"Bert Craig" wrote in message
...
"Barry OGrady" wrote in message
...
Morse gone by the beginning of last year.

Barry

Sad that many folks will likely never give themselves the opportunity to
bag some of that rare DX that seems to only show up on the bottom of the
bands.

Just bagged HZ1EX on 7013 kHz. 99.999% CW op and luvin' it.

--
Vy 73 de Bert
WA2SI
FISTS #9384/CC #1736
QRP ARCI #11782


Know what you mean. I just received a card from the 2003 Burkina Faso
DXpedition and would not have bagged it without CW. And I'm only a so-so CW
op that just uses it for major contests.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

Hey, wait a minnit here . . we also had to walk uphill both ways to the
FCC offices in raging blizzards.

Ya WEENIES . . . grumble . .


And that was in the summer! I had to do a code sending
test at 5wpm at the old FCC field office in New York City
(I've heard the place is now condos).

From: "Mel A. Nomah" on Mon,Apr 18 2005 4:28 pm


"Michael Coslo" wrote in message
...

:
: I've looked at some of the older questions. The only thing about
them
: that is difficult is that they tend to pertain to operating with
: equipment and different condition than today.
:

No, the only thing harder was that those were just samples, and you
had to
actually understand the underlying material because the question on
the
examination would be different.

Fromyour description of "take the online test until I can pass it,
then
rush down to the VE session", I expect that you'd be another Len
Anderson
under those conditions, on the outside looking in.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, "Melanoma," I've been INSIDE the world of
electronics and radio for the last half century. Slightly
MORE than a half century. As a professional, that is.

Gave up trying to add an amateur radio license to the
old (1956 granted) First 'Phone license collection about
four decades ago (give or take). I thought it might be
nice to take it up again now in retirement, like for fun,
but U.S. amateur radio seems to have evolved into
SERIOUS BUSINESS! Everyone all uptight and demanding
absolute and instant obediance from all the Dill
Instructors swaggering about, trying to whack the
hobbyists into SHAPE for the SERVICE!!! :-)

I don't see where many are into ham radio for "fun" in
here. All are acting like RADDIO KOPS, complete with
shiny badges of RANK, etc. :-)

Good luck on your chemotherapy...

"Cmd Buzz Corey" wrote in message
...
cl wrote:



For some - it may! One argument I've heard, is that those musically
inclined pick it up quicker than others, yet I knew some who "were"
musically inclined and claimed to have a hell of a time with it. Reason?
I don't know. I can't get inside their head.

I used to teach Novice classes, and I always assumed that anyone could
learn the code if they really wanted to. I found that some people had
difficulty telling the difference between a dit from a dah unless it was
sent very slowy and the dah made a lot longer than the dit, but when
sending a character that contained several dits or dahs or combinations,
they simply could not tell one from the other. It wasn't that they lacked
the skill to learn the code, I could right out characters in dits and dahs
on the board and they could recoginize them, it was an interpertation
problem with the brain of telling the sound of a dit from the sound of a
dah. People with hearing aids often had a difficult time.

You can get special tests and use special accomodations (such as code with
longer dahs than normal making for more of a distinction in dits and dahs)
if their hearing is truly a problem. My ex had a 70% hearing loss in each
ear AND constant ringing in the ears. However, he managed his 5wpm without
special accomodations other than using headphones and a very loud volume.
Other people might need a different pitch or need the dits and dahs
separated by pitch either for their initial learning exercise or even for
the test.

People with hearing aids will often have problems with many sounds not just
code. The training and test material must be set to a pitch that they can
hear.

The number one reason people have problem with code is unrealistic
expectations on how quickly they can learn it. They see the "wunderkinds"
who can do it in a few days and think they are failures if they can't
duplicate it. In reality the average person needs TWO MONTHS OF DAILY
PRACTICE FOR 30 MINUTES PER DAY. Until they have done that, they can't say
whether they have a problem learning it or not. And of course they must
use good training methods. After that period of time, even if they don't
yet have it down, they will be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

The second biggest reason people have a problem with code is simply not
committing to learning it.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

"Mike Coslo" wrote in message
...
cl wrote:


which required code. 5 WPM is not impossible to learn. It only takes a
few minutes a day and about 2 weeks at least to get enough to pass a
test.

Took me 45 minutes a day for over 6 months, plus one failed test to get to
5 wpm.

I'm all in favor of Morse code testing, but you guys have to show some
understanding that it isn't that easy for a lot of people.

I aced the writtens, without a whole lot of study by comparison to a lot
of people. I don't go around calling them retards or stupid.

- Mike KB3EIA -

I agree with you Mike. I hate it when I hear someone say "it only took me a
few days" as that raises unrealistic expectations on the part of the
students. It becomes very hard to convince them that they will probably
need more time than that and to keep them motivated to keep working on it.
The average person needs 30 hours of study (1/2 per EVERY day for 60 days)
to get there. Some will take longer such as yourself but at least once they
have put in the 30 hours, they will be able to tell that they are making
progress even if it takes longer for them.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

"Mike Andrews" wrote in message
...
In (rec.radio.amateur.misc), Cmd
Buzz Corey wrote:

I used to teach Novice classes, and I always assumed that anyone could
learn the code if they really wanted to. I found that some people had
difficulty telling the difference between a dit from a dah unless it was
sent very slowy and the dah made a lot longer than the dit, but when
sending a character that contained several dits or dahs or combinations,
they simply could not tell one from the other. It wasn't that they
lacked the skill to learn the code, I could right out characters in dits
and dahs on the board and they could recoginize them, it was an
interpertation problem with the brain of telling the sound of a dit from
the sound of a dah. People with hearing aids often had a difficult time.

You hit that part right on the head. My XYL has a deep notch in her
hearing
response curve, from about 400 Hz to about 2 KHz, due to playing viola in
a symphony orchestra for 15 years, sitting right in front of the brass
section[1]. She's having the very devil of a time with Morse, mostly
because she has problems distinguishing between dit and dah. She has
learned not to trust her ears, and now she's trying to learn to read with
them. The deep notch right where most people tune to read CW and where the
various tapes, CDs, and tutor programs all put the tone, also makes it
very
difficult for her.


Most of the computer programs let you select a pitch you like. Of course
you would have to arrange with the VE team well in advance of the test to
have one set up at that pitch for her testing.

Or just make sure that you can turn the volume WAY up just like my ex had to
(70% hearing loss in each ear and constant ringing of the ears).

When she passes Element 1, I have to go learn American Sign Language and
pass a proficiency test.


Sounds fair to me.

[1] I'll bet most people don't think much about hearing damage in people
playing in symphony orchestras. It's fairly common.


Being an amateur musician, I've read quite a bit about it.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

"Mel A. Nomah" wrote in message
link.net...

"Michael Coslo" wrote in message
...

:
: I've looked at some of the older questions. The only thing about them
: that is difficult is that they tend to pertain to operating with
: equipment and different condition than today.
:

No, the only thing harder was that those were just samples, and you had to
actually understand the underlying material because the question on the
examination would be different.

From your description of "take the online test until I can pass it, then
rush down to the VE session", I expect that you'd be another Len Anderson
under those conditions, on the outside looking in.

M.A.N.
--
"I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord,
make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it."
- Voltaire


The test pools are large enough that it's much easier to learn the material
than memorize all the questions and answers. The Extra class pool is
something like 800 questions even though only 50 appear on the test. I'd
much rather learn the equation and how to use it than try to memorize say 10
different question/answer combinations for the material covered by that
equation.

Dee D. Flint, N8UZE

come to pass.

Absolutely. But...that will be the END of the ARS
(Archaic Radiotelegraphy Society).



retired (from regular hours) electronic engineer person


Correction - I'm "not" Caveat Lector........ I use small case cl, he
uses
capitals. See my address within!

cl

Sorry, Mr. Lowercase. Apologies redered. Correction
so noted.

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
cl wrote:

The local ham club is looking for people to take classes with "Now
Your Talking" rather than try to find people with any electronics
background. I offered to help maintain their club equipment but they
brushed me off because I don't have a ham ticket. I still have a
half
way decent RF bench, but nothing compared to the $1,000,000 plus
benches
of test equipment I had at Microdyne.

That's all well and good Mike and no doubt you're a quite competent RF
tech, not even a discussion. But I think you're missing some critical
points here. Rumors to the contrary ham radio is overwhelmingly a
communications hobby, it is NOT an electronics hobby as such. Sure
there are any number of high-end electronics gurus who also have ham
tickets and exercise their skills on the bands, in the clubs and even
in this funny-farm of a USENET group. But they're not the heart & soul
of ham radio today for certain and I'm not particularly convinced they
ever were. In general the average ham learns as much about electronics
as he/she needs to satisfy their enjoyment of the hobby. Which on
average ain't much in this day of cheap whizzy plug 'n play equipment.
Beast on reality as you might but that's the way it is.

In this sense and given the obvious lack of interest in the arcane
details of electronics amongst the average members of the average
neighborhood ham radio club you should not have known that your offer
to participate was a no-counter. They don't "maintain" their radios,
they don't need your expertise, they simply ship their broken radios
off to the repair shops to get fixed. In short "Now You're Talking"
fits their agenda and your's simply does not. In another sense ham
radio clubs are private entities conventionally for hams and
prospective hams only. As an analogy what you did was show up at a
bow-hunters club with a .45-70 powder-burner and expect any interest in
an offer to "help".

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

w3rv