"Dick Carroll;" wrote in message ...
Jack Twilley wrote:

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"Dick" == Dick Carroll; writes:

Jack In my limited experience, I learn more characters faster with
Jack Farnsworth spacing, but I'm concerned that I'm building a lookup
Jack table instead of reflexes. It's the difference between
Jack "dahdidah, hmm, that's K, dahdah, hmm, that's M" and "dahdidah
Jack (K) dahdah (M)". I learned eight or nine characters with
Jack Farnsworth spacing, but I can't repeat the performance at full
Jack speed, so I fear that I'm learning something that won't be
Jack useful if I continue to use Farnsworth spacing.

Dick That's where practice comes in. Learn to recognize the
Dick characters, then listen to code off the air or what ever othen
Dick non-familiar source you may have available. Soon you find that
Dick you don't use anything like a looktable any more, it just comes
Dick in as letters, and then words that you recognize like
Dick speech. The more familiar you become, the longer words begin to
Dick come through as words, just like the shorter ones did earlier,
Dick and so on it goes. You build a Morse vocabulary of words. But
Dick it does take practice.

I do have a couple of questions, though. Which spacing is more
commonly found in "real code" -- full speed or Farnsworth spacing?
When people learn to receive code with Farnsworth spacing, do they
also learn to send with Farnsworth spacing? Those two things have
puzzled me but I haven't found any real answers.

I personally like to use a Farnsworth style of sending at lower speeds. It just works
better. You hear all sorts of code out there and get used to most all of it with time,
but the stations sending slower code via a Farnsworth type of spacing are easiest to copy,
just as learning the code via Farnsworth practice makes it easier to learn.
As someone already said, it all comes together at around 20wpm anyway.
But at slower speeds Farnsworth spacing has definite advantages.

Dick

Since when? You're on record for preferring the banana boat swing.