As a slow speed CW person, I could probably pass a 13 WPM test,
but 20 is still a bit away. I should also note that my learning
disabilities make it difficult to turn a string of letters into
a word without seeing them on paper or a screen. That
difficulty, and my inability to spell, resulted in my having no
novice QSOs back in 1960. I do have a few observations.
CW is a language, like German or Chinese (both of which I have
studied). I got to be good enough with German that I could
understand a conversation without translating it to English. The
translation process takes too long and you lose the thread of conversation.
The DX vocabulary is very small, and it is fairly easy to learn
it at high speed. The major words are:
CQ, AGN, ?, UP, TU, and your own call sign.
Contesting has a somewhat larger vocabulary. From the 160M
contest, we add: TEST, QTH?, SEC?, QRZ, 73, individual section
names, and probably a few others.
Note that none of these are words in any other language.
To operate in the CW environment doing contesting or DXing, you
will need to recognize these words the first time without having
to translate them to letters, just like conversing in a foreign
language. If you are search and pounce, you can get a stations
call by listening to it repeated several times. Running a
frequency means you will have to be able to copy calls the first
time, at least most of the time.
It might be useful to have a CW training system which drilled
you in the major vocabulary words for the kind of CW you want to
use. After you have been using CW for years, you may get to be
like Ron, AC7AC and be able to have the radio on in the shack
and just listen to a CW QSO, understanding without translating.
73 Bill AE6JV
--------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Frantz | There are now so many exceptions to the
408-356-8506 | Fourth Amendment that it operates only by
www.pwpconsult.com | accident. - William Hugh Murray
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