"Dan Jacobson" wrote in message
...
What are the prospects of learning morse code at 15 WPM at age 45?


Excellent. The main thing is it takes a little time. It will probably take
around 30 to 50 hours. Practice 1/2 hour per day broken into two sessions.

Back in various university classes I had to photocopy other students
notes because I couldn't keep up copying and listening at the same time.


This is different because you will be training it to be an automatic reflex
reaction. You don't read it until after you are done. If you train to do
it as a reflex, it's much easier. In addition, you are copying letters not
words so it's actually slower than what you were trying to do. It's as if
the lecturer were spelling out each word rather than saying the word. Also
if you don't get a letter, just skip it and keep copying. Even with a fair
number of missed letters, you can tell what the person is trying to say.
Just relax and copy. Trying too hard is what causes the most problems.

Odd, my mom was a courtroom stenographer.

I need to get a class 2 Taiwan licence before my friend will be
willing to transfer his Icom 765 to me, even though I don't plan to
transmit.

Here on linux I've got cwcp - curses-based Morse tutor program, so
I've got a tutor program.

However my dad got Alzheimer's at age 55 and died at 60, so maybe it's
not worth the trouble to learn if there are only 10 golden years left.


You are not your dad. You may or may not be a victim of the disease.
However if you let worries like this stop you from trying, then you are
letting yourself be a victim of fear and could miss many pleasant things in
life.


My Icom R2 can receive almost the same frequencies but doesn't have
all those modes. I was thinking of listening to ships and planes at sea.

Perhaps just buying a fancier receiver would be a better investment
than putting my brain thru speed tests.

It depends on what you want to do. Exercising the brain helps keep our
minds strong and healthy longer in life.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE