Tnx Rob! He sent me this e-mail privately and I encouraged him to post it here since my comments were made with zero experience with such devices in learning the code. Back in 1950 a few enterprising folks had devised relatively simple tape "inkers" that printed dots and dashes on a strip of paper. That was about it, and they didn't work well even of one could afford to buy or build one. It wasn't until I could actually recognize and write the characters that I first decoded what those Morse signals were saying, not just Hams but the shortwaves were filled with them back then.
It's easy to make a tool become a crutch. I am genuinely pleased with his observations. I'm reminded of learning to fly back in 1956. After about 10 hours of flight time with an instructor sitting behind me, his hands ready to touch the tandem controls of the little Aeronca 7AC (like a Piper "cub") if I needed help, I was feeling pretty good about my ability to get us off the ground, make some turns and get back onto the ground again in one piece. Then came the day he said, as we taxied down the strip ready to make another take-off and landing, "stop here". I did and he got out. I was sitting there with my jaw hanging down to my knees. NO WAY was I ready to fly this thing without him in the back seat. All he said was, "It's time you did this alone. Just remember she's a little livelier without my weight in the back seat". Before I could reply he latched the door and stepped back. That is one of life's moments one never forgets. The run down the runway, holding a little rudder to compensate for the engine torque, the takeoff, yes, a little quicker than usual, the climb a little faster than usual, turns through the pattern and then floating, hanging in the sky a bit more than usual "over the fence" at the end of the runway without his weight, before the landing are all lost in a maze of thousands of such landings over the years, but that moment when it was me and the sky alone for the very first time I'll never forget. Those are lifetime memories, just like the first QSO on CW. Forget the fear. It's natural and meaningless. Go after the experience and embrace it. Thank you Rob! He's another of many thousands of true Hams who will patiently help you through those first CW QSO's. After all, the difference between your first solo flight and your first CW QSO is that you can *always* walk away from your first QSO! But don't be surprised if your legs aren't just a little rubbery just the same! Ron AC7AC -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rob Locher W7GH Sent: Friday, November 09, 2007 3:50 PM To: Elecraft Discussion List Subject: Re: [Elecraft] K3: An Observation for Struggling Brass-Pounders On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 17:08:24 -0800, Ron D'Eau Claire <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > This is a great feature for anyone who wants to hone their CW skills > from the most basic level on the air. As a Novice myself back in '52 who > could > barely get through a short signal exchange before my arm 'fell off' or my > last pencil point broke in my nervous hand I believe that actual on-air > experience is the fastest way to build CW confidence and skill. Hi Ron, Last weekend I had an hour or so to operate in the Sweepstakes. After having been licensed about a year, and on the air for nine months, the 2006 Sweepstakes was my first ever contest: talk about jumping into the deep end of the pool! (I ended up getting massacred with five QSOs for zero points; I had mis-copied something in every QSO.) Anyway, this Sweepstakes I was starting to get the hang of it. My comfortable ragchew copying speed is about 15-18 wpm, and my contest speed is as high as 30 wpm for a simple exchange, or about 22-25 wpm under Sweepstakes conditions. Someone had given me a Morse decoder based on IK3OIL's design, which has a NE567 decoding the tones and a PIC translating the Morse. Usually it doesn't work very well, because a crash of static will be interpreted as a dit. But when I was working some of the loud stations last weekend with the RF gain of my K2 turned way down, I noticed that my decoder box was working perfectly! Well my new-found toy became a crutch very quickly. I soon found myself not even listening, and instead watching the text scroll by. I switched it off after ten minutes, and was much happier. My opinion is that a Morse decoder does more harm than good for a learner. Maybe it might be helpful for those first few terrifying QSOs (which are still quite vivid in my memory), but I think that the learner would be far better off learning to trust his or her own decoding apparatus. 73, - Rob W7GH _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
