a character   particularly a longer one   until the whole character has been received    Here we are concerned with word recognition in the same way    Not jumping to a conclusion about what the total word will be when it is a long or compound word but waiting until it is complete before identifying it    Suggested drills are with compound words such as wayside   mockingbird   chairman   salesman   notebook   lifetime   customhouse   morningglory hereabouts doorbell   nevertheless watermelon household   etc    and words with suffixes such as cheerful   personable   fellowship    finality   dictionary   mechanically   characteristic   etc      or where the first part make look like an independent word   but with a totally different meaning as it stands or e   g    axiom   category   handicap   climax   magnificent      Copying Practice Copying at easy speeds is of some   but not great   value for improving speed    To improve we must keep working at short bursts of a minute or so at a time   at speeds where we can get maybe only 50  75 percent of it  where it is just too fast for us  speeds where we write down what we can get and ignore the rest    If You Dont Recognize A Sound Pattern Immediately   Just Skip It   Leave A Space and Go Ahead     Never let yourself stop to try to figure it out   because if you do   you will miss what immediately follows    Dont frustrate yourself this way    Keep pressing on   copying what you immediately recognize and ignoring the rest    Remember that here we are only practicing  missing out is no big deal  at this point were still learning    We must condition ourselves to this    Gradually the holes will fill in and we will be getting it all   and without straining      Often   even when were trying to make good copy   missing a letter here and there wont matter much    If we are interested   the gaps can often be filled in later from the context    After reaching a fair speed   it is helpful to copy long enough to become tired and then still keep on copying    As the conscious mind gives up and stops guessing   this lets the subconscious mind more and more take over    Then any mental strain you feel will subside   and you can copy page after page   and yet may hardly be aware of a single sentence in it      For teachers Sometimes it may prove best to let the student think the speed is slower that it actually is    That way he may just go ahead and copy it anyway   Random character practice at speeds above about 15 to 20 wpm is of questionable value unless you are planning to do a lot of copying of enciphered messages    It tends to prevent the development of the important sense of word recognition   something that we must develop for normal use of the code in communication    Practicing with words spelled backwards is a good substitute for random groups it eliminates anticipation   yet gives give normal letter distribution and the feeling that one is dealing with words   not nonsense    Foreign language texts may also be used profitably   where no special characters used diacritical marks   etc      Sending Practice  Using a Key To Practice It is more blessed to send good code than to receive it    Most CW Operators Are More Impressed By Quality Of The Code Than By Speed    Readability is the number one requirement    It is the sender with his key who has control of this    If it isnt intelligible   whats the use of sending it in the first place  ?    Most people consider sending easier than receiving    This is hardly surprising   because we already know ahead of time what we are going to send before we send it    However   we may be fooling ourselves unless we have developed accurate sending habits    There is no excuse for sending sloppy cw    When we get in a hurry we may tend to shorten or eliminate spaces between characters in familiar words and between words  this makes it very difficult to read    When static or interference is present   it is even harder    And  if we think we can send faster than we can receive it is very often hard stuff to copy      Remember that WHAT WE DO REPEATEDLY IS PRACTICE   whether we are learning or using code    We need to watch the quality of our sending as we use the code   not to slip into bad habits    Most bad fists have probably come about from imperceptible shifts away from good timing    Avoid the use of buzzers for practice   as they have a delayed start and promote bad sending habits    Use an oscillator instead      Mental Practice Thinking between regular practice periods is one of the many valuable means of learning    It is both thinking about the skill you are developing and thinking the skill itself    One way is to think the code to yourself when you see a street sign   car license plate or other printing    It is even more effective to whistle it or say it out loud in rapid dit dahs    Another valuable form of mental practice is the picturing of yourself using the code   as described in Chapter 2

On The Air Practice Reality Listening and QSO Practice     Dont hesitate after you get your license to go on the air    If you flub up   remember that just about every bodys first few contacts are more or less failures    Stumble through them   muddle through and make it as easy as you can      If you miss   stay calm   ask for repeat if it seems important    If you dont understand some abbreviation or word he may have spelled it wrong muddle through    Laugh off your blunders    Become comfortable about it    You have no job to lose    Listening by pulling weak stations out of interference and static is a skill to be learned    A good IF or audio cw filter will help    If you have one   practice using it    Static crashes which take out pieces of text is another problem filters can sometimes help   but some have found that by using speeds up to around 20 or 25 wpm the characters may be squeezed in between crashes   and so less may be lost    This is one incentive for advancing in speed    

How Fast  ?    

The Wrong Question  How Well  How fast  ?     thats really the wrong question when standing all by itself    The question   which ought to be asked   is How well  ?    or perhaps How effectively  ?    or How intelligently   The telegraph code is simply a means of communication   and communication is transferring ideas from one person to another in the form of words and sentences    If a person talks too slowly   attention tends to lag and comprehension becomes difficult    If too rapidly   things may be missed or misunderstood    Mumbling is usually inexcusable    Speed itself is not usually the object   except perhaps in case of emergency   such as Help and even then it may hurt rather than help communication    The normal goal is coherency and accuracy    Speed for us is just convenience      Commercial operators have always prided themselves in their ability to handle a large volume of traffic with dispatch and 100 percent accuracy    One operator wrote Over 50 years ago as a trainee commercial operator I was told that it is better to send at 20 wpm   and be received 100 percent the first time   than to send at 28 wpm and be involved in time wasting repeats      The U   S    Navy insisted on accuracy above everything else speed was always secondary    Battles   lives and expensive ships  often the outcome of the battle itself  depend upon perfect accuracy in communication    A single erroneous word or number during wartime or emergency might be ruinous and tragic    Accuracy comes first always   at all times there    The telegraph code was devised to communicate  that is its sole purpose      If the code is not understood it is a waste of time and effort    If we send personal dialect or in a strongly personalized manner we make it hard   or even impossible for the receiving operator to make sense out of it    How do you like to struggle to make sense out of what a speaker with strong dialectical speech   or with a serious speech defect   says to you  ?    If there is anything that causes downright joy in an amateurs heart   it is the pleasure of communicating with an operator who really knows how to send and how to receive    Aim to be one of these      Copyability How fast can you copy  ?    Even for a highly skilled operator this is almost wholly dependent on the senders quality of articulation  his rhythm   spacing and keyer weighting    One of them said I can read a super operator at 50 wpm   but there are some hams I strain to copy at 10 wpm  some old timers hard to copy because of bad habits    The key to high speed reception is to recognize the pauses between letters and between words    This means that the sender must not run things together    It is this split second it is the space which gives the time needed to get the mind set for the next word    One of first things that often happens when we try to send faster is to run the letters and words together    For example   when of comes out dah dah dah di di dah dit    We can learn to read that stuff   but when longer and less familiar words are sent and word spaces also are neglected   we can quickly get lost in a maze of letters   which make no sense    It seems to me that as speeds get really high fewer and fewer abbreviations are used      Fast Enough to Communicate Satisfyingly  It is possible to creep along at five wpm   the minimum FCC amateur qualifying speed  communicating   but just barely    Many hams in the past found lots of enjoyment plugging along at ten wpm   which for many years was the minimum requirement for an amateur operators license    Perhaps a majority of hams have found 15 to 18 wpm to be comfortable   adequate and quite pleasant to satisfy their desires to communicate      Back in the days of landline telegraphy sixteen wpm was considered the minimum to qualify a new operator   while 25  30 was considered a standard range of speed    For very many years the ARRL bulletins have been at 18 wpm   which is a comfortable speed for most of us to read and copy    It should be clear that speed   in itself   should not be an object   but rather proficiency and ease of operation    One does not usually buy a racing car just to drive to work each day    On the other hand   when there is a lot to say   or when there is a need for extensive personal interchange   a minimum speed of 25 to 30 wpm is really needed to keep the thought moving      From listening in the bands it would appear that in the CW mode this speed range seems to be very common    Even when one is contesting   and rag chewing is out of the question   if one moves too slowly   he is going to have a rather low score    But here also   speed   in itself   is not of much value intelligibility and accuracy are required   and correct call signs   etc      are vital for qualification    There must be a balance      All through the history of telegraphy   from almost the earliest days to the present   there has been the challenge for speed    The high speed skilled operators achieved a sort of prestige   which was salable and commercially was rewarded by higher pay    The beginner and the plug were looked down upon with more or less scorn    But as radio amateurs   CW is one element of our hobby   something we do because we like to do it    We are subject to neither monetary incentive for proficiency nor threats for mediocrity    It is our own sense of need and desire that motivates us    Those among us who can race along at buzzsaw rates should not look down upon the rest of us who are content to enjoy lower rates   and we slower guys   in turn should not despise the newcomer   the handicapped or the ham content with thirteen wpm    We dont have to communicate with those above or below our state of proficiency unless we want to    So   the word we ought to emphasize here is proficiency  proficiency at a speed that satisfies our enjoyment  a pleasant speed which we feel is comfortable and satisfying      The Proficient Operator  He is at home with the code up to his limiting speed    He is quite comfortable sending and receiving in this range and except for excessive QRM and QRN feels no sense of strain    To him or her the code is just another   and particularly enjoyable   way to converse    He understands what he hears without any particular effort   and of course he hears it as words   not just strings of letters    Some of our best written examples come from the old wire line RR telegraphers in small stations across the country      These men few women held such jobs because of the other duties required also had responsibility for delivering train orders to the train crews   maintaining RR property associated with their stations   operating the semaphore signals and track switches for passing trains   answering customers questions   selling tickets   handling baggage and freight shipments   etc    In short   telegraphy   while of great importance   was but one aspect of their jobs    They were not just sitting beside their sounders waiting for something to come through on the line    Their ears were attuned to the sounder   and they would have to be ready to interrupt other duties if something important was heard    Their sounders were continuously on the line and they could and did hear   almost unconsciously listening to everything that was said to anyone on the line they knew everything going on    It was like a big party line    Very many skilled radio operators of the past and present do the same thing      One of them who operated commercially for many years and was also a ham wrote During my time as a RR telegrapher   and as a radio operator   I could and can do several other things while still knowing what is going on the wire or on the radio    As a matter of fact   right now   I have 20 meter cw on and I am fully aware of what is going on   who is there   what they are saying   etc      while writing this letter    With speeds of up to 30 to 40 wpm   I have always been able to carry on a complete conversation while copying the code on a mill   servicing the message ahead of time   etc      etc      Set Your Own Goal  So   how high should you set your goal of speed  ?     Set it to meet your own temperament and desires   what you think will be comfortable and enjoyable to you    Set it realistically  not so high that you get discouraged by how long it takes to get there    But not so low that you are unable to enjoy much that is on the air   available to be read or copied    If you feel challenged to go to the top   fine   but maybe you should divide it into stages of growth along the lines suggested here      Ted McElroy   long the code speed champion and a teacher   said that 25 wpm is an easily achievable and reasonable goal  one who can handle this speed comfortably is a good operator    But if you can read or copy at 30 to 35 wpm this added margin will allow you to correct for errors   static and other kinds of interference or losses   as well as widening your contacts    We have tried here to lay out for all to see what has been done and what can be done    Pick what you yourself want    You dont have to keep up with the fastest Joneses you may hear      First and foremost   have fun enjoy it    Good operator  ?    Skilled operator  ?    Expert  ?    Super expert  ?    Up to some point each stage brings increasing pleasure as one becomes more and more free from conscious effort    Reaching higher speeds will turn out to be easier than you might suppose    It is mostly a matter of right approach and practice   continuing what we have already started    Your rate of gain will depend mostly on how you go about it   and will be more or less proportional to the square of the time invested    What do you want  ?      Shortening Things Up  At too low a code speed it takes so long to say things in ordinary English that it may become tedious or even boring    This can be a major roadblock to the real enjoyment of slower cw operating   but it is not the only reason for tedious QSOs    This can be partly overcome by certain shortcuts    In the early days of wireless   code speeds were necessarily slow for a number of reasons   and so three ideas were borrowed from landline telegraphy to help speed things up special signals  including the special three letter Q signals providing short forms for common radio communicating needs     omitting words not really necessary to convey the sense     using standard or easily understood abbreviations      Q signals allow us to cover a lot of ground with only three letters    If they are followed by a question mark   the sender is asking a question   without it he is making a statement    QTH   for example   says My location is             while QTH  ?    says What is your location  ?    It is a waste of time to send My QTH is           as we sometimes hear   or What is your QTH  ?    See the ARRL Operating Manual for a list of the most useful of these    A similar but much more extensive set of special commercial three letter signals was once devised   called the Zcode    This system never attained wide popularity   but it is much easier to remember      In most sentences certain words can be left out completely without altering the meaning of a sentence    Words such as I    the   that   etc      can often be dropped without causing any confusion    Several words or a whole phrase can often be ignored without detracting anything of importance    These were the kinds of things commonly done in writing commercial telegrams to reduce the cost      Various kinds of abbreviations   a sort of shorthand   have been in common use over the years    Many of them were used extensively by people making brief notes   etc      others were devised by old time telegraphers for their special purposes    Several different schemes have been devised to form them    short words may be represented by their first and last letters e   g    now by NW   would by WD   check by CK   etc      short words may be spelled phonetically e   g    some by SUM   says by SEZ   good by GUD   because by BECUZ   etc      other words may simply omit all their vowels and just use the consonants e   g    letter by LTR   message by MSG   etc      easily suggested parts of longer words may be represented by a single letter e   g    in amateur practice transmitter may be sent as XMTR   weather by WX   distance by DX   etc      those who handle considerable message traffic have devised some very brief forms   such as aa for all after      Amateurs must   however   remember the government regulation that we may not use secret codes or ciphers  our communications must be open   which means something generally used and understandable    The old Phillips code   for example   would qualify because it is public information    The older handbooks contained lists of the more common abbreviations   a sort of standard list    Some were for general use   others were for handling heavy message traffic   etc      When commercial telegraphers were sending press news at relatively high speeds they used a very extensive set of abbreviations called the Phillips code    Here the sending operator translated many of the words and phrases of a news dispatch into this code   and the receiving operator retranslated them back into normal English as he copied the news    This procedure reduced the total number of letters to be sent and received by around 40 percent estimated from samples given    When speaking of the speed of press dispatches this factor must be factored in the counts were based on normal English spelling    Some of the Phillips abbreviations were adopted by amateurs      The important thing about using abbreviations is that they must be obvious to the receiving operator    That means they must be common words in normal amateur or everyday use    We must use common sense with them  not overdoing it or using them excessively   just being careful that they will be understood    Refer to Chapter 27 for examples and lists of abbreviations    


Copying in Your Head Just listening to good code sending is perhaps the very best way   both to learn the code and to advance in skill      It is surely the simplest and easiest  no distractions  you can give your whole attention to just listening to and trying to understand  no struggling to write at at the same time    Isnt that the way we all learned our language  ?    Watch how little children learn      Listen  Many experienced teachers consider that just listening to good code without writing anything down is the very best form of code practice at all stages    It serves a number of purposes     First   it keeps our attention to the fact that code is sound   and we are learning to recognize the sound patterns of each character and of some words    Second   and very important   it helps to reduce any tension associated with getting every letter written down no distractions But there is more  it helps us get very familiar with using the code      So   listen   listen   listen to improve    As soon as you have some mastery of the alphabet   start listening at every opportunity to good sending   even while doing other things that do not require your close attention e   g      cooking   eating   working with hands on routine things    Dont think you need lots of new recordings    Remember that To repeat often is to learn    Replaying of the same familiar materials over and over   day after day   is especially helpful if you do it creatively   really listening to it    Play them over and over   paying close attention   trying to understand    As you listen   let your mind be open and receptive  intent on listening to each signal as it arrives    Not anticipating or trying to remember what it said before       So   let yourself get familiar with the code by taking some time every day to relax and enjoy just listening to good CW      This kind of listening is listening creatively   constructively   as it comes along    This has several distinct advantages   not the least of which is to take away any tension or strain  you know what it is talking about  you are already familiar with it in general and you feel more comfortable with it    And  you are getting really familiar with the sound of code  it is becoming increasingly meaningful to you    So   you can benefit greatly by listening to the same things over and over in this constructive way  just listening as it comes along    But as you advance mix in a pattern of new and unfamiliar recordings   too    The new material will become easier and easier with this kind of practice    You can make your own recordings  a few ARRL bulletin broadcasts   quality QSOs  Bible passages are good  or other text material and play them back over and over      Especially in the early stages of receiving   when things go very slowly   and often again when you have gained considerable skill   the mind may tend to wander off somewhere else   or go galloping ahead jumping to conclusions    As you listen   hang onto every letter   word and phrase  hang on like a leech that is   concentrate on it   really listening to it    This also helps   take off any strain   knowing something of what is being said    Remember that in practical communications   when we listen to the radio   the signals are here and then gone and cannot be brought back unless they were recorded    You are learning to get so familiar with the sound of code that doing it right the first time will be easy    Easy familiarity will help us to do that      We are more likely to rush ahead when we are fresh and alert    Dont let your mind try to outrun the sender    We must resist letting our minds wander off   or anticipate   or pause to try to figure something out    Some of us do this in normal conversation and reading   but we need to be especially on guard against this in code reception    Dont let it become a habit with Morse    As we listen   we need to disconnect all conscious analytical processes   and instead maintain an eager readiness to receive  to hear each letter   word and phrase as it comes along   willing for it to be whatever it will be    That means we hang on to every letter   word and phrase as it comes along   ready for the next one    Listen   keep listening and want to understand    Lets develop the desire and feel for doing this    There is no need ever to become embarrassed or panic because you cant read or copy everything you hear      Whatever You Miss   Let It Go  Am I afraid of losing something  ?    I must let go of that fear   and relax and learn to trust the mind and to enjoy listening    It is a fact that the less hard we try   the better we will receive    Dont ever stop to try to figure out something you didnt catch    Keep following the sender  keep listening and you will soon be getting enough to make sense out of every sentence   and in time you will get all of it    But even when you are quite good there will be some words   which dont make sense at first  in most cases you will make sense out of it as you go on following the sender   and without even trying    The context and redundancy both help fill in the gaps  just keep focussed on the signals    And dont forget that the sender sometimes may have made a mistake    If you have learned only to write things down   it will take some practice to learn to copy in your head without writing    Listen to understand    Keep listening   not worrying about losing here and there    Soon the signals seem to be slowing down as they parade before your mind or inner eye as meaningful words and phrases    Learn to listen for whole words   phrases and the meaning of messages rather than single letters      Throw Away Your Pencil  Many an old timer has always copied down everything he receives he has never learned to sit back and relax and just enjoy conversing    He needs to throw away his pencil and learn to enjoy listening for listenings sake    Many a new comer likewise feels tied to his pencil and paper out of fear he may miss something if he doesnt get it all written down   every letter of it    This creates a tension   a strain that impedes the normal functioning of the telegraphic habit of mind    Throw away your pencil and enjoy just listening is good advice      Concentrate  In receiving   we must learn more and more to shut off all distractions and concentrate our attention on the signals we are listening to   what is being said    We need to learn to center our attention consciously on the signals and ignore all else   until it becomes a habit  automatic    Prepare yourself to do this immediately before starting to listen and whenever there are lulls    Make it a habitual mental clearing for action   so you can pay attention solely to the signals you hear    When we are interested in what we are hearing this will help us concentrate    So lets want to know what is being said  yet not so intensely interested that we begin to guess what is going to be said and miss out on what is actually being transmitted     An agent who was responsible for hiring shipboard operators was himself a dyed in the wool cw operator    He connected a telegraph key in his office with a buzzer in the waiting room    Then whenever there was an opening   he would send an appropriate name from his prospect list in Morse code    If the man didnt answer promptly   he simply skipped him and went to the next name    He believed that a good shipboard operator should be alert   able to respond to cw    Isnt that an interesting way to get a good operator  ?     Is he listening   alert  ?      Learn To Hear Words As Words They Are The Building Blocks Of Thought  As you become more familiar with the code alphabet   you will soon be hearing letters easily enough  it is time to begin to think in terms of meaning  that means starting to hear words instead of strings of letters    But as speeds go up   there is a limit to our ability to spell out words    Our next goal is to hear words    Let each word or code group develop on the internal monitor screen of your mind    Begin to develop sound consciousness of words    This does not mean you have to relearn words   but only change your approach from visual to sound    Practicing with lists of words   replaying texts or QSOs  this kind of practice can help you gain that familiarity with words commonly used      There is a limit to our ability to spell words out mentally and remember them    As long as we hear only letter by letter   we almost have to copy them down to understand what is being sent    To hear code as we talk   we have to learn to hear words as words  that makes the code readable or conversational   and not just short or long strings of letters    This is stage two    If you have learned to hear and think of at least some of the 100 most common words as words   you already have taken the first steps    Words are the building blocks of language   so we need to begin to hear not code or letters   but more and more in words as perception units    Step three   the expert stage   is to learn to hear more by ideas  total content  than by words      How Can We Learn To Do This  ?    Listen For Meaning When we begin to hear and send in words instead of individual letters our receiving ability and speeds are going to improve    That is part of our goal in making the code more useful and enjoyable    Hearing words instead of strings of letters will make speeding up natural and easy    It will require some practice and effort    The mind has to be pushed   but not too hard    Lets do it the easy way   in short practice periods    Learning to recognize whole words becomes an automatic process of decoding   something that lets us understand as we hear    This is no big job  the word the   for example   is no longer than the number 9      Start learning to hear common short words until they have become indelibly fixed in mind as word sounds    Learn to read by words as readily as you recognize letters    First learn to hear common short words over and over until they have become indelibly fixed in mind as word sounds   as if someone had actually spoken them to you    Extend this to longer words by such methods as the following   which some people have found helpful  A MENTAL SCREEN is like a typewriter writing  visualize a typewriter or blackboard on which writing out each word as it comes   writing it along letter by letter along the line   or like one of those lighted display signs where the words walk slowly across the screen    Let each word develop on the internal monitor screen or blackboard of your mind so you see it being written in context    Try projecting the letter or number   etc      for split second on your mental screen as you listen to it to encourage instantly seeing it in your mind when you hear it    Learn to write on your mental blackboard    This helps focus our attention on the signals forming words and learning to see them as words    Let you mind be blank as you listen to fast code   and soon the letters jump out at you      Some have found that PHONICS can make comprehension and speed building easy and natural this way     Relax and think of the sounds of the code letters   not as letter names   but as they are pronounced in words    Like this  while the word west is being received  as each letter comes along one after the other say out loud   or to yourself wuh   wuh         wee   wee         wes   wes         west   progressively building up the word in mind by sound    This makes it easier to hear their sounds    Sound them out one after another as they come along until we get syllables and finally the sound of the whole word itself    It teaches the mind to decode the dit space dah patterns and combinations into their sound values   the way we hear words      This system doesnt work perfectly   of course   because English is not written in a perfectly phonetic way    Some of the letters are silent   like final e    Let the letters combine into words as you hear them in code   much as we recognize words as we hear their sounds You can help by practicing with the common letter combinations br   gl   ng   etc    and syllables com    ex   inter   ment   ing   tion   etc    to get familiar with them    Reading whole words this way then becomes a process of decoding from something we hear in bits and pieces into something we hear and understand as meaningful units    It even can help with abbreviations    You may like to try this approach and let it become automatic    When we have learned to hear words as words   we can often also mentally correct a senders errors or signal dropouts while listening      The importance of PROPER WORD SPACING should become more obvious now    It gives the mind a split second to make sense out of the stimuli it has just received    Those word separating spaces are vital    The following exercise is worth a try  as soon as you recognize a word by the space which follows it if the sending is not too fast   and the spaces between words are long enough   try saying each word out loud or mentally to yourself as you recognize it    You may want to make up some practice materials   which leave wider spaces between words to allow time to say them    It may also be useful to practice this way with short groups of numbers   such as 2 or 3 digits    Notice how   as you listen   the silence before says   start here and as the following space says it is finished   sort of islands of rest    That is why gaining familiarity with the sound of code words is so helpful    It makes the word a meaningful unit   and you get to feeling easy about receiving what makes sense    The more words you are familiar with the easier it is to receive    It banishes tension      One ham put it this way the code just flows into my ear and comes out as words    Just as we have learned to let the mind recognize each code character and present it to us consciously and automatically   now we must take that next step and trust the same mind to store these letters and put them together into words without demanding to be conscious of the process and hear each letter individually    We have to learn to let our subconscious mind present us with the words they form    As long as we insist on recognizing each individual letter   we are interfering   meddling with our normal habitual minds functioning   and misdirecting our attention     

The goal is to learn to listen to the code as you would to the spoken word    Eventually the sound will trigger your consciousness just as the spoken word does and then   when you can do this   it will also be easier to copy it down      We Must Listen At Higher Speeds To Improve  To improve we must begin by listening at a speed higher than we are comfortable with   in order to get used to it and speed up our recognition    We ought to listen at different speeds   both slower and faster than we can easily read    We need to be flexible  to avoid staying at any one speed too long at a time    Along with this   lets practice listening to lots of standard English at speeds close to our limit    This limit should keep going up as we continue to practice this way    A total of a half hour a day spent just listening at speeds we can barely follow will work wonders in a couple of weeks    Listen as you would at a concert   enjoying it as you go      Sometimes we should pick speeds so high that we can only make out a character here and there    This kind of listening will quickly help us to begin to get more and more    Small words will start jumping out  as soon as they have been sent we will know what the words are   although we didnt consciously spell them out as they were coming in    We need to continue this kind of practice   and soon we will be getting enough of each sentence to make sense out of it    Learning Is Variable     Some days youll do better than others   but dont let this trouble you  thats normal    All of us are like that for a while at each speed      You will discover that sometimes you can read several words solid   and then not be able to read anything more than a letter here and there for some space    All this is part of normal learning    Keep on listening give the incoming signals your undivided attention and keep relaxed   as though listening to a friend talk    Soon you will be catching not only small words   but longer ones             until you are getting it all    You will discover   with practice   that the signals   which were too fast before   will seem to be slowing down as they parade before your inner eye as meaningful words and phrases     An interesting example is the blind amateur who could copy 35 wpm   and came across some code practice and listened    He lost a letter here or there   and then was startled when they said it was 55 wpm practice   MISSING WORDS   LONG WORDS   DECAPITATED WORDS and BROKEN WORDS  Static   interference or fading can momentarily wipe out a letter or two   a small word or part of a longer word    Momentary inattention due to mental fatigue   distraction or something else on our part while sending or receiving can do this   too    When a word is decapitated the first several letters are missing    This makes things particularly difficult in English   because word beginnings are so important for us to be able to make sense of a word  and worse   this is often the accented part    In fact   when we can get the first several letters of a word dont we often know pretty well what the whole word is likely to be  ?      When reception is solid as we are just listening   some strange things may happen a little word or the first part of a long word comes along which seems unfamiliar  has no recognizable shape  and we stumble a moment trying to make sense of it    This tends to blank our minds against hearing the next few letters and then we are likely to lose the what immediately follows   in the case of a long word   the whole word    At other times our minds sometimes seem to go into 
reverse after the first few letters of a long word   then misses a couple of letters in the middle   tries to pick them up   and finally loses the whole word      How to can we stop this  ?    We mustnt let missing out first part of a word distract us so that we stop hearing the rest of it     How can we prevent this  ?    Is part of the tension caused by missing out or losing first part due to recognizing a time gap with nothing recognizable to fill it  ?     We may be able to recapture long words if we just keep on listening    When we are copying we can often fill it in afterwards from the context    A broken word interrupted   disjointed results when the missing letter or letters occurs in the middle of the word    Sometimes this break is due to the sender who inadvertently hesitates an instant too long between two letters    In either case   the space between letters is too wide and our minds interpret this as a break   marking it as the end of one word and the beginning of the next    Since it doesnt make sense   we realize something is wrong and wonder what word that last group of letters was    Let this be a warning to avoid it our own sending      When a wrong letter misspelling or a non character is sent or a word is left out it may distract us in much the same way    Really   isnt this much like a misprint in reading  ?    Dont we often skip right over a misprint or missing word and hardly notice it  ?    How do we do that  ?    Isnt it because we understand it in the context  ?    Cant we learn to do this in telegraphy also  ?     Where one or more letters or even words are wrong or missing   cant we often fill them in correctly  ?    We can learn to do this for missing or extra dits   etc      mentally correcting them as we listen    As we have emphasized before we must just let it go and keep on listening    If we pause try to figure it out at this point   it will divert our attention from reception to analysis   and seriously disrupt with our automatic reception as we try to make sense out of it    Frequently we discover that as we go it will clear itself up      First   we must keep focussed on the incoming signals without struggling to make sense out of them    TRYING to make sense is a conscious activity   interfering with the automatic mental functioning    A sense of concern is involved  concern that we wont be able to remember the first part until the word is finished   or that its beginning is peculiar   has no recognizable shape e   g    technical or medical terms   or that it is going to be a word we wont be able to recognize at all doesnt seem familiar    For many words   one way to help is to get familiar with the common prefixes and suffixes so that they are heard as units instead of separate letters    We must learn not to let conscious thought block further reception      OnTheAir Listening  When we listen on the radio   static   fading and interference tend to slow us down    Under these conditions high quality sending accurate timing will get through far better than sloppy sending    But there are certain adjustments or changes which can be made in our receiving equipment which will help e   g    the use of RF and audio filters   changing the tuning of IF amplifiers   etc       These will help separate signals and reduce noise      Static and irregular non signal types of electric interference can often be reduced by turning down RF gain and increasing AF gain to bring the signal up    Some noises can be canceled in the brain by using headphones wired so that they are out of phase with each other    Dual diversity reception can greatly reduce or eliminate fading   but this requires a major equipment change two separate antennas and two identical RF front ends are necessary    The ear is an excellent discriminator of CW signals in QRM   noise and other interference   much superior to any equipment available today      We can train our ears to minimize interference by focussing our attention to the one signal we want to hear    The musical pitch and quality   so long as two signals are not identical   can help us separate them   while the speed and style of sending also help greatly to separate the one we want from the other    In addition   the ear can be trained to read incredibly weak signals in the midst of strong distractions    Some operators have learned to get almost 100 percent copy in spite of all these     Some have found that by listening in the dark   or closing their eyes   they can focus more sharply on signals   which are in the midst of interference and other distractions    You may want to try it and see if it helps you develop or improve this skill    Finally   sometimes writing it  copying  may help us to concentrate      Any experienced telegrapher   regardless of what he is doing   effortlessly hears what is being said on the air or on the wires    


If you are going the easy way   copying is the next step after listening  advancing in code skill by adding the new action of writing it down      What we hear as letters and words are now to be written with pencil and paper or with typewriter    It is learning to coordinate ear to mind to hand    Copying by hand exposes all the senses to what you are hearing   and it is nothing more than listening to and writing down what is being received    An old 1854 book on telegraphy described it as taking dictation  at first letter by letter   later as word by word   etc    That is a good way to think of it    So   hunt up that pencil again    Operating ability is measured by copying if you dont write it down  putting down everything you hear exactly as you hear it  you arent copying      A skilled operator is trained to copy what he hears 100 percent perfect        Most people can learn to copy with a pencil up to about 25 wpm a few can reach 35   rarely 45   but above that speed almost everybody needs a typewriter mill    On a typewriter it may also be done mechanically by direct ear to type writer key transfer without processing it through the letter stage to the typewriter key     See later in chapter Remember  dont try to do more than one new thing at a time    You already know how to write    When you copy by hand   make it easy by writing the way you usually do    For example   dont try to block print unless this is natural and easy    Likewise   dont try to copy on a typewriter mill before you have learned how to touch type      While most of us would like to know what we are copying as we copy   this isnt necessary    It can become so automatic that we copy something correctly without realizing what we are copying    I usually like to know what I am copying   dont you  ?    People who do these things well do not struggle with them  they have learned so well that it has become second natural for them      Here is an interesting example of copying properly  One night   as I was copying mixed groups in a very relaxed manner   and feeling quite comfortable with the code   I asked my friend if he would speed up to 25 wpm from the 20 wpm he had been sending    He started sending them at 25 wpm   and I was vexed at his misunderstanding   but began to copy anyway   wondering why he was using voice to send these simple data     Voice  ?    What voice  ?    He was sending clear code with letter number combinations at 25 wpm and I was copying it easily    Aha The listener was now thinking in terms of letters and numbers   not as code characters at all    He had become proficient      To copy just WRITE DOWN what you hear   everything you hear  not what you think your hear  and you will make progress    The faculties of hearing and understanding code signals work best in learning to coordinate this way to create a useful copying ability      Practice with Familiar Text Helps  As in listening   this helps by dispelling the fear of missing something   because we already know what it is about    By using things   which we have read   or recorded material we are already familiar with   we feel more comfortable    When we know   at least in general   what its about or what it says   we know what to expect and not worry about not understanding and losing out    It helps build confidence in learning to copy behind    The more familiar we are with what we are copying   the easier it all becomes    This confidence will begin to carry over into receiving new and unfamiliar materials also      Pay No Attention to Any Errors  Condition yourself to copy what comes easily    As you practice   copy everything you instantly recognize and pay no attention to any errors  just forget them and go on    If You Miss Anything Just Go On  Let it go   forget it and keep going on    Train yourself to leave a blank space and go on   because if you stop for even an instant to puzzle over a signal you didnt recognize   you will miss at least some of what follows    We must condition ourselves to do this    After all   were learning      The holes in your copy will gradually fill up and you will be keeping relaxed while you go   just leaving blanks for each missed letter or word    However   characters we habitually miss do point out what needs more practice    Remember also that we may sometimes mishear   or misidentify a character or a word  and also it is always possible that the sender may have made a mistake     Count these things as of no importance   and keep at it until you can do it easily    Don t work so long at a time during these learning stages that you get tired or bored    Use a wide variety of material and choose it to be as interesting as possible      One student   speaking of ARRL practice materials   said I made more progress in learning code in weeks than I did in years previously   because it is more interesting to copy and understand solid copy    Some practice copying random 5character groups is good in the early stages to make sure we are recognizing the characters correctly and to prevent anticipation   but because it is meaningless it soon tends to become boring     Too much of this may also lead the mind to expect a break after each five letters when we are trying to copy normal English    This has happened Practice with Backward English  provided in some computer programs  is better because the letter groups are of variable length and have normal letter distribution      IF YOU WANT TO BECOME MORE PROFICIENT  Who Doesnt  ?    If you are able to copy every letter   you are not learning  but if you are only getting two letters out of every three   or four out of every five   your mind will be motivated to get that extra letter    There is always some speed at which for the time being each of us falls apart  so what  ?    It need not become a barrier    If you want to become more proficient   dont practice at such a slow speed that it becomes a fixed habit      Keep trying in short bursts of not over a minute or two at a time at higher speeds 2 or 5 or more wpm faster in order to force the mind to respond faster  it will    This is especially important when we are at a speed where we getting about 95 percent of it   so that we dont become satisfied to stay there    It is often best to begin a practice period   when the mind is fresh   at a speed too fast to get more than about half of it   and then slow down     Keep moving up faster to improve   because then copying at a little slower speed than your maximum will become easy and enjoyable    Alternating with some practice at 2 to  5 or more wpm above your limit for brief periods will challenge the mind   then dropping back a little will show you are really improving    Every operator soon develops enough awareness of what he is writing down   that he doesnt need to wonder whether it is copied correctly      In The Beginning  If you begin copying early   you will be copying letter by letter   sticking close behind the sender you hear the character and write it down   then forget it and listen to the next and write it down   and so on    But to copy this way for very long   in step with each letter being sent   tends to tense us up    It becomes tedious and tiring because it is meaningless and so much conscious effort is involved    Then you usually have to read what you have written in order to understand it    If we look back while copying we may lose out    In practicing to speed up copying   try not to stop if you fall behind   just keep going      The beginner is afraid of losing something   because he cant get it all down fast enough    He is frantically struggling to keep up   tailgating the incoming signals   so as not to lose any of them    This is because he is still not recognizing some characters quickly enough    The problem is made worse because the characters are received at very unequal rates of speed as compared to writing them down    The letters E   I and T   for example   are the shortest letters   while C   J   Q and Y are the longest ones    A beginner copying letter by letter can get panicky trying to write down an E or other short letter before the next one arrives    It is worse when two Es   or EI   IE   TT or other short letters occur together   and we frantically try to write them down before the next one comes along    As we advance most people can copy letter by letter up to about 25 wpm or even faster   but above that we simply have to find a better way      A Better Way  Copying Behind  The first step to making copying easy is to learn to copy behind    That means training the mind to act as a buffer   or short term memory   between hearing the incoming signals and what we are writing down    Several characters or words are automatically held in mind after hearing them and before writing them down   meanwhile continuing to listen to the next ones coming along    This helps smooth out the uneven rate at which characters are received as compared to writing them down   and also it relieves the mental strain of copying    It serves as a cushion    In this way we can also make much better looking copy and can even capitalize proper names as we hear them      Copying behind is another good way to beat anticipation    It puts a premium on listening before you write A good operator seldom starts writing a word down until it is completed    By starting out using things   which we have read   or recorded material we are already familiar with   we feel more comfortable    When we know what its about or what it says   we know what to expect and not worry about losing out      Above about 25 wpm   we need to build up vocabulary of at least the most common words and syllables    Practice waiting until a syllable or short word is finished before starting to write it down   then try it for two syllables    Writing down more than that behind what has been sent may be risky  the word may turnout to be longer  unexpected letters may still be coming and surprise you   making you miss them or even more  If youre still going at 40 wpm you will have to copy word by word    Some people seem to develop this ability without any special effort as they progress    But for most of us it just doesnt seem to come at all without some help      

How can we learn to copy behind  ?    Is there something we can do specifically  ?    There certainly is    Here is one way to begin start out with random two character groups at first   until you get the hang of it   keeping the spacing between groups wider than normal    Listen until both characters have been heard before starting to write them down    As this becomes easier   try groups of three   then of four and if you wish up to five or more    Practice also with decreasing spacing between groups until it is normal    Another approach with any kind of text   is this way listen to the first character   but wait until the next one has been completed before writing the first one down   write down the second one after hearing the third one   etc    Then increase the number of intermediate characters between hearing and writing to two   then three   etc      as far as you wish      This kind of practice should be extended to include short syllables and short words such as the 100 most common words   in each case waiting until the whole syllable or word is completed before starting to write it down   and while listening to what follows    To extend this to more than a couple of syllables or short words can be risky   because   as noted before   something unexpected may come along and throw you off balance   and cause you to miss some of what follows      An interesting example is this comment from the time when a government inspector had to test each individual applicant for an operators license  I can remember the benefits of copying behind    The inspector giving the test started and sent of and then added an f    I immediately thought of off and got set for the next word   but to my dismay   without a pause he sent an i and so immediately I tried to outfox him by prewriting the word office To my consternation he kept on going with cia and I quickly revised my thinking to official    But I was wrong   because he finally ended up with the word officially    Listening first and copying behind are beneficial    So   copying a word or two behind is a leisurely pace   but too much more may produce some mental strain   especially if an unusual word comes along      Copying behind has many advantages besides making it easy    It allows us to make a neat   finished looking copy with a proper appearance   capitalization and punctuation    When it is at speeds well below our limit   it gives us time to fill in gaps and flaws due to static   etc      and to correct errors in sending    Context can help    Numbers   however   have no context and generally must be copied without delay    The purpose of copying behind is to relieve the mind of the compulsive pressure   the strain   of keeping up letter by letter      Most high speed operators who have discussed this subject tell us that we need not copy more than one or two syllables or words behind   and in fact as speeds go up this is about the safe limit    Some experts   such as Ted McElroy seem to have been able to copy 6 or more words  even whole sentences  behind with no trouble at all   but most of us probably cannot    Copying letter by letter forces one to write with conscious effort and this in turn blocks our attempts to copy behind      What Makes Sense Is Easier  We can hold in mind only a few individual numbers or random characters at a time because they usually have no coherence   no meaning  they dont make sense as syllables and words do    Words and phrases are much easier to remember than a string of letters or numbers or a call sign because they form meaningful groups   not a lot of little unrelated pieces    This is why Walter Candler   who in earlier days taught many operators to become experts   was convinced that learning to hear words as words was essential for efficient copying behind    He was a strong proponent of listening practice    We can learn to copy by words as readily as by letters    For example   the word the takes no longer time than the number 9      Copying behind by syllables   words and even by longer expressions is merely an extension of this    If we build up our working vocabulary word familiarity as already discussed in Chapter 7   listening   this will help us a great deal    As speeds go up you will find that   by around 40 wpm youre copying word by word and by 60 wpm if you go that far it will be more like copying phrase by phrase      Old time telegraphers used to say that their alphabet was words    That is   they had a wide working vocabulary of words that they instantly recognized when they heard them    When they heard a word coming in on the line in code   they heard the word   not the individual letters   unless it was some proper name or something unusual that they had to spell out    They had a familiarity with words    That is why one of them   who also was a well known teacher of Morse code   said that by listening and re listening over and over again to the same recorded code tapes of regular English text   this will help us to become intimately familiar with the words  that is   over learning    We need to get familiar with words as they sound in code      Conquering Our Fears of Losing Out  Law 3 if you miss something condition yourself to skip it    Keep copying everything you recognize instantly and easily and shrug off the holes left over    Youll soon be surprised to find the holes gradually filling up    If you are frightened you lose much of your ability to copy code well and surprisingly your sending speed also tends to go up as much as 25 percent    The parts of brain that copy normally are pretty much shut down      At first it may not be easy to let go   and allow some characters or words   which we cant quite consciously identify   pass by    That doesnt mean we stop listening or paying attention it means we are learning to trust the mind to store them safely in its immediate   retrievable memory and not get panicky or confused because we are not conscious that they are there    So   especially in practice   if you miss a few letters or a word here or there   dont worry      Overcome this fear by just continuing to go ahead  including more practice on the sticky characters  and you will surprise yourself to find you will recall them    Because our fear of losing out is the greatest barrier to copying behind   Candler devised some special exercises to help us get started with a minimum of strain    It goes like this take a list of short words in two parallel columns   preferably words with about the same number of letters each   and  a With pencil or typewriter write down the first word in the first column while simultaneously spelling out loud the parallel word in the second column   and so on down the columns    We may do it again   reversing the column order    Try it with 2letter words first   then longer words till you get the knack of it     As a useful variation   try sending the one word with your key while spelling the other out loud     b Have someone read easy printed matter to you by spelling out each word at a regular   even rate of speed and a level tone of voice    Dont begin writing the first word until the third starts   and keep on two words behind   and then if you wish   with three words behind   etc     Finally you may repeat it using code instead of voice spelling    Do these exercises slowly enough that you dont feel rushed or have any fear of losing out    Dont do it too long at a time a couple minutes at a time are enough to get the hang of it      Other Suggestions  Finger Writing Try some copying this way  sit as though were going to write   using your index finger instead of a pencil or your hand as though you held a pencil   letting it rest lightly on paper while listening to the code    You may try it as motionless copying   not moving your finger   copying in your head only   or you may prefer to write with your finger    Either way   it can help wean us away from that baby step of letter by letter copying   and graduate us into seeing several letters or words as a unit in the minds eye      Once weve gotten the knack of it   we will discover that visualizing and holding the letters   even for just an instant   will help us to copy better and faster than the old on the edge way  almost a reflex action    All this is training the mind to dig up the images of words that have already been sent    It will develop a sort of automatic response ears   mind   hand all coordinating together    Remember to ignore any errors   not to work too long at a time   and  dont forget youre just practicing    So give yourself a chance    In learning to copy on typewriter   go slowly at first    You may find it easier to use either caps or lower case altogether at first    Until the typewriter became practical old time Morse telegraphers copied all messages with pen and ink in beautiful longhand up to 30 or 35 wpm  solid deliverable copy   while a real good operator using a mill later could take 50 to 60 wpm without overextending himself    Most copied 5  6 words behind to do this       


Until you have gained considerable skill in copying   avoid working too long at a time    But after this point it is good to practice copying for longer periods without fatigue    When you have reached a fair speed   long copying practice can be helpful because by the time we are getting somewhat tired   our subconscious mind is translating the dits and dahs so that we do not feel that terrific mental strain that is the cause of guessing at certain letters    Under these conditions one can copy page after page and not be aware of a single sentence in it      


In the old days when all ships used spark only it took a lot of concentration and skill to copy a station a thousand miles away when another ship 150 miles away was transmitting    When there were static crashes it was hard and they also often sounded like parts of code letters    Learning to copy a weak station through static and interference and fading is an art in itself   and to master it takes quite a bit of practice    It taxes the skill of the operator to the utmost   as it is often necessary to retune the receiver and go back and fill in missing letters in the copy without actually losing a word of a signal that can hardly be read    Signal fading is something to contend with   but during practice even that may prove to be a benefit to us    Copy what you do hear and leave a space for what you cant    It can help us learn to ignore lost sounds      Quality of sending and on the air receiving conditions have a marked effect on copyability    An operator who can copy solid code at 25 wpm may drop to about 15 wpm when static or interference is present    Bursts of static can take out gobs of information    Old time commercial operators copied solid right through static   interference and fading so bad that others had to ask for repeats   and they kept right on copying when most us wouldnt even have heard the signal at all    Their jobs depended on it    That is skill   and CW does get through    Some hams have learned to do this just as skillfully  they have learned to copy signals against intolerable background noise   noise to signal ratios of 10 dB or more      It takes practice and patience to learn to hear the weak stations under the loud ones   but we can learn to copy a weak station buried under several strong ones    This is a truly remarkable ability of the human operator to read incredibly weak signals in the face of strong distractions    It does take concentration   and the advancing operator should be developing some of it    Bum fists   bad sending   is something else again    A skilled operator who can copy solid at 50 wpm with good quality sending might be able to copy only at 10 wpm with poor spacing   poor rhythm or poor weighting      Correcting Imperfect Copy  Holes and errors in onetime copy can often be corrected   whether they originated in the sending or receiving including interference   etc      by rereading and analyzing the entire message    Look for key words   clause and sentence boundaries   linking words   etc      for clues    The context can help greatly in filling in and correcting things    Where a word is strange   look for the letter which might have been warped   mis sent or mis heard    Examining our practice copy in this way can also be a valuable tool and encouragement as we are learning      Other Observations  At the expert stage where copying is automatic   the most common copying error is said to be getting so personally interested in what is being received that we begin to anticipate what is coming next   and then if it turns out to be something unexpected   we may lose out something    Learning to copy on the mill typewriter without knowing what is being copied was actually used during WW2 in Africa   when operators were in short supply    Native Africans   who knew no English at all   were taught to associate each code signal with its corresponding typewriter key    They quickly learned to hear the character and punch the proper keys   and became quite proficient      When making notes just for our own use   we dont need to copy every single letter or word we can use any kind of shorthand or abbreviations we know   such as rcvr for receiver   ant for antenna   etc      just enough to remind us later    The extra time lets us take it easy      During WWII many operators found it was no more difficult to copy code by pencil in block letters at 25 wpm than copying English text at the same speed    Some of those messages lasted over an hour But proficiency in copying coded groups can be a detriment to copying plain language    Coded groups are usually exactly so many usually 5 letters long   but plain language words are expected by the operator to vary in length    When such an operator moved from coded groups to plain language operation   he often tended to split the words into 5 character groups    Background music or other soft rhythmic sounds   which do not distract   have sometimes been found useful to relieve the tedium for high speed operators making lots of copy      


RULE ONE Never send faster than you can send accurately     Quality must always come first   and speed second    Stated another way  It is more blessed to send good code than to receive it    Aim to make your sending as nearly perfect as possible    Smooth   uniform characters and spacing penetrate static and interference far better than individual sending styles    We should learn to send so clearly and accurately that the receiving operator gets perfect copy every time    Most of the difficulty in reading and copying code is due to irregularities in spacing between letters and words    See Chapter 15   Timing     

Over 50 years ago as a trainee said one commercial operator   I was told that it is better to send at 20 wpm   and be received 100 percent the first time   than to send at 28 wpm and waste time with repeats      RULE TWO Never send faster than you can receive properly     Break either rule   and you may end up sending poorly formed characters or a choppy   jerky style that is hard to copy   and establish a habit that will be very difficult to overcome later    Bad sending is not cured by changing keys   but by correcting wrong mental impressions      Keying And What It Means  The genius of the Morse code lies in its simple modulation requirements  only two states are needed 0 and 1 binary code    These two states may be any sort of distinct differences in condition or quality of the modulation ON\OFF   and for electrical and audio signals may include pitch and quality   as well    This greatly simplifies the equipment required for transmission and reception    Any form of two position switch which can be operated at a satisfactory rate of speed by a human operator or mechanical or electrical device will serve the purpose    For electrical and radio telegraphic communication the switch may simply control the on and off conditions single pole single throw switch      This opens a wide range of possibilities for mechanical designs   the simplest being just touching two wires together and separating them which has served in emergencies   to electronic switches which have no mechanically moving parts   but rather control their conductivity between very high and low values by electronic means    For code transmission we generally call such switches keys   keyers   or keying devices    In this chapter we are primarily concerned with hand keying   that is   using the simple up and down hand key straight key    See Chapter 10 for other types and their use      The First Morse Key  Alfred Vail designed the first straight key and called it a correspondent    It consisted of a board on which was mounted a simple flat metal strap spring attached to the board at one end and on the other end having a small knob on its top side and an electrical contact on its bottom side    This contact was arranged so that when the knob was depressed it would make connection with a second contact mounted directly below it on the board   thus permitting the closing and opening of a circuit    When the pressure was released the spring caused the circuit to open again    It had no stops or adjustments of any kind      This classic pattern of up and down movement has governed the design of all standard keys ever since    Later models have simply been improvements   variations and elaborations of this basic concept      

Sending with any kind of hand operated key is an art that takes some time and practice to develop properly    For this reason some teachers today recommend that   if possible   the beginner start out sending preferably with a keyboard or code programmed computer    With a keyboard it is impossible to send poorly formed characters    A keyboard is a typewriter like device   which produces the code character corresponding to the key pressed    There is no way you can mis form a character with a keyboard  you can only push the wrong button    See Chapter 10 

A keyer always produces perfectly timed signal elements and inter element spacings    However   the operator must control the sequence of the spacing of letters and words    This requires considerable skill and may discourage the beginner    It is easy to send wellformed characters   but unintended or even nonexistent ones may also be created    Therefore it seems wisest to begin learning to send with either a straight key or a keyboard    A straight key does help to reinforce the rhythm patterns of the characters more effectively    In any event   it is well for the beginner to heed the advice of a wise teacher who said  Do not touch a hand key at any time until I tell you that you may      This advice has a twofold purpose  1 to make sure that the student has an accurate mental impression of the correct sound and rhythm of the code characters before trying to send them   and  2 listening to ones own poor sending may actually hinder learning as noted in Chapter 3      So the best way is not to touch a key until you have developed a good feel for the proper rhythm of the letters    This usually means by the time you can receive at about 10 to 12 wpm or more    When you begin with a straight key you must have a good feel for timing  that is   the three building blocks of code the dit   the dah and the several lengths of spaces    Those who have poor hand control should avoid the use of any hand keys   at least while they are gaining in receiving skill      After you have learned the proper rhythms   sending with a straight key   whether for practice or in actual use   sending with it is quite beneficial for building up your receiving ability in all its aspects    In addition it develops muscular memories which further strengthen our perception and recognition of characters and words    Constant practice in sending this way does help build our copying ability    Sending practice also prepares the hand and arm for transmitting over long periods of time without fatigue    Finger and arm exercises may also be devised to help gain needed flexibility and strength     


A standard straight key is one having a simple up and down movement    In American usage the key should be aligned so that key lever is in a straight line with the forearm    To control it   the operator moves the knob by a pivoting up and down wrist motion    The hand and arm muscles do not favor the very small movements needed to control key motion    The design of a key   its location on the operating table and manipulation tend to vary from country to country   and its adjustments in the final analysis depend almost entirely on the references of the individual operator    Here we can only give the generalities and some instructions by experienced users      


The key lever is generally relatively thin and typically pivoted so that its front section is longer than the back section   and often droops downward toward the knob end    Its control knob is flat on top and may have an underskirt originally designed to protect the operator from high voltages on the key lever    The top of the knob should be about 11/2 to 2 inches above the table   and have firm adjustments for up and down movement nominally about 1/16 inch movement at the knob   but adjusted to whatever suits the operator best      The key should be located far enough back from the edge of the operating table about 18 inches that the elbow is just off the edge of the table    The operators arm rests lightly on the table with his wrist off the table and more or less flat    His first finger rests on the top of the key knob and his second finger generally on top near the edge    His thumb may rest lightly against the other edge of the knob   or not touch it at all    The student should find his own most comfortable way    Downward movement of the knob to close the key and upward movement to open it are by rocking the hand   pivoting it from the wrist the finger end moving down while the wrist moves slightly upward   and vice versa   without any accompanying independent finger motion    The upward key knob movement is produced by the builtin spring in the key   but may be helped by the thumb      Walter Candlers advice to professional telegraphers in training to avoid developing a painful glass arm was   Hold the knob between the thumb and first two fingers much as you would hold a pencil    Hold it firmly   but do not squeeze it or let go of it while sending      The wrist  not the fingers or the whole arm  does the work as the key goes down and up    Keep the wrist off the table      Take care of the sending arm  the forearm muscle carries the weight of the arm    Otherwise   keep the arm itself relaxed and at ease as you move the key down and up     Immediately below the elbow on the lower side of the arm there is a nerve which comes close to the surface    If that nerve presses against the table it may begin to make the arm cramp and produce telegraphers paralysis glass arm or writers cramp    If this happens put a soft pad under it there to relieve this condition      There is no need to waste energy on springs    The key return spring does not need to be stiff  just enough to keep the contacts apart      Contacts should be spaced only wide enough apart to be easily opened and closed    A key is obviously a highly personal object    Every one who has gotten his own key adjusted till it feels just right will be uncomfortable and fail to send as well if he uses a different key   even though it looks exactly like his own    If you set up two different keys of identical design   with the same tension   and gaps   they will nevertheless feel different    They are as individual as violins      Gaining Skill   Errors   and Automaticity  For the skilled telegrapher the characters and words flow without conscious thought as to their details    Proper and adequate practice has made the action habitual   automatic and virtually effortless  almost like just talking    However   if something interferes   the conscious mind jumps in and tries to make the correction and take over control    If this conscious interference continues   it may displace the habitual coordination   resulting in expending more effort than needed to send accurately    This in turn produces strain   and soon one finds he working against himself and with a straight key if he sends for long periods of time this may develop into glass arm    See Walter Candlers Advice The master operator does not send a single needless dit or dah      What About Mistakes Made During Sending  ?    If you make a mistake while sending   just correct it   if necessary   then forget it and calmly continue on    Dont let ourself get all tensed up and start to worry about making more mistakes such as Now I mustnt do that again    If this keeps bothering you   focus your attention for a just few moments on sending each word or maybe even each letter as it comes along   sending evenly and with proper spacing   and then go on normally as if nothing happened    This will help create a positive   constructive attitude rather than a negative one    As for correcting mistakes   general practice varies  eight dits like HH sent without space between the letters is the official standard   but it is more common to use the question mark and then send the word or with the preceding word also again correctly    If you are chewing the rag   you may just a pause a moment and then repeat what was sent wrongly and go on    On the other hand   since it is usually the beginnings of words that are most important   if enough of the word has been correctly sent to be recognizable it may be best just to pause a moment and then proceed without comment    We wouldnt do this   of course   in the midst of a formal message      Personal Characteristics  Fists  All sending with any kind of a hand key will show little personal quirks   or characteristics collectively called ones fist   which unconsciously develop as ones skill and experience grows   no matter how precise an operator may try to be    This is why a receiving operator may immediately recognize a sender and say I know that fist   even before he identifies himself    Our fist may also betray our mood or state of mind  excitement   fatigue   boredom or laziness  much as our tone of voice often does      Someone said of one operator his code almost seems to yawn    But there is more to it than that    The type of hand key being used which may also affect the sending    This does not mean that high quality code cannot be made on any of these types of keys   but rather that their particular construction and use tend to produce certain characteristics      With a straight key   sideswiper or bug it is easy to send a jerky or choppy sort of code   as well as to make inconsistently longer or shorter dits or dahs overall or in certain characters    A common fault with using a bug is to make the dits too fast as compared with the dahs    

Sideswipers tend to encourage to some very oddly timed characters   inconsistent formations    The type of key in use may greatly influence ones fist as it sounds to the receiving operator    

The design of the key and where it is placed on the operating table are important for comfort and ease of operation    The height of the knob or paddle or its feel may not feel quite right   or the key movement may be too much or too little   or be too stiff or too soft    One British examiner said of candidates coming for their sending test It never ceases to amaze examiners that some candidates come for a Morse test without one their own      Attempting to send perfect Morse on a strange key is an obstacle that candidates should never burden themselves with on the day of the test     How does this key feel  ?    Could I enjoy using it  ?    One skilled operator said When using a new key   for a few weeks all is well   and I love it    Then   suddenly   I hate it    Then I try another          yes   the cycle repeats itself Why do I feel this way  ?     It is not hard to see why some commercial operators always took their keys home with them or locked them up Nor is it surprising that the absolutely inviolable rule of the old time telegraph office was Never   never   never   under any circumstances whatever   touch the adjustments of another mans key      Not only the key itself   but also the height of the table on which it rests can also be an important factor    Some have   often out of sheer necessity   used a key mounted on their leg   on a handle   etc    Cramped and awkward operating positions have often been necessary    And then there is the matter of what we are used to      The Traditional British Key And Its Usage  The first impression of this type of key to an American is the massive ruggedness of its key lever and the height of its control knob    These notable features derive from a late 19th century Government Post Office design they operated the telegraphs    Its key lever is a straight and heavylooking brass bar pivoted somewhat toward the rear of the midpoint    The major part of the weight of the lever works against the return spring    Its control knob is smoothly contoured and generally resembles a wooden drawerpull   somewhat pearshaped   or crankhandle shaped   usually with a distinctly rounded top surface    Its diameter swells from its base to a maximum somewhat below the top    Its maximum diameter is similar to or may be somewhat greater than the typical American key knob    All versions are taller than the typical American knob      The net effect of its straight lever and taller knob means that in controlling this key it is not suitable for any part of the arm to rest on the operating table    Therefore it is typically mounted so that its knob is close to the edge of the table   with the arm extending out fairly high in front of the table      As the years have gone by there have been many variations of this type of key   different spring arrangements   different dimension ratios   different knob contours   bearing supports   etc      but the heavy style lever and high knob have remained as more or less permanent characteristics     

The traditional way of using this type of key is to hold the key knob with the first finger on top   the thumb underneath its maximum diameter on the one side   and the third finger on the opposite side from the thumb     the operators lower arm extends outward approximately in line with the key lever horizontally and vertically   unsupported by the table   several inches from the side of the body   and forming an angle of approximately 90 degrees relative to the upper arm     the main keying movement is at the wrist   not at the fingertips   with the wrist acting as a hinge between the arm and the hand      The hand   wrist and arm are not strained or rigid   in spite of the seemingly awkward appearance of such an operators arm position to us in America    Beginners usually adjust the key for a large gap so as to hear the sound of the key closing and opening    They generally reduce this gap as their speed increases some reduce it to the barest minimum    Some operators control the knob delicately with their fingertips   while others grip it with the whole hand    Again   some operators prefer very light spring force and use the thumb to help open the key by their wrist movement   others rely entirely on the spring return action      As the beginners progress   they adapt their keying style to whatever is comfortable to them individually    There are many variations in adjustment   depending on the particular key design details and the operators preferences    The Australians and New Zealanders appear to have followed the British practice   but other European countries have not necessarily done so    Australians have said they found it very hard to send properly with the American keys  with their flat topped key knobs   located far back from the edge of the table  as installed in air ground air stations during WWII    They called these keying arrangements a flaming nuisance In summary   with all these variations in basic and detail design   it seems obvious that there must be more than one way to design a good key and use it      Using A Straight Key  It is   of course   impossible to send absolutely perfect code with any purely manual device   but we should learn to imitate perfect sending as best we can    If you have an instructor   he should demonstrate quality sending for you to imitate something like this   for example Listen as I send the character          and then you say its name as you send it back to me just like you hear it    This is repeated several times until the teacher is satisfied   and so on throughout the alphabet and numbers during the early sending practice periods      Another way   which can be used without a teacher   is to use split headphones one phone carries the recorded code signals   while the other phone lets the student hear his own sending using an oscillator as he reads from a printed copy of the recorded text    He endeavors to send in unison   and can compare his own sending with that of the recording      There is at least one computer teaching program see below which has an option which will evaluate the learners sending      Most teachers recommend beginning with relatively slow hand movements    About 12 consciously controlled hand movements per second is average   but some people cannot exceed 

It is the often repeated reversals   which limit performance    Total reaction time from external instruction until the hand reacts is about 150 to 200 milliseconds ear or eye brain muscle    Responses must be much faster than this for sending code   playing the piano   etc    This is where the automatic mental functions take over      A good beginning practice with a straight key is to make a string of dits at a slow   even rate for a minute or two   and then gradually to speed up to a comfortable rate    Then send a series of 20  30 Ss evenly and smoothly   with proper spaces between them    After that   send a corresponding string of dahs   followed by 20 or more Os the same way    This will develop a proper feel and a sense of control of the key    After that   try a short sentence in a slow and uniform way   with wide spaces between letters and words   something like   I  a l w a y s  s e n d  e v e n l y  a n d  s m o o t h l y   Try this several times   gradually shortening the spaces until they are about normal    Listen as you send it for accuracy of timing    Try recording it so you can listen later to it without distraction and evaluate how it sounds to others      With a clear   easy and correct style of sending it will take about ten minutes to get warmed up   and from then on you should be able to send for a long time without the slightest discomfort    A reasonably good operator can learn to send good quality International Morse on a straight key up to 20 to 25 wpm    Some can make 30 wpm   but 35 wpm seems to be about the absolute limit equivalent to about 45 wpm for American Morse    On the other hand   dont assume that just because you can receive at say 25 wpm you can send well at that speed    What isnt intelligible isnt worth sending      Glass Arm  Candlers description of Telegraphers Glass arm   or  telegraphers paralysis   is   A progressive and painful forearm condition where the arm gradually loses its former snap and responsiveness   and the dits become difficult to send correctly at ones customary speeds due to partial loss of control      Fatigue sets in early and sending becomes rotten   leading to discouragement or distressing irritation    It may or may not begin with a sensitiveness   which soon subsides   but true glass arm has neither inflammation nor soreness    This condition is caused by needless strain or tension or poor key handling   and is avoidable    Factors which may lead to it are    poor posture     holding the arm in an unnatural or uncomfortable position   so that blood circulation and nerve functioning are interfered with   making the hand uncomfortable   cold or clammy     undue pressure of the underarm on the table     unduly long periods of sending   confinement or lowered body tone which induce muscle strain and tension     conscious interference with normal automatic habitual control   or   even the suggestion that by prolonged use the arm will ultimately fail     

All these may be prevented or relieved by proper mental and physical corrections    Some have found relief by rotating the key to use a sideways movement    Others cured it by going to a sideswiper   or more often by going to a bug    Candler said that a false glass arm may occur when some infection is present which produces pain in the wrist   forearm   back and neck and/or headaches    Its cure is obvious      Tests for Proper Operation of a HandKey  For the beginner everything will be easier if any serious faults are caught early   before they become habits    There are two general kinds of tests for an operators sending ability    One concerns the quality of his sending   its readability   and the other concerns his endurance and comfort    Quality of sending may be evaluated in several ways    It is a good idea to record some of your own sending occasionally and let it sit a day or so and then to listen and see what it sounds like is it easily readable  ?    A rougher way is to gage by the comments of receiving operators or by the number of times a repeat is requested    This is strongly suggested also for bug operators      There are several computer programs to evaluate ones sending against the ideal    One of the excellent ones is Gary Bolds diagnostic program   DK   BAS   designed for this purpose   which runs under QBASIC   a part of his Morse teaching software    See Chapter 18

 Looking at your own sending may be very humbling   but this program will show exactly whats wrong   and tell what you exactly what you need to do to improve it      A typical comment of those using it is  My sending cant really be that badly   can it  ?    But after taking  DK   BASs advice   the same operator said Actually the whole episode was quite enlightening   as I found that after a number of attempts I had improved to the extent that I and the computer parted company on speaking terms at least    If you are sure theres something wrong   but cant quite put your finger on it   let such a program find it for you    Your sending will really sound better if you concentrate on making the improvements indicated      An excellent test for endurance and comfort is to sit down and send straight reading matter at a comfortable speed of from say 15 to 25 wpm for about an hour    It will take about ten minutes to get the fist limbered up   and if one has cultivated that clear   easy and correct style of sending that is so desirable   from then on one can send for a long period of time without experiencing the slightest discomfort    On the other hand   if the fundamental principles of correct key manipulation have not been learned   one may just blow up after the first 15 minutes with a hand too jerky   and a wrist too sore to want to go on    That says   take a look for what youre doing wrong      What Is It That Makes a Good HandKey  ?     Ease of operation and positive control are prime considerations for any hand operated key    The first Morse key called correspondent was designed just to the minimum needed to do the job    Later designs took into account other factors as well   including ease of use and appearance    In the early days of high powered wireless spark stations function again took over and these keys were awkward   massive things in order to handle the huge currents involved      A good key lever should pivot freely without detectable friction   and at the knob or paddle there should be no perceptible movement in any direction except that for normal keying    The return spring should be adjustable for best control some recommend 250  400 grams pressure range for a straight key    This spring should not be so stiff that sending is choppy   or so weak that signals tend to run together   but always adequate to open the circuit by itself without assistance from the operator      For a given rate of keying   the force required is a function of the spring   gap setting and the inertia of the moving parts    The key lever should be stiff enough to give a firm contact without noticeable vibration or bounce no double contact    Bearings should be solid at all times    Firm electrical contact is best made with a flexible wire rather than depending on the bearing points    The return spring should have adequate adjustment range to satisfy operator preferences    Gap setting should give a firm feel and have a wide enough adjustment range for personal comfort    Is there a key design that is universally ideal  ?     My impression is that wellaccepted keys show a wide variety of design details to meet preferences      Is this telling us that it isnt the design of a key per se that makes it feel right   but rather that it is what we are familiar with and are used to  ?    It feels comfortable partly due to national historical and partly personal preferences    For some unknown reason   short or small keys have not been popular   although sometimes necessary    What a key is mounted upon  a wooden table   ones leg   a concrete block   etc     and how it is mounted can make a great deal of difference in how it feels    It may feel great or responsive or dead or have disturbing vibrations    These are all factors that are partly hardware   partly psychological and quite personal    

In Chapter 9 the regular straight keys were discussed at length    Here we look at all keying devices      These may be classified as    KEYS including straight keys   sideswipers   and semi automatic keys or bugs     KEYERS keys and keyers may be called hand keys    and   KEYBOARDS including computers programmed to send like a keyboard      All Kinds of Keys  Innumerable variations of simple mechanical switches may be devised    Almost any conceivable kind of motion may be used to operate the switch up and down   sidewise   sliding   squeezing   twisting   etc    They may be actuated by human action finger   hand   arm   foot   lips   neck   breath pressure   etc      mechanical or electromagnetic action e   g      in a relay   to duplicate the keying patterns in a second circuit   etc      For the handicapped several kinds of keys have been devised to be operated by breath pressure on a diaphragm or piston   etc    Some of the interesting recent designs take advantage of solidstate circuitry using such things as   a   the interruption of a light beam by a finger tapping in front of a photosensitive cell   b   the change of capacitance or resistance produced by moving a finger to approach or lightly touch a fixed metal pad   c   the tone of a human voice humming in Morse code within the range of a tiny microphone   and other possible means to control the keying    How does one classify such devices  ?      Other Kinds of Manual Keys   The Double Speed Key  Sideswiper   Just when the first sideswiper came into existence does not seem to be known    It is based on the idea that sidewise hand movements should be easier and perhaps faster than up and down movements    According to records found and graciously supplied by Jerry L    Bartacheck   KD0CA   the J    H    Bunnell Co    patented their new double speed  key in 1888   and claimed that it was developed to overcome telegraphers paralysis or glass arm    Today this type of affliction is called carpal tunnel syndrome    Those who used this new key did find its claims to be true  that sidewise movements are much more comfortable and natural   and that it did prevent or greatly reduce the risk of glass arm    This key for a time became popular and was often called a sideswiper   and sometimes a cootie key    However   Bunnells key was rather expensive and easy to imitate      To use it   the operator used his thumb and forefinger to move the paddle of the key lever alternately from one side to the other  each direction closed the circuit   whether moved to the right or to the left    In this way he formed the successive dits and dahs for each character    For example   If the operator made the first element of a character to the left L   whether it was a dit or a dah   its next element was made to the right R   and so on   alternately so that his pattern of movement was LRLRLR                or RLRLRL               This back and forth motion often tends to lead to a sort of peculiar rhythm of its own   betraying the use of a sideswiper      A few operators   troubled with glass arm found relief simply by turning their straight key around 90 degrees so it could be used with a oneway sidewise motion    This use is easy to do with a bug or keyer   which already uses sidewise motion      Commercially made double speed keys were relatively cheap compared to the Vibroplex   and it was quite easy to make a good homemade one    No wonder that it became popular in wireless operations   especially among hams   for some years    It does not seem to have been used much by landline telegraphers    Perhaps its novelty was as much an attraction as its claim for higher speeds and lowered fatigue      The double speed key may have led later to the idea of the semiautomatic key   whose first good commercial version   the Vibroplex was introduced in 1904   and soon began to be widely used by commercial telegraphers      Of passing interest in 1926 was a similarly connected key having two pushbuttons   like typewriter keys or pushbuttons   to be used with two fingers   called the Cricket by its manufacturer    The keys were to be used alternately to form the characters   as with the sideswiper    It never became popular      The BUG  Historically the Martin semiautomatic key   introduced in 1906 as the Auto and later as the Vibroplex  commonly called a bug  is listed here second because of its greater mechanical complexity and difference in use    The patented Vibroplex   by making dots automatically by the sidewise vibration of its elastically mounted arm   relieved much of the operators effort although he still had to form the dashes manually   and increased his speed potential   while reducing the risk of glass arm by sidewise movement and division of labor between thumb and fingers      In its various models it became very popular and has been widely used up to the present time    There have been many imitations   a few of which also produced automatic dashes    Normal right handed models formed the dits automatically with a right wise movement of the thumb and the dahs manually with a left wise motion by one or two fingers against a paddle assembly    A few designs produced by a few manufacturers provided automatic dahs with by a second vibrating arm      On the Australian landlines bug keys were known as jiggers    Those issued by the Sydney GPO Telegraph Office in 1946 had 3 knobs   two of them controlled separate swinging arms   one for automatically forming dits and one for automatic dahs and the third for manually controlled dahs    The knobs could be positioned at either end of the baseplate for easy use by right or left handed people    I have no information as to how these were used      Using A Bug  A bug should not slip on the table   and its paddles should be about 21/2 inches above the tabletop    Most teachers recommend a light touch   pivoting the hand on the knuckle of little finger and using as combination of finger action and rolling wrist motion    Longtime speed champion Ted McElroy   however   said the wrist and elbow should be off the table   and a full   free swing of the arm used    We may suspect several different styles are equally satisfactory    It has been suggested that by holding a pencil in the same hand while sending will help one learn to relax      Bug sending should duplicate good hand key sending    Handle it easily    Do not grip its paddles   but only allow the fingers or thumb to touch the side you are pressing on  not touching the other side    When a bug is used for radio work there is a tendency to make the dits relatively too light    As compared to telegraph landline sending   radio requires a heavier style to put the signal through static and interference   and a heavier key will help do this    So be sure to set heavy enough dits that they are not likely to be swallowed up by moderate static or interference      Setting the Adjustments of a Bug  Like all keys   bug adjustments are a highly personal matter   varying from one operator to another    They are also sensitive to the range of speed    For example   a bug set for 35 wpm operation will do poorly at 18   and vice versa     Remember the rule NEVER readjust another operators bug   Hugh S    Pettis   K3EC   recommends the following as optimum bug settings    It is to be understood that operators personal comfort and ease of operation govern the details of setting the adjustments      First   set the adjustments for paddle displacement so that it moves a comfortable and equal amount for dits and dahs      Set the spring tensions for comfort of paddle operation      Set the movable weight on vibrating arm for the speed desired      Dit weighting is determined by the distance of the stationary dit post from the contact on the vibrating arm      He cites a common technique for setting correct dit duration a dit equals unit space is to clip an ohmmeter across the bug terminals    First   set it for full scale while holding the paddle against the dah contact    Then adjust the stationary dit post contact until it gives a midscale reading for a series of dits   and finally settles on a full scale reading  a closed circuit    His personal preference is for the dits to taper off to a closed circuit after about ten dits    More dits will give a lighter weighting   and if the series leaves the circuit open   it is too light    Fewer dits will produce a heavier weighting   and if it is fewer than eight   the nominal 8 dit error signal cannot be made      Robert R    Hall W9CRO recommends Some adjustments are interactive      

Adjust top and bottom pivot bearings so contacts are all on same level   just tight enough so that side play is barely perceptible      Set the armature the movable part controlled by the key tabs stops   Adjust the dah stop screw so the armature just touches the damper when held against this stop    Damper contact should not be more than just enough to stop the swing      Adjust the dit stop screws so that end of the armature will oscillate when it is moved against this stop with a brisk paddle movement of about 1/8 inch      The tension of the armature return spring should not be heavy   but just enough to return the armature to the right hand stop screw without any bounce   and without any tendency to bounce off the damper      Set the dit action very carefully  Set armature weights about 3/4 of the way to the slowest speed    Then     Push the armature paddle to the dit position and hold it there until motion stops   and continue holding it there while adjusting the contact screw so that it just makes firm contact but not so light that it arcs or misses    Some previous adjustments may need correction now      Set the dah action   Set the contact adjusting screw which is also the stop so the paddle moves about 1/8 inch      Its spring should be set to give about the same paddle pressure as for dits      Sending With A Bug  Key smoothly and easily with a minimum of effort    Let the bug do the work  you just control it   with the arm resting on the table   touching the paddles loosely lightly between thumb and forefinger    Control it without much motion of the hand or fingers    A slight twist or roll of the wrist will change from the dit to the dah side    Relax and enjoy it    Dont bat out the dits and dahs out with thumb and forefinger so widely separated and so hard that it tends to push bug around     There is a marked tendency among some bug users to set the dits too fast relative to the hand formed dahs and spaces    Handformed spaces tend to become too long in proportion    The result is often a choppy sounding code or to signals which are certainly readable   but tiring to listen to and read    Katashi Nose KH6IJ points out that at high speed one cannot put much force on the paddles    He also said that If you move your whole arm   the law of inertia prevents you from attaining high speeds      Keyers  Keyers are electronic devices controlled by paddles similar to those on a bug for automatically making dits and dahs   and often incorporate other useful operating features   including buffers and memories    Many include iambic type of operation by a squeezing motion   which provides for alternate dits and dahs   which further automates sending and in this way reduces total effort    An iambic keyer will always produce perfect characters   even though they may not be used in our code      Katashi Nose here says   If you have already mastered a bug   it will take about three weeks to convert to electronic key sending    Once you are converted   you are hooked because now your bug fist is ruined ed    for most people   an entirely different technique is required    If your keyer has forced character spacing FCS   use it This may take several weeks practice   but your sending will be real armchair copy    It is worth the effort      Keyboards  Finally   the keyboard including the use of electronic computers with programs for using their keyboards automatically makes all characters from a typewriter type of keyboard    Both keyers and keyboards often include teaching programs for learning the code and/or improving code abilities   as well as having memories for various purposes    This is about the ultimate in code production    Machine sent CW is considered almost a must for good copy when signals are very faint   including QRP and for very high speed work hand sending just wont hack that     Keyboards also have much to offer the beginner in learning the code initially and for improving ones skills    

Average for five letter word equals about 17 taps      At this rate   assuming the above rates can be maintained for periods of time needed to send messages   news   etc      the slowest keying rate would be 23 wpm   the average 30 and the highest 33 wpm      An Interesting Bug  The Sydney Australia GPO Telegraph Office in 1946 produced a bug that had two separate swinging arms for dots and dashes    There were 3 knobs one for dits   one for automatic dahs and one for manually controlled dashes    The knobs could be positioned at either end of the baseplate for easy use by right or left handed people    

Recognition of CW is a process of learning to perceive intermittent sounds as intelligible speech      Real skill begins when we no longer think of the code as code   but only of the content    A good operator is one who feels quite at home with code   fluent in it    He is able to copy accurately up from a low of about 15 up to about 25 wpm and can think and talk in telegraphic words   almost as if it were ordinary language at speeds sometimes up to 30 to 35 wpm conversational CW as one teacher happily called rag chewing      This ought to be the minimum ambition of every operator   because it makes the game all the more enjoyable   a very comfortable working range    He enjoys it and feels no strain or pressure    He is competent    Anybody can talk into a mike    By omitting needless words and with the help of common abbreviations   Q signals   etc      his rate of communication is high enough to be comfortable   and he feels no particular drawbacks when he talks in Morse code    Sure   he may spell or sound out unusual or strange words or proper names   just as he would when he meets them in reading or writing   but mostly he hears words as words because he has become more proficient    Words are the alphabet of the skilled operator      Higher Skills  As we talk about these highly proficient men and women   we must draw a distinction between reading code at these speeds and copying it    All through the history of telegraphy skilled operators have said they could read a whole lot faster than they can copy the stuff down    Obviously no one can copy faster than he can write  whether by hand or on a typewriter      We have already discussed copying    In this chapter we address reading skills again    Were talking here primarily about amateurs who have achieved a still higher degree of skill   not for commercial or professional reasons   but simply because they want to    It may be for sheer enjoyment or to satisfy an inner drive   but whatever may be the reason   such an ability is as worthy an objective as any other skill   and even more so   for it is useful as well as enjoyable    We need incentive  motivation  to achieve   and that ought to be enough      Doesnt our satisfaction over managing to get even one recognizable word out of a high speed code transmission trigger a desire to be able to read it all at that speed  ?    The joys of high speed CW are known only to those willing to put forth the time to learn what a unique world exists on our bands    This semi pro is completely relaxed as he effortlessly reads or copies he has no reason to doubt  he knows he can read it even while doing something else    Regardless of what he may be doing   a skilled telegrapher hears what is being said in code within his hearing    He reads it like he hears the spoken word and may even be able to remember it later well enough to copy it down if he needs to      

The following is an interesting example On a local SSB net of high speed operators the controller asked Gary   can you operate SSB as well  ?    After a short pause   somebody said Gary   Hes talking to you on SSB Ah said Kirby   So he is  Morse is so much a second nature for those with real skill that they have to stop and think what mode theyre actually using    It will surprise you when you first experience it      

Truly High Speed Cw Awaited Electronics  High speed CW demands precision it did not become a reality for most operators until digital communication in the form of microprocessor controlled keyboards became available    This made available at reasonable cost the two parameters which are paramount to enjoyable high speed CW operation  accuracy   which is always the most important and never to be sacrificed for speed   and speed      An operator cannot send accurately enough with a mechanical device at speeds much over 40 wpm for any length of time   but a keyboard makes that easy    In addition   its features of memory   etc    give further help   making CW communication better   with the result that operators can now converse instead of carrying on monologues    The human mind manifestly is better equipped than any computer to copy the Morse code   and the joy of operating comes from listening to accurate CW send by a skilled operator    No matter what sending device is used    The point is to send ACCURATELY    It is the mind that copies CW and it is in the head that pleasure is found      Looking Backward and Forward  There are said to be four phases of skill    hustling for the letters     learning to hear words     taking in several words   a phrase or short sentence at a earful   and finally   the real expert who has the details of Morse code so well in mind that he gives them practically no attention at all   and only is conscious of the content      Remember that in the earliest stage we learn to hear the letters as units of sound   rather than hearing the dits and dahs as such    Next   we advance to hearing many common words and parts of words as units   instead of strings of letters spelled out    At this point we are quite conscious that the dits and dahs are there   and this gives us a sort of inner confidence that the foundation is in place our security blanket    Up to this point we feel comfortable      The third step comes as we pass the point of being able to hear the dit and dah components any longer  they seem to have vanished into a blur    We should still be conscious that the letters are present   however    At first one may feel somewhat helpless   as though the supports had somehow gotten lost    However   the automatic mind   which has been trained by enough of the right kind of practice and has been active all the time   though we may have been unaware of how far its activity extends   seems to be able to hear those components and identify the letters with no strain    What we must now learn to do is to TRUST this mental ability although we are unaware of how it works      

Conscious effort is fatal to speed is a common observation with respect to any skill we have acquired    The moment you let yourself think and cease to rely on instinct you will fail in these special skills    If a code transmission is played at 20 wpm for the rank beginner   his probable reaction will be I will never be able to read or copy that However   after as few weeks of training he will be doing it    High speed code may seem far too fast ever to read   but it is not nearly as fast as it sounds to the uneducated ear    A good share of the problem is overcoming the impression that it might not be possible to comprehend at such a speed    One stubborn fact faces us others can do it   and surely I can   too    Therefore   take heart    We recognize that it is hard to understand recorded speech when it is played back at twice or at half speed because not only the pitches but the sounds become so distorted      This is not true of code   where the important proportions are strictly maintained the patterns are still there    Skilled operators need to learn to read and copy over a fairly wide range of speeds    Ted McElroy once said If you can pick out even one single character at a higher speed you are on your way    So if you have ambition   take heart When the mind is near its limit   struggling   concentrating on each individual letter as it is heard   there is no time to identify letters poorly sent   jammed together or missed   or words misspelled   etc    But if we have a comfortable margin of speed   this makes everything easier and much more enjoyable      At slower speeds we can then reason out the words because we have time to think over each word as it comes in we cant change the sending operator    Early in the day we are likely to try too hard    Especially when we are fresh and alert the conscious   reasoning part of our mind wants to control our receiving ability   while the automatic part of our mind says I can do it myself without your interference    We must stop this internal warfare   this conscious attempt to control reception    Make it let go let go   so the unconscious inner mind may function    Give yourself permission to let go of your conscious demand to recognize each letter    The better you succeed and the less you try   the better and faster youll become at it      As one student said When Im fresh and 100 percent alert   my code speed is really bad   but when Im really tired I can keep up with best of them    Does that give us a hint as to how to go about it  ?    This is not speaking of the beginning student   who needs to put his whole conscious attention on learning the sound letters   but to the person aiming for very high speed reception      The Skilled Operator  A longtime telegrapher was once given the code test at 13 wpm for a General Class ham examination   but laid down his pencil and said I cant copy that stuff    When asked why   he said Well   its just too slow    Everybody laughed   then they speeded it up considerably and he made perfect copy    The dragged out characters are harder to recognize  patterning is lost much below about 12 wpm      The expert   who is a step up   races along effortlessly up to around 40 wpm or more   so fast that most of us cant make out much more than a letter or a word or two  or maybe nothing at all    In the past these experts were mostly professionals   but now many are hams     

One old timer   now a silent key   who had begun as an amateur   then for an interim period of time was a commercial operator and could copy 40 to 45 wpm with no trouble   and could easily read up into the 50 wpm region   said that as a ham he always listened for ideas   for meaning   for sense   and was hardly conscious of the actual words sent    This came out strongly when I asked him one day after a QSO What word was it that W8xxx used to express   ?       He didnt know    There was an expert    

Above that speed is the super expert who lives in that upper atmosphere where 60 wpm is loafing   and some have been able to comprehend at 100 wpm to as high as 125 wpm one of these was the well known Bill Eitel of the Eitel McCullough Co      tube designers and manufacturers    Some of these whizz bangs tell us that they dont think there is any real upper limit in speed at all    Like most of us at such speeds   probably none of them consciously hears more than a buzz    He wouldnt even think of trying to listen for the dits and dahs    But all the while the automatic section of his mind is active and well   reading it easily and telling him what is being said      What are these racetrack operators doing so differently from most of us  ?     They are hearing in longer spans than we are    Their groups or units of comprehension are longer than ours   and they are not consciously thinking of code characters   letters or probably even in words as such    See below and Chapter 26

Somewhere above about 45 wpm speeds become too fast for us to be conscious of the difference between dits and dahs    The facts are that at these higher speeds  unless we have actual hearing defects  the interior workings of our brain are quite aware of these differences and can discern the patterns accurately   and so can convey to us the bigger picture of words and meaning   but for some reason will not allow us to be consciously aware of the details    The experiences of the operators described here are evidence of this      Reading Versus Copying Skill  Many highly skilled longtime land line and radio telegraph operators are said to have copied at steady rates between 50 and 60 wpm all day long for a 10  12 hour day    This was common on press circuits   as well as some others    However   there are some questions  we may suspect that they were typing 50 to 60 wpm in actual word counts   while receiving in Phillips code   an abbreviation system which typically shortens the number of letters by about 40 percent See Chapter 27

If so   this would be slower actual code speeds than in full normal English at the given speed      At high speeds   over about 45 to 50 wpm   many experts agree that copying  but not reading  quickly becomes very exhausting   and can be continued only for very short periods of time    For them as speeds go up   getting it from the ear to paper demands the utmost of concentration   shutting everything else out of mind    Some have described it as almost being hypnotized    In great contrast to comfortable speeds of 20 to around 40 wpm   depending on ones degree of skill    Tiny lapses of attention for them can be devastating    Since we have already discussed copying Chapter 8   our attention here will be confined to reading the code     

After an official amateur speed contest about sixty years ago   one of the judges   himself a former telegrapher   asked the young man who won at 56 wpm Listen   Kid   did you get it  ?     Sure   why  ?     Well   all I could hear was just one endless string of dits without even so much as a space anywhere    That judge had passed his limit      Sound consciousness has been used to denote the limit beyond which a given person can no longer consciously distinguish the components of the code    At speeds somewhere around 50 wpm it becomes impossible to make out the separate dits and dahs any more  they become a blur    Conscious recognition of details ceases   and if one is to continue reading the code signals   there must be a distinct change in the consciousness of reception    Sound consciousness must shift gears from letters to words and phrases      This ability is developed by allowing the automatic mental functions to completely take over the recognition of all details below word level   without any conscious interference whatever   so that from then on one is conscious only of words   phrases and meaning    One has to let go of any demand to be conscious of the details      How Can Such Skill Be Developed  ?     One man did it this way  when he got so he could copy 14 wpm almost solid   he tried a 21 wpm tape speed and was surprised to be able to get about 60 percent right off    After three 15 minute sessions   one a day   he was getting 4  5 words or groups in a row without misses    He alternated back and forth between the two tapes   and found it helped both    Continuing with still higher speed tapes   he was able in about 5 months to copy at 35 wpm    Many have gotten to that speed much sooner    So   try listening at speeds 10 or more wpm above your present limit   and as you listen see if you can hear anything recognizable    WANT to understand what you hear      A number of the very high speed operators have said that if you can catch just one word in a high speed transmission   you are on your way to reading it    If you start hearing short words   then youre on the right track   and are already moving forward     Listen   listen   listen and want to understand what you hear    Remember the rules for practicing  work in short enough bursts of speed so as not to get tired   then drop back to a slower speed again and it will seem much easier    One of these experts says that he feels comfortable and does not sense any degree of tension or strain at all while reading or copying at these very high speeds    Nor does he sense any changes in mental action or approach as he listens at any speed    He says that at these high speeds he is not conscious of dits and dahs   and only sometimes is conscious of the letters   spelling   etc    You dont even need correct spelling at these levels      Unusual words   a proper name   call sign   abbreviation   etc      do not throw him and so he doesnt miss anything following it    He adds The faster the code speed   the better    As for copying at very high speeds he says I usually listen for the first sentence and then start to copy    In these comments he is joined by another expert    Both of them were initiated into the code before the age of six by expert close relatives or friends    They feel entirely comfortable with code at any speed   and feel that there is no upper limit in speed    The one thing that myself and others find limiting at high speed is the matter of putting QSOs on paper    Copying is the only limit    Is beginning at such an early age part of the reason they feel so comfortable  ?    We need some more information on this point      Another of these experts describes this skill as something like this  You mention hearing only a blur of sound at higher speeds    This happens to me too   where the code at first sounds like popcorn popping or chicken grease on a hot griddle   and I have to concentrate to break the sound barrier before it starts making sense and I can read it     I have to make my mind break into this and begin concentrating on words and phrases             then suddenly one word or phrase snaps me into gear and I go on from there    Then so long as I consciously maintain my concentration   I can continue to read it in my head           without much sense of strain    Then so long as concentration is strictly maintained   dropouts from this receptive state of mind do not occur     He admits that he misses occasionally  a hard or unusual word or a misspelling   etc      but he just continues on  there is no time to ponder about it    This indicates that he senses the need for some kind of mental shifting gears in the way he is conscious of what is being received   and that once in gear he needs to keep deliberately concentrating on it   but without evident strain    He suggests the following thought  If you are listening to a news broadcast on the radio while reading the daily paper   you have to give priority of attention to one or the other    If your attention is on the newspaper   you are usually be aware of the radio only as more or less gibberish   a noise    Then   if you want to listen to the radio you have to turn your attention to it   and what was gibberish now suddenly becomes intelligible    Snapping into high speed code may be something like that      Ted McElroy and Levon R    McDonald were men who before WW2 demonstrated copying in the 75 wpm range    A few years later Frank J    Elliott and James Ralph Graham demonstrated the same degree of expertise    There were others who were runners up    McElroy said there were many others who were as good as he was   or even better   who never entered the speed contests    George Hart said If you were born with a whistle and no voice box   you would be able to send and receive 100 wpm or more    I guarantee it Its all a matter of incentive    Sit and listen   and keep listening and want to understand it    Anyone who can type over 75 wpm can copy code over 75 wpm if he really wants to      

One vitally important point to remember while receiving is to KEEP COOL    Dont let yourself get flustered or distracted    If you miss something   keep going    At high speeds you cant copy characters   you must copy words and phrases    You will be surprised how much you can get and how much fun it will be to listen to high quality code at 40 to 45 wpm as to the press in former years      McElroy wrote I remember a contest where the word hospitalization shot through around 57 wpm    How is a fellow gonna grasp at that speed  ?    But half a minute or so later it came to me and I flipped back and filled it in    Try it for fun    Keep cool   dont let yourself get flustered or distracted    Keep the mind on the incoming stream of words    There is a limit to how fast we can consciously spell out words   but with the sub mind doing the work we dont know where that limit is    Strong emotions seem to make the expert more fluent   but the less experienced tend to get rattled or upset      

In England a blind and almost totally deaf young man of 23 could handle the code at 50 wpm    It was his only way of communicating at all    In 1959 Katashi Nose KH6IJ wrote   Any DXer worth his salt is good for at least 60 wpm    He gears his speed to what comes back    As noted before   Bill Eitel was one of those able to communicate easily at 100 wpm    That means there must also have been some other hams with whom he communicated at that speed   In looking over the years of contests and speed records made elsewhere it seems as though the capability to achieve ever higher speeds is something that has grown   either due to improved equipment or to better learning methods   or both    Higher speeds require more accurately formed code signals    Perhaps many super experts were there all the time   but so busy they werent officially recognized      In 1845 telegraphers speeds were about 5 wpm    By 1855 they averaged 20 to 25 wpm with 46 wpm at maximum   by 1875  they reached 52 wpm   by 1897   64 wpm    McElroy went from 51 wpm in 1920 to 56 in 1922   then to 69 in 1935 and to 75 in 1939    Other records were 1937  4 hams at 55   1938 two hams at 65   1945  79 wpm      In the mid 1970s a group of hams found that their code reading ability had so far outstripped their sending skill that slow   frustration filled 35 wpm QSOs grew increasingly unsatisfying    They then bought commercial keyboards simply to have more enjoyable chats with each other    Their standard conversational speed was about 65 wpm reading   of course   in their heads   but on good nights some would go up to 80    One of their later participants said that he bought a keyboard and within three months his speed went from 35 wpm to 65 wpm    They did not think they were doing anything particularly clever      The observer felt that they were an exceptionally Morse talented group who find code reading comes easily and have difficulty understanding why others cant do it    Why cant they  ?    There are good reasons to suspect that these men   about whom we have no present details   while they may have had some special aptitude   either benefited from a wise teacher   or were so strongly motivated that somehow they all just stumbled onto ways to advance that did not penalize them    Somehow it doesnt sound like all of them just happened to have some special ability   does it  ?    The fact that they didnt seem to consider they had done anything especially remarkable strongly suggests that they simply went up the speed ladder without any startling jumps in skill    This is something to think about      Fellows   with this many engaged in using it   high speed code must be really easy Ted McElroy often demonstrated his skills in copying behind along with speed    He was noted for being able to listen rather casually for a number of seconds   then dash into the keyboard at high speed until he was up closer to the incoming signals    Not many others seem to have demonstrated this particular ability   but rather tend to copy close behind the incoming signals often only a couple of syllables or words behind    We see this in McDonalds statement regarding the 1939 contests see Chapter 26

The European CW Association was founded in May 1961 to promote the use of CW    Member clubs have developed within it    Those of interest here are  The High Speed Club   founded 1951   requiring a minimum speed of 25 wpm   the Very High Speed Club   founded 1960 requiring a minimum of 40 wpm   with about 280 members   the Super High Speed Club   founded 1983   requiring minimum of 50 wpm   with about 200 members   the Extremely High Speed Club founded 1983 requires a minimum of 60 wpm   has about 75 members      Similar high speed clubs exist in America    CFO Chicken Fat Operators started out in the U   S    around 1980 as a loosely knit bunch of hams with a deep love of CW   who enjoyed long rag chews with each other   sending lots and lots of beautiful CW on their keyboards from 40 to 45 wpm up to about 100    Almost immediately there were about 700 members worldwide and ten years later they numbered about 900    Look for them on the air around 7033 kHz during the hours of US darkness   and on weekends    Their identification is given at the end of a QSO by a chicken cluck in Morse   produced by an acoustical mechanical device invented by Kirby   WS9D    They meet together for Cluckins at hamfests and conventions    Membership requires one to be able to operate at their speeds on a keyboard and to be nominated by a couple of members who deem the person worthy    There is also a Five Star Club   a group who are said to communicate regularly at about 80 wpm      The truly skilled CW operator can accurately read and transcribe code that by amateur standards may sound very strange indeed    The operators on foreign ships   where CW is used because it is cheap and reliable   are often poorly trained and grossly underpaid    Their Morse sent by hand key and rarely faster than 18 wpm   can be very perplexing to read    A good commercial operator can learn nevertheless to copy them faultlessly   even while doing something else at the same time      There is always some speed at which we all fall apart   so what  ?     You will enjoy doing a bit faster    Listen to very fast code as if it were music and soon you can recognize character here and there you will hear some words pop out    High speed code has a musicality and beauty   which musters respect and admiration for those who work it    Background music or other rhythmic sounds can be used to aid high speed operators it does not distract   but rather relieves any tedium    

Here is a rather leisurely   easygoing approach that worked  Thirty Hours   One half Hour a Day For Sixty Days To a Solid Foundation In Morse Code     That is what Marshall Ensors famous course given over 160 meter amateur radiophone offered for over ten years to any and all in the 1930s period    How did he teach  ?      

Ensor was a High School Industrial Arts teacher who volunteered with ARRL to teach amateur radio classes    He designed and taught The School of the Air   covering the fundamentals of Amateur radio over his Amateur radio station W9BSP on 160 meter phone by voice and oscillator    This was a basic course of 60 lessons given once a year each weekday over a two month period for over ten years    He used the basic methods taught here      Thousands of amateurs were trained with almost 100 percent success    His students never thought of the code as being hard to learn    He continually stimulated the students interest and attention by a variety of lesson content and by his manner of speaking    He encouraged students to write or visit him and let him know how they were doing    Every student was encouraged and he especially complimented those who persisted in their ongoing study   even though they might miss out now and then      Each lesson was an hour long and generally centered upon one theme   presented partly by voice and partly in code    Each lesson was about half devoted to teaching the Morse code and the other half to theory   fundamentals of radio   themes of interest and government regulations    There was enough variety to keep the students interest peaked to know and use the code and go ahead to get a license    To avoid any tediousness or boredom   no adjacent lessons were identical in format or content   although many code texts were repeated over and over throughout the series of lessons    In addition   the student was urged from the very first to obtain a good key and make an oscillator so that he could practice sending accurate code between lessons      The code portion of Lesson One began with a short explanation of how to vocalize the code   that is   using dits and dahs to get and keep the student thinking of the code letters as patterns of sound rather than as visual dots and dashes    It was illustrated by comments such as It is this soundpattern of each letter that must be memorized      These very important comments were restated in various ways in every lesson up to the tenth   and after that they were reinforced in almost every lesson in one way or another    This constant hammering of the importance of sound only drove this key point home    They apparently all got it    Then in that very first lesson he sent the alphabet   numbers and punctuation marks for the student just to listen to   in order to give him an overall feel for the wholeness of the code as a system of sounds     

In the following lessons up to the tenth when the alphabet only each letter repeated three times was sent in ABC order just to be listened to without copying    But sometimes it was sent in character groups to be copied   writing down immediately each letter the student recognized    Even in Lesson One the alphabet was followed by three short sayings of 5 to 9 words each    Each saying was first read aloud  once or twice  then sent slowly   and finally read again    A few lessons later everyone was to try to copy them   although only those who were somewhat advanced were expected to be able to get it all      He apparently never sent a character at less than about 12 wpm    In the earlier lessons the upper actual limit of word speed ranged from about 5 to 10 or more wpm    Later from time to time the upper limits were sometimes in the teens up to 25 wpm    The beginning speed was not a progressive advance   but rather was random  sometimes starting at 6 wpm   at other times 10 or more  to give exposure to how the code sounds at various speeds    12 to 14 wpm were the commonest speeds    In the later lessons a wide variety of sentences was sent in this part of the lesson    In the earlier lessons they were familiar sayings   helpful remarks and encouragement   and later were usually taken from the text of the lesson theme    After lesson 30 portions from the Radio Amateurs Handbook   and the Radio Amateurs License Manual   and finally all class B examination questions were included      Beginning in lesson 3 he encouraged the student to try to write them down as words separated by spaces    If they couldnt do that yet   to write the letters in a continuous string   without spaces    All copying to be done in ordinary handwriting not printed    Up to lesson 7 the average student was assumed to be able to copy the letters of the alphabet at word speeds of about 5 wpm    Beginning with lesson 8 the numbers and most common punctuation marks were added to the alphabet review and frequently also were vocalized up to lesson 27    This was done less often in later lessons    The first 26 lessons were dedicated primarily to establishing a firm foundation in recognizing and using the code characters    He used an automatic tape sender from about lesson 15 to send texts at various speeds for more practice      The obvious goal was to make the student thoroughly familiar with the sound of each code letter   number and punctuation mark by repeatedly hearing them over and over and copying them down    Each lesson from about the twelfth also contained higher speed portions for those advancing more rapidly   and to tweak the interest of those not quite to skilled yet to try to copy    As the lessons progressed he used different speeds up to about 25 wpm    To avoid ear fatigue the code practice segments of each lesson were separated by a few minutes of spoken comments   reading of prepared text on the lesson theme or other items of general interest      Code sections of a lesson rarely exceeded 5 to 10 minutes at a time    In later lessons these were sometimes an active part of the teaching of radio theory and practice    In some lessons he also gave general comments on how to go about studying and learning    Beginning in lesson 13 he encouraged the student to try to copy at least a letter or two behind    After lesson 30 most of the themes were taken directly from the ARRL Radio Amateurs Handbook and the ARRL Licensing Manual which each student was urged to obtain    These were to prepare the student for passing the radio amateur operators test   which covered the elements of electricity and radio   the U   S    rules and regulations concerning amateur transmitting   and amateur operating practices    His students easily passed the 10 and 13 wpm tests with flying colors      Bruce Vaughan   now NR4Y   was one of his students    He started learning the code in the fall of 1938    Years later he wrote like this I never understood why some find learning code difficult    I remember only vaguely   when I learned to read CW   so I suppose my Maker installed a code reader in my otherwise hollow skull at the time of my conception    He learned the code during that twomonth radio class and then easily passed the government exam      

Steve Katz   WB2WIK   has taught hundreds of students in classes of 5 to 15 students over the years   and says CW surely isnt difficult    Most of his students in a typical class   he says   didnt know a dit from a dah   but after eight class sessions they all except one or two passed the 20 wpm CW element for Extra      How did he do this  ?     He tells them The code is the worlds easiest language    It has only 26 words    Who here cant learn 26 new words in one night  ?    When a person learns a new language   he doesnt think about how each word is spelled   or how many letters are in each word    He thinks about how the word sounds   and what it means   The same goes for learning Morse code    Each letter has a sound and a meaning    Thats all one needs to know      Then he begins with the simplest letters E T I M A N S O and progresses to the intermediate letters U D V B W G and then finally the last twelve    He teaches by rhythm and sound   not by dits and dahs or dots and dashes    He teaches by vocalization and demonstration  no assigned homework or study of any kind    He uses his ham radio station along with an electronic keyer and key paddle to demonstrate and also uses on the air contacts      His proven CW teaching technique after the ABCs   he describes as to make the student put away his pencil and paper and just listen to the code at very high speeds   while he   Steve   sends familiar text   including words like the names of sports teams   cities and so forth    He said Dont write anything down    Just listen to the code   and if you get a little bit of it   thats fine      He taught his nine year old nephew Rob who has cerebral palsy when Rob got interested in ham radio from watching Steve communicating with distant stations    So Steve started teaching him the code and in about 3 weeks he passed the novice exam with flying colors at age 10    Rob hacked around in the Novice cw bands at 5 wpm for a while   when one day he tuned where high speed operators were working each other and was intrigued that they were going so fast    He tried to copy them but was disheartened to find he couldnt write as fast as they were sending    So Steve helped him out   and said Dont write anything down    Just listen to the code   and if you get a little bit of it   thats fine      So Rob just listened and soon was copying maybe 2 percent   and after a few more days of listening to high speed operators   he could copy maybe 20 percent   which Steve said is more than enough to make a contact    Steve encouraged him to do just that  make contacts with operators going much too fast to copy    He did that   even if he could only copy a call sign and name Steve told him thats a complete contact    

It didnt take long for Rob to copy in his head very solidly without pencil and paper Steve said I never use any either    

When Rob had upgraded to General Class   Steve encouraged him to hang out near the Extra Class subbands and find the really great operators to contact    He did that   too   and within three weeks   he had increased his code speed from 5 to about 35 wpm without using tapes   computer programs or any other artificial means    He just did it by getting on the air and making contacts   which is how Steve says he did it   too      When Rob was 12 he passed the Advanced exam   and also took the Extra Class exam where he passed the code element easily 100 percent solid   all answers correct   without writing anything down on paper   but he failed the theory parts of the exam because he hadnt had enough math yet in school    Just before his 13th birthday he did pass the full Extra Class exam    He now works CW contests where most QSOs are at 45 to 50 wpm and never writes anything down except the other stations call in his log      This handicapped teen can copy at almost any speed with 100 percent accuracy   but he doesnt really know a dit from a dah    He didnt learn the code this way    Code was always the easy part for him    Rob is certain that anyone who cant pass the code exam must be an idiot   since it wasnt very hard for him and he has a learning disability   cerebral palsy which restricts his coordination    He had Steves excellent example and was never told it might be hard   so it was always easy for him    He had a good attitude and didnt know there was any problem    There seems to be no limit to his ability    He was learning it the right way from the very first exposure      More Examples  The U   S    Navy during WW2 code courses for the average person required about 3 weeks to achieve 12 to 14 wpm to meet the rigid Navy requirement of perfect accuracy military operations and security at sea demanded letterperfect accuracy    This time   they thought   could be shortened with better teaching methods      Waldo T    Boyd K6DZY was a graduate of the Navy Radio Communications School    In 3 months time he was copying 35 wpm   and not long after that was copying 50 wpm easily    Dick Spenceley KV4AA known as one of the worlds best operators taught Danny Weil so well that within one month Danny had earned his license and was working DX at 20 wpm    His was the result of a good teacher and an eager student      

Katashi Nose   KH6IJ Physics Department   University of Hawaii   who became a high speed expert   taught teenagers the code for 25 years    His students never heard that this will be hard   youll have to fight a plateau    They learned rapidly to good working speeds of 20 to 30 wpm in two to three weeks      The fastest code learner we have ever heard of so far started code practice for the examination just one week before he took the test and passed it You say Wait a minute    What goes on here  ?    Youre right   there is a history behind this achievement    What was it   and what can we learn from it  ?     

It was his conditioning   his background    That played a crucial part    His father was a skilled telegrapher at a country railroad station    His earliest childhood memories were of sitting   fascinated   on the floor in his fathers telegraph office listening to the sounder clicking    Unconsciously he learned to recognize when his Dads station was being called   and when he did   he would go to get his Dad    It was only after he was quite a bit older that he realized that not all adult men could automatically read Morse code in the same way that they could read and write English   His mind had become so sensitized to the sound of Morse code from birth and so saturated with it that   when the time came to learn it properly   he had absolutely no hangups at all about not being able to do it    He was totally conditioned and prepared    And in addition he may have felt   as almost every teenager does   that whatever Dad can do   I can do better    Not many of us are so fortunate as to have this kind of background   but does his history suggest anything we could do  ?    Is there some way I can condition my mind to make it easier  ?    Isnt it the old story what is familiar to us doesnt seem hard  it is easy      

Gary Bold   ZL1AN   wellknown teacher in New Zealand   related this story of a friend of his   and suggests one way to approach it that works   even though it may sound silly    This is by playing high quality code tapes in the background like music while youre driving to work   washing the dishes   cleaning the car   etc    You dont even have to listen to it consciously   he says     Will it work  ?    Its certainly worth a try      At the lowest skill levels four years olds   barely able to write even block letters have been able to pass the code test    How many of us are willing to admit a four year old can outperform us  ?   

How long it should take depends on various factors    The first essential is how we approach  this is vital    Am I prepared  ?    Do I really want to learn  ?    Will I stick to it  ?    Am I determined to do it  ?    All these are essential to rapid success      By Contrast  Old American Morse operators   using the old visual   then widely practiced methods of teaching and experience   took about six months to reach about 15 wpm and about two years to reach an expert phase    Their code with its internal spaces does require more timing sense than International Morse      During WWI in America   the urgent need for wireless operators shoved most of them out the door into military service with only a bare code proficiency   no experience in operating either the equipment or the procedures      WWII American military radio training schools provided more rigorous code training   and some of them included   in their later phases   operational experience with wired QSOs and even included interference    These practical exercises sometimes introduced progressively worse QRM    Some courses introduced typing from the very first   but for advanced students typing was the rule    Those receiving high speed training also learned to copy high speed press    It is easy   and need not take long to learn the Morse code if one goes at it prepared with the right attitudes and methods    

If you memorized the code as I did from a printed chart of dots and dashes   or from a clever printed diagram or picture which vividly impressed the mind   you felt you knew it    Maybe it only took you twenty minutes to memorize it   as some advertisers claimed  or perhaps it took a day or two    Then if you tried to send something in code with your key   it was easy you had a vivid mental picture as to just how long to hold each element of a character   and this seemed to prove you knew the code      But it was when you started to receive   to listen to the code   that the trouble began    The sounds you heard just didnt seem to match up with the dots and dashes you knew at all    Why should it be so hard to translate the code sounds into the dots and dashes and letters that you thought you knew so well  ?    Those who have made a study of memory tell us that we have several separate memory banks one for sight   one for sound   others for touch   taste and smell    See   e   g      Memory Surprising New Insights Into How We Remember and Why We Forget  Elizabeth Loftus   1980   

Now we see why the code sounds we heard couldnt make any direct connection at all with our vivid visual memory they were two different kinds of sensations sound and sight  they didnt relate    In order to cross that gap and relate them we had to give conscious thought to build a bridge between them to convert the sound pattern into a pattern of visual dots and dashes so that our visual memory   where the memory was   could interpret them    That is why we stumbled and   under the pressure of time   often missed out or even failed completely    If we keep on this way we will have to form additional association links for each individual code character in order to connect them    This can be done   and has been done   but it takes a lot of time and also raises a new risk  the danger of interference between them two possible pathways   one conscious   the other the new association formed and possible hesitation as a result      Our memories are complex mechanisms    To fill in the picture   experimental studies on memory have for many years shown that we have not only several kinds   but also several levels of memories    First are what may be called the sensory registers   the very short times during which   after we see or hear something   its sight or sound persists in our consciousness as if we were still seeing or hearing it persistence of vision or hearing for a moment   then quickly vanishes    However   if we are paying attention and are conscious of a sight or sound   it will enter the appropriate short term memory and stay there for maybe 1520 seconds before it   too   fades out unless we deliberately try to remember it a bit longer   or make a real effort to put it into our longterm memory bank by intending to remember it by reinforcing it      Long term memory is what we usually think of as our memory    Because for most of us it seems easier to remember things we have seen than things we have heard   the visual approach to learning seems more attractive    But obviously   since receiving the code is a matter of hearing   we should begin the right way   by training our auditory memory banks    Now we can see why learning the code initially by eye is really the hard way   and actually creates a serious roadblock to advancement      

The intricate interworking of the various parts of our minds and brains raises questions as to what is going on as we consider receiving in the telegraphic codes    Memory studies are usually concerned with things we are fully conscious of and desire either to remember or to forget    With the higher skills in code   however   it is the operation of the unconscious parts of the mind and its relations with the consciousness that is of primary interest   and how these tie together with the memory      As our telegraphic skill level increases   the ABCs of the mechanics of language become more and more the actions of the subconscious mind   which in turn may or may not bring them to the attention of our consciousness    In the process of copying   the consciousness of content may be zero you just mechanically copy dictation what is received   while you may be conscious only of thinking of something quite irrelevant    However   in reading the code we are first conscious of the words   and later conscious more of the thoughts conveyed than being precisely aware of the words    In both these higher skill levels   the words and thoughts are generally collected together into at least the short term memories   and often carried over into the longterm memories   so that we make sense out of it all and follow what is being said as we do in conversation      Perhaps the only thing we are conscious of   if we stop to think about it at all is that we want to understand and recall some of the things said to us    Perhaps there is an analogy with driving a car    Here our eyes are receiving impressions from traffic   traffic signals   certain sounds   and our physical responses on steering wheel   accelerator   brakes are so automatic that if we are asked later about some particular detail   we just cant reply    These habitual physical responses to stimuli from specific events are especially strongly retained over long periods of time    The complete response once started carries itself out automatically and fully      Another   less frequent occurrence is this over the years it has been found that people sometimes have retained mental pictures or sound recordings of things in earlier life to which they had paid no attention or had any interest in    Under certain conditions they were able to recall them  even things that made no sense at the time or later    One aged lady was able to recall verbatim long speeches in a language foreign to her she had heard many years previously    Another sang a song in the native language of her mother   a language the singer never understood at all    The experts tell us that long term memory does not mean either permanent memory or accurate memory    All memories tend to weaken or fade out with time   and further   that they can and usually are altered in various ways so that the recall is distorted   or sometimes even reversed from the original      One exception is those memories associated with physically related skills   such as playing a musical instrument   driving a vehicle   stenography   telegraphy   etc    People who have not practiced such skills for many years will generally show surprising agility after decades of nonuse    A little practice will usually put them back to nearly their best performance   barring physical disability    This has been demonstrated over and over    There is certainly room here for further research into this fascinating subject as we look for specifically better ways to improve our telegraphic skills      Those operators in commercial work who read the tapes by eye seldom if ever learned cw as we know it   but rather learned the visual appearance of words and letters on the tapes in groups    There is also another aspect to tape reading it is more like reading print with each character in full context   not in sequential time    One operator accustomed to operating in the 35 to 40 wpm range was out of it for five years    When he sat down to listen he could copy only about 15 wpm I couldnt believe it By noon he was up to about 24 wpm and later in the afternoon was up to his old speeds again    Just a few hours of practice were needed    One can indeed get awfully rusty   he said    

By ear we mean our total hearing and interpretive system   an intricate and ingenious complete system of perception and interpretation of what is heard ears   nerves   and mind      The ears themselves are sensitive over a very wide range of intensities   but have their maximum sensitivity and selectivity at low volume levels    Setting the sound volume level just high enough to be clearly readable   both protects the hearing and improves performance    The ear responds to what it hears first      Pitch of CW Signal  The ear is sensitive to pitch    Few people can accurately remember pitch absolute pitch   but most have no trouble detecting changes and differences in pitch    Not many seem actually to be tone deaf    The usual pitch range used for CW is between 500 and 1000 Hz    Some find the best pitch for copying in interference is about 500 Hz      Those with serious hearing losses  who cannot hear certain pitches   or who cannot distinguish code signals in the usual pitch range because their ears ring where the spaces should be  may find a lower pitch for example 300 to 400 Hz helps    Sometimes using a buzzer tone   or adding white noise to the tone may enable them to hear properly    

Avoid the use of an actual buzzer in teaching as it has a delay in starting to sound    This distorts the timing      The usual narrow bandwidth of tone for CW is uncomfortable to some people and may become monotonous   uncomfortable or unpleasant    The narrower the pitch range the more frequent the complaint    They find a more complex tonal pattern far less tiring and even pleasant    However   when interference is present more complex tones become a hindrance      Sensitivity to Duration of Sound  In the perception of rhythm the human ear will adapt itself within rather wide limits in the actual duration of sounds    Our judgment of the duration of a brief sound is poor   perhaps because of a persistence of sound like persistence of vision   yet we can judge the relative length of brief silent intervals rather well    This is probably why the telegraph sounder has worked so well for receiving American Morse   where rhythm patterns are complex    Thus   If we take care for the spaces   the marks will take care of themselves    Some students may have difficulty distinguishing dits from dahs    The normal ratio is 13    For them it may help to overemphasize the length of the dahs at first by lengthening them from 3 units to 4    It is interesting that in American Morse the dahs tended to become shorter than three units   to contrast with the longer dahs of L and zero    Again   it may be the nature of the sounder that led to this      There are good reasons for believing that we must distinguish between conscious perception of duration and what the brain actually is capable of perceiving at subconscious levels    Support for this belief comes from the experiences of those operators who can receive code signals accurately at speeds   which far exceed the point where dits and dahs all sound alike    See Chapter 10

The Ear Can Often Make Sense Out Of Poor Sending  The ear is remarkable in being able to make sense out of some pretty badly mangled code   such as is often heard on the air    It is a forgiving organ by mental adjustment one can quickly learn to recognize and read quite poorly timed code code whose glaring defects would stand out prominently if traced out on paper    Within fairly wide limits the actual duration of the sound in a rhythmic pattern may vary and still be recognized    However   the spacings within and between characters and words is a highly significant factor      Some distortions of proportion are less unintelligible than others    Better discrimination exists when the dits are too fast as compared to the dahs than when the dits and dahs begin to approach the same length easily confused    The ear can often read this kind of stuff when machinery fails      The Trained Ear Can Discriminate Between Signals  The normal ear can learn to separate between signals nearly   but not quite   identical in pitch    For many people the ear brain filter can focus on a bandwidth as narrow as 50  100 Hz    If one can focus on a 50 Hz    bandwidth with a receiver having a 3 kHz noise bandwidth   a CW signal nearly 18 dB below the noise level can be heard    However   a bandwidth of about 500 Hz      rather than a very narrow one   makes the mechanics of tuning easier and gives freer rein to the ear brain filter      It is usually only when the going gets quite rough that we need an extremely narrow receiving filter  and then there is the risk of losing the signal entirely if anything shifts just a little    It has been said that The amateur ear   trained to dig out signals buried six layers deep in murderous QRM is the most prized ear in intercept work in all the world      Headphones Are Superior To A Speaker  Headphones effectively double the power of received signals compared to a loudspeaker    The muffs on the phones keep out extraneous noises and keep the weak sound energy in    The signal to noise ratio can be increased by reversing the phasing of the phones that is   the noise at one phone is 180 degrees out of phase with the other and the brain tends to cancel the noise    Noise type ear plugs can also help with phones and/or filters to reduce spurious noises    

Timing is the heart of the code there is no code without it    Clear intelligibility depends upon right proportions    However   it is true that some distortions are less unintelligible than others   and people can learn to read that sort of stuff  but is it justifiable  ?    Control of timing rests entirely with the sending operator      For this reason   attention to careful timing is first needed when the student starts to practice with a manual key   especially a straight key   though also with most other types    This is one reason why some good teachers discourage the use of anything but a keyboard by a beginner    Most modern teachers agree that it is important not to specifically mention the subject of timing until the student has learned the alphabet and numbers so well by hearing them that he recognizes their patterns without hesitation      Some teachers recommend that other than using dits and dahs to verbalize characters   they should not be time analyzed at all in teaching   but that it all be done intuitively by sound    On the other hand   some excellent teachers of the past before keyers and keyboards have insisted on teaching precise timing   in terms of its elements   from the very first    Accurate timing is vital   but it must never distract the student from the basic recognition of characters by their essential unity of patterning it must not lead to his breaking down the characteristic rhythm of the characters by analyzing them into components      The Basic Units  The basic unit of code timing is the Baud   which is the duration of one dit or dot   denoted here by 1 for the on signal   and by the equal unit 0 zero for silence   the off signal    The basic contrasting signal to the dit is the dah   which has duration of 3 units 111    It is obvious that each dit and each dah must be separated both before and after by at least one unit silence 0 in order to be distinguishable this one unit is the normal spacing between parts of a character    Normal spacing between characters within a word or group is three units   and between words or groups is seven units      Punctuation marks normally follow the last word with only one character space between    It is these components of time   signal on   short or long   and off   which produce the patterns or rhythms which distinguish one character from another    We must learn to hear these patterns   sense them   feel them   and this is best done by hearing well sent code    In actual practice   individual operators may and do deviate somewhat from the standards given above    This may be for emphasis or because of communication conditions   as well as unconscious individual variations      

In the perception of rhythm by the human ear the precise duration of sounds is   within fairly wide limits   unimportant    If the longer signals i   e      dahs are substantially longer than the shorter ones that is to say   dits   the ear will be satisfied    While our judgment of the duration of brief sounds is poor   we can judge the relative length of brief silence intervals much more accurately      It has been said If you take care of the spaces   the marks will take care of themselves    Spacing   the periods of silence between parts of a character   between characters in a word or group   and between words   is critical to good receiving    Sloppy or hastily sent code can be a terror to receive and understand    Beyond some speed the persistence of hearing effect tends to fill in the small spaces and make us unable to consciously recognize characters    In American Morse with its three different lengths of dashes   each successively longer one was taught as being twice as long as the next shorter one  an amount which is clearly hearable under almost any conditions    In practice   however   because they used a telegraph sounder which marks the start of a signal by one kind of click   and its end by a different sounding click   with silence in between   these durations were often shortened without confusion for reasons stated above    The same thing was true for its internally spaced characters      Code translators   microcircuitry for converting code into print   break down when sending is poor or interference is severe    The human ear and mind   however   can copy rotten code far better than any machine    The ear is a forgiving organ by mental compensation we can quickly recognize and read stuff as passable code   which if it were recorded on paper tape would show its glaring defects    In the presence of interfering signals and static   and to a large extent during fading   the ear can be trained to pick out a very weak signal and read it well    Chapter 11   Irregularities in Timing  From the very beginning of telegraphy as soon as the art began to spread   the individuality of operators became apparent    Little peculiarities in sending stood out to identify each one   just as voice quality and style do in speaking    Mostly these were subtle little things   which did not distract from easy intelligibility    But they did involve aspects of timing and rhythm    We hear them today on the CW bands among amateurs using hand keys just as they did among all operators in the past      For many operators there was a certain pride in this    However   there is a danger here also   because some operators deliberately created peculiar styles of sending as a sort of trademark    When such distortion reaches a certain point and becomes habitual   intelligibility suffers    We hear some of these operators today on the air    They do not seem to realize   or perhaps even care about the difficulty they cause    With the advent of the double speed key   also called the sideswiper or the cootie key   a key   which is operated by sidewise movement   with one contact on each side   a new set of peculiar styles of sending arose    Sidewise instead of up and down motion helped relieve some forms of fatigue   but also the peculiar motion patterns developed a different timing pattern   one that is sometimes hard to copy      The use of bugs   semiautomatic keys the best known being the Vibroplex which soon became very popular   also gave rise to various personal sending peculiarities unless the operator was careful    SWINGS One of the most interesting developments in disturbed timing of hand sending was the rise of so called swings    Swing has to do with a change in the normal rhythm of sending   sometimes described as a change in symmetry or lack of it a peculiar way of forming the characters    Swings most commonly developed among marine operators within a close knit group having a large volume of specialized communications    Thus we have the names Banana boat swing   Lake Erie swing   Cuban swing   etc      The operators of the large United Fruit Co    were especially noted for this    Some have claimed that swings developed as a most effective way of copying the early day spark signals which sounded so much like static through heavy static    The basic principle of seagoing swing was to exaggerate the spacing between letters when a letter ending with a dah was followed by one beginning with a dah   and similarly for one ending in a dit when the next began with a dit    The spacing before and after an E within a word was often made a bit longer for clarity    Exaggerated dah lengths were common also in the attempt to improve readability e   g      the first dah in C was generally dragged out slightly      Other individual rhythmic disturbances were common also   such as drawing out the second dah in Q which we often hear on the air today    In order to avoid confusion in the midst of typically heavy Gulf of Mexico static   sending the call signs of two main shore stations was modified  the P of WPA was made with long dahs   while the space between A and X of WAX was exaggerated and the dahs of X were lengthened    This stopped the confusion    In later years such swings were found necessary for intelligibility in low frequency marine work when signals were barely audible    Some said Banana boat swing developed from call letters KFUC   the general call for all United Fruit Co    ships    Others suggested the rolling motion of boats contributed to forming it    The name Cuban swing or Latin swing came from the way most Cuban and Mexican operators ran their words together    Sometimes it must have been quite deliberate  just to try to be individualistic   such as a jerk in forming H P C S 4 5 Y Q   a lengthening of one of the dahs a bit in J   1   etc      any funny little stroke    But these things made them hard to copy by other operators      Early in 1936 the Eastern Air Lines EAL communications supervisor decided to develop an EAL swing for its operators    He dreamed up the idea of modifying a bug by moving the stationary dot post a half inch forward    This produced a swing like none ever heard before    The operators did not like it and soon repositioned the post   but it unconsciously influenced the sending of many of them ever after    Recently operators in a foreign navy were found almost impossible to understand at first because of a peculiar rhythm taught by their telegraph instructors      Over the years   peculiarities of this sort have often been observed in other parts of the world as well    These   too   would have to be called swings    Swings    The earliest comment found so far about swing is from Radio News Dec    1921 p   565 The American Radio Operator commercial and shipboard criticizes the cultivation of a fancy or eccentric style of sending   believed clever in originality   but causes the receiving operator to make more effort to copy than usual    He introduces a jerk in his Hs   Ps   Cs   3s   4s   5s   Ys   and Qs and makes one of the dashes of J and 1   etc      a trifle longer than the rest          A tricky swing he makes as an effort to acquire the funny stroke as he goes on     Consider the other operator 

For self learning nothing is superior to a Personal Computer PC or a keyboard where the student can push a key and hear each character and see it in print if there is a screen   as often as he wishes or needs to get the feel of its rhythm    The PC especially has become such a valuable tool that some teachers as Gary Bold consider it to be superior to private or classroom learning      It is consistent   always sending perfect code in exactly the same way      It is always available and ready to be used whenever the student wants to practice      Most computer teaching programs provide for easy tailoring to the exact needs of the individual student      A PC is impersonal and there is never any reason for the student to feel embarrassment   something which often is an emotional deterrent to efficient learning in the presence of a teacher or classmates      It can provide both an excellent introduction to the code and growth in skill to any desired degree      Many Computer Programs Are Excellent  See also Chapter 18

Computer programs have been and some are still available for the Commodore and Apple computers   but most have been for the IBM compatible PCs    They have been of all sizes and varieties   according to the skill   teaching experience and ingenuity of the programming writers    Many provide for connecting the computer with the transmitter and using the computer as a keyboard    Some provide an evaluation of the students sending skills      One of the important features for rapid learning is the degree of adaptability to the student and the amount of interaction with him that is provided    How flexible are they  ?    Do they provide checks on skill and accuracy  ?    One example of an interactive computer program Gary Bolds starts the new student out by having him hear the character   then keying in his identification of it    If his identification is correct   the character is then displayed on the screen    But if he is wrong   his answer is ignored   and the character is repeated until he correctly identifies it    The same character is then presented several more times for his correct response before taking up the next one    If he delays too long in responding   the character is repeated and may be displayed simultaneously until he gets it      After a number per students request of new characters have been introduced   they are repeated in random order   and if one is misidentified   it is repeated until the student correctly identifies it    This program then ingeniously ratios the next series of random characters in proportion to the number of times any of them have been misidentified   until the student reduces this ratio significantly    Many PC programs provide a considerable variety of practice material beyond the initial learning and recognition stage    Computer programs can be versatile tools for rapid advancement   tailored to individual needs    Keyboards may provide for some of these various factors   depending on how they have been designed and programmed    There are some smaller pocket sized computers which are limited to hearing practice only      

Old timer George Hart   W1NJM is one who learned the code originally   as he says   by osmosis from an older brother who was a ham    just by listening   with no intention of learning it or getting a license    This way he learned frequent letters and operating procedures until one day he discovered he could communicate by code    From then on he was hooked He later wrote I was practically born with a key in my hand   so cw was as natural to me as talking      

A few hams in years gone by have said that they initially learned the code by listening to fast commercial press dispatches probably 35 to 45 wpm   which were then available day and night    Did they mean starting out   or advancing  ?    Just how they actually began is not clear    They claim that they found they could identify a letter here and there   then short words   and within a couple of months were reading it all    However   this approach may not have been very efficient  for most of us it might prove discouraging  and probably depended greatly upon the mental makeup of the learner as well as his enthusiasm    We mention it here only to show what can be done if one is determined enough      Further Comments on Gaining Speed  With many modern computer code programs available   programmable keyboards and keyers   as well as tapes   etc      there are several attractive alternates available    With these   material can be better tailored for our individual needs    The Farnsworth method suggests itself here in the high speed range   too   to allow the mind time to digest and identify characters and words    Using this   some have found that to set up a character speed in the 50 to 60 wpm range and then widening the inter letter and inter word spaces initially   gradually reducing them as desired   can speed up the recognition process      Sleep Learning   ?     ?     A number of operators in the past who desperately wanted to increase their receiving skills deliberately tried sleeping beside their receivers or playback recording equipment or their line telegraph sounders in the case of landline operators with fast code signals coming through for several hours or all night    They claimed that within a surprisingly short time they had great increases in receiving speed    This procedure has been challenged   but apparently works for some people      One ham   who says he can copy at 70 wpm and still wants to increase above that   has for years been listening this way every night    Maybe it works for some people   but I wonder if it is actually effective   and also whether they got any restful sleep that way    It is interesting that in the early 1920s a group of doctors were being trained to use Morse code    Their teachers tried sleep learning with them   and found that if the word doctor was sent while they were sound asleep during the night   it would nearly always wake them immediately  showing that there is some kind of unconscious receptivity and response      

When someone comes to me and asks how to make the 13 wpm requirement for General class   I give them the following plan of working You need to listen every day to good sending   and I suggest the W1AW CW bulletins    They are at 18 wpm    Start out the first few days and just listen for no more than one minute    Then turn it off    As you listen   pick out the characters you recognize    Dont write anything down at all the first few days like this    After a few days   increase your listening time to two minutes and continue to pick out as many characters as you can in your head and dont write anything down yet    Then turn it off   as before    After eight to ten days of this practice   go back to the one minute period of listening   but this time write down everything you can recognize    Try to leave blank spaces where you miss out    Write down every letter you can catch for that one minute period   then turn it off    Repeat this practice for several days   then extend the time to two minutes   writing down everything you can recognize    After several days or a week or so this way you will find your comprehension coming up fairly rapidly because your concentration is improving and you will be surprised how much you can copy in just this short period of time    From here on gradually increase your listening time to 3   4   5   6 or 7 minutes    When you can copy somewhere around 60 percent of the bulletin materials you will find that you can copy 13 wpm   the test speed   with flying colors    This scheme has worked well for a number of people who had reached speeds between 5 and 10 wpm   but had difficulty in advancing    This general pattern should prove of help to others aiming for the 20 wpm test or higher      McElroys Course and His Claims For It  Although this does not fall into the above categories   here is what was said   In the Nov    1945 QST   p 115   was an ad in which Ted McElroys Company offered to send you this complete course of instruction McElroys Morse Code Course free so you can see for yourself what it will do for you    It was said to contain everything he has learned in 30years of operating experience    Assuming that the average person will practice several hours the first day   we can tell you           that youll be copying THAT VERY FIRST DAY   words and sentences at the rate of 20 wpm    The thing is that ingenious Ted has taken one half the alphabet   which appears on his chart No    1   prepared a practice tape   which runs for at least one full hour without attention at the rate of 20 wpm    You wont copy 20 full words in one minute    But each letter you write will hit your ears at a full 20 wpm and the space between letters becomes progressively shorter as the rolls go along    Since Teds receiving speed records were tops in almost every official speed contest   it would be very interesting to see this document    At present   the above is all that seems to be available    

Both in sending and receiving errors are sometimes made     Good operators make very few if any while sending   but errors do occur both during sending and especially while receiving under various adverse conditions    These make it necessary for us to keep in mind letters that may be mistakenly formed or because of poor conditions appear to sound alike   Dotting errors  too many or too few dits are made or thought to be heard H/5 S/H B/6 V/4 Z/7   Initial or final dits or dahs missed or confused    On the receiving end there is a tendency to hear signals as being shorter than they are J/1 C/Y P/J Z/Q W/J W/P   Other characters which beginners may confuse   particularly F/L G/W Y/Q 6/5 Errors that the beginner or trainee experiences in his own work can be turned into advantages      Specific errors that are often repeated show us where we need to give special practice    If we tend to confuse two characters   we can eliminate it by hearing them one after another until their differences in rhythm become obvious to us      When we look over our copy and find nonsense or obvious missed out areas   the correction can often be made simply from examining the context    This will generally not work for numbers   scrambled letters or call signs   where there is no repetition to help out    Normal procedure when you catch yourself making an error while you are sending may be handled something like this    stop   indicate error by   ?    or by eight dits   then repeat the last correct word especially if it is short   and then the one sent wrong and continue on   or   in rag chewing unimportant matter   simply stop a moment and restart with the word mis sent     similarly   if it is a long word and the first syllable or so has been correctly sent   and it is a word which the receiving operator surely will immediately understand   just pause a moment and then go on with the next word      The pause will indicate to him the problem    

It is always a bit risky to try to list currently available materials and books    These change with time   some for the better   a few for the worse   and some simply vanish from the scene    With that in mind   the following programs have been found representative   both adequate and good    It is quite impossible here to go into the many details of each program   so only the barest outline is given for information    They all provide a range of speeds and pitch of the tone    Some provide various options of screen or printing capabilities   etc      and/or allow the user to remodel it for his preferences   etc    Some provide various ways of increasing or decreasing speed while sending    All use the speaker in the computer for sound output    Helps are provided on screen in most of the programs    Freeware means that there is no mandatory cost to the user other than that of providing the diskette    Commercial means the program is for sale on the market    Unless otherwise noted all are IBM compatible      Morse University was an excellent Advanced Electronic Applications program for the Commodore C64 computer   plugged into cartridge slot   with manual    It included   a learning program     a proficiency program to increase speed     a sending analysis characters and spacings     a receiving game to recognize characters under pressure and a Morse keyboard to compose ones own code practice sessions      

Learning was at 20 wpm Farnsworth character speeds with a 3 second interval between characters    There were 54 basic lessons   plus 7 which teach the German   Spanish and Swedish characters   if desired    It was suggested that one spend two 20 minute sessions each day   and at the end of a month many would have achieved a solid 20 wpm receiving speed   and have enjoyed learning    Several options were available     Proficiency sent a random sequence of characters with programmable starting and finishing speed    Speed was adjustable 5 to 99 wpm   length of practice up to an hour   number of different characters up to 45   size of groups   and length of intervals between characters      

Supermorse by Lee Murrah  A great deal of variety was built into this program   which is really a series of integrated programs    A learning phase introduced the student to the code characters   a Building speed phase provided variety in practice materials   an Enhance phase extended this to as fast as one might want   while a Measure phase provided for testing of skill with builtin or user constructed tests   and finally an Operate phase    Interaction was provided in several aspects      

Morseman plus by Robin Gist NE4L/ZF2PM  had a Tutorial module teaching the characters   a Trainer module developing skill   another   Testing provided for various evaluations of skill   while an Interactive mode provided for certain userresponse reactions    Several types of practice were provided in each of these modes or modules      

GTE Morse Tutor version 2   1 for IBM PC   XT   AST and equivalents    11 lessons for basic learning    Each lesson reviewed previous characters as well as introducing new ones   up to lesson 12   which provided random QSO practice of infinite variety up to a length of 10 minutes per QSO    User specifies Farnsworth and all speeds as desired up to over 50 wpm    Character Excellent NonCommercial Programs Presently Available   

The Mill   MILL98a is the present status of long MILL developments by James S    Farrior   W4FOK

It is unique among the many freeware programs in providing for both old American Morse and International codes at users selection    Jim has gone to great lengths in designing the character formation controls to incorporate the feature of old Morse environmental variability to such a degree that it sounds natural to old time Morse operators   unlike the machine regular International code   and has simulated sounders and output for regular telegraph sounders      There is a basic learning section   a section for sending any file the user wishes to send   and another allows the user to create files he may wish to use    Another feature provides for using the computer as a control of the transmitter   using any of the other program aspects   which are appropriate    It is a carefully designed and elegant program   and Jim continues developing improvements    It was written in QBASIC    

The MORSE TUTOR PROGRAM  is the result of another similar development for International Morse by Gary E    J    Bold ZL1AN   professor and long time code teacher in New Zealand    It is written for GWBASIC and may be readily modified by the user    Like most other programs   it has several unique features    Each portion is a selfcontained program    Teach interacts with the beginner   and regulates the instruction according to correctness and error in responses    Random practice programs are provided for code groups for any subset of characters or words from any source    A sending program sends any ASCII files for copying or reading practice    A keyboard program sends whatever is keyed in the keyboard    An interesting module is provided for key input to analyze the quality of the users sending      There are also other similar programs both freeware and commercial    Some PC programmers have been able to prepare their own programs tailored to their own particular needs    A number of interactive programs are available which give either immediate or delayed helps to the student  these offer tremendous help in learning    Some may also allow the more advanced student to conduct QSOs with the computer program   just as if he was actually on the air    The potential here is great indeed    Finally   there are available computer programs and devices   which can read received code transmissions    Because they are machines   they can only read code signals   which are reasonably accurate in timing    For the student who has access to one of these   it will give him a chance to test his own sending for accuracy    However   they are not recommended as substitutes for personal receiving by ear     Code Tapes For Learning And For Other Purposes  The ARRL   several companies and some individuals which make or have made tapes for cassette recorders for learning up to the 20 plus wpm seed range and higher   and some have prepared punched paper tapes for high speed transmission and reception    Some of these tapes are excellent   but some are of poor quality    The ARRL tapes are of high quality      The Twin Oaks Associates mental health professionals offered code training programs    Three courses using cassettes and an instruction book emphasized learning by ear  mentally or verbally recognizing what is sent automatically    Course 1   alphabet took to over 5 wpm    Practice listening through the first side   without writing anything down or rewinding to pick up anything    Side one first sounds each character and then the narrator immediately identified it    Then did the same thing on the second side   reviewing all previous material without the narrator    This is to train ear and brain to work together first without the complication of writing    After comfortably mastering the first tape   go to the second   etc   through all six tapes    The first tape presents the characters E T I A M N which have one or two elements    Each subsequent tape adds characters having one additional element   up to the fifth tape where numerals and punctuation are introduced    To be practiced 30 minutes a day    The Study Guide detailed the methods and theories used     The two other courses take the student up over 13 wpm   and up over 20 wpm      In the past   as noted in Chapter 25   the Instructograph Co    and the Teleplex Co    were the best known makers of punched and inked paper tape machines for code instruction and training and used both by commercial operators and by amateurs    Commercially the Boehm inked tape and the Kleinschmidt perforated paper tape machines were the most commonly used    We mention these here because they were sometimes used for teaching or practicing the code   but much more often for commercial transmission of code at high speeds      Similar systems were manufactured during WWII by Ted McElroys company    With these machines the operator would prepare the tape for transmission   either on a typewriter keyboard or with a special threekey device   for transmission    Transmission speeds of the tapes might go up to several hundreds of words per minute when conditions were good    At the receiving end the equipment would reproduce the incoming signals on a corresponding paper tape   inked or otherwise    The receiving operator was trained to read the tapes much as the good reader of ordinary print does   by words or phrases    He would read the tape as it was pulled past his eyes in a sort of track while he transcribed it on a typewriter at comfortable speeds    Typing speeds of 60  70 wpm seem to have been typical    McElroy prepared and promoted materials for building up these skills on his equipment    

It would be very interesting to know the thinking behind the development of the original Morse code    It had to be tied in intimately with the limitations of the electromagnetic mechanisms being designed to transmit and receive it    Records show that beginning as early as the BC s reflected sunlight heliography by day   and lamps   lights or fires at night   were used for some kind of elementary signalling    By the A   D    1700s and well into the 1800s several semaphore systems had been devised and were in rather extensive use in Europe and elsewhere    These used an alphabetic code formed by the configurations of two or more signal arms or shutters making block patterns at night some used light configurations for distance signaling within line of sight      All these systems often aided by the use of telescopes were subject to weather and visibility limitations   and generally required at least two operators at the receiving end  one to look and the other to write    Where considerable distances a hundred miles or more were involved relay stations were established    These signaling systems conveyed a symbolic message or spelled out words for visual reception    A few electric or electrochemical systems were developed using some method of spelling out words by transmitted letter symbols    Morses system was not the first to use electricity    During the early 1800s several electrical and electrochemical systems which overcame the visibility problem   which was complicated by weather conditions were invented and used    Some of them were quite ingenious   but tended to be cumbersome   rather slow and troublesome to maintain      Morses ingenuity was in combining a simple electromechanical system with some sort of linear coding    Samuel F    B    Morse ingeniously foresaw the newly discovered principle of electromagnetism in combination with some sort of linear coding as the key to developing a truly practical telegraphic system    It could provide the relative simplicity and ruggedness needed for the equipment    Like Marconi half a century later   his vision to combine these newly discovered principles and the entrepreneurial drive to bring them into use made telegraphy what it became in the field of communication for many decades    Two features were needed equipment and a suitable code    As originally conceived it was to be a self recording system   inscribing the code signals on a strip of paper tape to be read by eye    There was no thought given to reading it by ear alone      

His coding system begun in 1832 was a translation system consisting of two essential parts a two way code book or dictionary in which each English word was assigned a number and in order to spell out proper names   unusual words   initials   etc      when necessary   each letter of the alphabet was also assigned a number   and   a code symbol for each digit from 0  9 to represent that number      

So   the sender would convert each word to a number   send that number and the receiver would then convert it back again to the English word with a reverse dictionary    In devising the symbols for the digits   Morse seems to have recognized that a receiving operator could easily read by eye up to five printed dots   but that a larger number of dots would be more difficult to read quickly and accurately   and would be more subject to error   as well as taking longer to transmit      With such a system   the duration of the dots and spaces was not critical   but it was a tedious   slow and clumsy system as well as being rather subject to errors which could only be found on deciphering    Not much ingenuity was required to develop the code symbols for the digits he simply used from one to five dots to represented the numbers 1 5   and extended this through 9 and zero by a longer short space     With such a system   the duration of the dots was not critical   but the relative spacings were important    What a tedious   slow and clumsy system it would have been as well as being rather highly subject to errors   which could only be found on deciphering    The overall idea was ingenuous   and the actual code signals used for the digits were simplicity itself    But his coding system was the weak link in his whole system   and would hardly find wide acceptance    Later   this code translation book method was applied in China where it made sense to convert the Chinese characters to numbers   using an already available standard Chinese dictionary in which each character had for other reasons been assigned a number      

Who Invented What We Call The Morse Code  ?    Chapter 2 of George P    Oslins book The Story of Telecommunications opens with these words Ask almost any American who invented the telegraph   and the answer will be Morse   but he did not create the dot and dash Morse code   the Morse key   or the stylus recorder    Who was Mr    Oslin   and where did he get this information  ?      He was a journalist who later became public relations director of Western Union    To prepare this book he exhaustively investigated newspaper articles   magazines   books and more than 100  000 letters and diaries of those involved and condensed it    He was 93 years old when the book was published    Pages 13 to 28 are devoted to a summary of the origins of Morse telegraphy   from which the following quotations come    Previous publications had only hinted at what Mr    Oslin has said so clearly    The numbers in parentheses refer to pages in his book      In order to understand the confusion we need to realize first that Morses craving for fame was so strong that he postured   pontificated   tried to convince everyone he was great   and was zealous in defending his claims    28   note 27 To blow up his importance   Morse on several occasions made some quite false statements and exaggerations    It is too bad that he refused to give credit where credit was due   for he would have showed himself a greater man by it    From the very first   Morse made strict contractual relationships whereby he alone was to be credited with all advancements and improvements all credits for whatever anyone did for him would publicly belong to him alone    Yet in a letter Vail   his expert assistant   wrote on March 11   1853 that his agreement with Morse provided that whatever Mr    Smith   Dr    Gale   or myself should invent or discover   going to simplify or improve Morses telegraph would belong to all jointly    

However   Morse never shared any of this   and constantly cut Vail off from any public recognition for his work    Because of this   we know almost no details about the development history of the alphabetic versions of the code    We can be sure that if this code had been the work of Morse himself   he would most certainly have carefully elaborated every step of its development    This is one clue previously published materials provide us    A second factor was that they were physically separated during most of the first six or seven years Morse was in New York City while Alfred Vail was working independently in Morristown NJ    This is only a distance of about 30 miles by air   but travel was difficult in those days      See this in the following On October 18   1837 Morse wrote to Vail I long to see the machine you have been making and the one you have been maturing in the studio of your brain    Later Vail invited Morse to Morristown   where the artist realized his cumbersome picture frame equipment for recording the signals at the receiving end was to be replaced by the practical and simple Vail instrument    Morse was so upset   Baxter said   that he became ill and was in bed for some weeks at the Vail home    

Morses feelings were badly hurt    If Alfred Vail had not joined Morse as assistant in the latter part of 1837   Morses telegraph system would no doubt have been a failure      Vail was not only a skilled technician   but had a wider perspective   and must have quickly seen that Morses complex translation coding system and its equipment were not really practical there must be a better way    It is evident that Henry showed how to telegraph   Morse planned a cumbersome system to do it   Gale made valuable contributions   and Vail developed the code and instruments necessary for successful operation    25 On October 18   1888   over 40 years later    Alfred Vails widow wrote to H C   Adams   president of Cornell University 1888           Prof    Morse           sent for me   and on his dying bed he died 2 April 1872   almost 81 years old   with the forefinger of his left hand raised and moving to give expression to his words   he said The one thing I want to do now is justice to Alfred Vail    

As for his coding system   Morses caveat of October 3   1837   and his letter to Vail on October 24   1837 announcing the completion of his dictionary of numbers for words did not mention a dot and dash alphabet     However   he kept working on it until 1843 Six years after Vail created the Morse code 19378   Morse wrote to F   O   J    Smith about the numbers for words dictionary he was preparing    2324   Vail   in a letter to his father and brother February 21   1838   regarding a demonstration he had just given to the President and his Cabinet           The President proposed the following sentence   The enemy nears             It was then put in numbers and written on the register    27   note 16 On p    39 the caption under picture 2   5 Alfred Vail who created the Morse telegraph key and sounder and telegraph code at Morristown N   J    while Morse was in New York devising a number for each word commonly used    Morses idea was to transmit numbers instead of words to send messages    The Engineering News of April 14   1886   stated that credit for the alphabet   ground circuit and other important features of the Morse system belongs not to Morse at all   but to Alfred Vail   a name that should ever be held in remembrance and honor    24 F    O    J    Smith wrote It is evident that Henry showed how to telegraph   Morse planned a cumbersome system to do it   Gale made valuable contributions   and Vail developed the code and instruments necessary for successful operation    2425 Vail watched Morse gradually eliminate him from credit with mounting astonishment and anger   making no public outcry because Morse   involved in a multiplicity of court battles   required all possible support to preserve the patents    

When Morse later referred to Vail and his father merely as furnishing the means to give the child a decent dress   Vail supporters boiled   and telegraph journals contained many strong words    

It would be very interesting to know the thinking behind the development of Vails  Morse code    It had to be tied in intimately with the limitations of the electromagnetic mechanisms being designed to transmit and receive it    Factors which no doubt strongly dominated in Vails thinking were brevity   simplicity and accuracy      Accuracy requires that the receiving operator be able to distinguish immediately between similar characters without confusion or hesitation    We must remind ourselves that at this point in time Vail was thinking only of reading a record by eye on a strip of running paper tape   not about receiving by ear as was done later    We must also realize that while speed was commercially important   it was by no means so pressingly demanding in the mid 19th century as it is today    Starting with Morse simple off on signaling system Vail developed this original idea into a truly practical alphabetic concept   one that does not require further translation    We may suspect that his key idea was to use more than one signal on duration    Did musical rhythms also suggest the internal character spaces  ?      This was totally different from Morse code dictionary concept    Note Although Morse   in writing out his code dictionary   is said to have written a dash in lieu of five dots   there seems never to have been any hint of his using such a signal element in his code itself    We cannot help wondering how he determined that the use of longer than normal internal spaces between elements would not cause the receiving operator confusion in distinguishing between characters      Did Vail do some testing to try it out  ?    These interesting aspects seem to have gone completely unreported in contrast to the attempt to associate the briefest code symbols with the most frequently used English letters   which is well reported however   as if it were Morses own work    In November and December 1837   when Vail built the instruments   he visited Louis Vogt   proprietor of a print shop at Morristown   and   over a case of type   learned which letters of the alphabet were used most frequently          He assigned the fewest dots and dashes to those letters    23   By January 1838   about three months after Vail had joined Morse   he had produced the first practical Morse code   a purely alphabetic code   which included the use of dashes as well as dots and internally spaced characters    However   at this point not every letter had a separate code character   several J = G   Y = I   V = L   and S = Z were combined    This would be ambiguous for receiving by ear   but more easily handled reading by eye from the context of the inscribed tape record    This alphabetic code would have made coding and decoding almost perfectly straightforward and let overall transmission speed jump up immediately to about ten wpm    However   he did not tell Morse about it  according to information now available   for six years later Morse was still working on his word number and number word dictionary    Morse was so easily upset by some of Vails excellent inventive developments      It is not clear whether any previous inventor had used more than one length of element in a linear code system    The idea of linear is that of a simple signal running along a line in time   in contrast to simultaneous complexity of signals   such as a two arm semaphore or a printed alphabet    Vail chose four kinds of linear elements besides the necessary minimal spacing between the elements of a character to form characters    dot   the shortest     dash   appreciably longer     longer dashes     longer internal space      This gave four choices for the internal elements of a character and three choices for its initial and final elements where internal longer spaces are obviously not applicable    These choices now allowed for a practical alphabetic code for linear transmission    Additional spaces were of course needed between characters and words      By 1843   Vail had made such major changes to this early 1838 alphabet that the only letters which were not changed were E H K N P Q    These changes included assigning to each letter a single code character     It is not at all clear from a comparison of the alphabets and the relative frequencies of the letters why such extensive changes were made   as the same results could have been achieved by changing very few letters    Were there other factors involved than mere brevity  ?    Since Morse knew nothing about this new code he had many other concerns as well and no one else would yet be using it   no confusion would result by whatever changes were made      The average character length of the 1838 alphabet   calculated by the same methods used in Chapter 25 was 8   329    Thus the new 1844 code with average character length of 7   978 was actually about 4 percent shorter than in the 1838 alphabet    If he had interchanged just two characters   L and T   in the original 1838 alphabet it would have averaged 7   950 units per letter or 4   5 percent shorter than it originally was   just a bit shorter than the new 1844 code Some other variations could have resulted in a still shorter system      The 1844 code was thus not the best possible   but it proved to be very practical    Vails final code was used successfully by many thousands of commercial operators   and was the standard for wire telegraphy in the United States   Canada and a few other places until nearly the mid20th century    Relative timing is critically important to prevent confusion and misunderstanding by the receiving operator    The least bit of hesitation in the wrong place within the character   or holding the key down an instant too long would send the wrong character    If these very tiny differences in timing were disregarded   the following letters within a word would be confused I   O and EE   C   R   S   IE and EI   Y   Z   II   SE   ES   H and the character &   similarly for on signals   T   L and Zero could be confused with one another      Neither the final 1844 code nor its successor   the International Morse code   is perfect    Perhaps no code could be perfect for every application   but it proved practical   and together with the promotion of the telegraph instruments it came into wide and successful use    Its efficiency in other languages will vary   depending on the relative frequency of the letters    

Morse telegraphy was introduced into Germany in 1847 by a Mr    William Robinson without authorization by Morse    There the Marine Dispatch Service between Hamburg and Cuxhaven   a communication system for shipping   was using an optical system   useless under bad weather conditions    They became greatly interested in the potential of this electric all weather system      One of their officials who was also an engineer   Frederick Clemens Gerke   immediately translated Vails book on the telegraph into German    This systematic German engineer saw how easy it was to confuse the receiving operator   so he modified the original code to eliminate the internally spaced characters and the various lengths of dashes    This left just two lengths a dot and a dash    Even though this would make a transmission longer   it meant less skill was required to achieve the same level of proficiency and accuracy of communication    He retained A B D E G H I K M N P S T U V just as they were   used I for both I and J   and then formed new code characters for those deleted   and for the numbers   etc      Other German and Austrian states soon adopted the Morse system   but each state modified the Morse code independently   making interstate communication difficult    In 1852 the German and Austrian state telegraphs convened to unify the codes in use as well as the tariffs     Their principles were    uniform dot and dash elements and spacings     letters to be no more than four elements long     numbers to be five elements long   and   punctuation six elements long      They took Gerkes alphabet as the basis   but changed his O P X Y and Z to the present International forms   and developed the present systematic number system   etc    They made this code their official standard on 1 July 1852     The present form of J and other European language symbols were added in 1865 at the Paris International Telegraph Convention   and for a long time this form of code was called the Continental code   until wireless made it International    Minor punctuation changes were made 1 September 1939      Equipment  Morses original receiving system was a clumsy recorder   which made marks on a paper strip pulled along by clockwork under a magnetically operated pencil   pen   or stylus    It presented an onoff record   which was then read by eye    Vail created a much superior recorder    There is plenty of evidence that even Morse and Vail had learned to distinguish most letters by ear during the first few months of their primitive sending      

As early as 1845 some other operators could identify most of the code letters by ear as they listened to the clicking of the recorder    By 1846 many regular operators were doing so   or could    However   there was great reluctance on the part of local office managers to accept this method of copying   and some strictly forbade it    The operators who read by ear had to keep the paper tapes as proof of their accuracy   and offered a means of correction    In copying   operators often used abbreviations   which would be intelligible to the readers      Morses original sending device was a sort of typesetters ruler with dots and spaces    Vails first simple key   predecessor of later hand keys   was designed about 1840    It was a simple flat spring with a knob   which in time developed into the improved and sturdier designs we now know    Among several examples of receiving by ear only are  James F    Leonard in 1847    He had entered the service as a messenger boy at age 14    Within a year he became an operator at Frankfort KY   and was reading by sound    Not only so   but he had also taught himself to send and listen at the same time   writing down an incoming message while sending another      Some other operators by that year were listening to a message or two   then writing them down later     On the first of May 1847 the Albany Evening Journal reported that a business man named W C   Buell was sitting in the telegraph office listening to the incoming messages when the operators tape printer fouled up    Buell was found to have correctly read and remembered what had been sent      That same year a Louisville broker   who had been sitting in a telegraph office   was fined and jailed for listening to market reports coming in and not paying for them because he had no operators license That same year   a Mr    Books   operator at Pittsburgh   wrote out a long message by sound alone    Receiving by ear alone was proving to be not only possible   but practical and time saving    Nevertheless   some offices were slow to accept receiving by ear alone and required all messages to be recorded even though the operator read by ear      In 18523 an Erie RR conductor refused to accept train orders received by ear   and complained to his superintendent about the operator   Charles Douglas    When Douglas was reproved   he insisted on being tested   and demonstrated that not only did he copy accurately for short messages   but also for very long ones    Thereafter the Erie RR officially permitted copying by ear    The sounder was invented in 1856 and was used extensively and almost exclusively during and after the Civil War   though a few diehards persisted in requiring the old recorders to be used      Early Day Operators Up Through The Civil War  Telegraphy grew up with the railroads   making train dispatching   etc      easier and safer    At first   most telegraph offices were in the RR stations    Each station   as well as many other important locations such as switching points was manned by an operator    There were many more country and smalltown stations than city offices    Most operators came from the country and small towns where they remained   but some were attracted to the advantages of city offices      Telegraphy was mostly a young mans occupation    The majority were boys whose ages ranged from nine upwards    Most of them ranged from 14 to 18    Some were in their 20s   but few above that    Many of them became superb operators   very accurate   fast and reliable    Almost all were completely trustworthy and loyal    They refused to divulge the contents of messages to other than the addressees    Many of these young chaps who had served in railway and public telegraph offices became operators for the armies of both sides during the Civil War   frequently doing service far beyond the call of duty   and at great personal risk    Although they were usually stationed right on the front lines   yet they never received military honors or pay     In the early days pencils were used to copy and an adequate supply of sharpened ones was kept at hand for each operator    Later   many telegraphers copied with pen and ink in beautiful Spenserian script  think of the risk of blots with the old steel pens   at speeds that ranged up to 30 to 35 wpm neat deliverable copy      Operators after the Civil War  This was a period of growth   both in the number of RR offices   and especially the size of big city offices    Women in large numbers began to become operators in the city offices because it was cleaner and more respectable work than domestic or factory labor    There were several categories of operators in the city offices those handling slow traffic from country places   those handling higher speed material   financial report operators   and at the top   press news      The goal of most male operators was to advance and be able to handle high speeds accurately    These were honored men with the highest pay    In a city telegraph office it was common to haze a new operator    The others would arrange to have an unusual or garbled message sent to him   or more often a message sent at speeds too fast for him and watch him sweat and worry it out    If   when he looked around at their amusement and realized it was put on   he took it pleasantly   he was considered initiated and accepted into the telegraphic fraternity    But if he was infuriated or upset   he was considered still a freshman      When typewriters became practical in the 1880s they began to be used in American telegraph offices    A superb operator was said to be able to copy 50 to 60 wpm without trouble   and many of these were said to have copied regularly 5  6 words behind to do this      The Introduction of Wireless  When Marconi entered the scene with his wireless   the Continental or International Morse code was in wide use everywhere except in America    Wireless was then primarily  in fact   almost solely  used where wire lines could not be strung    That meant that it was almost entirely ship to shore or ship to ship    American operators were AmericanMorse trained   and soon had to add Continental code to their repertoire   using both codes American Morse among themselves and Continental with other operators    Many became highly proficient in both codes   using them interchangeably as needed   on a moment by moment basis      For a period of time up to about WWI this became a requirement    However   using the somewhat faster and very ditty American Morse with the early spark transmitters made copying difficult whenever static was present    The static and the signals tended to sound too much alike   and at the low radio frequencies then in use   static was heavy during at least half the year    During this period the U   S    Navy developed an entirely different set of code symbols   probably for this reason   but they were abandoned in favor of the Continental code just before the U   S    entered World War I    It was about the same time that the Continental form of Morse code also became standard in the U   S    for commercial and among almost all radio amateurs      

The March 1926 Wireless Magazine refers to the 1923 Transatlantic signals of F8AB as fluttery 25 cycle with dah dah dah dit dit di dah dah dit dit dit    Were there earlier examples  ?    With a sounder   instead of dits there are iddies and for dahs umpties to distinguish the two types of clicks    Another description was klick   kalunk    In addition to this   of course   was the spacing between words    Good sending had to be relatively precise     Accuracy was demanded of commercial operators they were rated on the quality of their sending    A sender or receiver who had to repeat or to ask for repeats could be disqualified    It was not merely a matter of courtesy   but of economics errors meant delays for customers and cost time and money to the telegraph companies    The good telegrapher adjusted his relative lengths according to the perceptive skill of the receiving operator   by making larger or smaller differences in the relative lengths      One operator reports from his experience that careless Morse sounded worse on a sounder than on CW    Words with lots of Old Morse letters joy jack jail Japan jelly jewel jiffy join jolly jungle jury quick quality queer equip quote ill long loss late labor loyal legal limit lip   The signal AR Comes from the American Morse fn = finished 

Here we consider how to go about learning the other code    Since most of us know the International formerly called Continental code   how do we go about learning the old American Morse landline code  ?    Do not use the following comparative lists in any way to learn the American Morse code    Their purpose is solely to show the differences between the two codes   and particularly the effects on the structure of certain characters due to the Morse internal spaces and the special lengthened dahs    They affect rhythms      First   the old Morse differs from International in four aspects   1 the following characters are the same in both codes  A B D E G H I K M N S T U V W 4 2/3 of alphabet letters  2 a number of International characters represent different  letters or numbers or signs in old Morse  MORSE F J Q P X 1 5 7 8 9       ?     INTNL R C F 5 L P o Z 6 X   ?    /  3 certain old Morse letters contain internal spaces  which make them subject to possible misinterpretation as  two letters C O R Y Z might appear  to be IE EE EI II SE  4 certain letters in old Morse are different from any  International character for English  L = a longer dah    0 zero = a still longer dah see  below    The following numbers are different in old Morse  from any International English character sound 2 3 6      This does not include other punctuation   which differs and in old Morse landline circuits was used extensively    It must be heard to learn it      Timing  There seem to have been no rigid standard timing relationships in American Morse as compared with International Morse    That is   the duration of a normal dah is stated variously as being two times or three times the duration of a dit    My own impression is that it tended to be somewhat shorter than the corresponding dah in International code    This might have been done to save time and yet to keep the careful distinctions between a dit and the definitely longer dah for L   which nominally was considered to be twice as long as the normal dah    The important thing was to clearly distinguish between E and L and T    Zero 0 would be intentionally longer than L when there would be a risk of its being misread   but otherwise would be about the same    Some have described L as being as short as 4 or as long as 7 units   and zero as short as 5 or as long as 10 units    There seems to have been better agreement on the spaces     

Things should have to be sent only once    Having to repeat wastes time and money    Are the words and numbers being clearly understood by the receiving operator  ?    Commercial telegraphers were rated by their accuracy first and speed second     In the same way   the space in the internally spaced characters 3 above is usually stated to be the duration of two dits   but tended to be shortened just enough to be clear   so the receiving operator would not be confused    The spacing between letters in a word nominally appears to have been the duration of 3  4 dits   and between words about the length of 4  6 dits    Before and/or after the internally spaced characters a slightly longer than normal letter space was often felt necessary   depending on the code environment    Again   these values would tend to vary according to the skill of both operators    The object was   as always   perfect copy with minimum time to transmit   leaving considerable flexibility to the individual operators    Yet the demands of this code for accurate proportioning  intolerance of the least bit of hesitation   key up or key down e   g      the person who sent the word telegraph in such a way that it was copied as jgraph  show how much more acute timing is in American Morse in contrast to International Morse      No Need For Confusion  Three general features distinguish old Morse from International Morse code    Most obvious is the difference in basic rhythm International has a distinctly regular sort of rhythm   while old Morse has a catchy sort of apocopated rhythm  it marches in a striking sort of go and halt way   which   when sent by a skilled operator   is unmistakable      Along with this is a rather obvious ditty characteristic of old Morse by contrast with International      Not quite so obvious is that old Morse is about 10 percent faster than International when the same lengths of dashes and spaces are used in both codes that is   it will take about 10 percent less time to send the same text    Interestingly   old Morse also requires about 15 percent less effort to send    It tends to be more of an art form   with considerably more variation in fists   or sending styles      At first sight   with some characters the same and others different   confusion between the codes might seem considerable in learning the other     Take heart In a personal letter in 1942 Mr    R    J    Miller   a skilled teacher with the old Teleplex Co      wrote One who is expert in only one code   e   g    American Morse   can master Continental Morse in ten days to two weeks and be as expert at the new code as he was in the old code    This is because his mind is trained to recognize the quick sounds    This theory has been proved many a time      Notice his words carefully expert and his mind is trained to recognize the quick sounds    These are not trivial words    It is the operator who already can handle the one code like an expert   because his mind has been well trained to recognize the letter sounds instantly when they are sent at a good speed   who is going to learn so fast and well    Just how Mr    Miller defined expert is not pinned down   but we can assume that such an expert was better than the minimum requirement for a commercial radio operator of those early days    It is probably safe to say that a person who can easily handle the code somewhere in the 25 to 35 wpm range will find Mr    Millers words to be true   if he puts himself to it   

From this we may assume that those of us who are less skilled and want to learn old Morse may expect to take somewhat longer to get there    Is it possible that in learning the second code in the proper way we may actually improve our skill in the code we already know   since immediate character recognition is the key point  ?      Learning It  How should we go about learning old Morse  ?     First of all   we have to hear it properly sent   because its rhythms are different    We should have little trouble with recognizing it on the air its peculiar rhythms and dittiness will quickly identify it    But also we will find we can easily read many common words because they sound the same in both codes e   g    and   the   it   but   these   thing   and many others  thats an encouragement we dont have to relearn their sounds    Listen to get the swing of it   then practice with your key   imitating the experts    This will help reinforce the sounds      Consider the following suggestions   1 Just ignore the idea of possible confusion over the years many operators with various degrees of skill   from quite modest to expert   have managed to use either of both codes with no difficulty    In early wireless days a commercial operator was generally required to do this   and many of them were not very fast operators      2 You already know two thirds of the alphabet and one of ten digits so you dont have to give these any special thought at all      3 Think of all the characters that are different  different in the one code from those in the other separately    Learn and think of each one of them as part of the code system to which it belongs    Dont mix or compare them  keep each one separate and distinct from the other For example   dont under any condition let yourself start to think thats C in International so it is J    in Old Morse There must be nothing standing in between the signal you hear and its immediate recognition as being the letter    A person who knows German as well as English knows that the letters ch are pronounced differently in German than in English  there is no confusion at all    We need to think the same way here      4 Remember that learning old Morse is going to be much easier and faster than learning International code because we already know how to go about it and that many   many others have succeeded well    This ought to give us great encouragement and confidence      Some excellent suggestions come from those who have long known and used both codes    One of these is to use a Morse sounder instead of audio tones to provide a completely different sound environment to help distinguish Morse from International    If this is done   one needs to get familiar with receiving by sounder    See below    If one does not intend to use a sounder   there is no point in practicing with it    Some experienced operators see no benefit from it      

So there need be no confusion at all    We can simply go ahead and confidently learn the old   but new to us Morse code and enjoy it   using the principles already set forth here    Perhaps some of the old timers who have learned them both long ago may be pleased to give us some additional advice from their experience also      Expertly sent Old Morse tapes may still be available from Cecil Langdoc   201 Homan Ave    Elkhart IN 46516    They make for great listening      A Railroad telegraphers story  a beginning operator was sending as fast as he could with a bug when the other operator cut in with what he copied as REND STOW IMA GIRT    He asked for a repeat and got the same copy    He turned to his supervisor and asked Whats wrong with that operator  ?    The reply Nothing   shes just saying Send slow Im a girl    Youve gotta learn the difference between R and S and T and L    Didnt they teach you anything in that school  ?      Here is an example of alldot sentence Her Irish eyes cry cos she is so sorry      Learning to Read by Sounder  Learning to read by sounder is no more difficult than by tone or buzz    It is just different    The sounder makes two different kinds of clicks which correspond to movements of the key    The downstroke produces a sharp high pitched click to denote the beginning of the on signal    The upstroke is a duller sound   indicating the end of signal off    The length of the intervening silence between them corresponds to the duration of the code element   distinguishing a dit from a dah    Practice first with a string of dits and then of dahs till you get the hang of it   and then with some common words until you get familiar with this method of hearing the code signals    Use letters   which are common to both codes  see1 above    You will probably find it interesting and a challenge at first      American Morse was designed for operation over wires   where static and other interference are absent or minimal    Although the International form of the code was developed and adopted in Europe only 5 years later   in America the earlier code was first used for wireless    Two factors probably acted to effect the changeover the predominantly ditty character of American Morse sounded more like static than the International form   and the worldwide nature of shipboard wireless operation urged a common code    This would have become more demanding   as international commercial and amateur operation became commonplace      American Morse  An Art  American Morse telegraphy is considered by many of its practitioners as a thing of beauty   a work of art    The tune sung out by a local sounder outranks the most precisely tuned aircraft engine in terms of sheer beauty   according to one old timer      Some Further Comparisons  If the identical duration of the basic unit of time the dit and unit space is used for both codes while sending the same message   the skilled American Morse operators will have completed the message while the International operators are still sending and receiving    The message will in fact actually have been handled at a rate about 45 percent faster on the Morse line than on the International channel     

Here the skilled old Morse operators will normally be using shorter dashes and spaces as noted above than their International peers    This   combined with the 73 percent shorter average letter and 65 percent shorter number in old Morse accounts for the apparent discrepancy between the previously cited 10 percent faster      Therefore   when we read of the speeds achieved under American Morse operations we need to recognize that the sending operator is having an easier time than the corresponding International operator   but the receiving operator is under the same burden   but needs a more acute ability to discriminate small differences than his corresponding International operator     In addition   when both have completed sending the message   the Morse operator will have used only about 91 percent as many keystrokes and about 85 percent of the total work or energy expended by the International operator      These gains are achievable at a cost    First   the American Morse operator must learn to make some finer distinctions in sound than the International operator    He must readily recognize the internally spaced letters C O R Y Z and the lengthened dah characters L and zero as distinguished from what might be their equivalents   and he must generally live with closer spacing between characters and words    There is also the problem of the difference between reading by sounder in the telegraph office and reading signals over the air where static and interference can cause loss of signal components      Ambiguities introduced by the spaced letters and the shorter dahs in American Morse under radio operation stand in sharp contrast to the standardized durations in International   making the latter easier to interpret under adverse conditions    I suspect that Old Morse operators under radio conditions tend to lengthen or exaggerate their time intervals signal on and spaces to aid in copying    If they do so   then the time gain is less     

In almost every subject we may study there are efficient and inefficient ways to go about learning it    It seems foolish to go about learning in a hard way   if we know of an easier   better one      

Beginning somewhere back in the later 1800s   even the best schools for telegraphers started teaching the new student the Morse code by giving him a printed chart code to memorize visually    The implications were that learning the code is going to be hard and will take a long time to master    So the student expected it thats why   if he could afford it   he went to a telegraph school    Without realizing it   he was thoroughly prepared to begin in the worst possible frame of mind and way      This attitude carried over naturally into the early days of amateur radio and continued for a long time afterwards    The whole atmosphere was its hard    Isnt that still the attitude of most people today  ?    We need to get rid of the idea that it is hard  it isnt    Experience has shown that the best teachers have avoided that idea completely    Learning the code   as well as using it   ought to be an enjoyable experience   easy and even fun    Such teachers also ignore a students errors in order to avoid negative reinforcement      The old way of learning by a visual memory or by counting dits and dahs analytically is almost guaranteed to produce that old and famous plateau at the fastest speed the mind can handle such a burden at a conscious level usually around 7 to 10 wpm    Those who take each code character and put it through such a mental routine to get the letter for which it stands are on their way for trouble  they soon get stuck on a plateau    Why should anyone bother to make the conscious mind go through that sort of thing at all   since it is so futile and is really working against us  ?    The only obvious reason is that they dont know any better      An analysis of that old way of learning is like this The student    first creates a mental table of the printed characters and the dot and dash patterns how many and in what order belonging to each one    Then he begins listening and copying practice and   he then hears the sound of character as it is sent     mentally breaks it into so many dots and dashes   and   may then say the dots and dashes to himself     which pattern he now looks up in mental table   finds it   and   identifies it with the corresponding printed character   and finally   writes it down      

As late as 1975 George Hart in the August QST p    100 wrote Most code learners start out by memorizing the alphabet in terms of dots and dashes or dits and dahs    Even those who are cautioned by an enlightened instructor that A   for example   is not a dot followed by a dash    But a sound whose closest voice emulation is di dah  even those usually memorize that it is a short sound followed by a long sound       Thus   the initial stage of code learning with most people is a counting procedure   and no amount of emphasis on sound is going to change this    How discouraging and unnecessary He pointed out that the way to learn the code is by first hearing the characters it at a speed too fast to count and learning them as rhythmic units of sound  sound patterns    This is the way the ARRL code teaching programs now do it      Other Discouraging Processes  Many   many people have managed to master the code by methods which we cannot recommend today   but they have done so at a heavy cost in time and effort   and often have experienced great discouragement along the way    They have managed by persistence to overcome the stumbling blocks and achieve success in spite of them    But countless others have gotten stuck and given up at some slow speed   generally less than 10 to 12 wpm      Through the years all sorts of schemes have been devised for memorizing the code   and some of them quite ingenious    Most of them involve some kind of visualization a pictorial or a systematic arrangement of printed coded characters   based on their structure   a chain of relationships of some sort   adding to or exchanging components of one character to obtain another    A few have devised words or phrases presumed to have a sort of sound alikeness to the code character    Such methods probably would help a person who might sometime need to signal for help in a dire emergency   but they are worse than useless   of no value at all for regular telegraphic communication      There is never any reason to see the code in written form    Never translate dit plus dah means A and then write it   or as another has said If you find yourself hearing dah di dah dit and saying to yourself Aha   thats a C   and then writing it down   youre in trouble  thats translating      Most of these well intentioned aids to learning have overlooked the fact that the code letters are an alphabet of SOUND    Their aids have interposed something else between the letter sound and the letter    Most of these methods present their schemes to the eye   not the ear    Even those which purport to use sound such as soundalikes fail to provide the necessary unity of sound pattern partly because they are too slow   but also because the soundalikes are extraneous and distracting    Both kinds require one or more extra steps  translation steps  to get there    Those which require some sort of analysis such as how many dits and dahs of each character in order to identify it   or which run through a series of some sort   also have introduced needless steps which inevitably slow the learner down   and usually severely limit his achieving speeds over about five to ten wpm    Avoid them      Very many of those who originally learned the code from a printed chart of dots and dashes began the bad habit of counting the number of dots and of dashes from a mental chart    Then they must decipher the longer characters by counting for example   to separate B from 6 and 1 from J    Some of these hams were able by much practice   and perhaps realizing the nature of the problem   

I knew one experienced ham ex navy commercial operator who could go right along at 20 wpm this way   but that was his ultimate limit    He loved the code   but could never advance a step further    That was as fast as he could analyze  pretty fast at that      Those who have learned by the soundalike methods   e   g      they hear didah   and it sounds like alike   which they have been taught means A rarely reach even a ten wpm plateau      One method extensively advertised for many years taught the beginner by the scheme Eat Another Raw Lemon   which was supposed to remind him how each of the four letters E A R L was formed   each one adding one element to the previous one    This was illustrated by large printed dots and dashes    There must have been a good many who started out this way   and in spite of it   at least some of them finally managed to become proficient    I knew of one such amateur who got to around 20 wpm that way      The expert teachers tell us that any kind of printed dots and dashes or any other such pictorial impressions will only impede the students progress when he is beginning to learn the code    Chapter 13 explains why      All such methods violate good pedagogy   because they do not teach the code the way it will be used   as actual sound patterns    They also require the student to learn something which he must later forget in order to advance in addition to the sound of the code itself    While these methods may seem to make it easier at first   they actually make it much harder   or even impossible   to advance    The wise teacher and student will avoid these approaches      So  Never even LOOK at a written table of the Morse code before starting to learn   and certainly NEVER attempt to memorize one visually   or have anything to do with software that shows you the Morse characters on the screen      Dont have anything to do with methods that ask you to listen initially to successions of dots and dashes   or parts of characters    Doing this will RETARD your progress    Listen ONLY to complete   correctly sent   characters      Never listen to Morse at a character speed of LESS than 12 wpm    Use 14 wpm or faster   if possible      Dont learn by memorizing opposites   such as `K and `R    This actually causes some people to confuse them ever after   Dont spend lots of time copying random code groups    Reading plain language is very different   and thats what the test requires    Random code groups are popular because computer programs can be easily designed to send them    They do have a place  that is   for first identifying characters and then later practicing any hangup characters   but thats all      When a old timer   who had learned the code as it used to be taught from a printed chart   suddenly recognized that the sound pattern is the letter   it was like a light bulb flashing on    After that he began to progress rapidly      

Arnold Klein N6GAP said For more years that I care to admit to myself   I have been trying to master a simple task copy code at 20 wpm for the Extra class ticket      He practiced so much that there was no extended period of free time when he wasnt thinking code    He wore out a cassette player listening to tapes while driving   cutting the grass   sweeping   planting flowers   walking during lunch   using the tread mill at night and while washing the dinner dishes   while watching soft ball games he had the earphones on and copied in his head    He copied code while waiting in the doctors office   while parked as his wife went shopping in the evening he copied CW on the rig  a gray haired man wearing earphones and writing on a clipboard   The results were frustrating    The speeds ranged from 20 to 24 wpm and always there was that sense of panic   that I cant keep up  tailgating  that was exactly what he was experiencing    The problem was he didnt know what he was doing wrong    Asking those who passed the test resulted in the casual answer practice    Well   my practice just wasnt doing it    Magazine articles on copying behind did not relate how to learn the technique    The stock phrase seemed to be that the ability to copy behind will magically appear after enough practice      He wrote like this after reading the principles presented here Mastering the code has taken on a life of its own and I am determined to do it             I have now tried these during the week since getting them and they do work I am losing the pressure to keep up    Keep calm is my newest admonition    They have given me the answer to the problem Ive carried for years      The methods presented in this book are time tested practical   working methods    

From The Originators Standpoint  Communication fails unless our message gets across and is understood    Weak signals and poor conditions during transmission static   interference   fading all contribute to partial failure to get through    In all of these conditions   telegraphic communication is vastly superior to voice because almost all its energy is effectively concentrated within a very narrow band    Yet it pays a cost for this by taking more time to communicate the same words    In addition   it too can suffer partial loss due to transmission conditions as well as from just plain accidental misunderstanding    How can we reduce these losses to a minimum  ?    Lets focus on the originators use of the words themselves by words we include the use of abbreviations and Q signals      Feedback and Redundancy  We rarely think much about how we speak when we are conversing    When we speak face to face we can generally tell whether we are being understood or not by feedback through the reactions and responses of the listener    But when our communication is remote   by voice over a wire or the radio   the visual clues to the hearers understanding are missing    When the telegraph code is the link   auditory clues tone of voice of a comment or reply   uh huh   yeah   etc    are also missing    Relatively awkward break in is the only possible direct feedback while transmitting in code   and it is an ambiguous interruption   until the receiving operator explains his problem      It is when we speak   whether face to face or by remote means   that most of us tend to use more words than the bare minimum necessary to be understood this is called redundancy    The degree of redundancy varies from person to person and from situation to situation    Redundancy increases the context from which the listener may understand      When we write we generally are much more careful of how we say things that are important than when we speak    We give more thought to the choice of words and the way we write them we becomes more circumspect and precise in order to minimize the readers possible misunderstanding of what we mean    Since we have no feedback at all   we generally tend to use more words than the minimum necessary in order to make up for that lack     In telegraphic communication the tendency   largely because of the time required to transmit   is to eliminate every word which does not seem to be absolutely necessary    We abbreviate in various ways generally down to bare bones the minimum required to express the thought    First we leave out words   and then we tend to abbreviate what is left as much as we think we dare to omit and still have it understandable    This is especially true when paying on a per word basis for transmission      What we have been saying is this redundancy helps to insure adequate and more accurate communication    That is   we normally use more words and expressions than the bare minimum required to get our meaning across    Time   however   is a factor working against telegraphic communication    It is not as rapid as speech in terms of words per unit time    In order to balance the time factor against the intelligibility factor   the originator of a telegraphic message generally weighs more carefully exactly what words to use and how to put them together    If he is wise he will also consider the effect of possible mistakes or distortion during sending and receiving which might produce ambiguity      

What can we amateurs do to minimize misunderstanding or complete failure of our communications  ?    One of the commonest things is simply to repeat each word or words   or the whole message    We may repeat only the most critical words or numbers two or three times    Numbers are almost impossible to correct because there is no significant context to help out      Another form of repetition is to ask the receiving station to repeat the message back to the sender word by word    This nearly assures perfection    But this   like repeating each word as it is sent   requires at least twice the original time on the air      Counting the words in a transmission has long been a common commercial practice   but is not generally used except for message type traffic    It does not assure complete accuracy exact words and spelling      Using Redundancy Intelligently  We can often prevent misunderstanding by adding a word or two to a short communication    For example   to confirm a scheduled QSO later in the day   to say CUL this afternoon   or CUL in pm instead of just CUL helps insure that the other operator knows that you mean today   and that you are not canceling it as he might assume otherwise due to some interference   etc       When conditions are rapidly deteriorating this may be our only hope to get across before further communication becomes impossible      A little forethought along these lines on the originators part may help avoid unfortunate misunderstandings    Especially when we simply must get through   and conditions are very poor   we should choose our words and expressions carefully      At The Receiving End  Here we ask Will I be able to copy or read it  ?    and if I cant   What is the problem  ?     What can be done to improve the quality of this material I am receiving   or What can be done to make sense out of this somewhat garbled transmission which is all I have  ?     What is the nature of the problem  ?      During the communication   speed of transmission is an important factor   one directly controlled by the sender    Both too fast and too slow sending can cause trouble in receiving  here the receiving operator must tell the sender to slow down or speed up to meet the receivers needs    Quite naturally   speed of transmission must set be within the receiving operators capability      It may be that the weighting of the dits is too light and Im missing some of them    If so   can the sender make them a bit longer heavier  ?    Maybe the sharpness of the pulses has been rounded off too much to remove clicks and the signals sound mushy    At higher speeds   perhaps the dits are too heavy and confusing the ear    These are things   which the sender may be able to modify on the spot   but he must be told      In Chapter 14   The Ear   we have discussed some of the things which can be done to help   especially the use of filters    Here we look at the filter requirements for an audio filter    We want a filter which will separate the desired signal and still keep it intelligible    At this point we are not concerned with any of the radio frequencies of the signal as it passes through the receiver   but only with the audio beat signal   which is output      That audio signal consists of    an audio frequency the beat frequency  analogous to the carrier frequency of an AM signal   and   the offandon modulation of its envelope corresponding to the audio modulation of an AM signal produced by the keying device at the transmitter      The audio frequency is expressed in Hertz or cycles per second   while the corresponding telegraphic signaling frequency is usually expressed in bauds    One baud equals one telegraphic element called unit per second    Since the baud may be unfamiliar   let us examine it      The minimum basic telegraphic element is the dit   an on signal lasting a given length of time in seconds    For example   a 10 baud rate of signaling means that there are ten basic telegraphic elements per second or 5 cps or Hertz and each element lasts 1/10 of a second   the reciprocal of the baud rate    Obviously   to perceive a dit or a dah requires silence both before and after it    The minimum element of silence space is also equal to one dit    One dit followed by one element of space constitutes a square wave two telegraphic elements long and may be called one cycle   by analogy with a cycle of sinusoidal wave    A continuous series of dits would then for a given length of time have twice as many bauds as cycles per second    A sequence of 25 such dits and spaces 10101010            50 elements in one second would thus correspond to a frequency of 25 Hertz   50 bauds    It is in this sense that we compare these two frequencies audio frequency and telegraphic keying frequency      For a filter the two predominant factors for intelligibility are passband width and center frequency of the beat note    The actual shape of the filters frequency amplitude response curve is also of importance but for other reasons see Chapter 24 and engineering manuals      There must be enough audio cycles to fill in the keying pulse shape of the smallest code element   the dit   in such a way that all code elements begin and end clearly and are therefore properly timed    That means that the audio center frequency pitch of the beat note must be high enough to preserve the square wave shape closely    A mathematical Fourier analysis  shows that the center audio frequency needs to be about 7 times the telegraphic cycle rate to give the best shape of telegraphic pulses      A square wave frequency related to words per minute   and the duration of one telegraphic unit can be worked out for English using the data in Chapter 28 as follows    

For standard English text   there are 49   38 elements per word    This is only 1 percent less than the standard 50 elements used as todays standard word   so we shall use the 50 element standard here      If this 50 element word is   for example   assumed to be sent in one second   it will be at the rate of 50 bauds   or 25 Hertz   cps square wave equivalent    For this example there will then be 60 words in one minute   that is   60 wpm   a high speed    Using this to convert wpm to bauds we multiply wpm by 60 / 50   that is by 1 point  2    Since the duration of one basic telegraphic element is the reciprocal of the baud rate   in this case it will be 1/50 second      Now to determine the minimum audio frequency needed to fill in the telegraphic square wave shape well and give really high quality audio code signals   the following factors must be taken into account    at least two samples per cycle of audio frequency are needed to identify a frequency   this factor of 2 for samples per cycle is cancelled out by the cps = 1/2 baud rate    and   up to the 7th harmonic is needed for high quality      So   we merely multiply the baud rate by 7   the highest harmonic number      For our 60 wpm example above   this means an audio frequency of 50 x 7 = 350 Hertz for best quality of code pulses    Thus it can be seen that   except for extremely highspeed transmissions   there will be no problem   since the typical values of beat frequency are in the 400  1000 Hz    range      The minimum bandwidth will be concerned with signal stability and intelligibility limits    If the bandwidth is too narrow the signal may drift out and be hard to find again    If it is too wide the risk of random noise and interfering signals increases    The rise fall time of a filter to square wave input should not exceed about half a dit length    Working through the arithmetic for 6 dB down shows that the minimum bandwidth for Standard English should not be less than about 1 point 33 multiplied by speed in wpm    This is well below the bandwidth needed for signal stability   so there is no problem here for normal CW use      Finally   if your copy doesnt seem to make good sense   and there is no way to verify it   see the end of Chapter 8  Copying for suggestions      

Signal required for CW with 5 percent character errors is 20 dB below that of double sideband am    A good operator with CW at 15 wpm in presence of thermal noise   a signal to noise ratio in one kHz bandwidth of 1 dB is required for 10 percent character errors and plus 1 dB for 1 percent character errors    This latter is 22 dB below double sideband orderwire quality    However   17 dB below double sideband a   m    for CW was chosen to account for differences between operators      Thus CW   needs at 0 dB  compare with SSB   needs at plus 14 dB room for improvement  DSB    needs at plus 17 dB 5 dB Difference in operators   Reference Power relationships and operator factor QST Fe 1967 p 46   US Army Rept   

As discussed in Chapter 23   keying speed is usually expressed in bauds rather than in Hertz   or cycles per second    One Baud is one keying element per second   so one square wave keying cycle per second equals two Bauds    Using the standard word as 50 units   then wpm divided by 1 point 2 equals Bauds    Since 60 seconds divided by 50 units equals 1   2   Harmonic analysis of the on off keying wave shows that strong odd numbered harmonics and weak even numbered harmonics are present    It has been found that under good conditions   adequate readability results when the 3rd harmonic is present   but under poor conditions we need up through the 5th harmonic    Really good quality   however   will include up through the 7th harmonic    International regulations have specified accordingly that minimum acceptable bandwidths should be at least three times the keying speed in bauds for good conditions and five times for poor conditions      Thus   working from standard wpm   convert to Bauds by dividing by 1   2   then multiply by the highest harmonic 3   5   or 7 desired    Since this modulates the carrier frequency   the transmitted bandwidth will be twice this value because of sum and difference frequencies    Accordingly   e g      for 20 wpm   covering the 3rd harmonic requires a 50 Hz    bandwidth filter   for the 5th harmonic coverage a 83   3 Hz    bandwidth filter      A perfect square wave will generate strong transient over travel   both initially and at the end of each pulse    These spikes are especially objectionable   as they generate a host of harmonics   which will interfere with other transmissions    For the receiving operator they produce an unpleasantly harsh quality    Shaping to round off these sharp corners of the wave by making a 5  7 millisecond delay gives satisfactory reception   but if it is lengthened too much it tends to blur the signals and make them hard to read    This situation can be taken care of only at the transmitter   of course    It can be seen that there is a delicate balance between good quality and troublesome harmonics    Refer to the handbooks for corrective measures    

Morses first sender used toothlike raised characters on a straight edge ruler   over which a follower contactor was pulled along in order to send    No doubt derived from this idea Morse in 1844 is thought to have built a transmitting plate   a board of insulating material having the code characters composed of metal bits imbedded in it    They were arranged so as to produce the code character whose name was marked beside it when a metal stylus was dragged across the surface at a constant speed    Such a plate was independently designed in Germany about 1850      Telegraph teachers realized early in the game that the student needs a lot of practice hearing good quality sending    The transmitting plate may have become the earliest self teaching device    Such boards were advertised as late as 1960   

The Omnigraph   which first came out in 1901   was an obvious derivative of original Morse sender with its raised teeth    It was a mechanical device consisting of a handcrank   clockwork or electric motor to drive an assembly of thin interchangeable metal disks bearing the code characters past a follower keying device    Several disks were stacked up together on a spindle carrier   which was driven by the motor    The whole assembly of disks looked like a cylinder with little bumps on it    A wide range of speeds from about 5 to over 60 wpm was provided for by adjustment of the brake on a flyball governor which held the speed constant after it was set      Each disk had five groups of code characters cut like gear teeth around its periphery   and each group was composed of five characters plus a separating space    A spring loaded follower rode along the edges of the disks   opening and closing the keying contacts    A clever adjustable sequencing mechanism actuated by the rotating disk carrier caused the follower to move up or down at user selected points during each revolution    Various models provided for from five to ten or more disks    By changing the stacking of the disks and by adjusting the sequencing mechanism the five character groups could be sent in many different sequences    There was   however   no way to alter the order of characters within a group   and all keyer follower  movements occurred between groups      These machines were to be used with a sounder for American Morse or a buzzer or oscillator for International Morse    They seem to have had a very wide usage for basic learning and developing speed among would be operators   including amateurs    Advertising often claimed that a month of serious study could qualify an operator    The government licensing authorities also used Omnigraphs to administer the code tests for operators licenses for many years   at least until 1930   when I was tested     

A 1922 ad read Learn Telegraphy Wireless or Morse at Home in Half the Usual Time          Just Listen  the Omnigraph will do the teaching    You will be surprised how quickly you will attain speed    Even if you are already an operator the Omnigraph will help you    It will make you more proficient   more accurate and more confident          In 1918 the Electro Importing Co      NY   advertised them starting at dollar 16   00 for a five disk machine   and dollar 23   00 for a 15 disk model    Additional disks were available at five for dollar 1   00    In 1902 Thomas A    Edisons book Telegraphy SelfTaught was published by Frederick J    Drake & Co    in Chicago    It was written with the philosophy that it is not the speed at which the letter is sounded that perplexes the learner   but the rapid succession in which they follow each other    This is identical with the so called Farnsworth method today    The book was accompanied with a small hand crank driven tape puller and a set of paper tapes with the code characters punched in them    The tapes were designed to start out with very wide spacing between characters   and as the student progressed these spaces were reduced to normal    The goal was a practical working speed of 25 wpm    The actual speeds   of course   would depend on how fast the student turned the crank on the machine      In 1917 the MarconiVictor set of six double sided phonograph records   described in    the first sound only course for International Morse for a phonograph seems to have come out    It consisted of 12 lessons recorded on six 78 rpm records produced by a code expert   approved by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co    and put out by the Victor Phonograph Co    Lessons 1 and 2 gave the code and conventional signs    Lessons 3 and 4 contained easy sentences   etc    Lessons 5 & 6 had Marconi Press and then messages with static interference    Lessons 7 & 8 were press with static   and messages with errors and corrections    Lesson 9 was press with interference from another station    Lessons 10 through 12 were groups of figures   ten letter words and ten letter code groups    It was an ambitious program   which included realistic   typical   practical problems of reception    Playing time was short    In 1921 the Wireless Press   New York City    advertised Study the Code Anywhere appeared    The ad said This New Way  The Sound Method for Memorizing the Code    For success in telegraphing the letters must be learned by the sound    Each letter has a distinctive cadence or rhythm   which is easily memorized by a few hours practice    The charts attached give the key to the rhythm of each letter of the telegraph alphabets    It forms no picture in the students mind   but instead a sound is memorized like a bar of music    An hour a day devoted to memorizing the distinctive rhythm of each letter will enable the student to send or receive a message in a few weeks    The beginner is strongly advised not to practice with charts or books   which show the actual dots and dashes    Once a picture of each letter is formed in memory it will be found difficult to send or receive by sound    Dont try to teach the ears though the eyes    It would be very interesting to see a copy of their course method      

National Radio Institute    Washington DC    Radio News Se    1921     Wonderful Natrometer Gives You CodeSpeed in Half Usual Time              will send messages in a human and not a mechanical manner at a rate   which you can vary from 3 to 30 words per minute              The effect of static interference may be added to the messages being copied             A beginner can quickly learn the alphabet from our A dial    Picture shows a mechanism similar to Omnigraph   but about half the total size   using ten disks which were exchangeable    Price not stated      

The first ad for the Dodge Radio Shortcut Later Shortkut called BKMA YRLSBUG   by C    K    Dodge   Mamaroneck NY    was seen in Radio News Dec    1921 The ad said Memorize Continental Code Almost Instantly    Two hundred beginners in 44 states have reported mastered sic    code in 20 minutes   in one hour   one evening   etc      etc             It was a large 5 by 8 column ad    The usual later ad was about one inch in one column   though sometimes larger    Price at first was dollar 3   00 for small booklet    These ads appeared for many years afterward    This is the worthless Eat Another Raw Lemon method mentioned in Chapter 21      Memo Code   H C   Fairchild   Newark NJ    Radio News Aug    1922     Boys and grownups    Makes you a real radio operator    By my System and Chart   you will know the code in 30 minutes          Complete system dollar 1   00          A buzzer blinker key practice set available with course for dollar 5   00      In 1922 a Radio News ad of Oct   1922 read The fastest way to learn the radio code    The American Code Co    of New York City put out a phonograph course recorded by the famous hero operator Jack Binns   whose bravery and skill saved almost every life aboard the liner Republic after it was struck in 1909    Two phonograph records made by Jack Binns and textbook dollar 2   00    This course claimed to be able to teach the code in one evening Pretty Ambitious   Teleplex Co      New York City    First ad in QST seen Apr    1927  The Easy Way to Learn the Code Cuts Learning Time in Half    The famous Teleplex for self instruction at home    The quickest   easiest and most economical way of learning Morse or Continental          Faithfully reproduces actual sending of expert operators    Next months ad At last The Famous Teleplex           with only a screw to turn             5 to 80 words per minute    Third month Learn the Code at Home This Easy Way with Teleplex    Complete course           They provided a code instruction manual and help and advice personally by correspondence    It was initially a springdriven punched paper tape machine    Later models were electric motor driven    In 1942 they produced a paper tape model which could record ones own sending using electrochemical means as well as send user prepared tapes    In 1956 they reverted to punched tape  again   and in 1959 they went to a machine resembling the Omnigraph    Prices never published in ads    The Teleplex Company later brought out an inked paper tape type of mechanical keyer   which was available for several years    It used the sidewise motion of a pen with a conducting ink apparently made from a silver compound   and was followed by a similar mechanical  design using a chemically treated paper tape    The user could make his own recordings with a key or from a receiver    Playback was by a pair of spring loaded fingers   which contacted the conducting ink to close the circuit    Later designs used a photocell instead of direct electrical contact for reading the tapes    This permitted the use of nonconducting inks    These  differed only in degree from Morses original recorder    McElroys company also manufactured this type of recording system    These types of systems were generally far beyond the average hams pocketbook      The Candler System   Chicago    First ad seen in QST dated Sep    1928 probably advertised earlier in other magazines   last ad seen in QST Feb    1959    Emphasis on high speed and scientific nature of course    Large ads from time to time   but usually about one inch in a column    Price not advertised    See Chapter 30

The Instructograph Co      Chicago    Must have been in use before first ad seen in QST of Jan    1934    Code teacher The scientific   easy and quick way to learn the code    Machines   tapes and complete instruction for sale or rent    Similar to the Teleplex punched paper tape machine   speeds from 3 to 40 wpm    Last ads seen in 1970 ARRL Handbook     Other devices included machines for producing code practice using punched paper tapes    The tapes were wound on reels and pulled by a clockworktype spring motor or electric motor having adjustable speeds    The tape perforations actuated a springloaded contactor to open and close the circuit    Commercial machines were in use long before they entered the  amateur field    There   Teleplex and Instructograph were the earliest and best known   other later imitators were Automatic Telegraph Keyer Corp      Gardiner & Co      etc    A few provided for punching ones own tapes    Ted McElroy   the longtime code speed champion began making a series of similar high quality equipment primarily for commercial and Military use during the WWII period and continued for some time afterwards      Some of these units could be rented as well as purchased outright    In either case   it involved a substantial amount of money   which most amateurs could not afford    In addition   the variety and amount of practice material they provided was often rather limited      McElroys free code course offered in 1945 and again in 195 appears to have been associated with the use of one of his code machines    For its use the claim was Assuming that the average person will practice several hours the first day   we can tell you          that youll be copying that very first day   words and sentences at the character rate of 20 wpm    Ted has taken one half the alphabet and prepared a practice tape   which runs for a full hour without attention at 20 wpm    You wont copy 20 full words in one minute   but each letter you write will hit your ears at a full 20 wpm rate   and the space between the letters becomes progressively shorter as the rolls go along      An odd little unit offered in 1970 was called the Cotutor    It was just a simple whistle with a set of disks   which contained the alphabet and numbers    Each disk had six characters   punched through so that the characters would sound when one blew into the mouthpiece while at the same time turning the disk by hand      Recorders And Computers  The real turning point in availability and variety arrived with the advent first of the wire recorder and then of the tape recorders    Here   like the phonograph   the machine was probably something already owned and could be used for other things besides code learning    This kept the cost down    Many prepared code tapes became commercially available   or could be self recorded from the radio or other sources and played over and over as desired    Many good courses became available and more are available today      Some electronic keyboards and keyers offer a wide variety of preprogrammed practice materials for practice    One of their main advantages is that they always produce perfectly formed characters  something that greatly expedites initial learning      But personal computers   which entered the scene actively in the early 1980s   offer the widest range for basic code learning and for advancing in skill    A wide variety of freeware programs for learning and for practice are available   as well as programs commercially produced    Not a few PC programmers have been able to prepare their own programs tailored to their own particular needs    A number of interactive programs are available which give either immediate or delayed helps to the student  these offer tremendous help in learning    Some may also allow the more advanced student to conduct QSOs with the computer program   just as if he was actually on the air    The potential here is great indeed    See Chapter 16

Finally   there are available computer programs and devices which can read receive code transmissions    Because they are machines   they can only read code signals   which are reasonably accurate in timing    For the student who has access to one of these   it will give him a chance to test his own sending for accuracy    However   they are not recommended as substitutes for personal receiving by ear     

Speed contests  officially and unofficially  have been held over almost the whole history of telegraphy in America    Both the professionals and the amateurs have had a pride of accomplishment   which begged competition to display and reward    Speed contests provided that     After WW 1 speed contests among amateurs   but open to others also   began under the sponsorship of the ARRL and also local hamfests and amateur clubs    Ted McElroy   who was not an amateur   stood out as the worlds speed champion for decades beginning in 1922    In 1933 he lost out to Joseph W    Chaplin   but regained the title again in 1935    There were others who demonstrated almost equal ability   and McElroy himself said on occasion that there were probably many others who were as good or better than he    Several unofficial records have been established in this country   and lately the European clubs have reported some astounding high speed champions      At first   in the latter 1800s   contests seem to have been concerned only about sending ability    This implies that receiving ability exceeded their ability to send  which is borne out as we read history operators were then limited by their sending ability only    Only later   as speed keys and then machine sending entered so that truly high sending speeds could be achieved   do receiving contests seem to have become important    That means until about the turn of the century    We  have already looked into sending abilities in Chapter 9   so we turn here to receiving contests      We have little detail about most of these receiving contests    However for the one conducted at the ARRL Convention in Chicago   in August   l933   where former World champion Ted R    McElroy was defeated by Joseph W    Chaplin   we have extensive information provided by Ivan S    Coggeshall   one of the four judges    Mr   Coggeshall was a telegraph operator himself   and later a vice president of Western Union    He was the only nonamateur judge    QST November 1933 p 3      personal correspondence with Mr    Coggeshall and comments from McElroy   etc    From these materials the contest may be described as follows  It was an open championship for the worlds speed title and cup    More than 250 contestants showed up   both amateurs and professionals    Silver trophies were to be awarded in eight classes   beginning at 8 wpm    The contest was run in two sections   the first a preliminary classification test on August 4   eliminating most contestants   and the final runoff the next day    The first section of test began at 8 wpm   then 10   and at 5 wpm increments up to 55 wpm    At each change of speed the contestants first listened to some familiar taped material   followed immediately by the fresh test tape    The test tape material was in plain English taken from Chicago newspapers and carefully edited so as to contain no difficult or unusual words or figures   and only the simplest of punctuation    Each section of test tape ran for five minutes at each speed      The setup provided 200 pairs of headphones to listen to the 1000 cycle tone of the oscillator as it was controlled by a Wheatstone automatic keyer    The available test room was small and not many visitors could watch the proceedings    Because there were so many contestants the first test series had to be run in two heats     

Mr    Coggeshalls personal reactions to the tests are interesting  At 8 wpm you sit back and twiddle your thumbs   you yawn          At 15 you take up your pencil and leisurely jot the stuff down          At 20 you see the first signs of life    For a minute or two you sit back and copy   and then   on second thought   you hitch your chair forward a bit and straighten the paper    At 25 you quit laying behind   you decide to close the gap until you read about a word behind the sender    Not so bad   now    At 30 the fun begins    You can read it all right   but the pencil seems to be getting a little sluggish  better make a grab for a mill typewriter    At 35 you begin for the first time to think about errors How many am I allowed on a 5minute test run of this  ?    At 40 it gets hotter and very suddenly   too    The last 5 wpm have more mustard on them   it seems   than the first 30    You are holding your own with many a crack commercial radio or telegraph operator now    You quit worrying about single wrong letters and start hoping you can put a typewritten line down without leaving a word out    At 45 the jig is up    You quit   but half a dozen of the champs go on             At 50 wpm the dots and dashes get blurred and jumbled              at 53 it is just a lot of static  no sense now in trying to hear anything    At 55 there is no change    Just as easy to read the QRN static            As each group reached its limit   the contestants left the test room    Finally   eight passed the test thus far    Between this test section and the final runoff a WU cable operator   J C   Smyth   copied 5letter solid cipher code correctly at 45 wpm   making all the other contestants look like amateurs   and thus putting their attitudes on a more nearly equal footing for the speed grind to follow      The test tape for the final runoff had been prepared and sealed in New York in the presence of Inspector Manning of the Federal Radio Commission   and was opened by Inspector Hayes of the Chicago office at the scene of the contest      The final run began at 40 wpm  then 45  then 50   53   54   57  and 62 wpm    The machine apparently could not be accurately preset at these speeds   and speed was determined afterward by word count and time elapsed      Rules of the contest allowed a maximum of 1 percent error for each 5minute run    At 62 wpm all made more than 15 errors    At 57   3 1432 characters or 286   7 5letter words Chaplin had 11 errors out of an allowable of 14   while at 54 wpm he had but 5 errors   and McElroy made 8 at this lower speed    Chaplin was declared the winner at 57   3   breaking McElroys 11year old record 1922 of 56   5 with one error on a 3minute run      From this we can see that the 5letter word had been standard for some time   and is in fact representative of regular English    It is not difficult to compare this with the present 50unit standard word as in Paris by using letterfrequency tables such as used in crypto analysis    See Chapter 25

From this it can be shown that a word count based on standard written English may be expected to come within about one percent of the present standard of 50 units per word      Regarding speed contests in general   Lavon R    McDonald wrote in 1940 About the speed tests   government count is used   that is five units to the word    Only plain newspaper English is used   everything having clear meaning   no trick stuff     

As for the well known 1939 speed contest   where McElroy was credited with winning at a speed of 75 wpm   McDonald wrote In the Asheville tournament   the speed was practically the same for McElroy and myself    We both copied solid press matter prepared by the FCC   but they sent some stuff at 77 wpm and I didnt get a good start on it    McElroy made something that looked like copy   but pretty ragged looking   so they gave him 75   2   I guess it was    If only first class copy had been counted   it would have ended a tie    McElroy and I have had about the same telegraph experience      At the present time the Europeans appear to have exceeded our recorded contest speeds    In the 1991 International Amateur Radio Union high speed telegraphic championship contest Oleg Buzubov UA4FBP copied 530 figures numbers per minute with only one error that is 106 wpm   8   83 figures per second Amazing See Morsum Magnificat 224 However   the duration of these tests is stated to be one minute    This seems rather too short in itself or to be in any way directly comparable with the contests run in America    It seems doubtful that these speeds could be maintained for three to five minutes      Some of the others who have achieved very high speed have been Eugene A    Hubbell W9ERU   later W7DI   Wayland M    Groves   J    W   Champlin   J    B    Donnelly   V    S    Kearney   J    S    Carter   Carl G    Schaal W4PEI   Frank E   Connolly   Wells E    Burton    

The Koch Researches   The obviously extensive researches of Ludwig Koch   psychologist at Die technische Hochschule   Braunschweig   Germany   reported in JanFeb    1936 see Sources   seem to be virtually unknown outside of Germany    His goal was to discover the most efficient way to teach the Morse code to prospective radiotelegraph operators to meet the International requirements for commercial radio operators    These requirements were    send 100 words in five minutes     copy a 100 word telegram in five minutes   and   copy 125 words of ordinary text in five minutes   one word being reckoned as five letters   Kochs researches involved determining what competent operators are doing   examining teaching methods in current use   then devising better methods   and testing them in actual classes    His conclusions and recommendations seem to be the earliest real research into how best to teach the Morse code    They agree on the whole with the best methods of today   and may offer some further ideas of value to us    They are summarized here      Tests to Determine What Competent Operators Are Doing  He ran three series of tests to determine how the code is comprehended and for this purpose used four competent   actively practicing radio telegraphers    Three of these operators had learned the code solely by sound   while the fourth was selftaught from printed code charts      Sending Tests  For the first test each operator was to send by regular handkey the series of ten letters b c v q f l h y z x at various speeds while monitoring his sending with a pair of headphones to satisfy himself as to its quality    Out of his sight and hearing a recording system made an accurate timed graphical record of his sending   so that the actual timing of signal and space durations could be examined in detail    He was instructed to send   using standard International Morse timing   at each of six different speeds ranging from about 20 to 80 characters per minute    Standard International Morse timing   as described in Chapter 12   was then used to compare their sending at all speeds      Below about 10 wpm the only operator who closely conformed to standard timing was the one who had visually learned the code    The three others deviated considerably from standard timing    At 5 wpm these deviations were appreciable    the dits were too short     the dahs tended to be longer than 3 times dit length   and   the spaces between characters were too long      

However   spacing between the components of a letter was almost perfectly equal to their dit lengths      At successively higher speeds this situation changed slowly and somewhat irregularly until by about 10 wpm character rate all four operators were forming fairly accurate patterns of sound nearly to the International Standard   except that the letters themselves were somewhat faster and the spaces between letters were somewhat longer than standard    By about 12 wpm all sending had become quite consistent with the standard    Only the well known individual peculiarities of sending by hand were obvious    At 10 wpm and above these deviations were always very small      The three operators who had learned by sound obviously showed no real sense of sound patterning Gestalt at these very low speeds no sense of unity   but rather just a series of separate elements strung together    Only by about 10 wpm were the code characters now felt to be entities of sound in themselves   patterns which were clearcut in each operators mind   no longer shattered elements   disjointed parts      Receiving Tests  Test number One  Each operator was to copy the 30 German Morse characters sent by a machine in perfect standard timing at each of four different speeds over the same speed range as before      At about 5 wpm these experienced operators hardly recognized a single character correctly At 7 wpm only 40 percent to 60 percent of the letters were correctly identified    At 10 wpm all operators were getting about 95 percent correct    By 12 wpm all of them correctly identified every character     Test number Two  Here the length of the spaces between the letters was doubled    This time the operators recognized almost all letters correctly at all speeds    That is interesting      From these tests it was concluded that experienced operators recognize a code character by its overall acoustic pattern Gestalt   and that this pattern stands out clearly only when sent at a minimum character speed of about 50 characters per minute    At lower speeds it is heard simply as a disjointed series of signals     Koch concluded that these operators could recognize the too slowly sent letters only when letter spacing was doubled   because this increased interval gave them time to integrate the sound and mentally speed it up to where they could recognize it    A beginner would not have the skill to do this      The operator who had learned from a printed code chart apparently formed better proportioned characters at very low speeds because his visual mental picture was so strong    However   the price paid for this was that it limited his maximum speed of copying he could barely meet the minimum requirements  a marginal operator    See below      Analysis And Criticism Of Previous Teaching Methods  The Analytic Method introduces the student to the code using some sort of systematic arrangement   or chart   where the code characters are arranged by number and type of related elements   etc      in a visual form    The student is required to memorize this as a mental picture before going any further    After that   the characters are sent to him in standard timing   at first 
 very   very slowly    This means they are sent with long drawn out dits   dahs and spaces    The speed is then very gradually increased in tiny steps      The faults with this system are   To begin by learning visual symbols creates a useless detour   Slow sending destroys any unity   or coherent sound patterning   The disjointed signal doesnt meet our need for a sense of unity   Learner can hardly help counting the dits and dahs   the long spaces between letters distract his attention from listening by   encouraging him to think and try to put the shattered parts together to make sense of them   a shaped unity   Gestalt   or   guessing what may come next   at each increase in speed everything sounds different   and he virtually has to start over again     In short   the student is sidetracked and severely penalized all the way along needlessly translating from bits and pieces of sound to try to put it together into a meaningful whole   then converting that to visual form and then finally to the letter      The SoundPattern Method first introduces the Morse characters to the student at a character speed fast enough for them to be perceived as an acoustic unity Gestalt   but with wide spaces between the characters    However   the student has usually already visually mastered a code table or is encouraged to do so as he learns      Unfortunately   visual mental pictures are usually very much stronger and easier to recall than auditory sound patterns    Thus the student tends to convert the signal pattern he hears into the corresponding visual representation   break it into its component parts   and then finally into the letter    This complex action tends at least partially destroys the wholeness of the acoustic impression      This series of actions is encouraged by the long pauses between characters   giving adequate time for thinking   speculation and the cumbersome translation processes    With increasing speeds the pause time becomes too short to go through all this   and so the student gets stuck below or around 10 wpm   just as with the analytic method      So this method tends to suffer about the same faults as the analytical method    Both generally lead directly to that troublesome plateau at around 10 wpm   where the distinct change in perception from bits and pieces to coherent unity of each signal occurs      Analyzing these methods   two classes of errors can be seen    Errors which hinder the building of a sense of acoustic unity   Detour through an optical symbol      Disintegration of the acoustic form of the character      Errors which prevent going directly from acoustic impression to the letter   Thinking about the signal during long pauses      Guessing what may come next     

The remedy is obviously to eliminate all visual references and associate the sound directly with the letter   to send fast enough from the very beginning so that coherent sound patterns are immediately sensed   and to eliminate nonnormal spacing between letters      

The obvious goal was to meet the International requirements    The question is how best to get there    Would it be better to begin from the first using a 100 character rate per minute   or some lesser speed  ?    This experiment was tried    For the average student it was found that the demands on his concentration were significantly greater at 100 letters per minute than at 12 letters per minute   especially as more and more new characters were introduced    Above average students did well   however   at the higher initial speed    But   of course   if one learns initially at some lower speed   speed is going to have to be increased to meet the requirements      Various tests showed that about 12 wpm was an optimal speed for most people to begin learning    It is far enough above the 10 wpm plateau to avoid it    Further tests showed that once the student had mastered all the code characters at 12 wpm   it was relatively easy for him to advance to 70 letters per minute   and by continuing to practice using the same principles   to advance fairly rapidly   step by step   to the required speeds    Thus a 12 wpm beginning speed seemed well justified      Can the Rhythm Patterns Be Enhanced  ?     Koch observed that in the early stages of learning   the beginner has to concentrate intensely to catch the letter rhythm patterns    Is there anything which could be done make this easier for him  ?      He observed that some teachers were speaking   or even almost singing   the sound patterns of code characters using the syllables dit and dah   whose vowel qualities and lengths make sound patterns stand out somewhat like little melodies    This helps accentuate the differences between sound patterns and simultaneously promotes an immediate sense of meaningful unity of the acoustic patterns      Could the use of two different pitches   one for dits and the other for dahs   make it easier for the new student to recognize the wholeness of the rhythmic pattern melody of a code character   and make it easier to learn  ?    Could it help reduce the stress caused by the intensity of his concentration in the early learning stages   while he is being introduced to the rhythms and trying to get accustomed to them  ?    It looked worth a try      He conducted two classes simultaneously to evaluate the merits of the twotone approach    After the first lesson   at each stage the twotone group averaged two lesson periods ahead of the monotone group    For the twotone class the pitches were gradually merged into one by about midcourse    Results  the twotone class in 24 sessions reached what took the monotone class 28 lessons to achieve    Total teaching time was 12 twotone to 14 monotone hours    With both groups there were the usual   occasional short plateaus   each lasting generally no more than one lesson period    Conclusion  this is a worthwhile improvement to help the beginner      What Letters Should Be Taught First  ?     

1 Distinguishing Between SimilarSounding Patterns     What characters should first be presented to the student  ?    Although tests had shown that students can   in their first lesson   readily learn to distinguish similar patterns such as the series eish   the degree of concentration required had a negative effect on them    Experience has shown that many sound patterns   as speeds rise   can be mistaken for similar sounding patterns   especially in regard to the number of dits which become pretty short at higher speeds e   g      S and H   or U and V    The dah characters do not run this risk so much e   g      W and J    In addition some beginners do experience temporary confusion between mirror image characters   such as B and V   D and U    Thus it seems best to begin with sound patterns which are distinctly and obviously different    In this way the student can learn more gradually to discriminate between smaller differences      

2 Letters that Tend to be Troublesome  Koch says these for German students are generally x y p q    Z is very frequent in German    If these are introduced during the first third of the program   there is more opportunity to give them adequate practice   and this generally results in shortening the total program      When To Introduce A New Character  His tests showed that it is safe to introduce a new character into the list only after the student knows thoroughly all the characters he has already studied    He set his working standard at a minimum of 90 percent that is   not to introduce a new character until the students were getting at least 90 percent correct copy at any stage    This provided a good measure for comparison   and at the same time let the student evaluate his own progress    It is indeed interesting that the test classes showed that students learned new characters almost in exact proportion to the number of lesson periods total hours    The experiments also showed that three to four new characters were about optimum for any one lesson period      Should Practice Be By Groups of Letters  ?     The question he asked is this should the student practice one group of characters until he knows them well   then work on a second group separately in the same way   and after that combine the groups  ?      He began this teaching test with characters composed of dahs only t m o ch German single character ch    After enough practice a couple of class sessions to master this group of letters   he began teaching the dit group e i s h by itself in the same way    Next he combined these two groups together   and found that somehow during the intensive study of the second group   the students had forgotten the first group almost completely   and their confidence was badly shaken    He had to begin all over again teaching these eight letters together until they were mastered together      After this   when these eight letters had been practiced to the point where they were correctly and consistently identified two new groups were studied separately in the same way as the first two groups    First the group d b g   then after that the group u v w    Next   when these two new groups were mixed together   it was found that the d b g group had been forgotten    But worse   after these two groups had been relearned together d b g u v w to the point of correct identification   and then combined with the first 8 letters   alas   the combined first two groups of 8 letters had been virtually forgotten   It appears that the students intense concentration upon a new group of characters by itself causes that group to override and replace what had been previously learned    He sensibly concluded that teaching by groups is wrongheaded    Therefore   the most efficient way is to introduce one new letter at a time and then immediately integrate it into the group of letters already learned   until finally the whole alphabet is complete    In this way all the previously learned characters are under constant review and repeated frequently without lapses      Troublesome Characters  Experience has shown that quite a few students have some trouble identifying one or more individual characters   tending to miss or confuse them    They show up as little plateaus on his record of advancement    What letters these are varies greatly from student to student    The five column copying forms described below serve to help identify which these troublesome ones are  needing more practice      

How Long Should Lessons Be And How Distributed In Time  ?     He cited B    Josts researches which found that people learn more quickly and retain it longer for a given total learning time   when the lesson periods are shorter and widely separated in time    e g    for a total of 24 lesson periods which always include reviews  to schedule four lesson periods a day for six days is four times more effective than to schedule eight lesson periods a day for 3 days   and that to schedule two lesson periods a day for 12 days is eight times more effective    That is   spread out the lessons in time      What is the ideal length of a lesson period  ?     Koch found by testing that to have a long morning lesson   and then after corresponding length of rest period to continue in the afternoon   demanded too much intense concentration    The students got tired too quickly and the repetition practice was not as effective as it should be    By trial he determined that a halfhour lesson period was about optimum    Even a 45 minute period began to show diminishing returns    He finally recommended two halfhour periods   one in morning and one in the afternoon as optimum      Several courses using various of these principles were conducted    However   at the time of this report   he had not had classes where he could combine all the optimum test conditions    The students savable were people who were interested   but not primarily   at least   for professional purposes    Furthermore   they were employed at full time work during the day   and were often tired by class time   which had to be scheduled in the evenings    Also   he could schedule only two or three half hour lesson periods per week    Hardly ideal      In spite of this progress was good   and no difficulties were encountered    Three to five characters were presented and learned in the first half hour period    He aimed for many repetitions during each lesson   never less than ten repetitions of each character during a given lesson period   even after the entire alphabet had been introduced    Each successive period began with a lively review of what had been learned up to that point     

It is a mistake to let the student see a code character in any kind of visual form   because a visual impression is so strong that it will almost invariably lead to analyzing it into dits and dahs   and thus shatter its unity      Each Morse code character must retain its unitary nature   its acoustic wholeness at all times    This is facilitated by   Sending at a speed of at least 12 wpm 60 letters per minute from the very first    This will promote the sense of acoustic unity and bypass the discouraging 10 wpm plateau transition region completely      Emphasizing the melodic nature of the code patterns initially   like a little tune   by the use one pitch for the dits and a slightly different pitch for the dahs    These pitches are then gradually to be brought closer together so that by about the midpoint of the program they are identical and continue from there on as a single pitch      From the very first all practice is to be in five letter groups   with normal spacing between the letters   as in ciphered texts   but with distinctly longer pauses between groups    This has a dual purpose   to leave no time for conscious thinking or translation between letters   and thus to require direct passage from sound pattern to the letter itself   and   so that the student will immediately become used to hearing letters in groupings as in normal communication   and not as isolated letters      

The Candler System    No treatise on learning the code would be complete without a summary and discussion of this famous and formerly long advertised course      By 1904 Walter H    Candler had learned the American Morse code and worked for two years as a telegrapher    He had practiced diligently and felt qualified to apply for a job as commercial relay operator in the Western Union office at Atlanta GA    But he didnt last out there even one day   and had to take a night shift job as telegraph operator at a small town R   R    station    He was deeply hurt and puzzled    What was the matter  ?    What mysterious ingredient was missing  ?      As was the custom at the best telegraph schools   he had visually memorized the Morse code from a printed table of dots and dashes   and then practiced and practiced    This standard procedure was confirmed by a former teacher at the well known Dodges Institute  no connection to the later C    K    Dodge Radio Shortkut    One night on the job   quite by accident   he discovered that when once in a while he dozed off at the operating table   he could read the fastest code coming over the lines to his sounder    Yet when he was awake and alert he could catch only a word here and there      It was then that he began to realize that telegraphy is primarily a mental process   and that the so called subconscious mind must play a vital part in it    At that time here was quite a bit of popular writing about the subconscious mind   which no doubt helped him put it all together    He began experimenting until he had solved his own problem and mastered the code himself   and in time he became qualified to teach others how to do it   too    By 1911 he had established his own school in Chicago to teach The Candler System   later moving it to Asheville   NC      Although he died on 23 April 1940   his wife   who was already an experienced telegrapher herself when they were married in 1924   and had worked with him since   continued to handle the course for a number of years    It was last advertised in QST in 1959      The Course  Originally his High Speed course was designed for operators who already knew American Morse   but were stuck at some too low speed    Later he added the International code to it   covering both codes    Still later a new course   called The Scientific Code Course   designed to be successfully used by beginners working alone   was created from the regular High Speed course by modifying it to add helps to get the beginner started    Thus it contained all that the High Speed course contained    That new course was later renamed The Junior Code Course   and was the one I obtained in October 1939   and made extensive notes on      There is evidence that although the essentials stood out strongly and firmly   over the years the details varied in minor ways    His basic philosophy may be stated as  This system trains you to use your MIND to develop scientifically your coordination   concentration and confidence  your responsiveness    The course consisted of ten lessons plus considerable valuable supplementary material   mostly as letters    It is summarized below      The Essential Principles  Since Candler was concerned with those training to become commercial operators   he first emphasized the importance of healthy living eating   exercise   breathing   etc    This emphasis was needed in those days because the typical city operator worked long hours in unhealthy smokefilled   darkish   crowded and poorly ventilated offices      

1 Develop SOUND CONSCIOUSNESS     In Lesson 7 he wrote In learning code it is necessary to consciously count the dits and dahs of the various signals   both in sending and receiving    By repetition   the subconscious mind gradually assumes this burden of counting them    As long as you must consciously count them   work will be slow   but as the submind takes them   they go faster and faster    As you progress   he wrote elsewhere   Begin to respond more readily to the sound patterns than to visual ones learn to shift from what you mentally see to what you hear    So long as you must consciously remind yourself that so many dits and dahs stand for certain letters   you are not learning code    So   when you hear didah   no longer say to yourself didah stands for A    Instead   when you hear didah   hear A    Do not translate    In learning code you do not have to relearn words   but you do have to change the approach         from visual to auditory          Once you have mastered this consciously   your submind will handle that detail   and do a faster   better job than your conscious mind possibly can      Critique We must remember that he and most of his students had already learned visually   and now this must be REPLACED by direct auditory recognition    Here was the real reason they all had gotten stuck at some slow speed    This traditional approach must have blinded his thinking so that it did not occur to him to START THE BEGINNER WITH SOUND ALONE   and so save the beginner from having to cross that annoying hurdle with its discouragement      

2 Your submind will only do what you have consciously trained it to do    Therefore   teach it the RIGHT WAY and the SAME WAY consistently from the beginning    Think and act POSITIVELY The I can do it attitude    If you maintain a positive attitude as you think and consistently practice   the submind will take over the task more quickly   and it will become easier each time you do it    Conscious effort is needed until it becomes automatic    First you learn by consciously employing the principles in your regular daily practice    Then gradually   if you practice as directed   your submind will take over the job with less and less conscious effort   and you will make good progress      

3 Learning to READ CODE   to RECEIVE   is the important thing    That is   to understand without having to write it down    Reading means listening and understanding what is being said   just as in reading ordinary print or when listening to someone speak    Reading code must never depend on copying    As soon as you have learned all the letters   start listening to good code on your receiver or nowadays   practice tapes   etc    for 5   10   15 minutes at a time   or until you become tired  even if you cannot put together enough consecutive signals to form words    Keep on   and soon you will be catching small words and then larger ones    But do not practice too long at one time  never when fatigued     

I am acquiring the ability to read words subconsciously now    When reading code   I know   as soon as a word is sent   what the word is   although I didnt consciously spell it out to myself as it was coming in   wrote a student       

4 YOU CANNOT WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU CANNOT READ RECEIVE    This is step two after learning to receive    Writing down what you receive is a routine matter that will take care of itself if you are properly trained    Of course   in the initial stages of learning the alphabet and numbers   etc      you must copy letter by letter   slowly   just as you had to learn to read that way    After this stage   stop until When you get so you can listen to code and read it at 15 to 25 wpm without copying   you must begin copying some at each practice period    Commence this way each day copy for 10  15 minutes   striving to copy one or more signals behind   then spend a similar period just listening to good code without writing      

5 When you do copy   learn to COPY BEHIND    If you have been copying letter by letter you must begin systematically to overcome it   and the best way is to listen to good code and form the habit of reading it without copying    As you acquire the independent code reading habit   by daily practice   you will find it easier to drop behind a few signals without confusion or fear of losing out when you are copying    You must break the bad habit of copying letter by letter    Get in the habit of carrying the letters in your mind   forming them subconsciously into words and sentences   without writing them down    When I found I could begin to read small words as easily by sound as by sight   I was delighted    I soon learned to read words in my head    After that   copying them by pencil was easy    Previously   I had been writing words down letterby letter that was wrong wrote a student      

6 Practice intelligently in the RIGHT way   daily   regularly   in short and well spaced periods   purposefully    Never practice error    Practicing when tired is not efficient use of time    A good schedule is 30 minutes daily   15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon or evening    The time between practice periods is important  use it to prepare yourself to be receptive by cultivating a positive attitude toward yourself and what you are trying to do    THE TEN LESSONS With these statements of basic principles in mind   let us look at the lessons for the beginner    Note that each new group of code letters was presented in the old visual dots and dashes manner   but the student was told to THINK of the letters in terms of dits and dahs as they sound    He seems to have anticipated that a typical student would take a week or two to complete each lesson      LESSON ONE Emphasis on sound units    The first group was E I S H   to be sent smoothly and in accurate   regular timing by the student with his key   saying the dits as he pounded them out    Candler recommended that two or more beginners work together so each could send to and receive from the other    As soon as he can recognize them easily and send them smoothly   he was to form words   such as he   is   see   his   she    Next to take the letters T M O   and do the same way   saying the dahs as he sends them   and then to make small words using both sets of letters   as before    Lastly the letters A N W G    Then practice small words   including as many of the 100 most common words as can be formed from these eleven letters    At one period Candler either supplied or recommended the use of mechanical senders   such as the Teleplex   with his course for the student studying alone    This would provide an accurate timing sense as well as good hearing practice    With a machine or companion   he would be able to listen and   during this initial period   copy letter by letter as he heard each character      

LESSON TWO Emphasis again on thinking of the letters in terms of dits and dahs as they sound   not as they appear in dots and dashes    Groups of new letters to be learned the same way D U V J B   R K L F   P X Z C Y Q    Words to be practiced included the rest of the shorter 100 most common words    Emphasis on accuracy of timing   and that repetition builds habit whether good or bad      

LESSON THREE Emphasis on knowing you are right   then going ahead and making it a habit by repetitive practice    Analysis of the letters in code   accuracy of signal   spacing and speed precision    Get in the habit of instantly recognizing each and every letter when you hear it   without having to stop and think automatic association of each signal with its letter    Also now learn the numbers and commonest punctuation    When you have learned the letters so that you do not have to stop and think of what character any combination of dits and dahs represents   begin listening to good code every day regularly without copying   even if only for 5 minutes at a time    The radio was his favorite source of good code commercial press and government stations were on 24 hours a day    Now we have ARRL code practice   tapes   etc    Catch everything you can as you listen    You may not get much at first   but keep trying and you will soon begin to hear letters and words      

LESSON FOUR Think of the code as being easy to learn    Trust your submind to do its work    Review and practice   especially any characters you tend to miss or confuse   until they are automatic    Every character must stand on its own feet    Keep drilling on the 100 most common words   both receiving and sending    Begin using the two column drill where you set up two parallel columns of three or four letter words   each having the same number of letters   then go down the columns spelling the word in the first column out loud while simultaneously writing down the other    Then do the same   reversing the columns    See Chapter 8   Conquering Our Fears of Losing Out    third paragraph    These are the first easy drills on learning to copy a word or two behind      

LESSON FIVE practice each letter and character until you know them all so well  whether receiving or sending  that you dont have to stop and think about them at all    Do the same with the 100 most common words    Keep up the practice of the twocolumn exercise started in Lesson 4   going on to words with a few more letters as you find it easier    This is to HELP DISENGAGE CONSCIOUS ATTENTION from the proper functioning of the subconscious mind so that it can do its work unhindered    Learn to trust it by continuing this kind of practice until it becomes easy    This is a highly successful method of training to shift the effort from conscious to automatic   that is   subconscious   making it a useful habit      

LESSON SIX Development of skill is developing coordination   where everything runs smoothly    It begins by constant practice listening to and sending consistently and perfectly formed code characters   learning to recognize each code signal instantly   learning to read it all easily   and when copying   to write it down in a uniform   simple style of handwriting    Watch for any step along the line where there is any hesitation or question   and practice to overcome that block    Give this your attention   and allow time for it to develop until it becomes automatic   habitual    This is the scientific way    Do some practice copying mixed fiveletter groups   but do not write down any letters of a group until the whole group has been sent    Have wide enough spaces left between groups to allow you to write it down before the next group starts    His emphasis throughout the course is on receiving and copying normal English   not ciphered groups      

LESSON SEVEN Emphasis on proper timing while sending    Start by sending a series of letter Es with wide spaces between them   first with six counts between letters   then gradually reducing the space to normal one letter space    Then do the same way with S   T   H   O   etc    Here he discussed counting as given above under 1  Sound Consciousness   Critique      

LESSON EIGHT A discussion of glass arm   or telegraphers paralysis   and its prevention by certain exercises   relaxation and proper warmup    Continuing practice of fundamentals      

LESSON NINE Obstacles to progress listed as    lack of practice     thinking visually rather than by sound     hesitation over poorly learned signals   causing loss of the following ones     looking back over ones copy while copying     negative attitudes    One must force oneself to copy behind by degrees   gradually      

LESSON TEN Learning to carry words in your mind by continuing the copying behind practice    Learning to write rapidly and legibly as an aid to receiving    Learning to copy on the typewriter    He had a separate course specifically for this    Learning by doing until it become second nature     


The SoCalled Farnsworth or Spacing Method    This method in which the spacing between letters and words is lengthened to facilitate recognition of character patterns and words in the early learning stages is obviously excellent      This is actually an old procedure used by many teachers long before Farnsworth   who popularized it    It appears that the first clear mention of this approach is by Thomas Edison   a highly skilled telegrapher himself in 1902    He hit the nail on the head when he wrote as follows about his punched tape course called Audio Alphabets by Frederick J    Drake & Co    for teaching the American Morse code It is not the speed at which a letter is sounded that perplexes the learner   but the rapid succession in which they follow each other      A few students have felt temporary rhythm recognition problems with the way this method was used by some teachers as the speeds were increased by shortening the spaces   making the characters seem to run together    They may feel a bit frustrated   but this is easily avoidable      This effect seems to be most noticeable when using a character speed of around 13 wpm   and is one of the reasons why it is recommended from the very beginning to use character speeds of 18 to 25 wpm    These higher character speeds also make it easier to concentrate on the character as a unity of sound   without the risk of counting or analyzing it as a collection of shorts and longs    Of course   after learning the code   we need to get used to hearing it at various speeds   including those slower than our initial learning speed    One reason operators tests for license will be slow speed      This method starts out by having the beginner hear each character from the very first at a high enough speed for it to be perceived as a unit of sound which means at least at a rate of 12 or more wpm   rather than as composed of dits and dahs    It accentuates this perception by separating the letters and words at first by wide spaces   giving the student time to recognize each one clearly and associate it with its printed letter   or number   etc      and then as the student progresses   gradually shortens the spaces to normal length    It has been confirmed by experiments in psychology   which have proved that if a stimulus can be grasped as a single unit   a wholeness or Gestalt   learning will take place at a rapid rate    And with respect to how this course handled it   he added The principal feature of the Audio Alphabets is the graduation in the intervals between the letters    By beginning with a record in which the characters are widely separated and then changing to others with less and less intervals   the student gradually reaches the one having normal telegraph spacing      This spacing method is perhaps the most obvious and effective way of focusing a beginners conscious attention on the Gestalt   or form   of each individual code form of letter    It makes the letter patterns stand out prominently and allows him time to associate it with its equivalent printed letter with a minimum of interference and distraction from all other characters      

So this is actually an old procedure based upon the experience of many teachers long before Russ Farnsworth W6TTB   whose name apparently became attached to it because of his Epsilon Records Code Course consisting of 3 LP phonograph records in an album put out in 1959    In that course the characters were from the very first sent at 13 wpm   widely spaced   and the time between them gradually reduced as the student became more proficient    Next of record we find two bulletins published in 1917 and 1918 by the Federal Board of Education which recommended sending each character at a rate of 20 wpm with rather lengthy pauses between them      

In Chapter 11 of RADIO SIMPLIFIED   a popular book of 1922   authors Kendall and Koehler   instructor and director respectively at the YMCA Radio and Technical Schools in Philadelphia wrote about learning the Code  To begin with   the novice should not set out by committing to memory the number and order of the dots and dashes in the various letters and figures in the code   as for example   that dash dot dash dot equals C    Much of the energy so spent will be wasted    The radio operator does not recognize letters as so many dots and so many dashes nor does he translate signals in that fashion    The operator hears and learns to recognize each letter as a combination of sounds dahdedahde sic    as the letter C   dedahde as R    dah de dah as K   etc      in much the same manner as children in the primary school learn to read words by sounds instead of by learning to spell them      Although they do not mention the spacing method directly   they imply it by comparing it to how children learned to read in those days   by recognizing letter forms and spelling out words at first    This involved one at a time learning with spaces as a natural part of learning   without calling any special attention to it    In 1940   in his Masters Thesis Teaching Radio by Radio Marshall Ensor summarized his highly successful code teaching methods which began about 1929 from Olathe KS    He clearly used this spaced learning method to teach hundreds of students during his one hour lessons daily on 160meter phone broadcasts    Each lesson alternated teaching code   theory and regulations    See Chapter 12

   In 1945 Ted McElroy offered printed copies of his free Morse Code Course said to contain everything he has learned in 30 years of operating experience    He claimed that   Assuming that the average person will practice several hours the first day   we can tell you           that youll be copying THAT VERY FIRST DAY   words and sentences at the rate of 20 wpm              You wont copy 20 full words in one minute    But each letter you write will hit your ears at a full 20 wpm and the space between letters becomes progressively shorter as the rolls go along    

A Brief History of United States Operator Licensing Requirements and Military Training   In the Beginning  Prior to 1912 no licenses of any kind were required   either for stations or for amateur operators    An amateur   however   might apply to the Navy Department   which would issue a Certificate of Skill    This merely stated that the successful applicant was proficient in code    It had no legal value or necessity      The First Laws 1912 to 1927  In 1912 Congress passed the first laws requiring licenses for wireless operators and stations whose signals would  a interfere with government or bonafide commercial stations those open to public use or  b cross state lines      b This meant that very   very many little stations and their operators did not need licenses    Little often included even those up to one kilowatt   the maximum allowed for any licensed station    This was because the passive mostly crystal detector receivers in those early days were so insensitive that reception over land masses beyond a hundred miles or so was exceptional    The word amateur does not appear in these regulations   but is covered by the term experimental    In England   by contrast   a license was required even for owning receiving equipment      From 1912 until 1933 operator and station licenses were separately issued and were impressive diploma like documents about 8 by 11 inches    They had to be posted at the station location and were usually framed by the operator    Initially there were two classes of license   with identical qualifications    Amateur First Grade was by examination by a government examiner covering radio laws   regulations   proper adjustment and operation of equipment   along with sending and receiving tests at 5 wpm in International Morse code    For those living too far away to come in for personal examination   there was an Amateur Second Grade whose applicant had to certify by mail that he could meet these identical requirements    In Aug    1919 the required speed was raised to 10 wpm      When the U   S    entered WWI all radio activity   receiving as well as transmitting   except for that specifically authorized by the Military   was prohibited    All equipment including all antennas had to be either dismantled or sealed    This began on 17 April 1917 and continued until 12 April 1919 when receiving was once again permitted   and finally when amateur transmitting was again allowed on 1 October 1919    1923 a new Extra First Grade was created requiring at least two years experience as a licensed operator      

A new written examination included requiring the applicant to diagram a transmitter and receiver and to explain the principles of their operation   plus a code speed test at 20 wpm the speed required of a Commercial First Class operator    The license was printed on pink paper Such operators were qualified for Special station licenses   which conveyed CW privileges on certain wavelengths longer that 200 meters and also gave them distinctive call signs    As shorter wavelengths came to be used this grade of license lost popularity    In the early 1920s licensed amateurs began to get skittish about working unlicensed stations with their selfassigned calls   including the little boys with spark coils    They were often a big annoyance and source of interference    The Department of Commerce   however   seems to have taken little notice of them unless they caused serious interference   The Radio Act Of 1927  Most of these unlicensed stations had already vanished from the air when the Radio Act of 1927 replaced the Radio Act of 1912 and brought all radio transmissions under regulation for the first time    Legal doctrine had by then come to hold that Congress had power to regulate intrastate activity where its total effect reacted upon interstate activity    The days of the little unlicensed station were over    1927 Special station licenses    Amateur First Grade renamed Amateur class    Amateur Second Grade renamed Temporary Amateur Grade and valid for one year only   and renewable    1928  Special licenses reinstated on somewhat different terms   and called Extra First Class operator    1929  the 20meter band was opened to phone   and Extra First Class licenses were extended by an endorsement for unlimited radiotelephone privileges on that band    1932 Extra First Class renamed Class A   Amateur Class renamed Class B   and Temporary Class renamed Class C    Ten 10 wpm speed required of all classes      Operator and station licenses combined on wallet sized card    The special endorsement of 1929 became available for all amateurs with at least one year of experience   upon passing a special test on radiotelephone subjects    This endorsement was now extended to include use of phone on 75 meters also      1933 And After  In 1933   after the creation of the Federal Radio Commission   amateur regulations were completely revised and operator and station licenses were combined on a single   walletsized card   good for three years    Extra First Class licenses would no longer be issued    A minimum code speed of 10 wpm was required of all three classes of license A   B and C    Class A advanced required one year of experience   a written examination on both phone and telegraph theory and regulations   and conveyed exclusive phone use on 20 and 75 meters   and was renewable by application    The Class B general examination covered less on phone operation   and gave all privileges not reserved for Class A   but required reexamination for renewal    Class C   a temporary license for those living 125 or more miles from an FRC examining point administered by class A or B amateur   differed from Class B only in being taken by mail    1936 the code speed for all classes was raised from 10 to 13 wpm      1951 And After  1951 the whole structure was revised for Amateur licenses Extra Class new   available 1 Ja    1952   20 wpm   no exclusive privileges   two years Advanced Class previously Class A   13 wpm General Class Previously Class B 13 wpm Conditional Class previously Class C   by mail   125 miles or more   13 wpm Technician Class new   available 1 July 1951   5 wpm   5 years Novice Class new   5 wpm   one year   nonrenewable  1952 hams licensed before May 1917 eligible for Extra class without examination     1953  no new Advanced Class to be issued     1954  Novice and Technician available by mail only after 10 Jan      if over 75 miles from examination point     1964  on 17 Mar    filling fee dollar 4   00 assessed for new or renewal of license   except no fee for novice     1967  incentive licensing was adopted    Advanced class was reactivated and given more spectrum than General class   but less than Extra class    Novice class licenses were extended to two years     1968  Advanced and Extra were made available for shut ins and Technician class eligible for Novice     1970  fees increased to dollar 9   00   five years license duration     1976 required new Technician class to be tested by FCC examiner      Volunteer Examiners  1983 Volunteer Examiner VE system set up to conduct Technician and General class by December      Various Military Training Requirements  At the outbreak of WWI the U   S    Military forces desperately needed wireless operators and equipment    Many amateurs volunteered as operators and as teachers    Training in all phases was minimal   and operators were usually graduated without having had any hands on experience with the actual equipment or operating procedures    Absolute radio silence was the rule in general  except for the most extreme emergencies on the high seas      For operators in the WWII period Signal Corps graduation requirements were 25 wpm plain language   20 wpm code groups with pencil or mill   receiving   and 25 wpm sending    Qualifications for field operators  20 wpm pencil printing copy and perfect sending copy at 15 wpm   for fixed base operators  35 wpm straight copy on mill      For Marine Corps graduation they were 20 to 23 wpm plain text   15 to 18 wpm coded groups   17 wpm perfect sending of plain text    WWII training varied widely between various schools   but included actual operating procedures though wired QSOs among themselves to overcome the beginners initial buck fever and to set them up as operators      Real radio interference  learning to copy through QRM and noise  was added   and it became louder as the student progressed    Advanced students also practiced on the mill typewriter    For high speed training   there was a room where high speed press was copied for practice      In 1988 a U   S    Special Forces radio operators test required 18 5 character groups e   g      QY9/Z 6G   J4 X5  B7   etc    a minute    

The following are samples taken from the literature to show various skills some operators have achieved      They illustrate clearly the automatic   subconscious nature of real skill in telegraphy that it is a habitual form of behavior   done without conscious intervention or effort    They also show what can be done by what has been done    People who do things well do not struggle with them they enjoy doing them    It can be seen that there is a hierarchy of skill habits   ranging from lower degrees to very high degrees of skill   each step leading to greater freedom of action than before      Receiving Code While Doing Something Else  Both in the past and in the present there are very many examples of sending or receiving while speaking or doing other things at the same time    Old landline operators typically could do this at speeds up to 35 to 40 wpm    Some hams today can and often do the same things      Sending and writing at the same time Almost all old Morse operators developed this kind of skill to some degree   and usually were able to send with one hand while writing on the message blank the number   time   date   etc      with the other hand    Pressure of work almost demanded it in a busy office      Sending and receiving simultaneously A regular RR agent operator at a small town near Salina   KS   was observed to be sending a bunch of RR manifests lists of freight cargo   giving details when he was called on another wire    Without pausing   he opened his key with the other hand   sent an acknowledgement   closed the key switch   picked up a message blank and slipped it into the typewriter   rolled it into position and proceeded to copy the message with one finger of his left hand while continuing to send the manifests with his right hand    This was not at all unusual for regular operators there are many examples    A slightly different example is with the many old RR operators who regularly would copy down an incoming message with one hand and simultaneously send it on down the line with the other hand      Receiving two or more messages at same time One ship operator offshore of California had the amusing experience of simultaneously receiving the identical message for him from two different shore stations   KPH and KPJ    Both called him at the same time and he told the one to go ahead   but instead   both began at once to transmit    He tried to copy them both    This became very easy when he discovered they were both sending the same message    The climax came later when both of them billed him for the same message In 1924 in the Boston Postal Telegraph office a wire chief claimed he could simultaneously copy one message in French with one hand and another in English with the other hand    His chief operator took the challenge   promptly went out and picked up one message in each language   provided pencils and pads to the wire chief   and had the two messages sent to him simultaneously at the usual keying speeds    The wire chief made good on his word in the presence of all the other operators in the office   and made perfect copy on both      A former Navy operator claimed that while copying one message   he often could mentally note other messages which were interfering with the reception of the one he was copying   and do so accurately enough to write them out later    He said that   especially when he was copying some particularly dull and uninteresting material   he was always fully conscious of the content of messages heard at the same time on adjacent frequencies concerning shore leave   pay or other interesting aspects of these transmissions      One expert operator in San Francisco is credited with having received three separate dispatches at the same time   writing each of them out correctly by memory afterward    That looks a little hard Using both American Morse and Morse International codes simultaneously  Robert Dick Johnstone of old KPH was a phenomenal operator   said to be one of the best of his day    He could send one message in International Morse while simultaneously sending another with his other hand in American Morse    Similar claims have been made by others also      Comparison with other mental functions and discussion Cant we compare this to a certain extent with other habitual activities   such as driving a car while thinking of something quite different  ?    Later wondering   e   g      Did I stop at               or did I drive on  ?    Or like the stenographer who looked at her notes after taking dictation and was startled to see she had written a joke being told in the same office while she was taking dictation  ?      Doing two things at once   one subconscious or automatic and the other conscious is relatively commonplace    For example   I can read aloud from printed matter while consciously thinking about something quite different   and still read so that it sounds meaningful  yet afterwards have little or no recollection of what I had read aloud and sometimes wondering if I had included anything of what I had been thinking at any point along the line      As for the operators who could copy two messages simultaneously   is it possible that both actions were automatic  ?    Were they hearing one with the right ear and writing it down with the left hand   while hearing the other effectively with the left ear and writing it with the right hand   or what  ?    Or   was the one automatic and the other conscious   although done at fairly high speed  ?    If both were automatic   were they free to think of or hear something still different at the same time  ?    This seems possible from the experience of a few who have said that they were attending to two messages and yet hearing salient points of still a third   or voices in their environment    Or   is this something like the sandwich operation of a large computer where each of several different people seems to be doing his job as the only one in control   yet the computer is apparently handling them simultaneously    Actually the computer does this by dividing the jobs into parts which are scheduled and processed in an interwoven manner by a schema for optimum usage of computer functions   timeslicing and controlling to keep each one separate   and only seeming to give each operator sole control    For a human example   how does the traffic control officer of an airport keep alert to the arrival and departure of many aircraft all at the same time   seeming to give each simultaneous attention  ?    Very interesting   isnt it  ?      

Speeds  By 1933 it was written that a good commercial operator can and does average about 40 wpm over an 8 hour stretch   handling everything from straight news to tabular matter    Hand sending was absolutely steady   rhythmic and even   intelligently coded and spaced  a joy to listen to    On the main traffic arteries of the Associated Press   speeds up into the 60 to 70 wpm range were said not to be uncommon    In 1937 WCK had two press schedules   one at about 45 wpm to be copied by ear and another very much faster for automatic recording and visual tape transcription    Yet Pete Pettit and Paul Magarris   Navy operators   could copy the higher speed press solid   and others were runners up    Ralph Graham   W8KPE   a landline telegrapher   demonstrated at Smithsonian during AWA conference before ten witnesses   copying at 79 wpm     George Batterson W2GB first AWA president at age 94 could still copy 50 wpm   but complained that his sending speed had slowed down to only 35    Mike Popella KA3HIE could copy 45 wpm by hand on paper      Jim Farrior W4FOK wrote this way  When I was a boy of 13 I lived in a small town in AL    The RR telegraph office was one of the few things in town that interested me    One of the three agent telegraphers gave me his sounder and telegraph key    The night agent usually had little work to do and often helped me by sending to me and telling me about operating procedures   etc    The sounder there was nearly always active   and I gradually became able to copy directly from the wire    I guess I learned it pretty much like one learns to speak   because I dont remember trying to learn    I was told that it was really very easy   and I guess I believed it    I was just having fun   and dreamed that some day I might become a telegrapher      Some Interesting Examples Of Young Skilled Operators Of The Past  In 1856 seven year old John OBrian delivered telegrams for his brother Richard   who at age 15 was the telegrapher for the local RR office    After two years of this John prevailed upon his brother to teach him how to operate    So   while still only nine years of age John became a good operator and was eager to have a job of his own    The RR offered him the position at a nearby town   and he snapped it up    People in those days were used to seeing young telegraphers   but not this young Very soon   however   they became so pleased with his work that no more questions were asked      Those youngsters were motivated and quick to learn    When the Civil War began he volunteered along with many others   became their youngest operator   and by early 1862 was already the assistant operator at the important military station of Ft    Monroe   VA   and considered an expert    When the Commander   General Wool   first saw him he was astounded    On a subsequent military assignment at Norfolk   VA   on one occasion John scrawled down two incoming messages while he was actually asleep   writing them down in a book he had been reading    Civil War operators often worked impossibly long hours under difficult or dangerous battlefront conditions   and when things let up a bit   easily dropped off for a few winks of sleep      James H    Bunnell became an operator at age 13    He was so short that he had to sit on a stool to reach the telegraph instruments    At age 16 he was one of the best operators in the country   noted for his speed of 38 wpm by actual word count    These are just two examples of the many   many boys who quickly became skilled telegraphers in the mid 1800s      

At the lowest skill levels Four years olds   barely able to write even block letters have been able to pass the code test    How many of us are willing to admit a four year old can outperform us  ?     Then consider these higher skill levels In 1909 and 1910 Don C    Wallace learned the code with a friend   John Cook   and the help of the operators of Commercial station PJ in San Pedro CA    In 1910 he set up his first station    In 1915 he passed the test for a first class commercial operators license   said to have required demonstrating ability to handle 25 wpm in Continental code and 30 wpm in American Morse code    Later with Tony Gerhardt he played a game they called burnout    One would send as fast as he could with speed key bug while the other copied on a typewriter   the idea being to see who could go the faster    This continued wherever they were until Don could send in excess of 45 wpm and receive about 55 wpm   Later he needed a staff of 35 assistant operators of about his own speed capabilities    Within a short time he found them among Navy personnel where he was stationed   and did it this way by sending his requests at these speeds and seeing who responded to what he sent    Here were at least three dozen men with high speed skills before 1920    They were men who enjoyed the code so much they achieved high goals    Moral If you want to do it   you probably can      Arnies Father was chief telegraph operator at a RR station and had once won a 60 wpm award in a contest for RR operators    His son   age 8   Arnie hung around the station all his spare time    He didnt say how   but he learned Morse on his own and soon had learned to send and receive at about 25 wpm    When dad was out he copied down the train orders for him    He wanted a job as operator    After much pleading   his dad said he could operate the station all by himself when he reached his 9th birthday    So he did   all day   while his dad looked over his shoulder and smiled a time or two    Arnie begged the RR to let him be a second shift operator after school and weekends for 50 cents an hour as second shift operator    He was required to pass the cooked up special qualifying test of sending a train order at 25 wpm using one key with his left hand for the dashes and a second key with his right hand for the dots    He succeeded in doing it some months later   and finally was given a job as sole operator on second shift all summer    

It was in 1925 in eastern Pennsylvania that Ed Hart at age 15 became a ham with his first operators license and call 3NF two licenses were required in those days     His younger brother George got curious     What was this Ed was doing and having so much fun with  ?     Was it some sort of new language he was using  ?      George said  I admired my big brother Ed     He was my ideal     He was 15 and I was 11    I began to learn the Morse code like a baby learns to talk    by listening to my big brother operate and I picked up the code  by osmosis recognizing and imitating the more frequent sounds I heard      I wasnt aware of any such thing as dots and dashes   but only of symbols with meaning       I quickly learned the sounds of his frequent  CQs   his call 3NF and special procedure signals such as AR    K    DE and R all still used    and  U for US calls to foreigners before the prefixes W and K were issued   and absorbed other sounds   as sounds with meaning     I just sort of drifted into it by listening     It was easy for me     I didnt start out with any determination to learn the code   or to get a ticket   or get on the air     But one day  it was 14 Sept 1926    using my brothers station   when I was 12   that I made my first QSO with W9CRJ in Lexington   KY     I was pretty shaky on that first contact and Ed  had to finish it for me      

When I was 14   I clocked myself at 34 wpm   plain language    I discovered that I had mastered the Morse code and was able to carry on a conversation just like Ed did     So my advice is to acquire proficiency in code   sit and listen   and keep listening and want to understand it     Anybody whos learned to talk and can hear can learn CW      Its that easy     Just live with it and it will come to you     Morse code is just another way of talking     Youngsters and adults will no doubt begin to learn in somewhat different ways     Learning conversational CW is more like learning to talk than it is to learning another language    It is far easier  you dont need to learn how to pronounce or hear strange new kinds of sounds   to learn a new vocabulary or a new grammar     It is just  recognizing the simple monotone sounds and imitating them    Learning it is  all a matter of incentive     In my opinion achieving highspeed  CW is a natural progression   if you learn it right in the beginning and continue to practice it the right ways     For receiving   George has for many years been able to read code up to 60 wpm   almost to 70   but now he can only send at about 40   and so his QSOs today are rarely over that speed    

Most of us talk so fluently and so easily that we scarcely give a thought to how very different we are from each and every animal     From birth we are well on our way to learning to express our needs  for water   for food   to get rid of some discomfort   and for companionship   to be cared for and loved      To be part of the family and society around us  communicating first in body language and simple cries   and soon in the spoken language of family   friends  and neighbors     Behind language   communication is this growing overall sense of our ability to think     Human thinking is a God like   God given activity     At first we tend to think of concrete things things seen   felt   tasted   smelled and heard      But soon we begin to have thoughts of things not having physical existence   things we remember or imagine     We learn to think and express our thoughts about these things in words   too     And people around the world do this in over six thousand recognized and different languages and dialects       Writing and learning to read are other skills   not natural or inherent or innate   but by practice they become almost automatic   as talking is    Learning to write and to read takes conscious effort on each ones part   and lots of active practice        Written records of what was once just spoken have been kept for at least some 6000 to 7000 years     Strings of spoken sounds or syllables as in Japanese   etc      and sometimes whole words e    g      Chinese  have been given arbitrary   but conventional symbols characters     One such set of  symbols has been generally agreed upon within each language group       Now   what about Morse and other telegraphic codes  ?     Where do they fit in  ?    What are they  ?     They  are more like writing than they are of speaking    They are more like a different alphabet or set of symbols than like a language itself    The same set of symbols may write in almost any language     Many of us today are so literate that we read as easily and readily as we talk     We hardly see the one as being any different from the other     We can think   and express what we are thinking and communicate with those around us   by using our native language   or some other    Let us here in this appendix think about our views and our attitude toward the Morse code in the above light     This year   2001 A    D      the so called Morse telegraph code reached its 163rd year of age      Like printing   it can talk in any language     Using simple stop start   on off type signals or motions   we can communicate using touch   sound   light   electricity   radio waves   any medium of exchange    It has no dialectical peculiarities   no lisps   no strange or difficult to hear or pronounce sounds   or speech defects   nothing to make it hard to understand     Paralyzed  persons can use it to talk by blinking the eye or wiggling a finger   even controlled breathing       More normal people can use it by radio to talk to those on the other side of the world or in space    With practice and the help of modern sending equipment it can be transmitted and read by ear at speeds almost as fast as ordinary conversation     It may be sent and received automatically at speeds many times faster   but this is not of interest to us here     

Edward Vail   one of Samuel Morses hired and most valuable coworkers   did not realize what a wonderful communication tool he invented in 1838        Lets keep these words in mind  it is a communication tool         In the early days of telegraphy it was thought of as writing at a distance   which is what the word telegraphy means      See Ch   19     But very soon the early operators found they could understand the letters and words from the noises the printing machine made     Then they discovered they could also just converse together without having to write anything down      This all occurred within  10  15 years of the start of commercial  telegraphy      Talking by Morse code is not something new at all     How then did we radio amateurs get started thinking of it as something to have to learn to write down  ?      It is because writing it down exactly as it is heard is the only positive proof that we have correctly received it     This is called copying    And to obtain a government amateur operators license we had to be able to copy it at a specified speed    This is still true   but at a speed that is hardly practical  5 words per  minute      But do we copy down everything we hear on the telephone  ?     Even to think of that would seem silly    We  understand speech because it is spoken as strings of sounds one sound shifting    or blending into the next   to form words and sentences    We learn to understand code  the same  way   but with a different form of characters   spelled out as words       This is something that has to be acquired by practice     In this way it resembles reading   because we need to know how to spell     This is an added hopefully small difficulty for English speakers   Spelling is hardly a problem for speakers of Italian or Spanish   which are spelled almost exactly as they are pronounced     These are clues to help us speed up our listening to near talking speeds    Now in the next chapter lets see how to go about it      

Normal Speech Experts tell us that the range of normal speech is between 100 and 300 wpm    The faster we speak the shorter the time the articulating members lips   tongue   jaw   throat and chest abdomen have to move and the less precisely they articulate and the less time they may hold a changed position       To speak slow normal English we must articulate about 2 1/3 syllables a second    The average English word is approximately 1   4 syllables long       What Can We Learn From Comparing the Examples in Ch    D later in this appendix  ?     Some few have begun the right way   the normal way   learning the Morse characters as individual sounds from their very first exposure   and just continued practicing that way from there on   from letters to words from words to phrases and sentences on to their top speed      Here is how one of them described it When you reach a solid reading speed   then you must have the desire to want to go up to the next level of reading speed     You can do it with tapes   but the best way is to communicate with a friend on the air or otherwise who can push you to the next level   and who will send to you on a regular basis         My friend taught me this way   When I got to one solid reading speed   he would increase his sending speed     When I could not read solid at the increased speed   he would then send to me at a still higher speed     I was not able to get too much of it   but when he dropped back to the one I could not read solid before   it would then sound slow and I could read it easily       In other words   he would not slow down when I wasnt getting it solid   but would go still faster and let me listen to that for a while   even if I could only get a word or two     Then   when he dropped back to the lower speed   it would then seem slower and I could read it      If you dont want to practice this way   then dont     But if you enjoy challenging yourself and want to go faster  go ahead      If you love the code you may want to advance       Some of us have natural limitations and some of us just assume or imagine that we are limited     Be honest with yourself  be realistic    Accept natural limitations   such as paralysis   severe pain   etc      or work around them   but dont add imaginary ones    

The most important factor to promote learning true highspeed telegraphy is to WANT to learn it faster    This may be just because you want to excel and are interested in improving your own skill    It may be a desire to challenge yourself to improve your speed of understanding   or it may be competitive with others   for the sake of winning        

The next important factor is the WILLINGNESS TO USE WHATEVER METHODS OR TECHNOLOGY will help me advance      Keyboards allow us to send faster    We can hardly learn to receive faster if no one can send faster    Thats just common sense     Then comes a willingness to learn and to ENJOY the learning process    Other suggestions offered are  a If you are more or less normal   forget that anybody ever said it might be hard    Think of it as being EASY and FUN    an ENJOYABLE thing to do    Enjoy every bit of the learning process    as well as using it   b   Start THE RIGHT WAY  and  keep going     Learn to talk this way   c   Set whatever speed goal you feel comfortable and satisfied with  the sky  may be the limit     d Remember that HUNDREDS HAVE tried and SUCCEEDED  youre not alone      e When once we learn NOT TO WORRY about reading each and every word absolutely perfectly   it seems that we begin to RELAX     This is especially true when we get over about 65 wpm   and we can concentrate on the FLOW of  general conversation and enjoy it     There are some other features   which may help    Here is an additional suggestion from Fred Ryan    Raising Your Typing Speed   Here is how I improved my sending and reduced the number of errors at speeds over 70 wpm on the keyboard     I experimented and found that it took about ten days of practice to exceed 100 wpm    He began his experimenting and practice at his then present 70 wpm    Successful things he tried  were  1 He turned off the sidetone completely   and   2 He stopped looking at the screen   except maybe a glance when his fingers tell him he has made a mistake and He did not look at the keyboard either    These three changes eliminated the distractions   so he could concentrate on his fingers     

While he does not look at the keyboard   he visualizes it     Then he can mentally concentrate and direct where his fingers are going to go next      He just wills his fingers to go there   and they do           This is not an easy process to describe    He compared it to this   When I was seriously into playing the piano   although I was aware of the presence of the piano keyboard   I never looked at where my fingers were going to go     Even if I was jumping several octaves quickly   I could hit the proper notes exactly without ever turning my head     Looking to the keyboard to see where the fingers were supposed to land would have made good piano playing impossible     Within a couple of weeks of experimenting and practicing   he found he could send as easily at 100 wpm  as he had before at 70    But what surprised him the most was that now he could chat just  as easily at 100 wpm as he could before at 70       He said  I can get the thoughts organized in time to keep the fingers busy at these higher speeds    When I had mastered this technique   I found to my surprise that getting the thought flow going at 100 wpm became very easy     

One further thing    he needed to improve the CADENCE of his sending  sending each letter at exactly the same rate      He said Errors that I make   such as sending Dan for and   are due to hitting the d finger out of cadence   too quickly to allow the n finger to type    Now I concentrate on keeping the cadence constant   something that I have never done over my past 50 years     I had thought that would be the really hard thing to master    But it wasnt     How observant and thoughtful he was    Are these suggestions I need to follow  ?             Others have mentioned regular exercise   a healthful diet and way of life    This is just common sense                    

Perforated or inked Code tapes were used commercially  prepared at slower speeds and sent at speeds up into the hundreds of wpm by a tape reader    The expense and  time delay made the use by amateurs impractical and costly   except for functions like ARRL code practice or bulletins      

The first machines were mechanical devices     Some were developed before 1900 and most of them used other types of codes than Morse     Yeoman was a Morse keyboard used to some extent     Some both sent and received as letters and punctuation      One was a real mechanical marvel and won a world prize award     

It was A Telegraph Key With a MEMORY described such a mechanical marvel   designed by Edwin H    Persian of the Persian Telegraph Company of Topeka KS which manufactured them in 1910     It had a four row keyboard and a large drum on which the characters are embossed deeply     It was about the size of a regular typewriter    Described in QST July 1963 p    70f     It had a hand cranked spring drive motor like the old phonographs   but was enclosed within a long cylindrical drum under torque from the driving spring    Through a gear drive this drum controlled   when acted upon by an ingenious escape mechanism   one line of a second and larger drum called the memory drum     The rotatable character memory drum was complicated     It had a total of 3240 deeply embossed code characters   corresponding to the 45 letter   number and punctuation keys   and an equal number of escapement tabs       Each horizontal line of 45 embossed characters was identical   with total of 72 of them around the drum    If one looked at one character in any row and then went around the drum at that position in the line   he would find the same letter at that identical position in each line     The operator typed into the memory character by character     As he pressed each key the trip device would remember that character and move to the next line until a total of 72 characters the length of memory had been used up    As soon as he started typing the drive would begin sending perfect code characters and spaces in order     It would continue sending   and a dial on the front of the keyboard would show how many characters were still to be sent    The operator could keep on sending as long as the meter showed space to list   and the mechanism would continue sending until nothing more remained in memory     He could send continuously  very long continuous messages     The operator thus constantly knew how far the machine was sending behind his keying until it would stop   allowing opportunity to rewind the motor   if necessary      

As he continued typing   the dial would update its information     This was a very clever and practical device           All characters and their spaces   word and sentence spaces were correctly and perfectly formed          My suspicion is that most of the mechanical keyboards   like this one   sent relatively slowly   with a maximum on the order of 30 35 wpm       Only one such machine is known to exist  it is in the Topeka State Museum     QST in May 1961 described the  Codamite   Model MG100   developed and being manufactured by the LingTemco Electronics   Inc      with the technical help of the R    W    Johnson Co     It must have been developed   built   and then used by W6MUR and then demonstrated extensively    Its circuit diagram and method of operation are described during 1960     It was primarily intended for commercial use   but was of great interest to amateurs     It was installed in a small suitcaselike carrying case with hinged lid   measuring about 6   5 inches wide   4   5inches front to back and about 3   5 inches thick    The character keys on a drum stretched all the way from side to side in four vertical rows   and the time and level controls were at the top of the keyboard    It was selfpowered by an inboard 9 v    battery     Its output was monitored by a self contained oscillator and speaker     It operated like a typewriter  touch a key and let it go   and the desired character was automatically produced   one letter at a time    All spacing between letters and between words was manual   made space by space by the operator       In later keyboard designs   the code characters were defined by the spaces between the elements of each character   using digital logic   not by the start and stop elements of the tone     These used solid state devices AND/OR   FLIPFLOP   and transistors with a Magnetic Core Shift Register for storage memory    Continuing new developments chips   etc    greatly simplified to ease of operation and sending quality     Several designs were promoted  developed and promoted by amateurs     Some few of these and some commercial designs are in QSTs of  July 1965  pp    11  20    QST  July 1969 p    11ff   Aug    1970    p    47   QST 1973 Nov    p    56ff        All these were before PC type computers came out in 198081     John Ricks W9TO was a major developer and high speed operator     Keyers made it easier to send faster   and there must have been an overall general speed increase with their arrival in the 1960s but it was the keyboard that really started the great step upward in speed      Among the early  keyboards were in 1961 the Codamite   in 1967 one designed by John Ricks W9TO   these and others had no memory    They had no space bar    Others had no more than the automatic individual letter spacing after each character     Spaces were made by the operator    

In 1974 the Curtis KB4200 Morse Keyboard was one of the first units with a space bar to provide normal controlled word spacing  It also had a mini memory which allowed typing 64 characters ahead of sending    A meter showing how many character spaces there were between typing and sending allowed a form of continuous typing     Somewhere in this period the addition of a  buffer mini memory made the Keyboards far more useful and faster     The following QSTs  Oc   1974 p   40ff    allowed a 64 character mini memory   Jul   1975 p    11   Se   1976 p   11    Ja   1978  p    24   Oc   1979  p    22ff    This article is perhaps worth reading for information on design problems   but falls far short of some of the others in utility and flexibility      Ja   1980 P    44ff should be interest for designers      

The Experiences of a Number of QRQ Operators  Who Have Achieved It    

I have brought together in this appendix a number of the super high speed  operators experiences in learning and using high code speeds     All    except for Gary Bold   are from the US    It is as accurate as I can make it    It has been coordinated with those named   insofar as they are still alive and able to respond      You can see that there is not just one single way to reach high speeds   but people have done it in several ways     This file is roughly in historical sequence     In the contest stages   the highest key sent code speeds were in the range of 45 to 55 wpm using a  bug    Test speeds above this were achieved by commercial high speed punched tape sending machines    The evidence for winners in those days was the ability to COPY     Ability to READ did not count     

Nr 1 Perhaps the best known and most famous operator at high speeds is Ted McElroy who from 1922 on   almost permanently held the high speed record    He was a commercial telegrapher   not a ham     On 6 May 1922   he learned of an Exposition in Boston   which would include a code speed contest     His boss allowed him the evening off to try   and he easily wound up using International Morse code   which by then he hadnt used for about a year   at 51 wpm    It was great fun for him     Later in 1922 at Chicago he won the trophy at 551/2 wpm with perfect copy for the Worlds Championship     In  Sep    1935 in a contest at Brockton MA he lost it to his friend Joe W    Chaplin at 55   3 wpm   by making 11 errors       Then again at the Worlds Fair he scored  69 wpm with only two errors   while Joe Chaplin made three     What many may not know is that in July 1939 he and Lavon McDonald of Chicago tied at 75 wpm     But when the speed increased  to 77 wpm   McDonald fumbled worse than Ted did he made some bad errors   too   so the judges credited him with 75   2 wpm   the winner    He has not been challenged since and has 75   2 wpm remained as the official worlds record     Ted acknowledged that there were many other operators who had abilities as good or better than his   but they did not enter the contest    What most people do not know is that Lavon N    McDonald was equal with him   and but for a slip in the increase to 77 wpm trial   might have been the technical winner    

Ted was born 1 Sep    1901 and died suddenly in Nov    1963     He was one of four brothers who were telegraphers     He left school in 1916 and went to work for Western Union as a messenger boy     As he passed by the telegraphers   he saw how many of them could nonchalantly turn out 50 to 60 messages per hour    He managed to get some of them to teach him Morse code during their 15minute rest periods    After a few weeks  he imagined that he was himself to be a good operator    He got a tryout    It was tough   but it gave him a start    He found piecemeal telegraphers jobs here and there and finally wound up at Fort Devons   near Ayer MA   where he continued until the end of the war in 1918     Back in Boston he got a job using International Morse code at station RCA   Chatham MA     It was rough getting used to the new International Morse code during the first two weeks     In 1920 the station moved to New York City   but the move didnt work out well for him so he moved back to Boston and got a job with Western Union again     In a telegram to Frank Borsody dated 14 Sep    1933  he wrote to my old pal Frank Barsody   in grateful recognition of the valuable coaching and assistance he gave me   to which I owe my ability to gain the worlds championship as Radio Operator    And again in a letter dated 4 Sep    1935 to Frank Borsody Ted wrote You have been the best friend to me on this code racket that Ive got     I cannot understand how I can fail to win it this  year    As I sit in this chair I am copying solid   ?    without a single error for five or ten minutes at a time   at 70 wpm   and I cannot understand how any blankety living man can do the same   because I know that the signals I am copying cant be read copied  ?    by anyone else   that is   without error     In a telegram from Dorchester MA dated in 1935 to Borsody   McElroy wrote I want to tell you that I very deeply appreciate the help you give me in winning the title    Your equipment  and advice really won the title    I will never forget the debt I owe you     Notice that this totally refutes the rubbish he wrote as to how much Candlers method had helped him      Borsody   in letter marked in ink received April 1975   wrote to Bill Eitel that at the exhibit he had invited Ted to sit down and take a little workout in receiving some high speed code at an informal run      Borsodys station sending operator had punched up a tape   and his receiving operator got up and let McElroy sit down in his chair and type down the copy     In another place Borsody says that Ted made an accurate copy at 79 wpm for 75 lines without a single error    Elsewhere Borsody says that he and Taylor verified McElroys later contest speed as 76 wpm    It contained technical material with which Ted could not have been familiar     That is phenomenal    Ted said that he could READ the code much faster than that    He also said that he knew many others  also could     It was typing that limited him and them      

Nr 2 Lavon McDonald equal with McElroy     He definitely tied with Ted McElroy in the 1939 contest     No further information on him      

Nr 3  James B    Jim RICKS   W9TO    born 1914   died 2001    Promoted and developed the keyboard system    He first designed a keyer using vacuum tubes   Gary Bold used one of these for 15 years beginning in 1966   when he then went to the Curtis Keyer     Jim was a cofounder of the CFO club and must have been a high speed man himself    No information on his background     

Nr 4 William Bill Eitel     born 1908   died 1989     And perhaps his wife LaNeil    On HighSpeed Code      Taken from a file of some of his letters and replies from friends and others beginning in 1974     His early radio and code learning history does not seem to be known in any detail by any correspondent now living      He was active in radio in the early 1920s   and was familiar with the arguments between spark and CW enthusiasts in those days     He was a genius in the development of high powered vacuum tubes and other electronics aspects   and was best known as a cofounder of the well known Eimac Co    in 1934     He was a deep thinker     Most of the following materials are in his own words     The potential of Morse code for communication   using the benefits of modern  equipment    expands our past ability in a manner never thought possible     Some amateurs have been and are talking together with Morse code at speeds of 80 to 100 wpm or more     These new high speed operators accept new equipment as a means of improving their operating ability a tool and not as a threat to their status    It is interesting to note that the members of the 5 Star club attained their speeds using keyboards having no memory   such as we have today     Because with our older tools we could only send so fast   is this really the upper limit of our receiving ability  ?      Let us not resist using either better operating methods or equipment that will allow better use of the code   simply because we have some vague romantic thoughts about things of the past     Have we forgotten the history of keys  ?    Stop and think of the gains we have made in ease and speed when we went from a straight up and down motion key to a sideswiper   to a bug   then to a keyer  Is a keyboard something evil  ?     Is the true measure of ones receiving proficiency ones ability to COPY   to put it down on paper  ?      Copying was very important when messages were paid for and the coded message had to be recorded so the message could be given to the recipient in a form he could read and know that it was accurate    

Official government messages   diplomatic and military required accuracy    But when we see the Morse code as a means of communication between individuals   not as a means of handling business or official messages   we have a new set of circumstances and benefits   and it is no more desirable to put it down than it is to write down a telephone conversation word by word     This use of  the code can become a challenge both to master the code and to use the associated modern equipment available at speeds above and below 80 wpm    e g    in a roundtable discussion one can transmit a thought while waiting for an SSB transmitter to actuate VOX     Yes   there may be some whose physical or mental limitations prevent these speeds   but the biggest deterrent is the lack of a real interest     Once you determine to master the Morse code   I believe it will be found that practice can be as much fun as operating     The most important and final ingredient is the determination to use the keyboard   and any other useful equipment    GOOD code  becomes easy at high speeds    Good spacing tends to be a  problem   but one that practice can overcome     The 5 STAR club originally required 70 wpm   but soon raised it to 80 wpm     There were four original members   but by 1974 the total had increased to ten    There must have been others also who were qualified                   See QST November 1974  page 155 for a good photo of Bill and his wife LaNeil in an ad promoting the TenTec Triton as working well with high speed code keying input    The letterhead gives the Butro Ranch and Laboratory at Dayton   NV 89403   and was dated August 24   1974      

Nr 5  Tom Alderman   W4BQF     First person story As a boy of 8 or 9  I was wondering what my Dad found so entertaining about sitting at a desk copying all those dits and dahs   but I could tell that it was something he greatly enjoyed as a CW traffic net operator      Therefore   I didnt start hamming with the slightest negative attitude about code and so I never generated the attitude that Ill never be able to do that    In fact   copying CW is one of the great enjoyments that I get out of this hobby     It is fun       Before I had finished my year as a Novice ham   I too was into CW traffic nets and enjoying it tremendously    So for the past 49 years since 1951 Ive been enjoying CW and still think of it as fun      Im still l enjoying high speeds at near 80 wpm as W3NJZ   K3TF   KB9XE and I harass each other on Wednesday night for about an hour on 3   533 MHz     My real high speed pal   Ira NU2C   used to challenge me to determine how fast I actually could read code    We found the maximum speed that I could understand and correctly respond to his questions was 144 wpm    I am not a freak   hi   hi     I suspect the starting key to being able to copy high speed code is ones initial learning attitude     It may be the strongest factor    I believe that learning code has forever been talked about just like we talked about that awful mathematics stuff in high school    therefore most potential hams start off with a bad impression of code       Im pretty much convinced that there is a speed hump that most hams  myself included seem to have a problem exceeding     I think that speed  hump range is between 45 and 60 wpm    Almost everyone I have helped get into the 60 plus wpm area   has had an extremely difficult time debunking that mythical negative attitude and actually reading faster than at that hump     I can imagine what most of them thought when I would tell them to try not to think of  reading 60 wpm as something they cant do      Think of it as just learning a different way of talking     Because Im convinced that QRQ CW is one   just like conversing in a second language      How does one read CW at 80 wpm or more  ?      I can honestly tell you that I have no clue Around 50 to 60 wpm one no longer reads dots and dashes   they literally begin or continue reading words    As the speed increases   dont think you even just read words any more   you get into the flow of the conversation and literally begin reading phrases or complete sentences     Interestingly enough   I find that when reading over 80 wpm   I dont even realize Im reading code   UNLESS a major word is either badly misspelled or was really hacked up on the keyboard      I dont concentrate on the code   I concentrate on what is being said    There is no difference in doing that   as having a Native American converse fluently in French     

CODE READERS  It certainly bugs me that most hams think that if youre using a keyboard and/or your running CW over 30 wpm   that you MUST be using a code reader I think thats another part of the universal negative attitude about code     Sometime around 1968 to 1969 I began trying to copy the QSO of a guy in New York and a guy in Florida   who almost nightly held a 100 wpm one hour long chat     My wife I still dont know how she found out about them bought me an InfoTech Morse code reader for my birthday     At that time   I sneered at it    But when I used it   I found that when I was trying to copy the hump speeds around 55 wpm   if I missed a letter or a word   my brain would freeze up and try concentrating on deciding what word I had just missed     Therefore I was losing total concentration    But by glancing up at that code reader   I would see the missed word   my brain be quickly satisfied   and I would continue with the reading   At the time I didnt realize this was actually happening    However   after about a year of this   it suddenly dawned on me that I was not looking at the reader any longer and I was reading in excess of 60 wpm      In a sense   we are pretty lucky with code readers  they copy extremely well in the speed ranges we need them to help us get over the speed hump but with the QRN on  40/80 meters   once you try to get them to consistently decode CW over about 70 wpm   they just cant do it because of the normal band noise  He added   There is a lot more to be said on this subject    

Nr 6  Bill Pletting KB9XE    He was about age 35 and was enjoying personal radio communication with CB    It was real fun     His CB buddies were having weekly gettogethers just to socialize    Then he discovered that one of them was also a ham   whom he visited in his home     Bill was astonished to hear Morse code and   like many others   apparently had never heard communications in Morse code before     It fascinated and intrigued him     Then and here he became so enthusiastic to learn it that he immediately bought a set of learning cassette tapes from Amateur Electronics Supply   a reputable and wellknown company in Milwaukee   which advertised in QST    He became so obsessed with those dit and dah characters   that he quickly learned the sounds of the alphabet    numbers and punctuation   and within a couple of weeks he had begun to practice wherever he was when it would  not disturb others     He would tap out all kinds of stuff with his finger as if using a key    or saying them in dits and dahs   At home it was so bad that his wife was getting irritated   He was determined to do it    Apparently he did not question whether it  would be either hard or easy    he just did it    So it was easy   because he  never thought of it being hard     He eagerly wanted to do it and learning was enjoyable fun        Because he started learning it as it is used   hearing it and sending it as sound patterns   he did not have to do any relearning    He was learning it in the perfect way     He was practicing it almost constantly and enjoying every minute of it    It was easy because it wasnt  hard in any way     It was something to be enjoyed and done   that was it     About this time he bought a ham band receiver just to be able to listen to amateur signals     Meanwhile he also prepared for the technical questions and regulations in the US license examination     So   within a month he took and easily passed the 5 wpm code text and then the written test   and soon received his first license  as a Novice       Now Bill got a transceiver and went on the air using code actively in all QSOs    But also when he was  away from the radio   he just tapped out the code with his finger as he had been doing before     He knew he needed to build up his code speed to be able to read most signals    He did this so well that within a year of getting his Novice license   he took and successfully passed the Extra Class license 20 wpm exam     Now with total access to all the ham bands he tried RTTY and some other digital transmission methods    but absolutely nothing could hold his fancy like Morse code did     He was also discovering that the more you practice doing a thing the right way   the better you get at it     Higher speeds were a constant challenge    He still kept hearing stations that were too fast to understand   and he wanted to understand everything he heard     These were like a horsemans spur jabbed into his side    He kept telling himself   Ive just gotta  read that     This was the incentive that drove him onward     During this period   a number of new buildityourself kits came out   including some  Heathkits     One was the Heathkit UltraPro CW Keyboard   which came out in 1983   and he built several of these   he also made several for his friends     Along the way a number of high speed operators helped him   W4BQF  Tom Alderman    W0GHX  Ray  Larson    W9TO  Jim Ricks    K9AMC Christ C    Kovacheff   KU2D Daniel E    Silsona deceased     K0PFX  Melvin L    Whitten   and  others     So in only about 4 years from when he got his first ticket   he reached the  80 wpm speed range   and has pursued it ever since      In short   he  took off and flew          Since that time   like Tom Alderman and others   he welcomes any newcomer and tries to help him get into the higher speed ranges     

Nr 7 Harry W    Lewis   W7JWJ  born 1923 is another highly skilled old timer      The material here was gleaned from WorldRadio Aug    1991 p    56   and March 1993 pp    31  32    and a number of personal letters     Sometimes things are paraphrased to bring out the basics     He got interested in ham radio in High School when a friends transmitter penetrated the school movie sound system    It hooked him    He found the two Morse codes American and International  printed in a physics book and learned both of them all by himself     He does not seem to particularly love the code   but it constituted a challenge to him    As long as he has felt a challenge   he has been driven to it       He was having a health problem   and he saw learning the code as a way   which could to help him recover his health     Learning the code to this degree of skill was not easy for him    Along with this he decided to become a part of the magic world of radio   so when he finished high school about 1940 he entered a radio and telegraph school to learn the code really well   because it seemed to be a prerequisite to progress      At this school the better students competed one against another to become head of the class     An attractive young lady student paralleled his speed at 45 wpm     With this challenge he pushed himself still harder by long up to as much as six hours of daily practice     After finishing school he spent some years in the military service as a flying radio operator and instructor    Then he entered the commercial world of radio broadcasting and TV    Over the years he worked at nine different radio stations   three TV stations   a telephone company   a computer center and several other  places     This gave him a broad range of experience     Since 1946   while doing his various regular jobs   he found time to teach beginning amateur radio classes   teaching the code   technical matters and the regulations      He helped a total of some 3  500 students to obtain their amateur licenses     He readily admits that he loves teaching Ham radio     But he observed that over this long period the average age of applicants gradually increased by 15 years and it was taking longer and longer to teach them the code     To attract high speed  code operators and learn the secrets of how they gained that skill   he started giving code contests at various hamfests      This wasnt just for the fun of it  he wanted to learn more and better teaching methods    He applied what he was learning to his own practice and he began to approach the 100 wpm rate for copying    He anticipated that the same things that helped him would also help the students     But he was disappointed to discover that it did NOT help them to improve very much     He researched books on the psychology of learning   etc      and found there are five fundamental factors involved if one expects to have success in teaching     Presumably they would also apply to learning to copy code   1 First and foremost   the student must be strongly  self motivated     But the students did not seem to be convinced of this    2 Diet     The overconsumption of sugar   preprocessed food and meat products seemed always to impede the learning process     Note that Candler had said much the same thing many years before       3 Exercise such as pushups   running   etc    before and after practice periods   Candler also  agreed here   but in his day the cramped telegraphers working area   with little sunlight and little or no fresh air circulation   plus long hours   were then common problems    4 Correct  methods of practice    Successful code learning results in the individual copying totally by subconscious mental activity    That does not occur until the mind has been properly trained    Lewis was aiming at copying ability   not just reading understanding      Other factors involved the shape of the code pulses   the rise and decay times of the code signal envelopes the dits and dahs   the frequency pitch of the tone and its timbre   the adjacent vowel and consonant combinations   etc      to optimize the impression to our ears     When asked  in 1991 what it is like to copy at very high speeds he replied  at 75 to 85 wpm there is absolute concentration   almost to a state of hypnosis     When asked if he could start copying immediately at 75 wpm   he said  NO   I would have to prepare myself psychologically first   and that takes from a few minutes to as much as 45     He then was asked if he thought there is an upper limit to receiving speed   he said  It is definitely above 120 wpm   because his friend Jerry Ferrell had been clocked at 90 percent complete reading at 125 wpm      Harry was certified in 1988 by the ARRL when he copied at 76 wpm    Now with advancing age 70 he feels he is slowing down somewhat      

Nr 8  Edward Ed Hart   Jr     born 1909   and George Hart   3 and a half years younger     In the early 1920s their father Edward Hart   Sr      was a professor of chemistry at Lafayette College in Easton PA     The family lived in a house on the campus   which was owned by the College     When their father died in 1931 they had to move     They moved to a farm about five miles south of Easton near the little unincorporated village of Raubsville    The farm had 400 acres of woods and meadows in two valleys near the river     Ed first got his two required licenses  his amateur operators license and separate station license 3NF     when he was 15 in 1925       When their Father died he was operating the family printing business in Easton and continued with that for some years     Much later he moved to Philipsburg NJ as W2ZVW and served as SCM of Northern NJ in 1958  1959     Later he moved to Albuquerque NM as W5RE and served as SCM there in 1973 to 1976   and finally in 1978 moved to near Bonita Springs FL as N4KB   where his little brother George and family often visited him in the summer    Ed must have been a quite fast operator     He died in 1988     George Hart   Eds younger brother   was born 1 Nov    1913     Now W1NJM   George tells his history with Morse code as a first person story    It has been rearranged and sometimes paraphrased      It was in 1925   after Ed got his first Amateur license   that his little brother George got curious    What was this that Ed was doing and having so much fun with  ?     Was it some sort of new language he was using  ?       George says  I admired my big brother Ed     He was my ideal     He was 15   31/2  years older than me  I was then 11     I began to learn the code like a baby learns to talk   by listening to my brother operate and picking up the code  by osmosis   recognizing and imitating the more frequent sounds I heard     I just sort of drifted into it by listening     I wasnt aware of any such thing as dots  and dashes    but only of sound symbols with meaning     I quickly learned the sounds of his frequent CQs   his call 3NF and special procedural signals such as AR  K    DE and R all still used   and the nowobsolete U used for foreign calls before US calls were given prefixes W or K    I also absorbed other sounds   as sounds with meaning     I must have been born with a key my mouth     I didnt start out with any determination to learn the code   or to get a ticket   or get on the air    But one day it was 14 Sept    1926  using my brothers station   when I was 12   that I made my first QSO with W9CRJ in Lexington   KY     I was pretty shaky on that first contact and Ed had to finish it for me     It was when I was 14 in 1928 that  I clocked myself at 34 wpm   plain language     I paid for that quite some time later because of the strain in misusing a straight key and got a glass arm a painful form of paralysis     But I had discovered I had mastered the Morse code and was able to carry on a conversation   communicating just like Ed did     Finally my brother Ed bullied me into getting a temporary license obtained by mail in 1930     The code was not a problem   but I barely passed the written theory test with a grade of  70    I wasnt even capable  of building my own station yet        Ed took me to Philadelphia in 1931 and  I obtained my first Amateur Class license W3AMR good for three years   renewable subject to proof of use     In 1932 I attended Penn State U  and graduated in 1936     We never used the call W3AMR until after Father died and we had moved out of the College property to the farm ole 66     W3AMR had a great CW swing to it   and I learned to love it     But on the farm we had no A   C    power   so we used batteries     Ed set up his station at the printing plant we owned in Easton    In 1932   Ed got a secondhand generator for the farm and set it up in an outbuilding     Unfortunately it caught fire one day and destroyed several outbuildings and almost burned the house   too    

My advice is to acquire proficiency in code sit and listen   and keep listening and want to understand it     Anybody whos learned to talk can learn CW    Its that easy    Just live with it and it will come to you     Morse code is just another way of talking    Youngsters and adults  may learn in different ways    Learning conversational CW is more like learning to talk than it is to learning another language    It is far easier if you dont need to learn how to pronounce strange new  kinds of sounds   learn a new vocabulary or a new grammar    It is just  recognizing the simple monotone sounds and imitating them    Learning it is all a matter of incentive     I was given a Vibroplex key in 1929 and in my late teens and early 20s I could send almost like a machine at 45 wpm    But first with a straight key and later with a bug he developed that painful glass arm    When keyboards came out he found he could send quite comfortably with two fingers     I never learned touch typing   so this is a handicap for me with a keyboard    With two fingers I can type up to 55 wpm    That is also my best speed of copying a printed text   because I must  keep shifting my eyes back and forth from text to keyboard quite rapidly    This back and forth eye movement also promotes more errors   as I grow older    I did copy at 55 wpm for one minute out of five in an AARS contest    I  can read   but not copy   at 60 wpm   but get only some words at 70 wpm or more     In my opinion achieving high speed CW is a natural progression   if you learn it right in the beginning and continue to practice it     For receiving   George has for many years been able to read code up to 60 wpm    but now he can only send at about 40   and so his QSOs today are rarely over that speed     George worked at ARRL Headquarters for 40 years   starting as second control operator at the new W1AW station on 22 Aug    1938   and ending as Communications Manager in charge of all on the air activities sponsored by the ARRL and its affiliated clubs on  1 Nov    1978     After retirement he moved back to the farm     Most of the time since 1957 he has actively promoted highspeed reception by putting weekly speed practice periods and occasional qualifying test sessions on the air   and awarding certificates of proficiency    First he did this from a small club he formed   with practice and testing sessions advertised in the QST      ARRL had no part in it other than some notices      The club fell apart later and some members of the Society of Wireless Pioneers SOWP gave their name support to it   but otherwise did nothing     His transmissions were originally made using a tape puller at speeds ranging from 20 wpm to 70 wpm     Some of his transmissions in later years were made from his brothers station in Florida     Only recently has he dropped back to one session a week and he no longer issues certificates    Now he rarely sends over 30 to 35 wpm     He feels he could maybe copy at 40 wpm     He feels that personal aggrandizement is one of the basic motivations of the Amateur radio pursuits   especially DXing and contesting     We do what we do because we enjoy it   and some people do it purely for itself     I  came into contact with William C    Smith   K6DYX   Monterey CA   professor of electronics at the US Navy Graduate School in Monterey    That was in the days of home computers     He urged me to go computer with my code practice sessions   much against my inclinations     Not only that but he insisted on giving me his older Apple II in 1988   and a set of personally spelledout instructions for using it     He also visited me in person several times after that     I  was a rotten pupil   but he was an excellent instructor and very patient    I still am using it     

Nr 9  John F    Rhilinger   KC1MI   is able to read at 80 wpm   and to copy at 70    In 1992  I asked him  22 questions   each of which he answered    plus several nice letters    Here is the essence of what he says was his experience     His father W1QQS was a close friend of Ted McElroy   the longtime world  Speed Champion record holder   who frequently visited them    John knew him as Uncle Ted    By age 6 John became interested in Morse code and from them at that time he learned the code up to a rate of 10 to 15 wpm   but did not get a license     In his later years when he had become a ham and reached a speed of 30 wpm   he began to practice sleep learning    Sleep learning was a method  successfully tried by some Germans in the early 1920s     Generally he  practiced it up to four hours each night    He used a tape recorder to send continuous code materials which he had previously heard and recorded at various  speeds   and then speeded up ultimately to record the 60 wpm range or higher by the recorders playback speed    This seems to have been the main way he  reached the higher speeds    He was also actively hamming six hours a day and probably aiming at the higher speeds he heard     He  has not sensed any loss of rest during the sleep learning at night    He does not need any prepping up to start reading at high speeds    He just starts    Typical misspellings and other such errors cause him no problems in reading     He does not lose out     

Nr 10  Katashi Nose   KH6IJ   was a longtime ham   a well known DX man and code teacher    What his top speed was is apparently not recorded   but he worked up into the 60 wpm range in DX   and his students advanced rapidly from zero to 30 or 35 wpm in a few weeks with no problems    In 1959 he wrote   Any DXer  worth his salt is good for at least 60 wpm     He gears his speed to what comes back     

Nr 11 Jerry A     Ferrell WB7VKI  CFO nr 760 is another very high speed operator   over 100 wpm   with whom I had extensive correspondence in 1992   and later     He was born in 1927    In 1945 at age 18  he joined  the US Coast Guard     His aptitude tests showed he should make a good radio operator    He was assigned to the six month radio course at Atlantic City   where the goal was 20 wpm of ciphered  5letter groups    Very little standard English text was practiced toward the end    He was not  too good at that    Otherwise he was at the top of the class     

The course plan at the CG school was to start out at 5 wpm apparently using very slow  code characters  far below our being able to recognize them as patterns of sound which occurs in the range of 10 to 13 wpm    The class progressed faster by a stepwise increment each week until reaching  20 wpm     After that school he started out on US Coast Guard ships    He left the Coast Guard for a part of 1948 and 1949 and went into Rail Road telegraphy     He spent one month at their telegraph school to learn the American Morse code and then went on temporary assignments    Later in 1949 he returned to the US CG and stayed there until his retirement in 1966      During various assignment in the CG he copied normal English messages at  20 to 25 wpm   and press broadcasts for the ships newspaper at 35 to 40 wpm      He was so good that sometimes the shore station operators would punch tapes to send to him at 50 to 60 wpm to try to trip him up   but he did not miss anything   and they wondered what was going on     Then for a period of 12 years   1966 to 1978   he worked at different occupations away from  radio or telegraph activity    In early 1978 he got a ham license    In May that year he visited the Vancouver Ham Fair    On entering the building he heard code signals and located their source    It was a code speed demonstration for a crowd of spectators being given by Harry Lewis who was using a keyboard   a TV monitor and a meter showing sending speed     Jerry asked for a try   starting at 30 wpm and increasing by 5 wpm increments    He copied perfectly up through 50 wpm    At that time he became friends with Harry Lewis   who from then on lent him equipment and help   and encouraged him to increase his speed capability    So he bought a reel to reel tape recorder and a keyboard and made 50large reels of 1/4 inch tape at speeds ranging from 50 to 75   60 to 80 and 70 to 90 wpm for practice     Later he made more tapes with 5 wpm speed increments between  50 and 80   etc     He also has a 75 wpm & 100 wpm warmup tape that makes the others seem rather slow      I sent him a list of questions   which he answered   in considerable detail     His answers are   

1 He rightly suspects that the main reason for the increase in the number of high speed operators is the widespread use of keyboards for sending        

2a   He is quite correct that reading code and  copying code are two different kinds of operations  copying takes far more time to learn    This is because you must receive the code with your ears   process it through your brain   then it goes on down to your fingers to the paper or typewriter        

2b  He says he feels no strain while reading   but high speed copying is stressful for him    It is because of this that he feels that he must practice at least an hour each day for five months before a contest     He must also get psyched up immediately before the contest     He feels that it would be so stressful for an operator to copy continuously at 60 wpm for 10 to 12 hours every day   that it would be almost impossible     

2c He says he is sure that the secret of learning to copy at higher speeds is to start out  listening to and trying to copy 10 wpm  or more    faster than you are comfortable with   and then dropping back to a slower speed     It  is like driving a car at 90 mph and then slowing down to 80 mph seems slow     

3 He says that to him International Morse code at 75 wpm or more sounds like chicken fat frying in a hot griddle    To start reading it he has to make up his mind to break into it and begin concentrating on words and phrases      

4 Then so long as he consciously maintains his concentration   he can continue to read    What does he concentrate on   and how does he do it  ?       He visualizes it as something like this If I am listening to a news broadcast on the radio while reading the daily paper   one or the other will have my attention    While I focus on one   I am conscious of the presence of the other   but I am not fully aware of its contents  in fact it may be more or less gibberish to me     This is an inexact parallel   but it is this snapping of attention to the one or to the other that makes the difference between reading and treating it as noise     Hard or unusual words   etc      are sometimes difficult   but generally do not cause dropouts by destroying overall concentration    He may be conscious of missing something due to misspelling or a sending error   etc     and he may be momentarily puzzled   but not for long   as he continues on    His attention is on understanding  that keeps him going    Long words do not cause any problems     

5 He does not know whether there is a limitation on the speed of understanding   but  thinks there surely must be     

6  He has always been able to listen to the code or send it while doing other things typing at moderate speeds   conversing with others   retuning   etc    While he was a shipboard operator and returning with others from shore leave after being still somewhat inebriated   they would sometimes try to trip him up by sending words spelled backwards   etc    to him     But he did not trip up     

7 Although he can read and copy American Morse up to around 30 to 40 wpm it does not sound right to him with a CW tone    He does enjoy reading it occasionally from taped sounders   however    He never practiced it at higher speeds      

Nr 12 Frederick M    Ryan  W3NIZ  born 1932 In 1942 when he was 10   as a Christmas gift   Freds father gave him a toy telegraph set which could be used to send between two stations     It used a buzzer   a clicker simulating a sounder or a lamp      There is no doubt as to why he was given that     His Father was a telegrapher on the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie RR   his Grandfather was a telegrapher on the Pennsylvania RR   and an uncle on the Baltimore and Ohio RR     He taught himself the letters and numbers by memorizing them at a very low speed     After WWII  when ham radio was again allowed   he decided to improve his code ability and take the exam     He practiced on his telegraph set and also mentally put advertisements in the newspapers or posted in the trolley cars into code while he rode into town     His Father was not much help here because he knew only the old American Morse      He took the 13 wpm exam in 1946 and failed    At that time one had to wait six months before trying again     So   during that interim he practiced more   as he had done previously   and remembers that his sending speed got up to 18 to 20 wpm     Early the next year he took the exam again and just barely passed it   barely    not highly successfully     Since he expresses himself in terms of dots and dashes   he probably followed his fathers approach in copying and thinking   and practiced with dots and dashes   rather than in terms of sound   as dits and dahs    Whether he learned it by sound or visually   he says he was sort of stuck at the test speed of 13 wpm for a while     At that time he had little opportunity for speed building because he was  busy with high school studies     Also since that was as fast as most of his contacts   he felt no interest or incentive to go any faster     In the early 1950s when he was in the Army he worked with a straight key up into the 15 to 17 wpm range    Sometime in the 1960s his first real improvement began when he started listening to the ARRL code practice transmissions in preparation for taking the Extra class exam     He knew from experience that a  person tends to do worse under test conditions   so he waited until he could copy at 30 wpm before being tested at 20    Of course he passed     On into the 1970s his comprehension and sending speeds increased slowly to about 40 wpm   when he used a keyer for sending and was no longer copying it all down     In the mid 1970s   when good keyboards became available   he heard some fellows sending over 80 wpm   but he could understand very little of what they were saying     He did think that it would be fun to do     But he thought   They are really in a different league than I am and what they are doing is way above my ability    I am now busy with my job   so I had little time to try it     When I retired in 1992 I finally had leisure to spend on CW   so I bought a keyboard and started sending at 45 wpm      Then he heard some guys holding QSOs at over 60 wpm   and I decided I would see if I could improve to that level     It took a lot of desire and practice   but over the past three years from 1997 to the end of 2000 I have gone from  45 wpm to over 70 wpm    I intend to keep it up and improve more     It has been a lot of fun   and I have met some great people also who acted as mentors to me     In his own experience he says he finds the way his brain functions is like this Below about 55 wpm I construct the words from letters   and so comprehension is cumbersome    Especially below about 25 wpm I find that my attention span in remembering the slowly incoming letters and constructing words from them is really tedious    But above 55 wpm my brain starts paying little attention to the letters   and the words just pop into my head    Even at 90 wpm I am still getting some words as words and putting them together to form thoughts     90 wpm seems to be about my limit to do that   and I believe that to comprehend over 90 wpm I will have to change the way in which my brain operates    Further practice and time has raised his comprehension speed to over 100 wpm    

Raising  Your Typing  Speed     Fred tells how he improved his sending and reduced the number of errors at speeds over 70 wpm on the keyboard    He experimented and found that it took about ten days of practice to exceed  100 wpm    He began his experimenting and practice at his then present 70 wpm     Successful changes were  He turned the sidetone off completely   and     

1 Stopped looking at the screen   except maybe a glance when his fingers tell him he has made a mistake     

2 He did not look at the keyboard either       


These three changes eliminated the distractions   so he could concentrate on his fingers   Although he does not look at the keyboard   he visualizes it   so he can mentally concentrate on  it and direct where his fingers are going to go next     He just wills his fingers to go there and they do    It is rather hard to describe     He compared it to this When I was seriously into playing the piano   although I was aware of the presence of the piano keyboard   I never looked at where the fingers were going to go     Even if I was jumping several octaves quickly   I could hit the proper notes exactly without ever turning my head     Looking to the keyboard to see where the fingers were supposed to land would have made good piano playing impossible     Within a couple of weeks of experimenting and practicing   he found he could send as easily at 100 wpm  as he had before at 70     But what most surprised him was that now he could chat just as easily at 100 wpm as he could before at 70     He said  I can get the thoughts organized in time to keep the fingers busy at these higher speeds    When I had mastered this technique   I found to my surprise that getting the thought flow going at 100 wpm became very easy     One further thing  he needed to improve the cadence of his sending  sending each letter at exactly the same rate    He said Errors that I make   such as sending adn for and   are due to hitting the d finger out of cadence too quickly to allow  the n finger to type     I concentrate on keeping the cadence constant   something that I have never done over the past 50 years    I had thought that would be the really hard thing to master     But it wasnt     How observant and thoughtful he was     Are these suggestions I need to  follow  ?    He has noted that in his 53 years of hamming he has not operated a great deal    typically less than an hour or two a week      Even now he is fortunate to find one week in a month when he can communicate with a truly high speed operator    High speed operators in the US are rare today      

Nr 13 Ted J    Newport born 1919    First person account     I learned code when I was in flying school l during WW2    We had to send and receive 12 wpm before we could start our flying training    After the war I bought my son a short wave receiver    I heard CW on it   and relearned the letters I had forgotten     I taught myself code with tapes and with friends helping me on the air     I owe what speed I have to the help of two friends   both now deceased   who worked with me on the air for years   helping get my speed up     They were Jimmy Moss W5GRJ and Gene W4JKT who kept pushing me      First you must have the desire to learn CW   and to like/love CW   and have the desire to increase your speed   instead of staying at a plateau     Next   practice   practice   practice     When you can read solid at one speed   then you must have the desire to want to go up to the next level of speed     Tapes are fine   but the best practice is to get on the air with friend who will push you to the next level   and who will send to you on a regular basis     Gene taught me how to increase speed     

1    When I got to one solid reading speed   he would increase his sending speed     

2    When I could not read solid at the increased speed    

3    He would then send to me at a still higher speed    I was not able to get too much of that    but  

4    when he dropped back to the one I could not read solid before   it would then sound slow and I could read it solid     

In other words   he would not slow down when I wasnt getting it solid   but would go to a still higher speed and let me listen to it   even   if I could only get a word or two    And then    when he dropped down to the lower speed   it would seem slower then and I could read it     I cannot read   copy and send as well as Tom Alderman and the others do  I dont get on the air much any more and my reading not copying speed is in the  range of 60 to 70 wpm     

Nr 14  Rodney  L    Whitten W4BI born 1912 is one of our oldest available examples of very high speed operators     His interest began in 1924 when he was 12     Spark was beginning to lose its rough   noisy thrill and sense of power like a motorcycle   and was going out of use   displaced by the tiny vacuum tube with its peeping CW signals    And the rapid increase of DX occurred   as short waves became shorter and shorter  into the useless range     He was interested and wanted to learn      He joined the US Navy and was selected to be a CW operator    He was trained as one of that special crypto over the roof gang operators   an elite group of guys trained to learn various codes he learned to copy 8 different national codes before and during WWII    Altogether that group included about 178 men who were so trained    Their work included QRQ copying     He spent most of his time in the South Pacific and was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed      

Nr 15 Melvin L    Whitten  K0PFX  born 1946      He learned the Morse code from his Father    W4BI   and see above  who started teaching him  when he was about 9 or 10 years old     Since his Father teacher was a QRQ expert   Mel was never troubled by first  memorizing the code visually as printed dots and dashes    but rather heard it as it is   as patterns of sound     Furthermore   he must have had no concerns as to whether it was hard  or easy to learn    It was just to be learned like anything else    If there were any difficulties along the way   his Father encouraged him to keep on   with something like Look how much you have learned and can do already     Then   because the FCC office was 150 miles away at the time    he used his Fathers call sign for a couple of years until he finally managed to get to the FCC office for the test and to get his own license and call in 1958     He was able to copy 40 wpm up until somewhat more than 20 years ago when  both he and his Father got electronic keyboards     His sending speed began to go up and along with it his copying speed rose to 45 then 50 and finally reached 55   where going to higher speeds seemed like work   above that he must sweat up to his absolute limit of 60 wpm     His comfortable range is 45 to 50 wpm     He says he owes his QRQ to 35 years of QSOs with his Father who has long been able to copy over 60 wpm     He feels that if he would work at it   he is sure he could increase it even more    It just takes a lot of practice      

Nr 16  Ira  I    Silverman    No data other than that he is a very fast operator   can type into the 140 wpm range and receive at least to 100      

Nr 17  OSCAR Ozzie Levin W5RK    born 1918    This is one of the most interesting cases   for it illustrates normal learning    He got interested in Ham radio back in the mid thirties after visiting a Boy Scout friend that had a ham station      He was more than just interested    

1    He wanted to learn the code and had no preconceived ideas about it    We may say he loved it already     

2    He started from the concept of the code presented as sound    spoken  dits and dahs  not printed dots and dashes     He had no visual roadblocks    What did he do  ?      He learned the code on his own because he had no mentor or anybody to send code to him     He learned it by looking at a newspaper and saying the dits and dahs to himself for all the letters and numerals in the story he was reading  He took the examination in 1937 and passed both the 10 words a minute code test and the theory test    

3   He had no initial mental blocks    that it might be hard  but rather just  thats the way it is    something   like everything else that he wanted to learn     He enjoyed learning it     It was fun    Without the excess misdirected baggage so many unwittingly carry   he reached a 50 wpm copying ability within three years     His evidence joins the rest of that relatively small group who did it right from the very beginning and had nothing to have to relearn    That is why it seemed natural to him    

4   He entered the Coast Guard in 1941   just before we got into WW 2   and was assigned as an apprentice Seaman  operating the highspeed circuits along with veteran operators    After another assignment   he left the service in 1946    For ten years he was inactive   though he continued his license     In the late 60s he ran into the Chicken Fat Operators Club CFO  where one of the operators observed he had been copying the high speed  and asked him if he wanted to join them     He did   but soon found he could not keep up his sending speed with just a paddle   so he built an electronic keyboard    

5   The use of a keyboard   which is only a tool   is the almost universal newer hardware   a  key which gives that boost to pass the frequent plateau    the speed barrier around 50 to 60 wpm      Some kind of internal change in mental approach seems generally needed  is it a change that is hidden from our conscious understanding  ?       He could now practice wellsent code at home or during QSOs with others using keyboards    Bug or keyer sending is a special skill that not many achieve at those speeds      This change resulted in a noticeable increase of his receiving speed and he was soon sending 70 wpm     It was a wonderful experience     Today he finds few hams using these high speeds     

Nr 18 Florence C    Majeras  W7QYA     born 1915      Bill Eitel said   She is a very talented and practical woman     Her accomplishments are many and  unknown to most people   because she is a modest and sincere person     She is a pilot   musician   schoolteacher and a top CW operator        She does not have to take a back seat to any one when operating CW    She can send it   read it in her head   or copy it down on a manner   which people do not realize because she is no showoff      She is the kind of person I formed the 5Star Club to recognize    I have no information as to how she learned or when she started into ham radio     

Nr 19  Gary Bold ZL1AN is the only known New Zealander who belonged to the CFO club      He says In this area  40 to  45 wpm is as fast as we ever go    Keyboards are not in general use     He was quite astonished to learn that some hams in America were conversing in Morse code at 100 wpm     Gary had himself written computer programs to read code at fair speeds   and using them   managed to reach his present limit at 55 wpm     

Nr 20  Jesse W    Caravello   Jr     W8MCP  born 1936     The following comments are from Gary Bold  ZL1AN      In 1985 I visited Ann Arbor on Sabbatical leave and encountered him on the packet system    He invited me to visit his home    He told me he was also a CFO Club member     I thought  it was defunct     Learning that I was without a rig   Jess lent me a SWAN  transceiver   power supply   tuner and filter which at our rented house   put me in regular contact with other CFO members and nets whenever possible    He also connected us home to our teenage children through the ZL packet system    When I went back to ZL   we kept schedules on 40 when conditions were right     

Later when I returned to Ann Arbor several times    each time I enjoyed his and his wife Brendas hospitality    They became very  dear friends to me     I know virtually nothing of his early Morse experiences    I am sure that he would have told me everything    A couple of years ago Jess passed away   I think due to a massive heart attack     Jess was   indeed   a first class CW man    I know he had spent time as a seagoing  operator    I dont know how fast he could receive   and I never saw him use a keyboard   but he could read anything    He could copy noisy   weak signals covered in static and QRN from which I was gleaning mere letters and occasional words    Strange fists were no problem to him     Nor do I have any  information on the following names who are supposed to be very high speed operators  David H Freese Jr      W1HKJ   wrote  software for 99 wpm and on Bill Eitels request revised it to run at 160 wpm     FRED C    CLARKE  W9AMC     CHRIST C    KOVACHEFF  K9AMC     David H Freese  Jr    W1HKJ     CHARLES F    VAUGHN   III   AA0HW    b 19580118     J PHILEMON ANDERSON W9TP b 19290531    RAYMOND H    LARSON   W0GHX    b  19360801     CHARLES F    VAUGHN   III   AA0HW   b 19580118    J PHILEMON ANDERSON    W9TP   b 19290531    WILLIAM SEPULVEDA   K5LN b 19440801    CARLOS DALE HAMM   W5LN    MELVIN J    LADISKY W6FDR    CHARLES H    BROWN   JR   W4AFQ    b 19280528    WELLS E    BURTON   N4EE b 19190714  Other older operators  for whom we have no data on their  leaning methods Frank J    Elliott    Cpl    James Ralph Graham   at 60 wpm or moreA   J Burkart 1913   E    Proctor   W5FDR  Earnest L    Sitkes W4AFQ   W5GET  W9RUM    William L    Gardiner   Wells  E    Durham N4EE   Cpl G    Schaal   others in Europe   who used these speeds daily   There were nearly one thousand listed members of the Chicken Fat Operators club   which required at least 45 wpm for entry    before it faded out as a club a few years ago     I suspect that the number of highly skilled commercial operators and hams around  the world who can or could  receive at over 45 wpm would add up to many thousands   with a large number of them capable of well above 60 wpm              

Appendix  E  Further Thinking  Telegraphy Was a Highly Respected Profession  for Almost a Century    In 1845 the first short telegraph line was built between Washington DC and Baltimore MD and opened    From then on   many a young man and some young women chose it as a thrilling and honorable and greatly respected profession    It was an opportunity to do something worthwhile in the world       For the first fifty years telegraph lines were built over longer and longer distances   installed along railroad RR lines for communication   to facilitate scheduling   control   and safety in the operation of the railroads       For many years the arrival of trains had been the local source of news from other communities along the RR line     With the telegraph the RR telegraphers desk brought much nationwide news    It soon began to connect newspapers with sources of news   which formerly were delayed for days or weeks by lack of rapid communication    In addition   important personal messages now began to travel widely     Even the youngest telegraphers were scrupulously careful not to divulge any personal or business message contents to outsiders        Some home electrical experimenters made or bought their telegraph equipment and strung up wires to friends homes in their neighborhoods     Throughout the American Civil War   the  telegraph was used extensively by both the Northern and the Southern armies to coordinate their troops and overall and local attacks   to obtain supplies   etc          From ancient times when a ship left harbor it had no communication with its home port until it returned if it did return     In the 1860s undersea cables began to connect many seaports and sometimes a ships arrival could be verified from port to port through cable telegraphy     That was a huge improvement     It also made possible rapid twoway diplomatic and business communications to and from distant places around the world   as well as news        Beginning with Marconis development of the first practical wireless telegraphic transmitters and receivers   ships were now usually able to communicate while in transit     Long distance communication opened up independently of  the expensive long wires and cables     It was not quite as reliable as wire telegraphy because static and manmade interference often prevented or garbled it    

Invention of the  telephone in the latter 1800s partially replaced telegraphy    In time continuing developments in electronics began to replace the need for professional telegraphers    by the end of WWII       The airplane as it became a useful means of commercial and military transportation introduced another new need for wireless    Some few early aircraft in the WWI period began to be equipped with radios    The pilot needed weather and other information related to scheduling   routing and safety    This was met first by the use of  radiotelegraphy and later by radiotelephone     Shipboard radio telegraphers continued on until the invention of the almost automatic communication systems now predominantly in use    Skilled radio and telegraph operators are said to be no longer needed    However   these automated systems are very expensive and are not perfect   often making erroneous emergency trouble reports false alarms   and sometimes cannot handle a severe emergency at all       The ships operated by many small nations cannot afford these new systems and still have their older radios and telegraphers aboard    A recent article in Morsum Magnificat number 74 listed  55 such transmissions within two or three days time from 22 different ships in just one northern European location       Manual telegraphy is still very useful and may sometimes be imperative for safety      Today in our modern EuropeanWestern culture telegraphy is almost altogether a hobby confined to the amateur radio world    It is an honorable and useful hobby in times of emergency when nothing else can be made to function    It should never be allowed to die    






The HighSpeed Circuits of Commercial Telegraphy  Written by James S   Farrior   W4FOK   CFO number 431    Commercial telegraph operators used to have two types of CW circuits     One was a high speed circuit   up to 400 wpm    which used punched transmitting tape and printed inked receiving tape called slip    The other was the familiar operator with his bug and mill   with its speed set as that which the operators could send and receive for long hours     The receiving operator never had a chance to hear code being sent much over 45 wpm     Some news services could send at slightly higher seeds   but since such broadcasts were copied simultaneously by many operators   it was not worth while to send it at a speed above that at which all of the operators could produce clean copy     What Im saying is that there was no practical reason   and usually no available means   for typical telegraph operators to learn to copy or read code at very high speeds     The old  high speed circuits produced inked slip at a rate that would keep several transcribing operators busy    The slip   after inking   was run across a sort of  bridge just above the keys of the mill typewriter keyboard   and the operator had a floor pedal that allowed him to adjust its speed     The speed limit of the moving slip was the operators typing speed     A trained operator could read the slip faster than his sustained typing speed    For instance   I remember that while typing as fast as possible   I could scan ahead to see what was coming   so as not to get surprised by some unfamiliar word   name   or number     I would have them figured out by the time they came across the bridge and were typed     The operator did all of this without a high degree of conscious concentration   and meanwhile could think of other things while doing it     When I first began copying slip   it was below my fastest typing speed   because I observed the dots and dashes that made up each character    However   after some experience   I began to recognize the characters by their appearance without being consciously aware of the underlying code    After some additional time    entire words and groups of words were read at a glance     It was much the same as reading print   except that the characters were written in a different way     My output was limited by my maximum sustained typing speed      There is some similarity in copying slip and in copying the code the eye reads the slip  and the ear reads the audible code    Some people can learn to read slip at a very high speed   just as some people can learn to read printed text much more rapidly than others     One limit on the speed of reading slip is the fact that the length of the word on the slip is longer than a word in normal print    To minimize this problem   the speed of the slip as it was being inked was adjusted to make the characters as short as practical so as to make the words shorter and more readable     Just like we learn to read print   we could have learned the appearance of the characters   without being concerned about dots and dashes    


Also from Jim Farrior   some additional comments  In early 1941   while working at WVR   the Armys 4th Corps Area Net Control Station in Ft    McPherson   Ga      I snapped a photo of Jack Ivy transcribing slip    Jack was perhaps our fastest manual and high speed operator    He could transcribe slip for hours at about 80 wpm and he seldom made an error     The high speed circuit was between WVR and WAR   the national Net Control Station in Washington   D   C    Message handling within the Corps Area was done by conventional radiotelegraphy      The bridge over the mill   across which the slip was drawn   can be seen in the photo    A motor driven reel   not seen because of insufficient light   was located at the left     The slip   which is visible in the photo   was pulled across the bridge at a speed that was controlled by a foot switch   and was wound on the reel as it was transcribed     As the inked slip came from the recording head   it was not wound on a reel   but was allowed to spill onto the floor    A transcribing operator would go to the recording head   grab the free end of the recorded slip and quickly wind a figure 8 ball of slip around his thumb and little finger of his left hand     He would tear off the ball at a point between messages and take the ball of slip to his transcribing position   where he would thread the inside end across the bridge at the top of his mill    The ball of slip   which held a number of messages   would be placed upon the floor     Several transcribing positions   such as the one shown in the photo   were kept busy    Typically   to provide variety   the operators would rotate between punching transmitting tape on a Kleinsmidt perforator   operating the sending head   operating the recording head   transcribing slip   and operating a normal manual telegraphy position     When the transcribing operator would reach the end of a message form   he would drop a blank form in the mills platen so that when the message was pulled out   the blank form would be rolled into place automatically    Thus   with one quick motion   the operator would remove the completed message form from the mill   place it in the clamp holder that can be seen just over the typewriter   and roll the new form into place for beginning the next message    A similar thing was done at the manual operating positions   and an office worker would continuously collect the messages from all of the clamp holders   so that they could be delivered or given to another operator for forwarding    

No Challenge in Older Times  For Amateurs to Use High Speed Morse code   Sending speeds for us amateurs are limited by the kind of keys we use and by our personal skills     With a straight key 25 to 30 wpm is the usual limit   although some reach 35    A bug raises this to 40 to 45 wpm    Keyers raise this further   perhaps to 55       But it required a keyboard   a typewriter like device   to raise it to typing speeds   which may reach or exceed 100 wpm    Now the challenge comes     How fast can I read   not copy    this stuff  ?     Nobody even suspected such speeds as 120 to 140 wpm could be reached   until recent decades     If you dont want to do this   then dont     But if you enjoy challenging yourself and want to go faster  go ahead and try    If you love the code you may want to       Some of us have natural limitations and some of us assume or imagine that we have limitations     Be honest with yourself   be realistic    Accept natural limitations   such as paralysis   severe pain   etc      or work around them   but dont add imaginary ones      People have learned to recognize the Morse code characters correctly from an age before they could read print   and up to any age where their minds are still active    Age is no problem       If our hearing is adequate for ordinary conversation   with or without artificial aids   we should be able to reach almost a talking speed    We may have physical limits on sending   however   because of limited finger movement     Lets settle the question of how fast for now    The purpose of using Morse code is to communicate    Can I and the ham I am communicating with reach some certain speed  ?    There is no point in sending faster to him than he can receive comfortably     That is just common sense       Surely you can enjoy communicating at 20 wpm even though you can receive at 80 wpm or more     Do you really want to be able to read at 60 or 80 or 100 wpm  ?    If no one you know uses these speeds   there is not much purpose to it   other than some pleasure in doing it    The problem today is that fewer hams use CW because they havent learned to enjoy it or dont want to spend the effort to gain useful speeds     So set your goal for now    You may change it later if you want  to    There are many enjoyable in between speeds         Tom says that high speed is a fun thing for him and he does not like to talk about challenging or contesting to see who is best     Fred says I find it much easier to comprehend CW over 60 wpm than below    You begin to listen to the flow of  thought   without any attention to the individual words    







