Dan

I got it after several years of trying and thinking I was spitting in
the wind. I buckled down and worked on it at least 2 or 3 times a day
and some days 5 or 6 times toward the test time. Practice 20 or 30
minutes at a time then rest for a while. Get some tapes or a computer
program to start off to learn the, characters. Then try the MFJ code
trainer. It can be set up to almost any speed conbination and send from
beginner to expert groups of letters numbers or QSOs. It will display
what it sends so you can check what you hear. After a while you will not
even look at it as you can hear it. I used mine while at work and listen
to code while driving and let it be in the background all of the time.
It is amazing what you will pick up this way. It may not work for others
but it worked for me at 48 years of age... The last effert that I put my
heart in to it took about 30 days to sucess.

Pratice Pratice Pratice.

Start out at 15 wpm with 8 to 10 wpm spacing and as you pogress graduly
reduce the spacing to 5 wpm. The code test will be given at 13 wpm with
5 wpm spacing. You need the extra speed for when you take the test the
13 wpm will sound like slow motion and it will click in your head.

I took a code test just to see how things were to be like to help me
prepare for it when I was ready to pass it.

Taking the ARRL testing you will copy 1 minute of code for a pratice
then the test will start and you will be hearing 5 minutes of code.
After copying (writing the 5 minutes of code on paper) you can answer
the 7 of the 10 questions to pass or have 1 minute of perfect copy (20
chactares, letters numbers and punaction. Letters count as 1 and numbers
and puncation count as 2) character.

Do not worry about what the message is as you copy it just hear each
character and write it down and cover it with your hand to keep from
looking at it. If you miss one skip it and go on because as you try to
figure it out you will miss the next two or three ane get way behind.
If you do miss a letter or letters after the QSO is complete read over
what you have written and a lot of times you can fill in the blanks.

What ever you do DO NOT GIVE UP, you can do this......

Good luck............

C.

Pratice Pratice Pratice


Keep the code alive...................

In article ,
"Henry Kolesnik" wrote:

Your chances are very, very good if you use the right methods..
First learn all the symbols by sound...
Do not expect to memorize the dots and dashes you see written on paper and
expect to get more than 5 wpm..
I got to 30 wpm after I couldn't get past 7 wpm because I tried to do double
translations1
So I had toi relearn by sound and it worked..
good luck comes with pracitce nearly every day for at least 10 to 15
minutes...
73
hank wd5jfr
"Dan Jacobson" wrote in message
...
What are the prospects of learning morse code at 15 WPM at age 45?

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.

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.

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.