RadioBanter - View Single Post - ATTN: Tech Licensee USA Morse Code Freedom Day is August 1st

August 1st 03, 11:03 PM

(N2EY) wrote in message ...
In article ,
(Brian Kelly) writes:

When I studied for my earliest tests there were no consumer-level
recording methods let alone computers. My only options for practicing
Morse were having somebody hand-send it or copying it off the air.
Which, as a practical matter, meant copying it with a rcvr or forget
it.

Same here. Except I had to build the receiver, learn to use it, then find hams
to listen to.

I sure built my share of rcvrs. At least in my case finding the ham
bands didn't seem to be much of an issue and there wasn't much to
learn about how to use 'em. Under any conditions I'd rather try to
find 40 with one of those than I would the first time I sit down in
front of any of the current riceboxes. Heh.

Did not know W1AW existed when I was studying for Novice so I
listened to other hams.

I probably "got around" more than you did and I did a lot of "radio"
before I finally went for my Novice ticket. Early tinkering & tuning
led me to working on my Boy Scout Merit Badge. Which was basically an
ARRL publication and everything a newbie needed to know about W1AW
code practice sessions was in the Radio Merit Badge booklet. I still
remember buying it from the Boy Scout department in the Lit Brothers
store at the bottom of the Hill. They special-ordered it for me.

I was also all over the Red Arrow, PTC and PRR commuter lines at a
tender age. The newsstand in the PTC waiting room in 69th Street
Terminal stocked 73 and CQ and occasionally QST. I always scarfed one
of 'em up if I had enough pocket change. I picked up a lotta info from
those long before I got my ticket. Then there were my ham buddies in
UDHS. By the time I actually got on the air I was pretty well primed.

I'm still a very strong supporter of learning Morse via the W1AW
code practice sessions. Today they transmit computer-generated code
and back then I believe they used tape-generated code so it has always
been quite precise. I'll concede that I'm only around 150 miles from
the station so they boom here on 80M and QRM wasn't/isn't a problem.
Might be more difficult from the west coasts but I don't know.

W6OWP used to do west-coast runs but I think that has ended. The antenna farm
used for code practice and bulletins at W1AW is designed to blanket the USA on
all bands. Full legal limit into long Yagis aimed at the West Coast on all
bands where a Yagi is practical.

Dick sez they have good coverage of the west coast.

I still recommend W1AW over any of the "canned" aids. Two downsides of
course are that W1AW does not send Farnsworth and one needs a
half-decent HF rcvr.

W1AW DOES send Farnsworth at the slower speeds! And they've done so since
before I ever heard of them - 35+ years. I think they transition at 13 or 15
wpm.

They definitely did not use Fransworth back when I was getting
started. I wish they had. Once I got my General it was goodbye W1AW
code practice for years until I went back to clock myself at 25-30wpm
for the Extra in the same timeframe in which you were getting started.

Bulletins are sent at 18 wpm so there's even more practice.

One drawback/advantage of W1AW is that it is sent on a fixed schedule. If you
simply cannot be at the rx at the appointed time, you're outa luck. OTOH,
having a fixed preset practice time tends to help some folks actually DO IT
rather than talk about it.

W1AW has plenty of sessions per week, I dunno, I seldom had any
particular trouble making myself available for the evening sessions.

Another trick I've done for years: Have the rx on and tuned to a CW station
whenever possible. I used to do homework with the cans on and tuned to a CW
station - any station - as background. After a while it became like listening
to somebody talk.

No way. I can't obsess in two directions at the same time . . !

http://www.arrl.org/w1aw.html#w1awsked

73 de Jim, N2EY

w3rv