An easier way to learn morse code

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Tim-B

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I tried a couple of times to learn it by rote. Just memorizing the dots and dashes for each letter and I didn't get very far. Recently I came across this picture in, of all places, the LOL Pics app on my phone. Visualizing the dots and dashes in the letters makes it much easier to remember them. I got much farther than I did with rote repitition.



Remember, if you want to contact the inhabitants of the planet Mars, you will need to use Mars code.
 

rwslippey

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Memorizing or visualizing is generally a bad way to learn the code... it works great at low speeds but eventually you'll hit a wall where your brain can't process the conversion fast enough. ( trust me )

A better way and the preferred method by hams is the Koch method. Just google and you'll see several programs.

The idea is you learn at full speed (20 words per min or more) with a great deal of spacing between each character. The sound doesn't change with speed changes because the character speed remains the same.

I had much more success with the Koch method than with memorizing anything.

Good luck

Rob


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ko6jw_2

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The best method to learn Morse is the method that works for you. I've tried Koch, Farnsworth and others. They have their strengths and weaknesses. The key is practice, practice and practice. Some people seem to have a natural aptitude - I don't. The best operators I know hear whole words not individual characters. They copy it in their heads. I passed 13 wpm and worked up to about 18 wpm. I never got to 20, but I stopped trying. I had an Advanced class license for years. A friend of mine said, "Don't ever upgrade, that way everyone will know you passed the code."

As for hearing impairment, most code practice software and modern radios allow you to adjust the pitch of the CW note. This may help depending on your degree of hearing loss. You can also convert pulses to flashing lights.

One of the older methods of learning code involved random 5 letter groups called cipher groups. When I first got interested in ham radio that's the way it was taught. The advantage is that you can't anticipate the next letter. The problem is that you get used to having a space every five characters. Not good for real language. The cipher groups were a real world method of sending encrypted military traffic and that's how they originated.
 

majoco

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You can also convert pulses to flashing lights.

Good for slow morse but anything over 10wpm is a blur. Learning by the sound is the only way, one morning it will just click and you find that it's almost automatic, writing down the letter without having to think about it. It's just like learning a foreign language. Our tutor back in the 60's said that we should vocalise to ourselves the dits and dahs of every written word we see on the way home - you soon realise that you stumble over some letters - F and L got me for a while.
 

ampulman

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Back in the late '50s or early '60s I got an Instructograph to learn morse code. Showed up at an FCC office to take the general test and was informed that they didn't do testing any longer.

Never made it to the Ham ranks. That box is still hiding somewhere in my basement.

Amp
 

rk911

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Back in the late '50s or early '60s I got an Instructograph to learn morse code. Showed up at an FCC office to take the general test and was informed that they didn't do testing any longer.

Never made it to the Ham ranks. That box is still hiding somewhere in my basement.

Amp

most of you likely know but just in case...the FCC dropped the morse code reqirements for all license classes many years ago. all that is needed these days to get a ham license is to pass a written exam.
 
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