Guys,
I think all the comments are very good but would like to add this PRACTICE
PRACTICE PRACTICE...
I know lots of hams that would like to learn the code but not enough to put the
time in. If a person just puts in 15 or 20 minutes each day to practice, it
will keep them from slipping backwards on their copying speed IMO. In today's
world with phone APS it's easier and more convenient than ever. I encourage
hams to at least give CW a try because it can be very rewarding.
Happy New Year To All!
Best 73's
Bill N3WM EX Navy RM2 Vietnam Era
On Sunday, December 29, 2019, 11:41:41 AM EST, Mike Morrow
<[email protected]> wrote:
Discussions of Morse copying skills are nowadays addressed to casual amateur
efforts where complete and accurate hard-copy output is seldom required.
Professional Morse skill was measured at the speed that the operator produced
complete and accurate hard-copy. An operator who head copies at 50 wpm but
hard copies at 15 wpm was a 15 wpm operator.
In the history of Morse for military and commercial service, the ONLY valuable
skill was producing accurate hard-copy of both plain language text and code
groups. The professional licenses for radiotelegraphy were the Third Class,
Second Class, and First Class Radiotelegraph certificates. The Third and
Second Class licenses required the following:
PLAIN LANGUAGE (including common punctuation) - 20 wpm - Receive and send 100
consecutive characters (1 minute) without error in a 500 character (5 minute)
text.
CODE GROUPS (5-character groups of letters and numbers) - 16 wpm - Receive and
send 80 consecutive characters (1 minute) without error in a 400 character (5
minute) text.
Most candidates found that slow-speed code group receiving test to be the most
difficult part. (It took me three 200-mile trips to the Kansas City FCC office
to finally pass.) All those mental skills that allow an operator to decipher
entire words in plain language are of no help with code groups...there's no
process of "hearing code groups". There is also no possibility of reviewing
copied text and context for needed obvious corrections. Although it's not
required for 16 wpm, operators skilled at high speed code groups develop an
automatic "unthinking" response to actuate keys on the mill/keyboard as
characters are heard.
The era of the professional commercial Morse operator essentially ended in July
1999 when maritime Morse operation ceased in the US. In the same era the US
military banned use of Morse, even going so far as eliminating it from MARS
repeater IDs.
It was a great era with great operators. A dear friend of mine (Al, W5KGM) was
a professional Morse operator for airlines and in WWII Atlantic merchant ship
convoys from 1937 to the 1970s. He could do do everything commercial-quality
at 60-wpm or better. He became a silent key at age 102 last year...there
aren't many such "real" Morse professionals left.
It's unfortunate that the ham bands have been since 1999 the only place that
Morse radiotelegraphy may be heard for practice. Before that, the marine Morse
bands (especially 400 to 520 kHz) provided far more interesting copy for
development of Morse reception skill. (I usually kept a receiver on 500
kHz/600 meters at night.) Morse skill was also reinforced (at least for a
while) in the Cold War for radiomen in my squadron of ballistic missile
submarines on the logical consideration that if world events ever provoked
missile launch, it was unlikely that normal sophisticated submarine
communications networks would exist afterwards.
But today...Morse is only a hobbyist's or historian's undertaking. I
personally found practice at Morse reception to be far more rewarding outside
the ham bands...but that option no longer exists.
Mike / KK5F
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