the art and skill · 2019-12-01 · the art and skill of radio-telegraphy 2 william g. pierpont...

William G. Pierpont N0HFF” 1932-2001 1

The Art and Skillof

Radio-Telegraphy

A Manual For Learning, Using, Mastering And EnjoyingThe International Morse Code As A Means Of Communication

William G. Pierpont NØHFF“What Hath God Wrought!”

Third Revised Edition July 6, 2ØØ1

Copyright © 2ØØ1William G. Pierpont, NØHFF

The Art and Skill of Radio-Telegraphy

2 William G. Pierpont N0HFF” 1932-2001

“For those who are interested in telegraphy, for those who wouldlike to learn it, for those who love it, and for those who want toimprove their skills in it.”

William G. Pierpont NØHFFThe art and skill of telegraphy is unique. The psychologists who haveseriously studied those who have developed this skill have been fasci-nated and challenged to try to understand it. Isn’t the very idea ofbeing able to communicate your thoughts to another by means of in-termittent tones something intriguing in itself?The Art and Skill of Radio-Telegraphy currently has the following known trans-lations and web adaptationsFrench: Third Revised Edition: Editor Maurice Colombani-GailleurF6IIE, http://f6iie.free.fr/booknØhff.htm orhttp://www.uft.net/titre_web.htm

Danish: Editor: Jens Henrik Nohns, ØZ1CAR, Laerkevej 11, DK-7441Bording, Denmark

Japanese: 2nd Edition 1997, Published 1Ø August 2ØØØ in Tokyo bythe JARL A1 Club, Editor: Atzu Taniguchi, JE1TRW, with assistance ofother JARL 1A Club members.http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~a1c/Art&Skill/Art&Skill.htm

English: Second Revised Edition, First adapted for the World Wide Webby Jon Oates GMØVIY for MEGS,http://www.geocities.com/gmØrse/nØhff/index.htm

English: Second Revised Edition, Second adaptation for the World WideWeb by Ronal G. Bellamy VE6SIR for RAES

http://www.raes.ab.ca/book/index.html

English Third Revised Edition, last edited July 6, 2ØØ1, Editor, DaveClarke, VE6LX

English Third Revised Edition, last edited July 8, 2ØØ1, is now avail-able for download at the following: http://www.qsl.net/n9bor/nØhff.htmEditor, Fred Adsit, NY2V

Preparation and distribution of the text files by Jim Farrior W4FOK along with hisprogram “The Mill”http://www.net-magic.net/users/w4fok/This book may be freely reproduced and published, but only on a no-profit basis in order to make it as widely available as possible to thosewho need it... NØHFF



ContentsC o n t e n t s 3Preface 8In t roduc t ion 8Is the Radio-Telegraph CodeO b s o l e t e ? 1 0Learning the Morse Code - AnO v e r v i e w 1 1Where we are going 11Chapter 1 1 3How to Go About it Efficiently 13This Chapter Is A Summary To Prepare You ToLearn 13How Long Will It Take Me To Learn 17

Chapter 2 1 7Principles of Skill Building and Attitudesfor Success 17We Are Building A Set Of Habits 17Relax 18Develop A Good Mental Attitude 19Stage One Learning The A-B-C’s 19Stage Two - Practice 20More About Attitudes For Success 21Picturing Success Is Strong Preparation For It 21

Chapter 3 2 3Part I: Laying the Foundation 23Let’s Begin With The A-B-C’s 23Motivation 24Learning The Morse Code Is Similar ToLearning To Read 25The Morse A-B-C ‘S Are Patterns Of Sound 26

Part II: Laying the Foundation 26Delayed Perception And Instant Recognition 26Listen Only To The Best Quality Of Code 27Getting Started 27What Characters Shall We Begin With 28Methods To Go About Teaching 28

Part III: Laying the Foundation 30Chapter 4 3 2

Building The First Floor On The SolidFoundation 32Instant Recognition 32Anticipating 32What Kind Of Material To Practice 33Other Ways 34How Long And What Kind Of Practice 34Getting Stuck 36The 1ØØ Most Common Words In English 36Passing Examinations 37

Chapter 5 3 7Practice To Gain Proficiency 37How Far Do You Want To Go 37Make Each Practice Period A Step Forward 39Kinds Of Practicing 39Listening Practice 39Word Recognition Practice 40Copying Practice 41Sending Practice 41Mental Practice 42On The Air Practice 42

Chapter 6 4 3How Fast 43The Wrong Question. 43How Well 43Copyability 43Fast Enough To Communicate Satisfyingly 44The Proficient Operator 45Your Own Goal 45Shortening Things Up 46

Chapter 7 4 8Listening or Reading 48Listen 48Concentrate 50Learn To Hear - Words As Words 50How Can We Learn To Do This 51We Must Listen At Higher Speeds To Improve

53



Missing Words 53Long Words 53Decapitated Words 53Broken Words 53On-The-Air Listening 55

Chapter 8 5 5Copying Getting it written down 55Practice With Familiar Text Helps 56Pay No Attention To Any Errors 57If You Want To Become More Proficient 57In The Beginning 58A Better Way 58What Makes Sense Is Easier 60Conquering Our Fears Of Losing Out 61Other Suggestions 62How Long Shall I Practice 62Fading, Static, Interference and or Poor Fists 62Correcting Imperfect Copy 63Other Observations 6398 Of The 1ØØ Most Common Words 64

Chapter 9 6 4Sending and the Straight Key – Part I 64Quality Of Sending 64Keying And What It Means 65The First Morse Key 65Recommendations To The Beginner 65The Straight Key 66The American Straight Key And Its Use 67Gaining Skill, Errors, and Automaticity 68Personal Characteristics, Fists 69

Chapter 9 6 9Sending and the Straight Key – Part II 69KEYS 69The Traditional British Key And Its Usage 70Using A Straight Key 71Glass Arm 72Tests for Proper Operation of a Hand-Key 73What Is It That Makes a Good Hand-Key? 73

Chapter 1Ø 7 4

Other Keying Devices And Their Use 74All Kinds of Keys 75Other Kinds Of Manual Keys 75The Bug 76Using A Bug 76Setting the Adjustments of a Bug 77Sending With A Bug 78Keyers 78Keyboards 79An Interesting Bug 80

Chapter 11 8 0Further Development of Skills 80Higher Skills 80Truly High-Speed CW Awaited Electronics 81Looking Backward And Forward 81The Skilled Operator 83Faster – Faster - Faster 83Reading Versus Copying Skill 84The Sound Barrier 84How Can Such Skill Be Developed 85Factors Needed To Get There 86Who Can Do It 87Amateur High Speed Clubs 88

Chapter 12 8 9How Long Will It Take To Learn 89Marshall H. Ensor’s Code Course 89Another Example - Compounded By Handicaps

91More Examples 93Some Outstanding Examples Of Effectiveness

93Determination and Persistence 94By Contrast 94

Chapter 13 9 5The Role of Memory in Telegraphy 95Some Further Questions and Thoughts 96

Chapter 14 9 7The Ear 97Pitch Of CW Signal 97Sensitivity To Duration Of Sound 98



The Ear Can Often Make Sense Out Of PoorSending 98The Trained Ear Can Discriminate BetweenSignals 99Headphones Are Superior To A Speaker 99

Chapter 15 9 9Timing 99Timing Is The Heart Of The Code 99The Basic Units 100Relative Duration And Spacing Are VeryImportant 100Irregularities In Timing 101

Chapter 16 1 0 3Other Methods 103Personal Computers And Keyboards For Self-Learning 103Many Computer Programs Are Excellent 103Growing Up With Hearing It 104Learning By Listening To High Speed Code 104Further Comments On Gaining Speed 104Sleep Learning 105Another Suggestion That Has Worked 105McElroy’s Course and His Claims For It 106

Chapter 17 1 0 6Common Errors and What To Do AboutThem 106Chapter 18 1 0 7Computer Programs And Tapes ForLearning And Improving Skill In Code

107Morse University 107SuperMorse By Lee Murrah, WD5CID 108Morseman+ By Robin Gist NE4L/ZF2PM 108GGTE Morse Tutor Gold 108The Mill. by James S. Farrior, W4FOK 108The Morse Tutor Program 109

NuMorse by Tony Lacy G4AUD 110Code Tapes For Learning And For OtherPurposes 110

Chapter 19 1 1 1A Brief History of Morse Telegraphy –Part I 111

The Original Morse Code 112Who Invented What We Call The Morse Code

112Vail’s Thinking 115

Chapter 19 1 1 7A Brief History of Morse Telegraphy –Part II 117The Original Morse Code Modified In Europe

117Equipment 118Early Day Operators Up Through The CivilWar 119Operators After The Civil War 119The Introduction Of Wireless 120When Were The Terms Dit And DahIntroduced 120

Chapter 2Ø 1 2 1Learning the American Morse Code 121Comparisons 121Timing 122No Need For Confusion 122Learning It 123Learning To Read By Sounder 125American Morse - An Art 125Some Further Comparisons 125Some Practice Materials For Learning 126From the MILL ØØa Operational Notes 127

Chapter 21 1 2 8Methods Not Recommended 128Doing It the Hard Old Way 128The student 128Other Discouraging Processes 129So: 130The Futility of Wrong Practice 131

Chapter 22 1 3 2Word Lists For Practice 132The 1ØØ Words Grouped By Function 132Some sentences composed of these words aloneare: 132The Rest Of The 5ØØ Most Common Words

132Some Common Prefixes And Suffixes 133



Some Common Phrases For Practice 133Some Long Words For Practicing 133

Chapter 23 1 3 4Making Sure You’re Understood 134From The Originator’s Standpoint 134Feedback And Redundancy 134Repeating And Counting Words 135Using Redundancy Intelligently 135At The Receiving End 136

Chapter 24 1 3 8Bandwidths and Key Clicks 138Chapter 25 1 3 9Code Courses and Devices Advertised inthe Older Days 139The Omnigraph 139Recorders And Computers 143

Chapter 26 1 4 4Speed Contests 144Chapter 27 1 4 7Abbreviations 147Some Of The More Common Abbreviations InCW Work 147Abbreviations Used In Traffic Handling 148Examples Of The Phillips Code 148A Few Useful Z- Signals 151

Chapter 28 1 5 2Letter Frequency Counts 152International Morse Code 152

Letter 152Structure 1 5 2Units 152T o t a l 1 5 2Foreign Adaptations Of The InternationalMorse Code 154For the Original American Morse code 154

Chapter 29 1 5 4The Koch Researches 154Tests To Determine What Competent OperatorsAre Doing 154

Sending Tests 155Receiving Tests 155Analysis And Criticism Of Previous TeachingMethods 156

Tests To Establish A Better TeachingMethod 157Character Speed For Initial Learning 157Can The Rhythm Patterns Be Enhanced 158

What Letters Should Be Taught First 159When To Introduce A New Character 159Should Practice Be By Groups Of Letters

159Troublesome Characters 160How Long Should Lessons Be And HowDistributed In Time 160New Philosophy For Teaching 161Designing An Efficient TeachingProgram 162Summary 164Chapter 3Ø 1 6 5The Candler System 165Background 165The Course 166The Essential Principles 166Critique 167Lesson One 169Lesson Two 169Lesson Three 169Lesson Four 170Lesson Five 170Lesson Six 170Lesson Seven 170Lesson Eight 171Lesson Nine 171Lesson Ten 171

Chapter 31 1 7 1The So-Called Farnsworth or SpacingMethod 171Chapter 32 1 7 3



Other Alphabets 173Chapter 33 1 7 4A Brief History of United States OperatorLicensing Requirements and MilitaryTraining 174In the Beginning 174The First Laws 1912 to 1927 174The Radio Act Of 1927 1761933 And After 1761951 And After 1761954 177Various Military Training Requirements 177

Chapter 34 1 7 8Examples which Illustrate the Nature ofReal Skills 178Receiving Code While Doing Something Else

178

Sending and writing at the same time 178Sending and receiving simultaneously 178Receiving two or more messages at same time

178Comparison with other mental functions anddiscussion 179Speeds 180Some Interesting Examples Of Young SkilledOperators Of The Past 181Examples Of Effective Code Learning 181Learning 181

A p p e n d i x 1 8 3A New Way To Talk 183Talking 183QRQ Operators 185Sources of Material 2 0 5Index 2 0 8



PrefaceThe first edition of this book wasprepared under a strong time-pressure to collect and preservethe results of years of reading andresearch into the best ways tolearn the code initially, to gainskill “how the experts say they doit” together with a number ofother associated aspects of inter-est. The urge was to get the majorprinciples and features organizedbefore they got lost or buried inmy files.Diskettes of that first edition wereshared with a very few people. Itwas soon replaced by a revisedfirst edition in which a number ofaccidental errors were correctedand some clarifications made inwording. It was also producedunder considerable pressure,leaving quite a number of addi-tional items of general or specificinterest lying unincorporated inthe files.Many diskette copies of this edi-tion were distributed, a thousanddiskette copies were made anddistributed free by the VirginiaBeach Ham Fest and Convention,it was copied and printed by theFISTS CW Club of America andby several others, including myfriend James (Jim) Farrior,W4FOK, who has reproduced it inhis “The Mill” code leaningprograms.The second revised edition filledin selected items, clarified andexpanded several areas, broughtsome of the appendixes into thebody of text, as well as corrected afew instances, particularly in old

Ch.15, now Ch. 19, on the devel-opment of the Morse code itself.This Third Revised Edition fills inwhere the second revision left offand reveals a summary to theKoch research and adds some ofthe High-Speed material into theAppendix. It is hoped that thisedition will be welcomed by thosewho love the subject of telegraphyand will continue to be helpful tothose wishing to learn or perfectthis fascinating and worthwhileskill.It is my hope that you, as reader,will find it to be of both interest-ing and useful. I make no claimthat it is complete, perfect or final,or that it contains everything ofpossible value or interest. I havehad to leave out some interestingitems, especially of history. Per-haps some of these, plus anythingyou, as reader, may wish to con-tribute, could be added in furthereditions.

IntroductionThe research behind this bookwould probably never have beendone at all if I had not been soeager to learn the telegraphiccode, but made such a terribleflop of it. I just barely qualifiedfor a license in early 193Ø, andfor a very long time could notreceive it well enough to reallyenjoy using it. Like most others inthose past days, I memorized the“dots and dashes” from a printedtable.A good teacher might havehelped, but.... If only I could havehad just the following key para-graph from the QST article of



July 1923, it would have at leastgotten me off on the right foot:

“The first step in learning thecode is to memorize the dotand dash combinations repre-senting the letters. They mustnot be visualized as dots anddashes, however, but rathershould be “auralized” assounds. There is no such wordas auralized, but if there wereit would express the correctmethod of grasping the code.The sound dit-dah (meaning adot followed by a dash) in thehead telephones must impressyour mind directly as beingthe letter “A” for instance,without causing black dotsand dashes to float beforeyour eyes for an instant. Thisis a point that always troublesbeginners, but if you learnfrom the first to recognize thesounds as letters immediatelywithout reverting to dots anddashes, you will make muchbetter progress...”

More succinctly: “Don’t try toteach the Ears through theEyes.” (Wireless Press 1922)

I was not alone in making thisfirst false step: very many othersdid it that way, too, and probablysome today still do. It was and isthe inevitable reason why mostpeople who start this way getstuck at some speed, around tenwords per minute or less, andcan’t seem to get beyond it.The second mistake, even inlearning by hearing, is in hearingthe characters sent so slowly thatthe learner tends to analyze eachone into dits and dahs, and even

counts them mentally. (It is wiseindeed for the beginner never tohear code characters sent atspeeds below about 13 wpm.)These two errors largely accountfor getting stuck at higher speedsalso - they mean we have notreally learned the characters.Today, there are many tapes andcomputer programs availablewhich teach the Morse code inways that avoid making either ofthese basic errors. This book hasbeen written to share the results ofthis research of the literature -also including talks with skilledoperators - with those who want tolearn or teach the Morse code, orto improve their own skills. Itmajors on the methods that haveproved most successful, but alsodiscusses some which should beavoided. It offers guidance forthose just beginning, and help forthose who are stuck and want toimprove. It also tells how thosewho are proficient and those whoare experts operate.Some history and related itemsare included in the later chaptersfor those who are interested intelegraphic communication. Myhope is that you will find it notonly interesting but helpful. Thisis a “How To” book, not a scien-tific treatise. Source credits forindividual items have rarely beennoted. Many a contribution hascome from multiple sources. Mostof the significant sources arelisted under Sources.“I have never known a personwho was truly proficient with codeto dislike it: on the contrary, themore proficient they are, the morethey love it.” The Morse code is a



means of communication, a newway to enjoy expressing yourself.William G. Pierpont NØHFF

Is the Radio-TelegraphCode Obsolete?

Outsiders and some of thoselooking into Amateur radiooften ask this question: “Isn’tthe Morse code obsolete?Hasn’t modern technologydisplaced it?”

Back in 1912 nobody balked atlearning the code: it was simplethen - if you didn’t know thecode you couldn’t even listen andunderstand, much less communi-cate by wireless.But today, however, it refuses tolie down and die. Why not onlyold timers, but many newcomershave found that it is a skill worthlearning, a pleasure just as anyother skill. There is a real sense ofpleasure and achievement incommunicating this way. Somefind it an excellent means of es-cape, a way to forget immediatework-a-day problems and com-pletely absorb one’s attention.There is practical value also. Itcan get a message though whereother methods fail. Operatorshave long known that Morse codesignals penetrate distance, and gothrough interference and staticwhere voice signals can’t hack it.This is why low power (QRP) en-thusiasts find that it is far superiorto voice. Besides this, the equip-ment required, both transmittingand receiving, is much simplerand smaller, uses less power, andin an emergency can often be

built up from simple, availableparts.These factors have not escapedthe Russian communists. Theywere also deeply impressed withthe reliability, simplicity andlower cost of equipment for codecommunication and ease inmaintaining it. (In the same lineof thinking, their military radiogear has all been vacuum tubetype to avoid potential damagedue to radiation.) Therefore,through the years they havepopularized and promoted learn-ing the Morse code and develop-ing skill in its use. It was includedamong their civilian “sports”activities. Contests and prizes wereoffered to the best and fastest op-erators. This would assure them ofa pool of skilled, high-speed op-erators in event of war. Severalyears ago a couple of Americansoldiers who were amateurs weretaken captive from a ship whichwas too close to North Koreanshores. They were surprised tofind that very many civilians inthat country readily understoodcode.In recent years our own militaryseem to have awakened to all this,and have re-begun to train somepersonnel for Morse code opera-tion. In addition, they have real-ized that Morse is an effectivemeans of communicating duringperiods when the enemy is jam-ming. There are other advantagesalso. It uses the narrowest signalbandwidth, which for amateur usemeans more channels are avail-able within a band. It has the bestsignal-to-noise ratio, and in addi-tion, an operator can soon learn toseparate (mentally “filter”) sig-



nals which are very close togetherby differences in pitch, speed andstyle of sending.

Learning the Morse Code -An Overview

Where we are goingIf you are looking for anymagic, any secrets, any trickshere - or hypnotism - youwon’t find it. What we do of-fer is just practical, time-testedworking methods, which to-gether take advantage of allthat has been learned over theyears about how to teach andlearn the Morse code effi-ciently and well.

George Hart, long time code ex-pert with ARRL put it this way:“The greatest obstacle in learningcode is the method used.”Ted R. McElroy, teacher and longtime code speed champion saidthat any normal person can easilyachieve 25 wpm. This is an easilyachievable and reasonable goal.One who can handle this speedcomfortably is a good operator.The original American Morsecode of 1845 was designed tocommunicate: to transmit over thetelegraph wires any and everykind of written message or infor-mation in letter-perfect, number-perfect, and punctuation-perfectform. It was recorded as a wigglyline on a strip of paper tape to beread or interpreted by eye. Verysoon the operators discovered thatthey could read the recorder’snoises accurately by ear, and so intime sounders slowly began toreplace the recorders.

Not very long after this beginningoperators became so skilled thatthey began to chit-chat easily overthe wires among themselves, muchlike radio amateurs do todaywhen they “chew the rag”. Thatkind of freedom should be ourgoal - easy, natural use of thecode to communicate, similar tothe way we read and talk. That’swhere we are headed.The code is not a new language. Itis the language you already know,“written” in sound patterns in-stead of patterns of ink on paper -it is your own language. You willlearn to “read” by ear the lan-guage you already read so well byeye.

This is lesson one, it is mostimportant always to think of itthis way:- Every Code Letter,Number And Symbol Is AUnique Pattern Of Sound.

Psychology teaches us that whenwe start to learn something new, ifwe think of it as being easy, it willbe easy. The best teachers neverhint or suggest that there is any-thing hard about it, and their stu-dents learn it quickly, usuallywithin a week or two. They alsomake learning it fun . We learnmuch faster that way; so think oflearning it as fun - enjoyable. Ifyou want to learn it - you can.Our foundation is the alphabet,numbers and punctuation marks.Learn these sound patterns so wellthat when, for example, you hear“dahdahdit” you immediatelyrecognize it is “G”. This is basic,but don’t stop there. Code is tocommunicate: and we don’t talkin letters, but in words. Words are



our smallest thinking units. Evenwhile we are still learning to mas-ter the alphabet we can begin torecognize small common words,such as “the” and “of” as wordswhen we hear them.When we first learned to read, wecould already talk, but readingwas something new, and it took alittle effort to learn. At first wehad to spell out each word, thentry to figure out how to pro-nounce it, and then rememberwhat we had already decipheredwhile we tackled the next wordsuntil we had laboriously “ r e a d ”the whole sentence. The begin-ning stage of learning the code isthat way, too, but it doesn’t needto stay that way. Words are writtenas strings of letters, one letter afteranother. But we don’t read themthat way - we read the word. If wecouldn’t spell we couldn’t writeeither - or else we would have touse hieroglyphics. Words mustbecome our units of thought inMorse because words make senseand they are easy to remember.Reading code, like reading print,becomes much easier and fasterwhen we have learned to recog-nize words instead of spellingthem out as strings of letters. Agood reader reads words, andeven strings of words at a glance.We can learn to do it: many, manyothers have. We are hardly con-scious of the letters which spellout the words we read so easilynow. Our attention is focused onthe thoughts written in print, andour reactions are to the ideas ex-pressed.When we begin to reach this stagewith Morse code, we are begin-

ning to become proficient. So ourplans are_ to learn the alphabet of

sound patterns so well thatwe recognize each letter in-stantly, then

_ to learn to recognize mostof the words we hear aswords, and finally

_ to learn to listen to thestream of code as we wouldto someone speaking to usin words and ideas.

That is proficiency, whatever thespeed is being received. We canlearn to do this at any speed. Ourgoal should be to learn to use thecode so that it becomes easy andnatural, like the way we read andtalk.



Chapter 1How to Go About it Effi-cientlyThis Chapter Is A Summary ToPrepare You To LearnLearning the Morse code is ac-quiring a New set of Habits. It is askill subject governed by the sameprinciples that apply to learningtennis, shorthand, typing, playinga musical instrument, etc. Regularconsistent, repetitive Practice setsin concrete what we do and theway we do it.Some people have managed tomaster the Morse code withoutany help. Others have used poormethods, and both have all toooften given up when they came toa plateau, short of proficiency.Today methods are availablewhich almost guarantee success,and a number of fine courses ex-ist using these methods.These principles are outlined be-low and will get the beginner offon the right foot and bring him toproficiency. If you are one whohas gotten stuck, use them to getback on track. They offer themost rapid way to success inlearning the telegraph code andachieving a real mastery of it.Prepared - prepared with the rightAttitudes, and with knowing Whatto do and H o w do it. This canmean the difference between suc-cess and failure.1. Your A t t i t u d e toward

learning is crucially im-portant: It is essentialPreparation for success.

_ Have a “Can-Do-It”attitude, because it iseasy to learn. If youdon’t tell people thatlearning the code ishard, it won’t be. Ifyou really want tolearn it, you can. Ap-proach it as if it wereimpossible to fail. Mo-tivate yourself.

_ Keep a Relaxed At-mosphere, free of ten-sion, pressure, anysense of hurry andanxiety.

_ E n j o y the learningprocess itself.

_ Picture Yourself BeingSuccessful.

Comments:- Whenever we thinkof anything as “hard,” it createsa stumbling block, and that tendsto discourage us. - Most peoplefind that competition during theinitial stages hinders learning. Inactual reading and copying code,any anxiety or undue concernabout “getting it all”, or too in-tense interest in what is being re-ceived, or trying to outguess whatis coming next, can cause us tomiss out some of what follows. -People who do things well do notstruggle with them. - “Relaxedreceptiveness” works.2. Get your first impression of

the code characters by Lis-tening to them - By Ear -the way you will actuallyuse them.

Throw away all printed codecharts and any trick memorymethods people offer - they willinevitably slow you down and



may even discourage you as youadvance.Comments:- The reason learningthe code by eye or by mentalpictures will slow you down is be-cause our visual and auditory(hearing) memories are com-pletely separate from and unre-lated to each other. Trying tolearn by charts or “sound alikes”slows down learning because theymake us go through one or moreneedless steps each time we heara character. In both cases themind has to go through a con-scious analytical or translationexercise for each signal. SeeChapters 4 and 133. From the very first learn to

hear each code character asa Unit Of Sound, a wholepattern, a rhythm.

At first each character should besent fast enough, preferably fromabout 18 to 25 wpm or evenfaster, for us to hear it as a unit,and with a wide space before andafter it. Never, never try to ana-lyze it into parts. This is most im-portant.4. The Code Character Is The

Letter.For example, when you hear “d i -dah” recognize it immediately asbeing “A” - you are “hearing”the letter “A.” Associate the codesignal with the printed letter sointimately that when you hear orthink of the one, the other imme-diately pops into mind. Ourmental “equation” should beimmediate, like this:“didah” “A”, “A” “didah”.

Instant recognition is what westrive for.

These Four Principles Are Ab-solutely Essential.

5. Concentrate On One AspectAt A Time.

For example, don’t try to learn toblock print or typewrite while youare learning to copy.6. Learn To Receive The

Code Accurately - this isour primary goal.

In receiving we must wait untileach character or word has beencompletely sent before we cancorrectly recognize it. We mustdevelop that patient, receptivestate of mind that allows us torecognize each character instantlyand accurately as soon as it hasbeen completed.7. Listen only to Accurately

Sent Code.Accurate character formation -timing - is essential for efficientlearning. Proper spacing betweenletters and words is as importantas the correct formation of thecharacters themselves. and be-comes even more important asspeeds increase. At first it is bestto listen to cassette tapes, com-puter or keyboard generatedcode. If you have a teacher followhis advice.If you listen to poorly sent codeyou will needlessly distract themind by forcing it to try con-sciously to figure out what thecharacters are supposed to be.(Once you become proficient,you can learn to read such send-ing.) Likewise, in the early stages



of learning avoid all distractingnoises, and interference, such asstatic and other signals.Sending becomes relatively easyafter you have a good timingsense. It is also easier because youknow in advance what is comingnext. However, listening to yourown sending at too early a stagemay hinder learning because thecharacters are not being sent ac-curately enough.8. Plan for regular daily

Practice Periods.The learner needs to know exactlyW h a t he is going to do andWhen. Make them Short Enoughto prevent fatigue, boredom ordiscouragement. Space themwidely enough apart to let whatyou have gained sink in. Practiceis building habits: let’s practiceonly what is right.We all have our ups and downs.Some days we will do better thanothers- this is just a part of normallearning, so don’t let it discourageyou. It’s better to put off prac-ticing to advance at a “bad” time(if you’re tired out, sick, down inthe dumps). Make practice mate-rial enjoyable - interesting in vari-ety and content.9. Listening And Copying.If you are studying alone, startout by just listening without writ-ing down anything. (See section 2above.) Listen to the signal andsay the name of the letter ornumber out loud immediatelyafter you hear it. After you getfamiliar with all the letters andnumbers so you feel somewhatcomfortable recognizing them,then practice writing down each

letter or number immediately af-ter hearing and recognizing it(that’s called “copying”). SeeChapters 7 and 8.Teachers differ on the best way tostart out. Your teacher or coursemay start out having you writedown each character as you hearit. Either way is to help you asso-ciate the sound with the letter ornumber. Sooner or later you willwant to be able to do both.In any event, as skill increases weare going to have to learn tocopy. At first it will be letter byletter. But that will prove to be tooslow as our skills increase. - Inorder to advance we need to learnto copy behind: that is, to bewriting down what has been heardwhile listening to what is beingsent. This only needs to be a syl-lable or two or a word or two be-hind, even at high speeds - thistakes the pressure off. For manypeople it seems to develop almostautomatically as they practice anduse the code, but most of us needhelp. There are several exerciseswhich can help us. See Chapter 8.Some hams started out copyingeverything, and have become sotied to their pencils that they justcan’t seem to understand any-thing without writing it down first.That is an awkward way to con-verse! “Throw Away Your Pen-cil” is good advice. It forces us tolearn to receive by just listening.(I knew a ham who for over 6Øyears couldn’t receive without apencil. When he became almostblind, he had to learn - and hedid, very quickly!) We need tolearn both ways - to copy and tolisten. So what if we miss a few



words here or there? - We can stillget the gist of it. Remember -even the best operators sometimesmiss a word or two.1Ø. We gain Speed by the right

kind of practice.It depends on more and morenearly instant recognition, first ofcharacters, then of words and fi-nally of larger units of speech andthought. To advance in receivingspeed we must push ourselves.Short bursts of speed work best -even as short as a single minute ata time, rarely more than 3 to 5minutes. If you want to increaseyour speed, listen to code at aspeed faster than you can get itall, and pick out all the words youcan recognize. In copying, pick aspeed just a little too fast for atleast part of your practice time.How fast you want to be able toreceive is up to you. Set your owngoal.Remember, however, that the goalis Communication of intelligence,not just speed for the sake ofspeed.11. We advance in skill after

mastering the letters, num-bers, etc., by learning toHear Words As Words in-stead of just strings of let-ters

This is the second stage in mas-tering the code. Most people findit already beginning even whilestill working to master the alpha-bet, as they recognize little wordslike “of” and “the.” We need toextend it to include at least thewords we use most often. Start bydeliberately listening for andpracticing them until they become

units of sound and recognition-heard and sent as words.Our list of 1ØØ most commonwords is a good place to begin(see end of Chapter 4). Practicethem by listening to them, and asyou send them over and over -until when you think of the wordit just seems to flow naturally as ifyou were reading or writing it.Practicing with these commonwords seems to help the brain be-gin to learn to handle many otherwords as words, too. We can ex-tend this skill by practicing someof the word prefixes and suffixes,such as pro-, per-, com-, -ing, -tion, etc. The bigger the units ofsound we recognize as units theeasier receiving and sending be-come.This kind of practice, with carefulregard for spacing and timing,will prevent forming the sloppyhabits some hams have fallen intoas they run the letters of shortwords together like a single com-plex character, and also when theyforget to space between words.These things make reading andcopying very difficult, and asspeeds increase, can make it al-most impossible.12. Over-learning is the secret

of real proficiency.It is achieved when we simply re-ceive and send in code with thefreedom and ease that we havewhen we talk, read and write, vir-tually unconscious of the code ascode at all. One old-time operator,when asked whether the otherham had used a certain word, re-plied that he didn’t remember theactual word - he had the thoughtclearly in mind, but he couldn’t



remember the exact word. That isa mark of the expert.From the language arts we learnhow people become fluent in aforeign language. It is by Repeti-tion , saying the same sentencesover and over, with or without lit-tle variations until they becomeautomatic. Or in other words, JustBecoming So Familiar With Itthat it seems natural. When wereach that point, no matter whatour top speed may be, we haveachieved a mastery of the code. Itis a goal well worth our efforts.These points are expanded andexplained in considerable detail inthe rest of Part I. If you are a be-ginner, go immediately to Chapter3.Chapter 2 will help you under-stand the why’s of our recom-mendations, and the furtherchapters are yours to grow on.Experience has shown that undernormal conditions, like riding abicycle, once your code skill hasreached about 13 or more wordsper minute (wpm) it is never for-gotten. You may become “rus ty”but the skill quickly returns.

How Long Will It Take Me ToLearnThose who have been taught us-ing these principles and methodshave taken from a minimum ofone week to an average of aboutthree up to eight weeks to achievea satisfying 15 to 2Ø wpm work-ing speed. People are different inbackground, in attitude, in ap-proach to learning, in interest,enthusiasm and drive, and in whatthey want to do with the Morse

code once they have learned it.All of these factors play a part inthe time it will take. The mainthing is to want to learn it, what-ever time it may take, to realizethat it is EASY and to want toUSE it when it has been learned.Those who just learn it to get alicense, and do not intend to use itwill probably find it not be usefulwithin a year or two. Yet some ofthem may even find that it is in-teresting and really interestingand worth while. Some have donethis already. Read Chapter 12.Code is a pleasure when we knowit well. It is an art worth acquiring.It Is To Be Enjoyed

Chapter 2Principles of Skill Buildingand Attitudes for Success

Two factors are of primaryimportance in building a skillefficiently:

1. Right Mental Attitudes2. Practice - doing it the right

way from the very startNeither one alone will maximizesuccess.Here we apply these principles tolearning the code.

We Are Building A Set Of Hab-itsSkill-building is generating a setof habits. It begins at the highlyconscious levels of letter by letter,number by number, etc. Gradu-ally your skill will build up -sometimes by sudden break-throughs. More and more sub-conscious control takes over and



there will be less and less con-scious thought about it. As it be-comes more and more automatic,your full attention can be givenover to the thought content, theideas expressed while listening,and when copying, you may findyourself thinking of somethingaltogether different.Telegraphy is a skill somewhatlike playing golf, a musical in-strument, typewriting, etc. It islearning a set of habits which canbe called into operation wheneverdesired, and which work auto-matically and without consciouseffort when we want them. It hasan active and a passive aspect. It isactive when we are sending, andpassive when receiving. The goalis to become able to receive andsend as easily as the expert does -he is comfortable about it - just asif he were carrying on a conver-sationSkill is developed by consistent,repetitive practice of materialswhich become increasingly fa-miliar (letters, numbers, words,punctuation, etc.). Never practiceerror! Only correct practice isbeneficial. This builds confidenceand proficiency.Our major focus will be onlearning to receive (which is lis-tening with understanding or bywriting it down). Ultimately con-scious thinking of the code mustbe eliminated, and we respondautomatically. Then sending willbe easy, too.Anything1. That produces tension or2. Requires thinking interferes

both with the learning

process and with using thecode.

RelaxIn the process of learning, mini-mize tensions by having a clearpicture of where you are headed -the goal, what you are going to doand the steps you’re going to taketo get there. Take little steps, oneat a time - small enough that youknow you can do each one. In-troduce new material little by lit-tle, in small enough bites that youdon’t feel overwhelmed - yet notso slowly that it becomes boring.Provide enough variety to keep itinteresting, and introduce newitems as soon as you are ready.Take it easy. Especially in theearly learning stages keep thingsat low key, comfortable and freefrom strain. Some people learnfaster than others, so it is a goodidea to avoid all competition (be-cause it tenses us up) while youare learning the new game of theA B Cs in sound - learn at yourown rate.Avoid all unnecessary tensionsbecause they tend to distract ourattention. That also means beingwe need to get rid of all kinds ofdistractions, worries, duties andanything else that makes us feelconcerned so that we can concen-trate on what we are doing. Thatmakes learning easy.Relaxation and confidence gohand in hand. Each promotes theother. Easy does it. When youknow you are doing the rightthing in the right way, this pro-motes confidence, and that makeslearning easier.



There are many schemes to learnhow to relax. They generally be-gin by learning to pay attention tospecific parts of the body one af-ter another, such as starting withthe toes and feet and going up-wards, to legs, abdomen, chest,arms, hands, neck, head, face,eyes, etc. As you concentrate oneach part, first tense it so that youknow what tension feels like, andthen deliberately release that ten-sion and recognize what relaxingit feels like. With practice this canbe done in a relatively short time,an almost all at once action.Breathing can also be coordinatedso that deep inhalation, followedby exhaling easily is thought of asproducing relaxation. Try it

Develop A Good Mental AttitudeAnticipate success. “Nothing suc-ceeds like success.” In order tosucceed you must first believe thatyou can do it. Everything possiblemust be done to guarantee successat every step, and to prevent anysense of discouragement or fail-ure from developing. Never evensuggest that learning it could behard. - As for errors, ignore them,except that when they are persis-tent they merely point out wheremore practice is needed. With theright approach and right practiceyou can’t fail.Mental attitude is critical: Weshould approach every aspect oflearning with interest, enthusiasmand a positive “can do” outlook.Anyone who really wants to learnthe code can learn it. If you havethe ambition to learn it you havethe ability to do it. A feeling ofconfidence is vital to achievement,

and must be guarded carefully.“If you think you can, you can.”Don’t fight negative attitudes,such as anxiety, fear, worry anddoubt. But if you do feel any ofthem, admit it, and then ignore itand let it die of inattention.Make learning fun. Enjoy thelearning process itself. When I amso eager to learn that I can hardlywait to get going, how receptive Iam and what energy surges up!Watch how youngsters play andlearn as they play. They are goodmodels: they’re relaxed and hav-ing fun. They don’t pay any at-tention to mistakes. Imitate themand enjoy learning the code. Thatmakes it even easier, and moreenjoyable.

Stage OneLearning The A B C’sOur first impressions are thestrongest and most long-lasting.So be sure your very first expo-sure to the code signals is right -by hearing it. Otherwise, it mayraise a roadblock, a “plateau“,somewhere along the path whichwill require us to go back to lineone in order to advance._ Code is sound - heard with

the ears, not read with theeyes.

_ Listen from the very begin-ning only to perfectly sentcode until you have mas-tered it.

To advance rapidly your mindshould hear only consistent pat-terns of sound. This hammers itinto the mind, hearing the samecharacter formed exactly the sameway each time. Poor quality code



will tend to confuse the mind,distract your attention, and slowdown your rate of learning.A recent study by Dr. Henry Hol-comb of Johns Hopkins Univer-sity on learning new skills saysthat after first learning “how todo it”, engage in routine activitiesof some other kind to allow a fivehour time period in which noother new skill learning is at-tempted. He claims that experi-ments show that it takes abut sixhours for to permanently transferthe new learning from the frontbrain to permanent storage in therear brain. This is something totry and see if it helps speed upMorse code learning. He alsoadded something we alreadyshould know: that it takes lots ofpractice to learn rapid, complex,and precise hand motor-skills.Develop a sustained attention.Attention to the thing in hand isthe starting point of all learning._ Identify what needs atten-

tion, and_ Do that, focusing on it

alone,_ Do it early in the practice

period when energy levelsare highest.

The more interesting the subjectis, the easier it will be to concen-trate on it. Direct your mind to gowhere you want it to go bystimulating your interest.A stop-start technique will helpyou gain control of your attentionspan and lengthen it. It works thisway: When attention lags, don’tfight it, but stop all thoughts andclear the mind, then let your in-

terest and enthusiasm start it upagain fresh and naturally. If thedistraction is one which you canidentify, clear the mind by eithersettling it at once, or by setting itaside to handle later.It is impossible to try NOT to at-tend to something, such as a dis-traction. Attention to it will onlymake it more distracting.It has been suggested that themind resembles a portable built-incomputer, but it is far superior. Itcan do feats of information proc-essing and recall unequaled bythe largest computers. First wemust debug it and get rid of anyold bad attitudes about the codeand replace them with a positive“can do” and “enjoy it” out-look. Next, feed it with a“lookup” table of sound-equivalents for the various char-acters, and we’re in business: anautomatic motor-response to theaudio signals: we hear didah andimmediately visualize and write“A”. Don’t put an artificial limiton your speed of comprehension.

Stage Two - PracticeOnce the fundamentals are well inhand and our speed is increasing,we need to apply pressure in shortbursts in order to advance. At thisstage begin with a few minutes ofwarm-up at a comfortable speed,then use familiar materials to tryfor a burst of speed for a minuteor two at first. Keep it short tominimize the discomfort. Thendrop back to a more comfortablespeed, and you will find the mindresponding faster.Avoid practicing when too tired,ill, or all upset and distracted -



little or nothing will be gainedand it may even discourage you.It takes time for associations todevelop. Be patient and learn atyour own rate. Some days will bebetter than others for various rea-sons. Progress will not be uni-form, but that should not botheryou because you know about itbeforehand. When you feel goodand can enjoy it you will advancethe fastest. On days when youdon’t feel very good it is best notto push, but rather to work at acomfortable level which will giveyou some sense of accomplish-ment.As these processes improve, con-scious thinking tends to driftaway, and we need to keep themind focused on what we are do-ing in order to advance. But ulti-mately, conscious thinking mustbe completely eliminated and re-sponse become automatic (we nolonger even think of the code it-self). That’s proficiency.

More About Attitudes For Suc-cessAchieving our best performancein any skill, including telegraphy,is a personal matter. We need to:l. observe how we think and

act when doing our best,and then

2. learn to control those atti-tudes and actions so that wecan use them when we wantthem.

While each of us behaves as anindividual, there are definite prin-ciples which will greatly speed upour success as we adapt them toourselves. At first they may seem

awkward and unproductive, but ifwe stick with them - improvementwill begin and grow much morerapidly than without them. Atti-tudes are critical, and for best re-sults we need to individualizethem, fit them to our very ownneeds. We can lay a foundationfor positive attitudes if we do thefollowing:Feel confident, it promotes learn-ing. If you have an opportunity,watch a skilled operator, observehow calmly and quietly he goesabout it. He is in no rush, and isnot concerned about missinganything. He goes about it just asif it were everyday listening andtalking. Instead of filling themind with problems, worries andconcerns, occupy the mind withthe way things should be done. Inlearning, build confidence bytaking one firm step at a time,telling yourself, “I can do this”.Build a sense of achievement, thatgood feeling of doing somethingwell. As a guard against frustra-tion be sure to provide periodicsuccesses, with simple little re-wards for each. Keep a record ofthe goals and your progress: asyou see your progress it will helpbuild positive attitudes. Giveyourself some little reward aftereach practice session.

Picturing Success Is StrongPreparation For ItMentally Practice the thoughts,feelings and actions necessary forgood performance and you willgreatly speed up achievement - avaluable tool to accelerate learn-ing. How can it be done? In ageneral over-all way you may



picture yourself quietly and with-out strain listening to the incom-ing signals and easily recognizingthem as the printed or spokenletters and words they represent,and as sending well-formed char-acters without hurry or strain.Picture yourself doing it, and do-ing it well, like an expert. It helpsto have a real model in mind.Watch or imagine a skilled per-former (a telegrapher if you canfind one) at work. He isn’t in anyhurry. He isn’t flustered or con-cerned, he just does it and enjoysit. Repeat and rehearse this pictureoften in your mind.There are at least two ways to usethis tool. One is to sit back andrelax and deliberately form thepicture. To get started, set up ageneral over-all picture first. Asyou continue practicing the men-tal picture of how you want to do,add details, making it more andmore realistic until you have asolid lifelike picture in mind. Seeyourself doing it, how you will doit step by step. The more vividlyyou can mentally see, hear, andfeel it as you rehearse the picture,the better the results will be, howdoing it right looks, and how itfeels. This is not mere wishfulthinking, it is building up aworking pattern to become real-ized in time as you continue ac-tual receiving and sending prac-tice. This kind of mental picturingcan have much the same effect asreal practice. It creates memories,models of the behavior as youwant it to be - but it is, of course,no substitute for real practice do-ing.Another way is now and then to“see” brief “snapshots” of

yourself receiving and sendingwhile you are doing other things(such as driving, walking, work-ing, etc.), not making any par-ticular effort to fill in details. You may want to try it right afteryou have learned the sounds ofthe first group of letters. Sit qui-etly in a chair, close your eyes,relax, and imagine you are hear-ing each letter sound (just as youheard it), taking them one at atime, and immediately recogniz-ing it or writing it down with apencil. Make the picture as realis-tic and vivid as you can, even toimagining the “feeling” the pen-cil writing on the paper. Feel asense of satisfaction of doing itright. Three to five minutes prac-tice this way at any one time isprobably enough. You can thenrepeat this kind of mental practicewith each new group of charactersas you learn them, and it willgreatly strengthen the habit youare trying to build.When you know the whole alpha-bet and have a clear mental pic-ture of how each character shouldsound, you can mentally practicevisualizing short printed wordsand then imagine “hearing”them spelled out in code. Feel itin your mind as if it were actual -a mental “sending” practice.Mental picturing practice may beextended to prepare you to mini-mize distractions, such as static,interfering signals, noisy peoplein the vicinity milling around,being watched closely, etc. Pre-pare for these by picturing your-self calmly receiving and sendingwhile extraneous noises - talking,shouting, crashes - are all around



you Think of what a war-frontoperator would have to contendwith!. It may also be used to helplearn to copy on a “mill” (type-writer or keyboard), and otheraspects you may need to meet.All this is preparatory and sup-portive of real practice, not a sub-stitute for actual practice by do-ing. The goal we seek is for theuse of the code to be as naturaland easy as talking, reading, writ-ing. These mental images takesome real effort and practice.Don’t expect instant results, giveit time to grow

Chapter 3Part I: Laying the FoundationLet’s Begin With The A-B-C’sMany good ways have been de-veloped through the years forlearning the telegraph code easilyand efficiently. Our purpose hereis to present the very best ways tolearn it efficiently and to com-press the learning time to a mini-mum. It is too bad that so manyhams have learned poorly and asa result have not been able to en-joy it as they should. The troubleoften began by imagining thatcode would be hard to learn, orby learning it in an inefficient, orround-about way, such as visually,by sight, rather than by sound orby “sound a-likes”.Everything depends on how youset about learning it. It is muchmore difficult to go back andunlearn something which waslearned wrong, than it is to learnthe right way from the very start.Trying to learn by oneself without

any guidance as to how to do itcan make things all the more dif-ficult later. Most learning troubleis due to: one’s attitude, themethod, or the teacher. One ex-pert wrote: The most difficult stu-dents at Harvard were those whohad learned the code by them-selves by practicing alone withoutguidance.The Telegraph Code is an Alpha-bet of Sound. It is Learned byHearing it. When we learned toread our language, it was, orshould have begun by first learn-ing to recognize the ABC’s bysight. Telegraphy begins bylearning to hear and recognize theABC’s by sound. This differenceis important. Code is learned byhearing it. Recognition of thesound patterns is the name of thegame. For example, when youhear “didah” as “A,” withouttranslating, you are thinking incode. The sound is the letter.There is no reason ever to see thecode in written form.So Throw Away Those CodeCharts, All Of Them, Burn ThemSaying the letter immediately, orwriting it down immediately, eachtime the ear hears it is one of waysto build the code habit quickly.We need direct association be-tween sound and letter. Anyonewho is stuck on a “pla-teau“because of having learned itvisually or some other inefficientway will have to learn it all overagain by sound. It is unfortunatethat some still try to learn it thisway. To teach it this way today isinexcusable.It is Easier Than You ThinkSomeone wrote: “Mastering the



art of code communication is tentimes easier than learning to talk -which you did by about the age oftwo.” You aren’t learning a newlanguage, a whole dictionary fullof strange words, and sentenceswhere the words are all scrambledup. You are just learning how to“read” your own language B yEar instead of by eye. It’s no bigjob.Almost anyone who can learn toread can learn the code. There isno such thing as a normal personwho wanted to learn the code andcouldn’t. “I can’t learn thecode” nearly always translatesinto “I won’t commit myself tothe time necessary to learn it,” orthat a person doesn’t really wantto, even though he may think hedoes. Age, whether young or old,and intelligence, bright or dull,are no barriers. Youngsters offour or five can learn quickly, andoldsters of 9Ø have succeeded,too. You wouldn’t want to admitthat a four-year old or a 9Ø-year-old could outdo you, would you?It doesn’t require superior intelli-gence, just right application.Most handicaps, such as blindnessor even deafness, have notstopped those who want to learn.Deaf people have been able tolearn and receive using their fin-gers on the driver of a speaker at3Ø wpm or on the knob of anelectromagnetically driven “ k e yknob” bouncing up and down at2Ø wpm. (Even some people withdyslexia have been able to learnto a useful extent.) It is easy ifyou really want to learn it andthen go about learning it in theright way. Any person of reason-able intelligence can learn the

Morse code and become a verygood operator, able to copy itwith a pencil at 25 wpm and sendit clearly, smoothly and readably.There is no real justification forthe statement that “some peoplejust can’t learn the code.” (Theydon’t want to.) It’s a matter ofmotivation, the secret of learningany skill. If you are one of thosewho tried in the past and some-how didn’t make it, or got stuckat 8 or 1Ø or 12 wpm, take heart.Forget what you previously“learned”, and start over with theprinciples set forth here, and youwill succeed.Some Naturally Learn Faster thanOthers Just as some people have aknack for learning to play golf ortennis more quickly than others,so some have a special knack forlearning the code. They catch onmore quickly, but most of us takea bit longer. Kids tend to pick outthe sound patterns easily andnaturally without straining so theylearn very fast

MotivationNothing beats enthusiasm tolearn. Stir it up - eagerness. Cou-ple that with determination, andfailure is impossible. If you wantto so badly that you can almosttaste it, you can do it. If you areteaching it, take advantage of anylatent fascination with the idea ofa special skill, secret code forcommunicating: many youngstershave it and maybe some olderpeople, too. One lady who laterbecame a code teacher said shegot started because “the codesounded like fun.” One manfound that the very idea of com-



municating his mind to anotherby intermittent tones is most fas-cinating.A sense of achievement and theintimacy found in code commu-nication make the effort a lot offun. CW is fun if you take thetime to learn and to be comfort-able with it. Be motivated. Fix itin your mind that you can do it.Then relax, be willing to learn atyour own rate, refusing to com-pare yourself with others, and taketime to enjoy the learning proc-ess. Make it fun. (Trying too hardor trying to hurry, can create akind of tension which impedesprogress.) Take it easy. Keep itleisurely. The more you exposeyourself to it and the less hardyou “try” the better and fasteryou’ll become good at it. Youcan’t help succeeding. Enthusi-asm and determination will winoutThe sudden beginning of WWIIrequired a lot of operators in ahurry. Many Amateurs volun-teered and served directly as op-erators or by teaching new re-cruits. However, the attitude ofsome recruits was often indiffer-ent or poor: many of the drafteeshad no desire to learn it, and someeven disliked the idea of learningit at all. No wonder it took themso long to learn and a good manyfailed! -- Telegraphy is a skillwhose success depends greatlyupon the right attitude.One school teacher demonstratedthe code, both sending and re-ceiving. The class got so fasci-nated that they managed to learn14 characters in that one class pe-riod. No-code students, no longer

under pressure to certify codeability, who have been given “ ataste of the way it used to be” bylistening, have often gotten inter-ested and want to learn at least afew letters to start with. Quite afew no-code licensees, after hav-ing had some fun operating, arelooking for more ways to enjoyham radio: the Morse codedoesn’t look so abstract to themas it did before.

Learning The Morse Code IsSimilar To Learning To ReadLearning the Morse code is muchlike to learning to read by eye.Learning to read print has severalstages of skill level._ First we learned to recog-

nize the individual letters,and could slowly spell andsound out words.

_ Next we began to recognizeand read many commonshort words as words, in-stead of having to spellthem all out.

_ Before long we learned torecognize short phrases(“of the”, etc.) and someof the longer words aswhole words.

_ Finally an expert reader canread whole clauses, sen-tences and even a para-graph as a unit of thought,almost at a glance.

This gives us a clue as to how togo about learning and improvingMorse code skill. The essence ofcode learning, like languagelearning, is familiarity - thatmeans over-learning. That is,learning to the point where it has



become automatic, withoutthinking about what you are do-ing: the dits and dahs, or even thewords. The highest skill comeswhen you just seem to be hearingwords and sentences and you areconscious only of the ideas beingexpressed - that makes communi-cating: a most worthwhile andgratifying goal. But it doesn’tmean you have to become a speeddemon.

The Morse A B C ‘S Are Pat-terns Of Sound

The Best Beginning is by Listen-ingPhase OneLearning To Recognize EachLetter And Number As Soon AsWe Hear It: the “A-B-C’s” ofthe alphabet of sound. This is thegoal of stage one of code learn-ing, building the foundation. Thecode must be thought of as soundpatterns.If you have been having trouble,the moment you begin to think ofcode solely in terms of soundpatterns, you will have mademuch progress. A printed letter isa combination of lines whichform a shape. But children are nottaught to recognize the letters ofthe alphabet by pointing out thevarious lines which make it up,they are taught to recognize eachletter as a whole, at a glance. Thesame principle applies to learningcode: each letter and number is aunit of sound, a unique soundpattern, a rhythm, different fromevery other letter or number.Each code character has its own

unique sound pattern, just likespoken vowels and consonants do.Morse code is Sound Patterns, tobe heard by the ear. Any methodof learning the code which usesthe eyes (such as charts for“memorizing the code”, or someother scheme (such as rhymes or“sound-a-likes”, etc.) will proveto be a serious handicap to laterprogress. This is because it makesus “translate”, something wemust do consciously. If you havebeen doing it by thinking: “ditdah stands for ‘A’, “you havebeen thinking in terms of separate“dits” and “dahs”. That makesit hard. So forget that there aresuch things as “dits” and“dahs” and learn to think incode sound-patterns. Start train-ing yourself like this: every timethe ear hears the sound pattern“didah” you think “A”, and ifyou are copying, the hand writes“A”. With some practice, like agood operator,you will find thatthe character just seems to cometo mind from nowhere. Proceeddirectly from sound pattern toletter, with no intermediate inter-pretation of any kind. It may helpif you whistle or hum the soundpatterns.Part II: Laying the Founda-tionDelayed Perception And InstantRecognitionThere is one obvious differencebetween reading by eye andreading by ear. While a printedletter is to be instantly recognizedat a glance, a code character can-not be recognized until the wholepattern has been heard - at the



end of the short time it takes tosend it. We must “hear it out”.Two important factors are in-volved here:_ The characters must be

heard at speeds that compelus to hear them as completepatterns, as wholes, not asstrings of “dits” and“dahs” - Tests have shownthat speeds of at least about13 wpm are required andthat faster speeds are pref-erable (18 -25)

_ The spaces around themmust be long enough tomake the sound patternsstand out clearly and dis-tinctly

This is why the so-called Farns-worth method is used: making thespaces between characters quitewide at first and then graduallyreducing them to the standard.Combining these two ways wesoon recognize that, while weknow that the sound patterns areformed of “dits” and “dahs”,we never allow ourselves to try toanalyze or count them.We must first consciously listen toeach letter until the mind acceptsit as a complete letter withoutthere being any kind of consciousthinking about it involved. Weforget the dits and dahs and justlisten to the patterns, the rhythms.So, the ear’s “glance” is a littlelonger than the eye’s - it hearseach sound pattern separately be-cause of the wider spaces whichseparate it from the preceding andfollowing sound patterns.These spaces are very important -they make the sound pattern stand

out. That pattern or rhythm of theletter is to be heard as a wholeover a short period of time, andcannot be recognized until thewhole pattern has been heard as acomplete pattern. We must “hearit out” before we can identify it.When we get the sound patternswell fixed in mind it is good tolisten to faster and slower speedsand hear the letters roll out.

Listen Only To The Best QualityOf CodeIn the early stages it is very im-portant to listen only to the mostperfectly formed code you canfind. The ear and mind need toget intimately familiar with therhythm pattern, consistentlyformed. Poorly sent code gives asloppy, irregular rhythm whichtends to confuse the mind andslow down learning. Don’t expectto develop any real speed listen-ing to hash. Listening to poorsending on the radio has some-times discouraged learners be-cause it distracts the mind bycompelling us to think con-sciously about the details insteadof the wholeness. We have to slowdown. Listening to poorly sentcode defeats the learning process.(Later, with improved skill, youwill probably be able to under-stand most of the poorly sentcode. But for now avoid it.) Thisis also why you should not try tosend code yourself until you havea good sense of timing.

Getting StartedThere are several ways to intro-duce the student to the code. Onehighly effective way to create the



right impressions for the beginneris to dictate a sentence or two,spelling each word out in ordi-nary letters at about a 2Ø wpmrate for him to write down, likethis:Y O U A R E G O I N G T O F IN D I T I S E A S Y T O L E A RN T H E M O R S E C O D E.The teacher then assures the stu-dents that they will do equallywell as they learn the code. “Allwe are going to do is to changethe names of the letters:-- insteadof ‘Y’, that letter is going tosound ‘dahdidahdah’,” and soon. Now the student is ready tolearn the first few letters bysound.Another good way, becausenearly everybody can quicklyrecognize the difference betweena few words sent at about 2Øwpm, to begin the first session, isword recognition:-- send a simpleword or greeting such as “ H i ”and a good-Bye, such as “ 7 3 . ”Send each one at say 2Ø wpmhalf a dozen times until everyonegets familiar with its sound, thensend them randomly and havethem say the words. Then stick ina different word like “the” andsee if they protest. Tell them whatit is and send it few more times.This can whet their appetite andshow that them that it isn’t hardthose sound patterns really meansomething.For people who are afraid thatthey can’t learn to identify soundpatterns, some have suggested that“V” and “B” be compared bysound initially by sending themalternately.

What Characters Shall We BeginWithTeachers disagree on this. Somesuggest that taking the simplestcharacters first (such as E I S H 5,and then E T I M, etc.) helps tobuild up a feeling of confidence.Others point out that this maylead some students to try to ana-lyze the longer characters, so theyrecommend beginning withlonger characters (such as (Q 7 ZG, Ø 9 8 J P, or the numbers 1 23...). This has the advantage ofcompelling the student to waituntil the whole character is com-pleted before identifying it. Per-haps a good way would be to startwith a couple of short letters first,and then go to the longer onesand meet both goals. No matterwhat order is used in teaching,each character must “stand on itsown feet,” and not depend oncomparing it with some othercharacter in order to learn andidentify it.The important thing, of course, isto hear the characters at speedshigh enough that they are heardas complete unified patterns, andpreferably at first to present in thesame lesson characters which havequite different patterns of soundso that there will be no attempt tocompare them

Methods To Go About TeachingThere are at least two ways to startout: a) listening only at first, and2) listening and writing it down.For those who learn by them-selves, one experienced old timeteacher wrote: “The beginnershould listen to the sounds until



he becomes sound conscious. Heshould not write anything downfor a week or two , but concen-trate his efforts on recognizingthe sounds. He can already write,but he cannot write with any de-gree of ease, if at the same time heis trying to do something elsewhich he is not familiar with [rec-ognizing code characters].As a beginner, he would hear aletter, take a short interval of timeto decide what it is; with the resultthat when it comes to him, hequickly tries to write it down andmisses the next letter. Wait onlearning to write it down until youcan recognize the letters as letters,and this confusion will vanish.Learning to read code is recog-nizing the sounds immediately,that is, the letters.” This is wiseadvice if you are studying byyourself.Probably most teachers prefer thesecond approach in a class situa-tion. Such might be, for example,the following (taken from actualteaching procedures):-A. The teacher says: “This is

F” and then F is sent. Thenhe says: “Now here it isagain. Write it down withyour pencil each time youhear it.” He repeats it sev-eral seconds apart quite afew times before taking upthe next letter, which oughtto have a quite differentrhythm pattern, such as G,introduced in the same way.Then he sends these lettersin random order until thestudents get them rightabout 95% of the time.Next, he introduces a third

letter followed by randomletters learned, and so onfor a half dozen or so at asession, however many thestudents can do withoutconfusion or becoming fa-tigued or bored. Note: Eachone should write or printthe way he usually does.

B. The teacher sends a dit andsays: “This is a dit. It is theletter ‘E.’ Now here it isagain: write it down eachtime you hear it. Forget thatit is a dit - it is the letter‘E’.” Then he simplysends “E” a number oftimes as the students almostautomatically write it down.Then: “Now we will hearthe letter ‘I’. Listen.” Hesends ‘T.’ and says “Thisis a ‘I’. Now here it isagain. Write it down whenyou hear it.” And so onthrough the group for thatlesson. After each new letterhas been drilled in, there israndom letter practice, us-ing all the letters previouslylearned. Finally, becauseeven for the first lesson hehas chosen letters that canbe used to construct smallwords, he sends these wordswith the instructions: “Nowhere is a word. Write downthe letters just as you didbefore.” He waits a fewmoments while the classwrites it down and says:“Now then, you have cop-ied the word . . .” And soon to the end of the firstlesson of 3Ø - 45 minutes.Subsequent lessons follow



this general pattern until thealphabet is completed, etc.

Part III: Laying the Founda-tionMost sound recordings for self-study introduce each letter some-thing like this: “when you hear‘didah’, say “A” to yourselfeach time you hear it, as soon asyou have heard it. Do the samething for each new character as itis introduced.” Then they begin,for example with the first letter‘F’: sending dididahdit and say-ing “F”, dididahdit “F,” andthen follow with a long string of“F’s” alone for the student tosay “F” after each one, beforetaking up the next letter.Whether learning with a teacher orin private study, repetition to thepoint of familiarity is vital. Ateacher can usually judge quicklyfrom student behavior how manyrepetitions are needed. For theself-study student it is probablygood to over-do the number ofrepetitions of each character be-fore going on, but don’t do itthoughtlessly. Some teachers useup to a dozen to two dozen suchrepetitions of each new characterbefore going on. Since the wholesuperstructure of telegraphy isbuilt on this foundation - be sureit is solid and secure. Repetitionsets in concrete what we practice.Do it wisely. Repetition with at-tention builds expert skill, makingthe connection between stimulusand response so strong that theresponse automatically follows thestimulus.In these early lessons a little gameof “odd-ball” may help. It goeslike this: the same character is sent

5 or 6 times in succession, but atone place a different character issent. The students, who are justlistening, not writing, are to holdup their hand when the “odd-ball” is heard. A few minutes ofthis can liven things up and givevariety. It can be extended toshort words, too.Learning on a one-to-one basiswith a good teacher who can tailoreach lesson to the student makespossible the strongest initial im-pressions of the sounds andrhythms of the code charactersand to concentrate on any weakareas. The teacher can also safelyintroduce use of a key earlier thanotherwise. Character “echo-ing“method to reinforce learn-ing:1. Teacher says: “Listen as I

send the character” Hesends it and says its name ashe sends it. “Now listen as Isend again and again, andsay its name each time assoon as I finish sending it.”-

2. “Now listen and write theletter down each time assoon as I finish sending it.”–

3. “Take your key now andsend it back to me eachtime I send it, and say itsname as you send it.” It isimportant that steps 1 and 2have enough repeats of theletter so that the student hasa clear “feel” for theproper timing when hecomes to step

4. Lastly, The teacher will in-sist on accuracy of sending.



For those studying alone,there are a number of goodcode-learning tapes andcourses, as well as computerprograms which have greatflexibility. E.g., a codecomputer program whichcan project the printedcharacter on the screen aninstant after the character isheard can encourage thestudent to mentally “ s e e ”the letter as soon as it isheard. See Chapter 18.

If some students think that certaincharacters sound alike, send themseveral times alternately so thereal differences stand out. Typi-cally the alphabet and numbersmay be covered in a series of nomore than five lessons. Every-thing possible should be done tomake learning interesting and fun,and to avoid any sense of bore-dom or needless tension.. Oneteacher says: “I write words onthe board and the students soundthem in unison., It is like directinga choir, a fun class, where every-one feels good about practicingthe code.”If one is expecting to do a lot ofcopying in use, starting out bycopying on a typewriter has theadvantage of a better link up be-tween code, brain and typewriterkey than between the brain and apencil. When this stage of learn-ing has been completed, thefoundation - quick recognition ofevery character by its sound pat-tern - should have been laid, and aspeed of at least about 5 - 6 wpmachieved. All the pieces are nowin hand for the students to be ableto practice with normal Englishwords and sentences, ready to

build up speed and greater confi-dence by practice. One may thenbegin to reduce the spaces be-tween words, which will speed upthe overall rate of copying.Every effort should be made tostimulate a sense of success in thestudent all along the way. Thismakes learning so much easierand faster. Let them taste success.Forget errors: praise achieve-ments. The goal Is Instant Recog-nition Of Every Character. That iswhat the next stage is to carry usforward to. If there are letters youdon’t recognize quickly enoughnow, go back and practice listen-ing to them until you do. This willsave you time later.Some of the published orders forlearning the characters are: 5 Ø ET A R - S L U Q J - H O N C V - IB Y P - W K Z M - D X F G. F GH M J R U - B D K N T V Y - C EI L O S - A P Q X Z W. E T A IM N - S O D R C U - K P H G WL - Q H F Y - Z V X J. E I S H - TM O - A N W G - D U V J B - R KL F - P X Z C Y Q. F K B Q T C ZH W X M D Y U P A J O E R S GN L V I. E T I M S O H - A W U JV F - C G K Q F Z - R Y L B X DN.A E I O U - vowels first, thensome of most frequent conso-nants, such as T N R S D L H, etc.,so that many words can be prac-ticed from almost the first conso-nant letters learned.Note: The teacher should ex-

plain at each new step ex-actly what is to be done andwhy, so the student willknow what is expected ofhim. Back in 1895 somepsychologists asked expert



telegraphers: “What is thelearner’s attention mainlydirected to as he pro-gresses?” Their answer was:

1. At first you hustle to getletters

2. Next you look for words3. Later as a fair operator, you

are not held so closely towords, but can take in sev-eral words, a phrase or evena short sentence as a‘mouthful’, and

4. Finally as a real expert, youhave such automatic per-fection that you pay practi-cally no conscious attentionat all to the details of thecode, but concentrate onthe sense of the message, orto transcribing (copying) itwhile our mind thinksabout other things.

Chapter 4Building The First Floor OnThe Solid FoundationGaining Fluency in Code to aUseful 15 wpm LevelBy the time you have reached asteady speed of about 15 wpmyou will have a useful and com-fortable communicating tool. Thiswill require practice of what youalready know, and you will haveto push yourself in little spurts tospeeds where you cannot get it allat first to reach this goal. Suchbursts in speed should be nolonger than about one minute at atime, and you will be surprisedhow effectively this will help raiseyour receiving speeds.

Instant RecognitionThe first secret of increasing yourreceiving speed is to shorten thetime it takes you to recognizeeach code character as soon as ithas been completely heard. Theshorter that time interval is, thefaster you will be able to receive.Aim to make it instantaneous. IfYou Do Not Instantly RecognizeThe Sound Of Any Character,You Have Not Really Learned ItYet. (That is the one characteryou need to practice on until youknow it immediately.) The goal ofpractice and drill from here on isto speed up your recognition ofcharacters, and then of words, tothe point where you can both“read” them easily without writ-ing, and copy them down moreand more automatically.

AnticipatingIn ordinary listening and readingmany of us habitually anticipatewhat the next word or sentence isgoing to be, and we are ready tojump ahead or help out. Most ofus can do this without losinganything that actually comes next:what actually does follow just re-places whatever we anticipated. Bycontrast, even at high speeds, thecode signals are so slow comparedwith the speed we think that forsome of us anticipation can createa severe mental block, causing usto miss out completely what actu-ally comes next. In the very slowspeed learning stages this risk isgreatest.If you become conscious that thishabit is interfering with your re-ceiving at any point in learning or



later use, you should take imme-diate steps to prevent it. This ismost important in the early stageswhen we are forming code habits.It will require discipline to con-centrate on listening strictly to theincoming signals. (See next sec-tion for help in preventing antici-pation.) However, if you are con-scious of anticipating but that it isnot in any way interfering withactual reception, the best thing isto forget it and keep concentrat-ing on the incoming signals. Inthis case, anticipation will nothurt. (We also tend to evaluatewhat we are hearing or reading.This is natural and should not bediscouraged if it does not inter-fere with reception.) A tendencyto anticipate does tell us one goodthing: we haven’t reached outlimit yet and can learn to readcode faster if we go at it in theright way. (See Chapter 11 forfurther discussion of this.)

What Kind Of Material ToPracticeMost of the materials for practiceshould be in regular English andas interesting as possible. Have avariety in every practice period sothat nothing becomes monoto-nous. Select the kind of materialyou intend to be working with asyou use the code. To prevent an-ticipating what is coming next,during the early phase of learn-ing, some practice material ineach session should consist ofnon-English. Three to five min-utes per session is long enoughfor this, unless you intend to beworking with enciphered mes-sages - it must not be used to apoint where it becomes boring.

International amateur call signs,Q-signals and common abbrevia-tions make good practice, becausethey are somewhat “random,”but realistic and also useful. “Re-verse English” is good because itkeeps normal letter frequenciesby sending words and sentencesbackwards: e.g. “my antenna isup 5Ø feet” becomes “ y mannetna si pu Ø5 teef,” or “teefØ5 pu si annetna ym.” - You canhardly anticipate those “words”!The 1ØØ most common words,listed at the end of this section,make excellent practice. This notonly makes you familiar withthem and gives you a boost infeeling at home with the code, butalso it will help you gain furtherproficiency as you continue toadvance. Work with them along-side other practice materials untilyou recognize these words, ormost of them, at once as words -patterns of sound that havemeaning in code. Along with the1ØØ most common words prac-tice with some of the commonphrases, such as “of the” “ Iam,” etc. See Chapter 22. Onceagain we must emphasize the im-portance of Repetition.The best way to get these com-mon words impressed as units ofsound to the mind is to repeateach one a number of times be-fore going on to the next one.Use a keyboard or computer togenerate a tape, on which eachword is repeated from at leastthree to five times. Space thewords widely enough apart thatyou will be able to say the wordeach time after you have heard it.Then listen to that tape over andover again, saying each word to



yourself as soon as it has beensent. Practice listening to it untilthe words come as easily andnaturally as if you were sitting,listening and talking. Make your-self thoroughly familiar withthem.

Other WaysSeveral other simple practices canhelp you gain familiarity andconfidence. One of these is toread road signs and ads you seewhile driving or riding, whistlingthem aloud or mentally to your-self in code. If you have friendsalso learning, try whistling codeback and forth among yourselvesas conversation. There are lots ofother possibilities - find them andmake it fun. For example:- TheTwo-Way Word Game This is agood speed builder, and worksthis way: the instructor sends aword and student sounds out theword to himself (see phonics,Chapter 7) as the letters followone after the other to build up theword until a space comes to showthat the word is completed.For example, the instructor sendsthe word “was”. As the studenthears W he thinks “w-”, then ashe hears A he combines them(WA) to think “way”, and finallyas he hears S and then silence, hethinks the word “was”. Then thestudent immediately sends it backto the instructor. The studentwrites nothing down. Begin withtwo-letter words, then four ormore letters as the student catcheson and speeds improve. Remem-ber that it is a game. Make it fun.Never again will you try just toretain the letters in a word; but

rather the sounds of those letters,putting the sounds represented bythe letters together as they comein.

How Long And What Kind OfPracticeKeep practice sessions short andwith some resting time in between- doing something else - such asinto ten minute practice periods,followed by a five minute rests.Three or four such periods persession are adequate at the earlystages. They can be lengthenedgradually so long as fatigue doesnot set in. Remember that fatigueand boredom tend to defeat rapidadvancement.Teachers are divided as to whetherit is better to major on receivingpractice without copying or tomajor on copying. The bestcourse would seem to be to dosome of both. Some teachers in-sist that the student not copy forsome time after initially learningthe characters. They prefer forhim just to listen. The idea is tobuild up and strengthen soundpattern recognition without thedistraction of writing. (SeeChapter 7 and Chapter 8.)As for sending practice, it is bestnot begun until the student knowshow good code sounds. Thesound patterns need to be firmlyenough established in mind thatthe student can imitate them with-out the discouragement of hear-ing his own poor character for-mation and bad or irregularspacing, and also to minimizecriticism. It seems best to deferusing a key until a receivingspeed of about 1Ø wpm is



reached. At all times aim forbeautiful, perfect sending, wherethe timing and rhythm produceaccurately formed characters andspacings. Aim for it, and don’t besatisfied with anything less. (SeeChapter 9.)One good form of early practicesending is to listen to a character,then send it; hear the next andthen send it, etc. Another helpfulway is for the student and teacherto send a short series of words orsentences simultaneously, aimingto be in unison.Copying has the advantage ofverifying accuracy of recognitionand identifying areas needing im-provement. In the early stages theuse of random groups is best be-cause it avoids anticipation. Lis-tening practice, without writinganything down is of great impor-tance and value. To gain skill thisshould be done at speeds almostas fast as you can receive by justlistening, and with frequent shortburst of listening to still fastersending. This will help the mindget used to more rapid recogni-tion.It has been found that it isgrouping which largely deter-mines how fast one can receivecode. What doesn’t “MakeSense” tends to slow us down. Atalmost any skill level, randomcharacters will be the slowest, andisolated, unrelated or unfamiliarwords come next. The highestreceiving speeds are achieved withconnected text, and it tends to bereceivable at twice or more thespeed of scrambled letters. (Evennonsense sentences can be re-ceived fairly fast because they

have a familiar pattern.) It is thecoherence of a grouping thathelps speed up its recognition.There is another factor which weshould be aware of. It is this:when we are practicing by listen-ing to the radio and must strain to“get” the signals - because ofweak signals, interference, static orpoor sending (trying to figure outa bad combination) or to recallsome word previously sent, thisbrings the conscious mind intoaction, to try to reason things out.As the conscious mind worksharder and harder, the receptivityof the unconscious mind tends tocease. This mental friction inter-feres with advancement in theearlier stages of gaining speed,and may even bring all receptivityto a stop. Whenever you muststrain to “get” the signals - be-cause of interference, static orpoor sending - to try to figure outsomething being sent, this bringsthe conscious mind into action. totry to reason things out. As theconscious mind works harder andharder, the receptivity of the un-conscious mind tends to cease.This mental friction may bring allreceptivity to a stop.Familiarity with what is being sentmakes learning easier and faster.Words which are unfamiliar to theoperator are more likely to beread and copied wrong. Progressis about 5Ø% faster using con-nected text than words alone.Many more mistakes are madewith non-word letter groups whichare not words than with normaltexts.



Getting StuckTo have a “plateau“means to bestuck at some speed. It may bejust a temporary condition whichis passed over with a little morepractice, or it may be somethingthat stubbornly refuses to yield.Several different factors maycause the stubborn kind of pla-teau. A plateau is the result of in-terpreting the sound as somethingother than the letter itself. Some-one has written that it is the con-dition” where the conscious mindis fighting o translate, while thesubconscious mind is quietly try-ing to get through and tell youit’s got perfect copy.” A plateauis a battle in the mind, with theconscious mind trying to translatethe dits and dahs and not beingable to keep up, while the subcon-scious mind is quietly trying toget thru and tell you it’s got per-fect copy.At speeds of around 7 - 1Ø or sowpm it usually occurs becauseone is “translating” the codecharacters first into some inter-mediate form (such as a mentalpicture) and then translating thatagain into the ordinary letters.That is a two-step operation whichtakes more time than the properone-step operation does (e.g.“didah” is “A”). Such a situa-tion is often the result of usingone of the old and obsoletelearning methods Again, when thecharacters are initially sent tooslowly the student tends to countthe dits and dahs and analyzethem in this way. I have knownold time operators who by longpractice routinely counted thecomponents of all the longer

characters to identify them atspeeds up to as high as 2Ø wpm,or faster! That’s the way theylearned them, but what a waste oftime and effort! Counting andanalyzing both tend to keep theconscious, analytical mind in-volved where it should not be.This will slow us down and tend tobring on needless fatigue. Oneexperienced old timer wrote:“Once you start becoming fa-miliar with [code] sounds as inspeech, there are no plateaus.”

The 1ØØ Most Common WordsIn English

go am me on by to up so it n oof as he if an us or in is at m ywe do be and man him out notbut can who has may was oneshe all you how any its say arenow two for men her had theour his been some then l ikewell made when have only yourwork over such time were withinto very what then more willthey come that from must saidthem this upon great aboutother shall every these firsttheir could which would therebefore should little people(Six of these words take the sametime to send as the number zero(Ø): are him men on so no.Fourteen more of them areshorter still: the its to; us am if; asbe we an; me at is; it.) Twentyshort words. Listening to, copyingand sending the 1ØØ most com-mon words is good daily practice.Also the 1ØØ words makes goodtyping practice.



Passing ExaminationsOur primary interest here is tohelp you learn and use Morsecode so you can fully enjoy thisbeautiful mode of communica-tion. Passing exams is of secon-dary interest, though necessary toobtain full licensing so you canenjoy conversing by means ofMorse code on the air. Many stu-dents who have started out withthe recommended 2Ø wpm mini-mum character speeds have foundthat they were able to achieve 13wpm within as little as a week ortwo of intense guided practice. Itis important to know what to ex-pect in a license examination: theformat of an exam, the types ofquestions asked, etc., so you canpractice them and not be sur-prised. Such materials are avail-able for current examinationsfrom the A R R L and othersources. These things will not betreated here. The only one whofails is the one who does not tryagain until he succeeds. If this isyour problem, learn where yourweaknesses lie and practice toovercome them for the next test.Many a ham has tried twice, threeor more times before he passes.Don’t give up

Chapter 5Practice To Gain ProficiencyWhen you have reached about 15wpm code will have become auseful tool for communication:You will have become an opera-tor.However, it is pretty slow, but nowyou have come to feel some satis-faction of mastery, and can see

that to be able to handle some-what higher speeds will greatlyimprove your communicationskills. How shall we go about it?Mere repetition won’t do it Weneed intelligently directed prac-tice it must be done in the rightway. This is what we discuss now.

How Far Do You Want To GoFor the sake of discussion, wemay divide advancement some-what arbitrarily into four stages.which we will call:_ A “good” operator up to

about 25 wpm,_ A “skilled” operator up to

around 35 - 4Ø wpm,_ An “expert” up to about

6Ø wpm, and_ Over 6Ø wpm a “super-

expert.”Each stage should bring increas-ing personal pleasure in accom-plishment up to whatever pointyou feel satisfied with and haveno desire to go further.You determine where that point is.Advancing is by “changinggears” like going from” lowgear” where we recognize char-acters, to second gear where werecognize small words and somecommon syllable as units ofsound, 3

rd

gear where we have in-creasing freedom from consciousspelling and sense of increasingpleasure as one hears and sendswords pretty much as words, andthen finally “overdrive” wherewe are hardly conscious of spell-ing except occasional rare wordsor proper names, and are hardly



conscious of exactly which wordsare used, but mainly of the ideas.Reaching higher speeds will turnout to be easier than you mightsuppose. It is mostly a matter ofdetermination, right approach andpractice, and building on whatyou already know. Your rate ofgain will depend mostly on howyou go about it, and will be aboutproportional to the square of thetime invested. So, how far do youwant to go? (Remember: it is notspeed, but accuracy that counts --.We want to communicate. Time islost by mistakes, whether insending or copying.) So take onestep at a time, and when satisfied,stop. When we read a book, thebigger the “bites” we take, thefaster we can read and under-stand. It is the same in telegraphy:how much can we take in andimmediately perceive as a“unit?” How big are the units?This determines how fast we canreceive the code. It is the coher-ence of the groupings - whatmakes sense - which makes forrapid recognition. Wheneversomething doesn’t make sense ittends to slow us down.Word recognition is what makes aproficient operator. The real “a l -phabet“of the expert telegrapheris largely one of words; it is his“language,” and interpreting it isas easy for him as talking and lis-tening. (See “Kinds of Practic-ing” for an exercise to help de-velop this.) It cannot be statedtoo often that: The skilled opera-tor does not hear the dits anddahs, but only the letters, words,sentences. Relax and Enjoy It Weneed to remind ourselves, that ifanyone else can do it, we proba-

bly can too. How? The “pro” incode is completely relaxed: heknows he can read and copy it,even while doing something else.He hears it like the spoken wordand often can even remember itwell enough to copy it down laterif he needs to. He doesn’t gettensed up. He is a good model,whatever speed he has achieved. Ifyou know one, imitate him andkeep relaxed and enjoy the chal-lenge of advancing all the whileyou are progressing. If you don’tknow any expert code operators,watch any skilled performer, aviolinist, a pianist, a tennis player.See how easily he goes about it.Enjoy the experience of learning.Make each practice period fun.Those who engage in the learningprocess with a carefree, unhurried,unworried attitude and enjoy itprogress the fastest. So don’tpress your ultimate objectives,don’t try too hard, this will hinderour advancement. Be content togo ahead a step at a time. We needto let go any unconscious resis-tance, and permit our subcon-scious minds to function withoutinterference. The more we giveourselves permission to let go ofany concern and the more fun itis, the better we will do. Someonehas written: “When I’m fresh andright on it [which means he is allkeyed up and going to try toohard], my code speed is reallybad, but when I’m tired I cankeep up with the best of them[because he has let go].” (Pleasereview Chapter 2 for details.)One ham who is a doctor wrote:“Communicating in Morse isspecial. With my headphones onlistening, usually with eyes shut, I



feel that I’m communicatingwithout talking or hearing voices.After a long day of talking andlistening it’s pleasant. The mes-sage seems to come in a whisperor even represents to me some-thing I’m remembering ratherthan hearing. I no longer formu-late what I want to say and thentranslate into code for my fingersto send. It doesn’t feel like it iscoming from the conventionalspeech centers. The thoughts justcome out - relaxed communica-tion.”

Make Each Practice Period AStep ForwardIn pushing for higher speeds, ad-vancement is pretty much up toyou. So what follows is directed toyou. However, the principles ex-pressed here are fully applicableto a teacher at any level from be-ginning to the highest level. Tryto plan your practice periods sothat you can see or feel you haveaccomplished something in eachand every session. Maintain apositive attitude. See how far youhave come. Imitate the good be-ginning teacher who shows hisstudents how the bits and pieceswill soon fit together to makewords, and how the context canhelp to fill in what’s missing; andhow to learn from failures - thingsthat need more practice - and tolearn from them how to do betternext time.Encourage yourself to keep goingand not give up. Know you cansucceed. Visualize success and beencouraged. It also helps to pro-vide some small reward after eachpractice session. In developing

speed, we need to push withoutpushing too hard or for too longat a time, just a minute or two. Itseems best to start a practice pe-riod with speeds faster than youare comfortable with, pushingwhen your energy is initially high(to recognize sound patterns morequickly), then slowing down a bitto a more comfortable rate. Thisway you will be able to see yourimprovement - growing. Keepinga record will help you see yourprogress.Learning does not stop when apractice period ends - it continueson for a while afterward as themind continues to digest it, pro-vided that we relax or do some-thing quite different. So spaceyour practice periods widelyenough apart to give learning achance to maximize.

Kinds Of PracticingThere are several kinds of prac-ticing we can do:-_ Listening practice,_ Copying practice,_ Sending practice, and_ “Mental” practice.Let’s consider each one:--

Listening PracticeListen, Listen, Listen to well-sentcode. Listen at every opportunityas well as at planned practice ses-sions. Listen to the radio, to tapes,to computer-generated materials.Do it whenever you don’t havesomething else to do which re-quires conscious mental activity:try it during lunch, while driving -listen and enjoy it. There are sev-



eral kinds of listening -- first, lis-tening at any speed where we canunderstand all or nearly all ofwhat is sent; next, there is listeningat speeds where we can “read”maybe 75% of it; and finallythere is listening to sending so fastthat we can only catch some let-ters or a word here and there.Each kind is valuable to us. Ourpurpose in listening at “ easy”speeds is two-fold. We want to feelcomfortable with the code, just aswe normally read and talk withoutstruggling with how we do it. Tobecome comfortable we need toget familiar with the everyday daywords and expressions, how theysound. (Engaging in personalQSO’s - over the air or through awire - is one way, and it provides astrong motivation.) We need tofeel comfortable, too, at variousspeeds, from slow to as fast as wecan handle it. Listening over thisrange helps gain this familiarity.This is a second goal. But take iteasy.When we let the mind be quietand just listen to very fast code,letters and words will soon beginjumping out at us. Want to hearthem. This stimulates the mind.Learn to see them on your“mental blackboard.” (There is alimit as to how fast we can spellwords.) Give yourself permissionto let go of the need to con-sciously recognize each letter.The less we “try,” the better andfaster we can become. That is, letthe subconscious, automatic mindoperate without restraining it byconscious interference and con-trol.

Listen at every opportunity togood sending even if it is some-what too fast for you to get it all.Listen. Listen. Listen while doingother things that do not requireclose mental attention. Let your“ears be filled” with good codesignals. Don’t let yourself get allwound up: keep relaxed. - Themind is strange - it relaxes whenasked to perform at a rate lowerthan it is used to, but tends totighten up when asked to performat a level which it thinks it can’tquite hack. The essence of codelearning, like language, is famili-arity that means over-learning.That is, learning to the pointwhere it is automatic, withoutthinking about how we are doingit: the dits and dahs, or even thewords. The highest skill comeswhen in reading by ear, we areconscious only of the ideas beingexpressed, just as if we were talk-ing. This is communicating at thehighest level.

Word Recognition PracticeAre anticipation and delayed per-ception related? We previouslynoted that we must not attempt toidentify a character, particularly alonger one, until the whole char-acter has been received. Here weare concerned with word recogni-tion in the same way. Not jump-ing to a conclusion about what thetotal word will be when it is a longor compound word but waitinguntil it is complete before identi-fying it. Suggested drills are withcompound words such as “way-side, mockingbird, chairman,salesman, notebook, lifetime,customhouse, morning-gloryhereabouts doorbell, nevertheless



watermelon household”, etc. andwords with suffixes such as“cheerful, personable, fellowship.finality, dictionary, mechanically,characteristic”, etc., or where thefirst part make look like an inde-pendent word, but with a totallydifferent meaning as it stands ore.g. “axiom, category, handicap,climax, magnificent”.

Copying PracticeCopying at easy speeds is ofsome, but not great value for im-proving speed. To improve wemust keep working at short burstsof a minute or so at a time, atspeeds where we can get maybeonly 5Ø - 75% of it - where it isjust too fast for us - speeds wherewe write down what we can getand ignore the rest.If you don’t recognize a soundpattern immediately, just skip it,leave a space and go ahead. -Never let yourself stop to try tofigure it out, because if you do,you will miss what immediatelyfollows. Don’t frustrate yourselfthis way. Keep pressing on,copying what you immediatelyrecognize and ignoring the rest.Remember that here we are onlypracticing - missing out is no bigdeal - at this point we’re stilllearning. We must condition our-selves to this. Gradually the holeswill fill in and we will be getting itall, and without straining.Often, even when we’re trying tomake good copy, missing a letterhere and there won’t mattermuch. If we are interested, thegaps can often be filled in laterfrom the context. After reaching afair speed, it is helpful to copy

long enough to become tired andthen still keep on copying. As theconscious mind gives up andstops guessing, this lets the sub-conscious mind more and moretake over. Then any mental strainyou feel will subside, and you cancopy page after page, and yetmay hardly be aware of a singlesentence in it.For teachers: Sometimes it mayprove best to let the student thinkthe speed is slower that it actuallyis. That way he may just goahead and copy it anyway!Random character practice atspeeds above about 15 - 2Ø wpmis of questionable value unlessyou are planning to do a lot ofcopying of enciphered messages.It tends to prevent the develop-ment of the important sense ofword recognition, somethingwhich we must develop for nor-mal use of the code in communi-cation. Practicing with wordsspelled backwards is a good sub-stitute for random groups: iteliminates anticipation, yet givesgive normal letter distribution andthe feeling that one is dealing withwords, not nonsense. Foreign lan-guage texts may also be usedprofitably, where no special char-acters used diacritical marks, etc.

Sending PracticeUsing a Key To Practice “It ismore blessed to send good codethan to receive it.”Most CW operators are more im-pressed by quality of the codethan by speed.Readability is the number onerequirement. It is the sender with



his key who has control of this. Ifit isn’t intelligible, what’s the useof sending it in the first place?Most people consider sendingeasier than receiving. This ishardly surprising, because we al-ready know ahead of time whatwe are going to send before wesend it. However, we may befooling ourselves unless we havedeveloped accurate sending hab-its. There is no excuse for sendingsloppy CW. When we get in ahurry we may tend to shorten oreliminate spaces between charac-ters in familiar words and betweenwords - this makes it very difficultto read. (When static or interfer-ence is present, it is even harder.)And - if we think we can sendfaster than we can receive it isvery often hard stuff to copy.Remember that What We Do Re-peatedly Is Practice, whether weare learning or using code. Weneed to watch the quality of oursending as we use the code, not toslip into bad habits. Most bad fistshave probably come about fromimperceptible shifts away fromgood timing. Avoid the use ofbuzzers for practice, as they havea delayed start and promote badsending habits. Use an oscillatorinstead.

Mental PracticeThinking between regular practiceperiods is one of the many valu-able means of learning. It is boththinking about the skill you aredeveloping and thinking the skillitself. One way is to think thecode to yourself when you see astreet sign, car licence plate orother printing. It is even more

effective to whistle it or say it outloud in rapid dit-dahs. Anothervaluable form of mental practiceis the picturing of yourself usingthe code, as described in Chapter2.

On The Air Practice“Reality Listening” and “ Q S OPractice” Don’t hesitate after youget your license to go on the air.If you flub up, remember that justabout everybody’s first few con-tacts are more or less “failures”.Stumble through them, muddlethrough and make it as easy asyou can.If you miss, stay calm, ask for re-peat if it seems important. If youdon’t understand some abbrevia-tion or word (he may have spelledit wrong) muddle thru. Laugh offyour blunders. Become comfort-able about it. You have no job tolose. Listening by pulling weakstations out of interference andstatic is a skill to be learned. Agood IF or audio CW filter willhelp. If you have one, practiceusing it. Static crashes which takeout pieces of text is anotherproblem: filters can sometimeshelp, but some have found that byusing speeds up to around 2Ø-25wpm the characters may besqueezed in between crashes, andso less may be lost. This is oneincentive for advancing in speed



Chapter 6How FastThe Wrong Question.

How Well“How fast?” - that’s really thewrong question when standing allby itself. The question whichought to be asked is “How well?”or perhaps “How effectively?” or“How intelligently”The telegraph code is simply ameans of communication, andcommunication is transferringideas from one person to anotherin the form of words and sen-tences. If a person talks tooslowly, attention tends to lag andcomprehension becomes difficult.If too rapidly, things may bemissed or misunderstood. Mum-bling is usually inexcusable.Speed itself is not usually the ob-ject, except perhaps in case ofemergency, such as “Help!”, andeven then it may hurt rather thanhelp communication The normalgoal is coherency and accuracy.Speed for us is just convenience.Commercial operators have al-ways prided themselves in theirability to handle a large volumeof traffic with dispatch and 1ØØ%accuracy. One operator wrote:“Over 5Ø years ago as a traineecommercial operator I was toldthat it is better to send at 2Ø wpm,and be received 1ØØ% the firsttime, than to send at 28 wpm andbe involved in time wasting re-peats.”The U.S. Navy insisted on accu-racy above everything else: speed

was always secondary. Battles,lives and expensive ships - oftenthe outcome of the battle itself -depend upon perfect accuracy incommunication. A single errone-ous word or number during war-time or emergency might be ru-inous and tragic. Accuracy comesfirst always, at all times there. Thetelegraph code was devised tocommunicate - that is its sole pur-pose.If the code is not understood it isa waste of time and effort. If wesend personal “dialect” or in astrongly personalized manner wemake it hard, or even impossiblefor the receiving operator to makesense out of it. How do you liketo struggle to make sense out ofwhat a speaker with strong dialec-tical speech, or with a seriousspeech defect, says to you? Ifthere is anything that causesdownright joy in an amateur’sheart, it is the pleasure of com-municating with an operator whoreally knows how to send and howto receive. Aim to be one of these.

CopyabilityHow fast can you copy? Even fora highly skilled operator this isalmost wholly dependent on thesender’s quality of articulation -his rhythm, spacing and keyerweighting. One of them said: “ Ican read a super operator at 5Øwpm, but there are some hams Istrain to copy at 1Ø wpm - someold timers hard to copy becauseof bad habits.” The key to highspeed reception is to recognizethe pauses between letters andbetween words. This means thatthe sender must not run things



together. It is this split second it isthe space which gives the timeneeded to get the mind set for thenext word. One of first thingsthat often happens when we try tosend faster is to run the letters andwords together. For example,w h e n “ o f ” comes out“dahdahdahdididahdit”. We canlearn to read that stuff, but whenlonger and less familiar words aresent and word spaces also are ne-glected, we can quickly get lost inan maze of letters which make nosense. (It seems to me that asspeeds get really high fewer andfewer abbreviations are used.)

Fast Enough To CommunicateSatisfyinglyIt is possible to creep along at fivewpm, the minimum FCC amateurqualifying speed - communicat-ing, but just barely. Many hams inthe past found lots of enjoymentplugging along at ten wpm, whichfor many years was the minimumrequirement for an amateur op-erator’s license. Perhaps a major-ity of hams have found 15 - 18wpm to be comfortable, adequateand quite pleasant to satisfy theirdesires to communicate.Back in the days of landline tele-graphy sixteen wpm was consid-ered the minimum to qualify anew operator, while 25 - 3Ø wasconsidered a “standard” range ofspeed. For very many years theARRL bulletins have been at 18wpm, which is a comfortablespeed for most of us to read andcopy. It should be clear thatspeed, in itself, should not be anobject, but rather proficiency andease of operation. (One does not

usually buy a racing car just todrive to work each day.) On theother hand, when there is a lot tosay, or when there is a need forextensive personal interchange, aminimum speed of 25 - 3Ø wpmis really needed to keep thethought moving.From listening in the bands itwould appear that in the CWmode this speed range seems tobe very common. Even when oneis contesting, and ragchewing isout of the question, if one movestoo slowly, he is going to have arather low score. But here also,speed, in itself, is not of muchvalue: intelligibility and accuracyare required, and correct callsigns, etc., are vital for qualifica-tion. There must be a balance.All through the history of tele-graphy, from almost the earliestdays to the present, there has beenthe challenge for speed. Thehigh-speed skilled operatorsachieved a sort of prestige, whichwas salable and commercially wasrewarded by higher pay. The be-ginner and the plug were lookeddown upon with more or lessscorn. But as radio amateurs, CWis one element of our hobby,something we do because we liketo do it. We are subject to neithermonetary incentive for profi-ciency nor threats for mediocrity.It is our own sense of need anddesire that motivates us. Thoseamong us who can race along atbuzz-saw rates should not lookdown upon the rest of us who arecontent to enjoy lower rates, andwe slower guys, in turn should notdespise the newcomer, the handi-capped or the ham content withthirteen wpm. We don’t have to



communicate with those above orbelow our state of proficiencyunless we want to. So, the word weought to emphasize here is “pro-ficiency” - proficiency at a speedthat satisfies our enjoyment - apleasant speed which we feel iscomfortable and satisfying.

The Proficient OperatorHe is “at home” with the code upto his limiting speed. He is quitecomfortable sending and receiv-ing in this range, and except forexcessive QRM and QRN feels nosense of strain. To him or her thecode is just another, and particu-larly enjoyable way to converse.He understands what he hearswithout any particular effort, andof course he hears it as words, notjust strings of letters. Some of ourbest written examples come fromthe old wire line RR telegraphersin small stations across the coun-try.These men (few women held suchjobs because of the other dutiesrequired) also had responsibilityfor delivering train orders to thetrain crews, maintaining RR prop-erty associated with their stations,operating the semaphore signalsand track switches for passingtrains, answering customers’questions, selling tickets, handlingbaggage and freight shipments,etc. In short, telegraphy, while ofgreat importance, was but one as-pect of their jobs. They were notjust sitting beside their sounderswaiting for something to comethrough on the line. Their earswere attuned to the sounder, andthey would have to be ready tointerrupt other duties if something

important was heard. Theirsounders were continuously onthe line and they could and didhear, almost unconsciously lis-tening to everything that was saidto anyone on the line: they kneweverything going on. (It was like abig party line.) Very many skilledradio operators of the past andpresent do the same thing.One of them who operated com-mercially for many years and wasalso a ham wrote: “During mytime as a RR telegrapher, and as a[radio] operator, I could and cando several other things while stillknowing what is going on the wireor on the radio. As a matter offact, right now, I have 2Ø meterCW on and I am fully aware ofwhat is going on, who is there,what they are saying, etc., whilewriting this letter. With speeds ofup to 3Ø - 4Ø wpm, I have alwaysbeen able to carry on a completeconversation while copying thecode on a mill, servicing the mes-sage ahead of time, etc., etc.”SET

Your Own GoalSo, how high should you set yourgoal of speed? - Set it to meetyour own temperament and de-sires, what you think will be com-fortable and enjoyable to you. Setit realistically - not so high thatyou get discouraged by how longit takes to get there. But not solow that you are unable to enjoymuch that is on the air, availableto be read or copied. If you feelchallenged to go to the top, fine,but maybe you should divide itinto stages of growth along thelines suggested here.



Ted McElroy, long the codespeed champion and a teacher,said that 25 wpm is an easilyachievable and reasonable goal -one who can handle this speedcomfortably is a “good” opera-tor. But if you can read or copy at3Ø-35 wpm this added marginwill allow you to correct for er-rors, static and other kinds of in-terference or losses, as well aswidening your contacts. We havetried here to lay out for all to seewhat has been done and what canbe done. Pick what you yourselfwant. You don’t have to keep upwith the fastest Joneses you mayhear.First and foremost, have fun: en-j o y i t . Good” operator?“Skilled” operator? “Expert?”“Super-expert?” Up to somepoint each stage brings increasingpleasure as one becomes moreand more free from consciouseffort. Reaching higher speedswill turn out to be easier than youmight suppose. It is mostly amatter of right approach andpractice, continuing what we havealready started. Your rate of gainwill depend mostly on how yougo about it, and will be more orless proportional to the square ofthe time invested. What do youwant?

Shortening Things UpAt too low a code speed it takes solong to say things in ordinaryEnglish that it may become tedi-ous or even boring. This can be amajor road block to the real en-joyment of slower CW operating,but it is not the only reason fortedious QSO’s. This can be partly

overcome by certain shortcuts. Inthe early days of wireless, codespeeds were necessarily slow for anumber of reasons, and so threeideas were borrowed from land-line telegraphy to help speedthings up:-_ Special signals - including

the special three-letter “ Q ”signals providing shortforms for common radiocommunicating needs,

_ Omitting words not reallynecessary to convey thesense,

_ Using standard or easilyunderstood abbreviations.

“Q” signals allow us to cover alot of ground with only three let-ters. If they are followed by aquestion mark, the sender is ask-ing a question; without it he ismaking a statement. “QTH”, forexample, says “My location is...”, while “QTH?” says “Whatis your location?” (It is a waste oftime to send: “My QTH is ...” aswe sometimes hear, or “What isyour QTH?”) See the ARRL Op-erating Manual for a list of themost useful of these. (A similarbut much more extensive set ofspecial commercial three-lettersignals was once devised, calledthe “Z-code.” This system neverattained wide popularity, but it ismuch easier to remember.)In most sentences certain wordscan be left out completely withoutaltering the meaning of a sen-tence. Words such as “I”. “ the” ,“that”, etc., can often be droppedwithout causing any confusion.Several words or a whole phrasecan often be ignored without de-



tracting anything of importance.These were the kinds of thingscommonly done in writing com-mercial telegrams to reduce thecost.Various kinds of abbreviations, asort of shorthand, have been incommon use over the years.Many of them were used exten-sively by people making briefnotes, etc., others were devised byold time telegraphers for theirspecial purposes. Several differentschemes have been devised toform them:_ Short words may be repre-

sented by their first and lastletters: e.g. “now” by NW,“would” by WD, “check”by CK, etc.

_ Short words may be spelled“ p h o n e t i c a l l y ” : e . g .“some” by SUM, “says”by SEZ, “good” by GUD,“because” by BECUZ, etc.

_ Other words may simplyomit all their vowels andjust use the consonants: e.g.“letter” by LTR, “mes-sage” by MSG, etc.

_ Easily suggested parts oflonger words may be repre-sented by a single letter:e.g. in amateur practice“transmitter” may be sentas XMTR, “weather” byWX, “distance” by DX,etc.

_ Those who handle consid-erable message traffic havedevised some very briefforms, such as “aa” for“all after”.

Amateurs must, however, remem-ber the government regulationthat we may not use secret codesor ciphers - our communicationsmust be open, which meanssomething generally used andunderstandable. (The old Phillipscode, for example, would qualifybecause it is public information.)The older handbooks containedlists of the more common abbre-viations, a sort of standard list.Some were for general use, otherswere for handling heavy messagetraffic, etc.When commercial telegrapherswere sending press (news) at rela-tively high speeds they used avery extensive set of abbreviationscalled the “Phillips code”. Herethe sending operator translatedmany of the words and phrases ofa news dispatch into this code, andthe receiving operator retranslatedthem back into normal English ashe copied the news. This proce-dure reduced the total number ofletters to be sent and received byaround 4Ø% (estimated fromsamples given). When speaking ofthe speed of press dispatches thisfactor must be factored in (thecounts were based on normalEnglish spelling). Some of thePhillips abbreviations wereadopted by amateurs.The important thing about usingabbreviations is that they must beobvious to the receiving operator.That means they must be com-mon words in normal amateur oreveryday use. We must use com-mon sense with them - not over-doing it or using them exces-sively, just being careful that theywill be understood. Refer to



Chapter 27 for examples and listsof abbreviations

Chapter 7Listening or Reading

“Copying in Your Head” Justlistening to good code sendingis perhaps the very best way,both to learn the code and toadvance in skill.

It is surely the simplest and easiest- no distractions - you can giveyour whole attention to just lis-tening to and trying to understand- no struggling to write at thesame time. Isn’t that the way weall learned our language? Watchhow little children learn.

ListenMany experienced teachers con-sider that just listening to goodcode without writing anythingdown is the very best form ofcode practice at all stages. Itserves a number of purposes.First, it keeps our attention to thefact that code is sound, and we arelearning to recognize the soundpatterns of each character and ofsome words.Second, and very important, ithelps to reduce any tension asso-ciated with getting every letterwritten down (no distractions)But there is more - it helps us getvery familiar with using the code.So, listen, listen, listen to improve.As soon as you have some mas-tery of the alphabet, start listeningat every opportunity to goodsending, even while doing otherthings that do not require yourclose attention (e.g., cooking,

eating, working with hands onroutine things). Don’t think youneed lots of new recordings. Re-member that: “To repeat often isto learn.” Replaying of the samefamiliar materials over and over,day after day, is especially helpfulif you do it creatively, really lis-tening to it. Play them over andover, paying close attention, try-ing to understand. As you listen,let your mind be open and recep-tive - intent on listening to eachsignal as it arrives. not anticipat-ing or trying to remember what itsaid before. So. let yourself getfamiliar with the code by takingsome time every day to relax andenjoy just listening to good CW.This kind of listening is listeningcreatively, constructively, as itcomes along.. This has severaldistinct advantages, not the leastof which is to take away any ten-sion or strain - you know what itis talking about - you are alreadyfamiliar with it in general and youfeel more comfortable with it.And - you are getting really fa-miliar with the sound of code - itis becoming increasingly mean-ingful to you. So, you can benefitgreatly by listening to the samethings over and over in this con-structive way - just listening as itcomes along. But as you advancemix in a patterns of new and un-familiar recordings, too. The newmaterial will become easier andeasier with this kind of practice.You can make your own record-ings: -- a few ARRL bulletinbroadcasts, quality QSO’s - Biblepassages are good - or other textmaterial and play them back overand over.



Especially in the early stages ofreceiving, when things go veryslowly, and often again when youhave gained considerable skill, themind may tend to wander offsomewhere else, or go gallopingahead (jumping to conclusions).As you listen, hang onto everyletter, word and phrase - hang onlike a leech (that is, concentrateon it), really listening to it. (Thisalso helps; take off any strain,knowing something of what isbeing said.) Remember that inpractical communications, whenwe listen to the radio, the signalsare here and then gone and can-not be brought back unless theywere recorded.. You are learningto get so familiar with the soundof code that doing it right the firsttime will be easy. Easy familiaritywill help us to do that.We are more likely to rush aheadwhen we are fresh and alert.Don’t let your mind try to outrunthe sender. We must resist lettingour minds wander off, or antici-pate, or pause to try to figuresomething out. Some of us do thisin normal conversation and read-ing, but we need to be especiallyon guard against this in code re-ception. Don’t let it become ahabit with Morse. As we listen, weneed to disconnect all consciousanalytical processes, and insteadmaintain an eager readiness toreceive - to hear each letter, wordand phrase as it comes along,willing for it to be whatever it willbe. That means we hang on toevery letter, word and phrase as itcomes along, ready for the nextone. Listen, keep listening andwant to understand. Let’s developthe desire and feel for doing this.

There is no need ever to becomeembarrassed (or panic) becauseyou can’t read or copy every-thing you hear.

Whatever You Miss, Let It GoAm I afraid of losing something?I must let go of that fear, and re-lax and learn to trust the mindand to enjoy listening. It is a factthat the less hard we try, the betterwe will receive. Don’t ever stop totry to figure out something youdidn’t catch. Keep following thesender - keep listening and youwill soon be getting enough tomake sense out of every sentence,and in time you will get all of it.But even when you are quite goodthere will be some words whichdon’t make sense at first - in mostcases you will make sense out of itas you go on following thesender, and without even trying.The context and redundancy bothhelp fill in the gaps - just keepfocused on the signals. (Anddon’t forget that the sendersometimes may have made a mis-take.) If you have learned only towrite things down, it will takesome practice to learn to “copyin your head” without writing.Listen to understand. Keep lis-tening, not worrying about losinghere and there. Soon the signalsseem to be slowing down as theyparade before your mind or “ in -ner eye” as meaningful wordsand phrases. Learn to listen forwhole words, phrases and themeaning of messages rather thansingle letters.

Throw Away Your PencilMany an old-timer has alwayscopied down everything he re-



ceives: he has never learned to sitback and relax and just enjoyconversing. He needs to throwaway his pencil and learn to enjoylistening for listening’s sake.Many a newer-comer likewisefeels tied to his pencil and paperout of fear he may miss some-thing if he doesn’t get it all writ-ten down, every letter of it. Thiscreates a tension, a strain that im-pedes the normal functioning ofthe telegraphic “habit” of mind.“Throw away your pencil andenjoy just listening” is good ad-vice.

ConcentrateIn receiving, we must learn moreand more to shut off all distrac-tions and concentrate our atten-tion on the signals we are listeningto, what is being said. We need tolearn to center our attention con-sciously on the signals and ignoreall else, until it becomes a habit -automatic. Prepare yourself to dothis immediately before starting tolisten and whenever there are lulls.Make it a habitual mental clear-ing-for-action, so you can payattention solely to the signals youhear. When we are interested inwhat we are hearing this will helpus concentrate. So let’s want toknow what is being said - yet notso intensely interested that we be-gin to guess what is going to besaid and miss out on what is actu-ally being transmitted.An agent who was responsible forhiring ship-board operators washimself a dyed-in-the-wool CWoperator. He connected a tele-graph key in his office with abuzzer in the waiting room. Then

whenever there was an opening,he would send an appropriatename from his prospect list inMorse code. If the man didn’tanswer promptly, he simplyskipped him and went to the nextname. He believed that a goodshipboard operator should bealert, able to respond to CW. Isn’tthat an interesting way to get agood operator? -- Is he listening,alert?

Learn To Hear - Words AsWords

Words Are The Building BlocksOf ThoughtAs you become more familiarwith the code alphabet, you willsoon be hearing letters easilyenough - it is time to begin tothink in terms of meaning, thatmeans starting to hear words in-stead of strings of letters. But asspeeds go up, there is a limit toour ability to spell out words. Ournext goal is to hear words. Leteach word or code group developon the internal monitor screen ofyour mind. Begin to developsound consciousness of words.This does not mean you have torelearn words, but only changeyour approach from visual tosound. Practicing with lists ofwords, replaying texts or QSO’s -this kind of practice can help yougain that familiarity with wordscommonly used.There is a limit to our ability tospell words out mentally and re-member them. As long as wehear only letter-by-letter, we al-most have to copy them down tounderstand what is being sent. Tohear code as we talk, we have to



learn to hear words as words - thatmakes the code readable or“conversational,” and not justshort or long strings of letters.This is stage two. If you havelearned to hear and think of atleast some of the 1ØØ mostcommon words as words, you al-ready have taken the first steps.Words are the building blocks oflanguage, so we need to begin tohear, not code or letters, but moreand more in words as perceptionunits. (Step three, the expertstage, is to learn to hear more byideas - total content - than bywords.)

How Can We Learn To Do This

Listen For MeaningWhen we begin to hear and sendin words instead of individual let-ters our receiving ability andspeeds are going to improve. Thatis part of our goal in making thecode more useful and enjoyable.Hearing words instead of stringsof letters will make speeding upnatural and easy. It will requiresome practice and effort. Themind has to be pushed, but nottoo hard. Let’s do it the easy way,in short practice periods. Learn-ing to recognize whole words be-comes an automatic process ofdecoding, something that lets usunderstand as we hear. This is nobig job - the word “the”, for ex-ample, is no longer than the num-ber 9.Start learning to hear commonshort words until they have be-come indelibly fixed in mind asword sounds. Learn to read bywords as readily as you recognizeletters. First learn to hear com-

mon short words over and overuntil they have become indeliblyfixed in mind as word sounds, asif someone had actually spokenthem to you. Extend this tolonger words by such methods asthe following which some peoplehave found helpful:-A “Mental Screen” is like atypewriter writing -- visualize atypewriter or blackboard onwhich writing out each word as itcomes, writing it along letter byletter along the line, or like one ofthose lighted display signs wherethe words walk slowly across thescreen. Let each word develop onthe internal monitor screen, orblackboard of your mind so you“see” it being written in context.Try “projecting” the letter ornumber, etc., for split second onyour mental screen as you listento it to encourage instantly “see-ing” it in your mind when youhear it. Learn to write on yourmental blackboard. This helpsfocus our attention on the signalsforming words, and learning to“see” them as words. Let youmind be blank as you listen to fastcode, and soon the letters jumpout at you.Some have found that “Phonics”can make comprehension andspeed building easy and naturalthis way:--. Relax and think of thesounds of the code letters, not asletter names, but as they are pro-nounced in words. Like this -while the word “west” is beingreceived -- as each letter comesalong one after the other say outloud, or to yourself: “wuh,wuh...wee, wee...wes, wes,...west”,progressively building up theword in mind by sound. This



makes it easier to hear theirsounds. Sound them out one afteranother as they come along untilwe get syllables and finally thesound of the whole word itself. Itteaches the mind to decode thedit-space-dah patterns and com-binations into their sound values,the way we hear words.This system doesn’t work per-fectly, of course, because Englishis not written in a perfectly pho-netic way. Some of the letters are“silent”, like final “e.” Let theletters combine into words as youhear them in code, much as werecognize words as we hear theirsounds You can help by practic-ing with the common letter com-binations (br, gl, ng, etc.) andsyllables (com-. ex-, inter-, -ment,-ing, -tion, etc.) to get familiarwith them. Reading whole wordsthis way then becomes a processof decoding from something wehear in bits and pieces intosomething we hear and under-stand as meaningful units. It evencan help with abbreviations. Youmay like to try this approach andlet it become automatic. When wehave learned to hear words aswords, we can often also mentallycorrect a sender’s errors or signaldrop-outs while listening.The importance of Proper WordSpacing should become moreobvious now. It gives the mind asplit second to make sense out ofthe stimuli it has just received.Those word separating spaces arevital. The following exercise isworth a try - as soon as you rec-ognize a word by the space whichfollows it (if the sending is not toofast, and the spaces between wordsare long enough), try saying each

word out loud (or mentally toyourself) as you recognize it. Youmay want to make up some prac-tice materials which leave widerspaces between words to allowtime to say them. (It may also beuseful to practice this way withshort groups of numbers, such as2 or 3 digits.) Notice how, as youlisten, the silence before says“start here” and as the followingspace says “it is finished”, sort ofislands of rest. That is why gain-ing familiarity with the sound ofcode words is so helpful. It makesthe word a meaningful unit, andyou get to feeling easy about re-ceiving what makes sense. Themore words you are familiar withthe easier it is to receive. It ban-ishes tension.One ham put it this way: “ t h ecode just flows into my ear andcomes out as words.” Just as wehave learned to let the mind rec-ognize each code character andpresent it to us consciously andautomatically, now we must takethat next step and trust the samemind to store these letters and putthem together into words withoutdemanding to be conscious of theprocess and “hear” each letterindividually. We have to learn tolet our subconscious mind presentus with the words they form. Aslong as we insist on recognizingeach individual letter, we are inter-fering, meddling with our normalhabitual mind’s functioning, andmisdirecting our attention.The goal is to learn to listen tothe code as you would to the spo-ken word. Eventually the soundwill trigger your consciousnessjust as the spoken word does and



then, when you can do this, it willalso be easier to copy it down.

We Must Listen At HigherSpeeds To ImproveTo improve we must begin bylistening at a speed higher than weare comfortable with, in order toget used to it and speed up ourrecognition. We ought to listen atdifferent speeds, both slower andfaster than we can easily read. Weneed to be flexible - to avoidstaying at any one speed too longat a time. Along with this, let’spractice listening to lots of stan-dard English at speeds close toour limit. This limit should keepgoing up as we continue to prac-tice this way. A total of a half-hour a day spent just listening atspeeds we can barely follow willwork wonders in a couple ofweeks. Listen as you would at aconcert, enjoying it as you go.Sometimes we should pick speedsso high that we can only make outa character here and there. Thiskind of listening will quickly helpus to begin to get more and more.Small words will start jumping outas soon as they have been sentwe will know what the words are,although we didn’t consciouslyspell them out as they were com-ing in. We need to continue thiskind of practice, and soon we willbe getting enough of each sen-tence to make sense out of it.Learning Is Variable Some daysyou’ll do better than others, butdon’t let this trouble you - that’snormal. All of us are like that fora while at each speed.You will discover that sometimesyou can read several words solid,

and then not be able to read any-thing more than a letter here andthere for some space. All this ispart of normal learning. Keep onlistening: give the incoming sig-nals your undivided attention andkeep relaxed, as though listeningto a friend talk. Soon you will becatching not only small words, butlonger ones, until you are gettingit all. You will discover, withpractice, that the signals, whichwere too fast before, will seem tobe slowing down as they paradebefore your inner eye as mean-ingful words and phrases. - Aninteresting example is the blindamateur who could copy 35 wpm,and came across some code prac-tice and listened. He lost a letterhere or there, and then was star-tled when they said it was 55 wpmpractice!

Missing Words

Long Words

Decapitated Words

Broken WordsStatic, interference or fading canmomentarily wipe out a letter ortwo, a small word or part of alonger word. Momentary inatten-tion (due to mental fatigue, dis-traction or something else) on ourpart while sending or receivingcan do this, too. When a word isdecapitated the first several lettersare missing. This makes thingsparticularly difficult in English,because word beginnings are soimportant for us to be able tomake sense of a word - and worse,this is often the accented part. Infact, when we can get the first sev-



eral letters of a word don’t weoften know pretty well what thewhole word is likely to be?When reception is solid as we arejust listening, some strange thingsmay happen: a little word or thefirst part of a long word comesalong which seems unfamiliar -has no recognizable shape - andwe stumble a moment trying tomake sense of it. This tends toblank our minds against hearingthe next few letters and then weare likely to lose the what imme-diately follows, in the case of along word, the whole word. Atother times our minds sometimesseem to go into reverse after thefirst few letters of a long word,then misses a couple of letters inthe middle, tries to pick them up,and finally loses the whole word.How to can we stop this? Wemustn’t let missing out first partof a word distract us so that westop hearing the rest of it. - Howcan we prevent this? Is part of thetension caused by missing out orlosing first part due to recogniz-ing a time gap with nothing rec-ognizable to fill it? -- We may beable to recapture long words if wejust keep on listening. (When weare copying we can often fill it inafterwards from the context.) Abroken word (interrupted, dis-jointed) results when the missingletter (or letters) occurs in themiddle of the word. Sometimesthis break is due to the senderwho inadvertently hesitates an in-stant too long between two letters.In either case, the space betweenletters is too wide and our mindsinterpret this as a break, markingit as the end of one word and thebeginning of the next. Since it

doesn’t make sense, we realizesomething is wrong and wonderwhat word that last group of let-ters was. (Let this be a warning toavoid it our own sending.)When a wrong letter (mis-spelling) or a non-character issent or a word is left out it maydistract us in much the same way.Really, isn’t this much like a mis-print in reading. Don’t we oftenskip right over a misprint ormissing word and hardly noticeit? How do we do that? Isn’t itbecause we understand it in thecontext? Can’t we learn to do thisin telegraphy also? -- Where oneor more letters or even words arewrong or missing, can’t we oftenfill them in correctly? We canlearn to do this for missing or ex-tra dits, etc., mentally correctingthem as we listen. As we have em-phasized before we must just let itgo and keep on listening. If wepause try to figure it out at thispoint, it will divert our attentionfrom reception to analysis, andseriously disrupt with our auto-matic reception as we try to makesense out of it. Frequently we dis-cover that as we go it will clearitself up.First, we must keep focused on theincoming signals without strug-gling to make sense out of them.Trying to make sense is a con-scious activity, interfering with theautomatic mental functioning. Asense of concern is involved -concern that we won’t be able toremember the first part until theword is finished, or that its begin-ning is peculiar, has no recogniz-able shape (e.g. technical ormedical terms), or that it is goingto be a word we won’t be able to



recognize at all (doesn’t seemfamiliar). For many words, oneway to help is to get familiar withthe common prefixes and suffixesso that they are “heard” as unitsinstead of separate letters. Wemust learn not to let consciousthought block further reception.

On-The-Air ListeningWhen we listen on the radio, static,fading and interference tend toslow us down. Under these condi-tions high quality sending (accu-rate timing) will get through farbetter than sloppy sending. Butthere are certain adjustments orchanges which can be made inour receiving equipment whichwill help: e.g. the use of RF andaudio filters, changing the tuningof IF amplifiers, etc.. These willhelp separate signals and reducenoise.Static and irregular non-signaltypes of electric interference canoften be reduced by turning downRF gain and increasing AF gain tobring the signal up. Some noisescan be canceled in the brain byusing headphones wired so thatthey are out of phase with eachother. Dual-diversity receptioncan greatly reduce or eliminatefading, but this requires a majorequipment change: two separateantennas and two identical RFfront ends are necessary. The earis an excellent discriminator ofCW signals in QRM, noise andother interference, much superiorto any equipment available today.We can train our ears to minimizeinterference by focusing our at-tention to the one signal we wantto hear. The musical pitch and

quality, so long as two signals arenot identical, can help us separatethem, while the speed and style ofsending also help greatly to sepa-rate the one we want from theother. In addition, the ear can betrained to read incredibly weaksignals in the midst of strong dis-tractions. Some operators havelearned to get almost 1ØØ% copyin spite of all these.Some have found that by listeningin the dark, or closing their eyes,they can focus more sharply onsignals which are in the midst ofinterference and other distrac-tions. You may want to try it andsee if it helps you develop or im-prove this skill. Finally, sometimeswriting it - copying - may help usto concentrate.

Any experienced telegrapher,regardless of what he is doingeffortlessly hears what is beingsaid on the air or on the wires

Chapter 8CopyingGetting it written down

This is really an extension ofChapter 7 To the principlesgiven there add these: -- Ifyou are going the easy way,copying is the next step after“listening” -- advancing incode skill by adding the newaction of writing it down.

What we hear as letters and wordsare now to be written with penciland paper or with typewriter. It islearning to co-ordinate ear-to-mind-to-hand. Copying by handexposes all the senses to what youare hearing, and it is nothing



more than listening to and writingdown what is being received. Anold 1854 book on telegraphy de-scribed it as “taking dictation” -at first letter-by-letter, later asword-by-word, etc. That is a goodway to think of it. So, hunt up thatpencil again. Operating ability ismeasured by copying: if youdon’t write it down - puttingdown everything you hear exactlyas you hear it - you aren’t copy-ing.A skilled operator is trained tocopy what he hears 1ØØ% per-fect. Most people can learn tocopy with a pencil up to about 25wpm (a few can reach 35, rarely45), but above that speed almosteverybody needs a typewriter(“mill”). (On a typewriter it mayalso be done “mechanically” bydirect ear-to-typewriter-key trans-fer without processing it throughthe letter stage to the typewriterkey. - See later in chapter) Re-member - don’t try to do morethan one new thing at a time. Youalready know how to write. Whenyou copy by hand, make it easyby writing the way you usuallydo. For example, don’t try toblock print unless this is naturaland easy. Likewise, don’t try tocopy on a typewriter (“mill”)before you have learned how totouch-type.While most of us would like toknow what we are copying as wecopy, this isn’t necessary. It canbecome so automatic that we copysomething correctly without real-izing what we are copying. (I usu-ally like to know what I amcopying, don’t you?) People whodo these things well do not strug-gle with them - they have learned

so well that it has become secondnatural for them.Here is an interesting example ofcopying properly:- One night, as Iwas copying mixed groups in avery relaxed manner, and feelingquite comfortable with the code, Iasked my friend if he wouldspeed up to 25 wpm from the 2Øwpm he had been sending. Hestarted sending them at 25 wpm,and I was vexed at his misunder-standing, but began to copy any-way, wondering why he was usingvoice to send these simple data. -Voice? What voice? He wassending clear code with letter-number combinations at 25 wpmand I was copying it easily.” Aha!The listener was now thinking interms of letters and numbers, notas code characters at all. He hadbecome proficient.To copy just Write Down whatyou hear, everything you hear -not what you think your hear -and you will make progress. Thefaculties of hearing and under-standing code signals work best inlearning to coordinate this way tocreate a useful copying ability.

Practice With Familiar TextHelpsAs in listening, this helps by dis-pelling the fear of missing some-thing, because we already knowwhat it is about. By using thingswhich we have read, or recordedmaterial we are already familiarwith, we feel more comfortable.When we know, at least in general,what it’s about or what it says, weknow what to expect and notworry about not understandingand losing out. It helps build con-



fidence in learning to copy be-hind. The more familiar we arewith what we are copying, theeasier it all becomes. This confi-dence will begin to carry over intoreceiving new and unfamiliarmaterials also.

Pay No Attention To Any ErrorsCondition yourself to copy whatcomes easily. As you practice,copy everything you instantlyrecognize and pay no attention toany errors -- just forget them andgo on.

If You Miss Anything Just GoOn

Let it go, forget it and keep goingon. Train yourself to leave ablank space and go on, because ifyou stop for even an instant topuzzle over a signal you didn’trecognize, you will miss at leastsome of what follows. We mustcondition ourselves to do this.After all, we’re learning.The holes in your copy willgradually fill up and you will bekeeping relaxed while you go, justleaving blanks for each missedletter or word. (However, charac-ters we habitually miss do pointout what needs more practice.)Remember also that we maysometimes mis-hear, or mis-identify a character or a word -and also it is always possible thatthe sender may have made a mis-take. -- Count these things as ofno importance, and keep at it untilyou can do it easily. Don ‘t workso long at a time during theselearning stages that you get tiredor bored. Use a wide variety of

material and choose it to be asinteresting as possible.One student, speaking of ARRLpractice materials, said: “I mademore progress in learning code inweeks than I did in years previ-ously, because it is more interest-ing to copy and understand solidcopy.” Some practice copyingrandom 5-character groups isgood in the early stages to makesure we are recognizing the char-acters correctly and to preventanticipation, but because it ismeaningless it soon tends to be-come boring. -- Too much of thismay also lead the mind to expecta break after each five letterswhen we are trying to copy nor-mal English. This has happened!(Practice with “Backward Eng-lish” - provided in some com-puter programs - is better becausethe letter groups are of variablelength and have normal letter dis-tribution.)

If You Want To Become MoreProficientWho Doesn’t ? If you are able tocopy every letter, you are notlearning - but if you are only get-ting two letters out of every three,or four out of every five, yourmind will be motivated to get thatextra letter. There is always somespeed at which for the time beingeach of us falls apart - so what? Itneed not become a barrier. Ifyou want to become more profi-cient, don’t practice at such a slowspeed that it becomes a fixedhabit.Keep trying in short bursts of notover a minute or two at a time athigher speeds 2 - 5 (or more)



wpm faster in order to force themind to respond faster - it will.This is especially important whenwe are at a speed where we gettingabout 95% of it, so that we don’tbecome satisfied to stay there. Itis often best to begin a practiceperiod, when the mind is fresh, ata speed too fast to get more thanabout half of it, and then slowdown. - Keep moving up faster toimprove, because then copying ata little slower speed than yourmaximum will become easy andenjoyable. Alternating with somepractice at 2, 5 or more wpmabove your limit for brief periodswill challenge the mind, thendropping back a little will showyou are really improving. Everyoperator soon develops enoughawareness of what he is writingdown, that he doesn’t need towonder whether it is copied cor-rectly.

In The BeginningIf you begin copying early, youwill be copying letter-by-letter,sticking close behind the sender:you hear the character and write itdown, then forget it and listen tothe next and write it down, and soon. But to copy this way for verylong, in step with each letter beingsent, tends to tense us up. It be-comes tedious and tiring becauseit is meaningless and so muchconscious effort is involved. Thenyou usually have to read what youhave written in order to under-stand it. (If we look back whilecopying we may lose out.) Inpracticing to speed up copying,try not to stop if you fall behind,just keep going.

The beginner is afraid of losingsomething, because he can’t get itall down fast enough. He is fran-tically struggling to keep up,“tail-gating” the incoming sig-nals, so as not to lose any of them.This is because he is still not rec-ognizing some characters quicklyenough. The problem is madeworse because the characters arereceived at very unequal rates ofspeed as compared to writingthem down. The letters “E,” “ I ”and “T”, for example, are theshortest letters, while C, J, Q and Yare the longest ones. A beginnercopying letter-by-letter can getpanicky trying to write down an“E” or other short letter beforethe next one arrives. It is worsewhen two E’s, or EI, IE, TT orother short letters occur together,and we frantically try to writethem down before the next onecomes along. As we advance mostpeople can copy letter-by-letterup to about 25 wpm or evenfaster, but above that we simplyhave to find a better way.

A Better Way

Copying BehindThe first step to making copyingeasy is to learn to copy behind.That means training the mind toact as a buffer, or short-termmemory, between hearing the in-coming signals and what we arewriting down. Several charactersor words are automatically held inmind after hearing them and be-fore writing them down, mean-while continuing to listen to thenext ones coming along. Thishelps smooth out the uneven rateat which characters are received as



compared to writing them down,and also it relieves the mentalstrain of copying. It serves as acushion. In this way we can alsomake much better looking copyand can even capitalize propernames as we hear them.Copying behind is another goodway to beat anticipation. It puts apremium on listening before youwrite A good operator seldomstarts writing a word down until itis completed. By starting out us-ing things which we have read, orrecorded material we are alreadyfamiliar with, we feel more com-fortable. When we know what it’sabout or what it says, we knowwhat to expect and not worryabout losing out.Above about 25 wpm, we need tobuild up vocabulary of at least themost common words and sylla-bles. Practice waiting until a sylla-ble or short word is finished be-fore starting to write it down, thentry it for two syllables. Writingdown more than that behind whathas been sent may be risky - theword may turnout to be longer -unexpected letters may still becoming and surprise you, makingyou miss them or even more (Ifyou’re still going at 4Ø wpm youwill have to copy word by word.)Some people seem to develop thisability without any special effortas they progress. But for most ofus it just doesn’t seem to come atall without some help.How can we learn to copy be-hind? Is there something we cando specifically? There certainly is.Here is one way to begin: start outwith random two-character groupsat first, until you get the hang of

it, keeping the spacing betweengroups wider than normal. Listenuntil both characters have beenheard before starting to writethem down. As this becomes eas-ier, try groups of three, then offour and if you wish up to five ormore. Practice also with decreas-ing spacing between groups untilit is normal. Another approachwith any kind of text, is this way:listen to the first character, butwait until the next one has beencompleted before writing the firstone down; write down the secondone after hearing the third one,etc. Then increase the number ofintermediate characters betweenhearing and writing to two, thenthree, etc., as far as you wish.This kind of practice should beextended to include short sylla-bles and short words (such as the1ØØ most common words), ineach case waiting until the wholesyllable or word is completed be-fore starting to write it down, andwhile listening to what follows. Toextend this to more than a coupleof syllables or short words can berisky, because, as noted before,something unexpected may comealong and throw you off balance,and cause you to miss some ofwhat follows.An interesting example is thiscomment (from the time when agovernment inspector had to testeach individual applicant for anoperator’s license):- “I can re-member the benefits of copyingbehind. The inspector giving thetest started and sent ‘of’ and thenadded an ‘f.’ I immediatelythought of ‘off’ and got set forthe next word, but to my dismay,without a pause he sent an ‘i’ and



so immediately I tried to outfoxhim by prewriting the word ‘of-fice’ To my consternation he kepton going with ‘cia’ and I quicklyrevised my thinking to ‘official.’But I was wrong, because he fi-nally ended up with the word ‘of-ficially.’ Listening first andcopying behind are beneficial.”So, copying a word or two behindis a leisurely pace, but too muchmore may produce some mentalstrain, especially if an unusualword comes along.Copying behind has many ad-vantages besides making it easy.It allows us to make a neat, fin-ished-looking copy with a properappearance, capitalization andpunctuation. When it is at speedswell below our limit, it gives ustime to fill in gaps and flaws dueto static, etc., and to correct errorsin sending. Context can help.(Numbers, however, have no con-text and generally must be copiedwithout delay.) The purpose ofcopying behind is to relieve themind of the compulsive pressure,the strain, of keeping up letter byletter.Most high speed operators whohave discussed this subject tell usthat we need not copy more thanone or two syllables or words be-hind, and in fact as speeds go upthis is about the safe limit. (Someexperts, such as Ted McElroyseem to have been able to copy 6or more words - even whole sen-tences - behind with no trouble atall, but most of us probably can-not.) Copying letter-by-letterforces one to write with consciouseffort, and this in turn blocks ourattempts to copy behind.

What Makes Sense Is EasierWe can hold in mind only a fewindividual numbers or randomcharacters at a time because theyusually have no coherence, nomeaning - they don’t make senseas syllables and words do. Wordsand phrases are much easier toremember than a string of lettersor numbers (or a call sign) be-cause they form meaningfulgroups, not a lot of little unrelatedpieces. This is why Walter Can-dler, who in earlier days taughtmany operators to become ex-perts, was convinced that learningto hear words as words was essen-tial for efficient copying behind.(He was a strong proponent oflistening practice.) We can learnto copy by words as readily as byletters. For example, the word“the” takes no longer time thanthe number “9.”Copying behind by syllables,words and even by longer expres-sions is merely an extension ofthis. If we build up our workingvocabulary (word-familiarity) asalready discussed in Chapter 7,“Listening”, this will help us agreat deal. As speeds go up youwill find that, by around 4Ø wpmyou’re copying word by wordand by 6Ø wpm (if you go thatfar) it will be more like copyingphrase by phrase.Old time telegraphers used to saythat their “alphabet“was words.That is, they had a wide workingvocabulary of words that they in-stantly recognized when theyheard them. When they heard aword coming in on the line incode, they heard the word, not the



individual letters, unless it wassome proper name or somethingunusual that they had to spell out.They had a familiarity with words.That is why one of them, who alsowas a well-known teacher ofMorse code, said that by listeningand re-listening over and overagain to the same recorded codetapes of regular English text, thiswill help us to become intimatelyfamiliar with the words - that is,over-learning. We need to get fa-miliar with words as they sound incode.

Conquering Our Fears Of Los-ing Out

Law 3 if you miss something:condition yourself to skip it.Keep copying everything yourecognize instantly and easily andshrug off the holes left over.You’ll soon be surprised to findthe holes gradually filling up. Ifyou are frightened you lose muchof your ability to copy code welland - surprisingly - your sendingspeed also tends to go up (asmuch as 25%). The parts of brainthat copy normally are prettymuch shut down.At first it may not be easy to letgo, and allow some characters orwords, which we can’t quite con-sciously identify, pass by. Thatdoesn’t mean we stop listening orpaying attention: it means we arelearning to trust the mind to storethem safely in its immediate, re-trievable memory and not getpanicky or confused because weare not conscious that they arethere. So, especially in practice, ifyou miss a few letters or a wordhere or there, don’t worry.

Overcome this fear by just con-tinuing to go ahead - includingmore practice on the sticky char-acters - and you will surpriseyourself to find you will recallthem. Because our fear of losingout is the greatest barrier tocopying behind, Candler devisedsome special exercises to help usget started with a minimum ofstrain. It goes like this:-- take a listof short words in two parallel col-umns, preferably words withabout the same number of letterseach, and:-a. With pencil or typewriter

write down the first word inthe first column while si-multaneously spelling outloud the parallel word inthe second column, and soon down the columns. (Wemay do it again, reversingthe column order.) Try itwith 2-letter words first,then longer words till youget the knack of it. - As auseful variation, try sendingthe one word with your keywhile spelling the other outloud.

b. Have someone “read” easyprinted matter to you byspelling out each word at aregular, even rate of speedand a level tone of voice.Don’t begin writing thefirst word until the thirdstarts, and keep on twowords behind, and then ifyou wish, with three wordsbehind, etc.

Finally you may repeat it usingcode instead of voice spelling.Do these exercises slowly enoughthat you don’t feel rushed or have



any fear of losing out. Don’t do ittoo long at a time: a couple min-utes at a time are enough to getthe hang of it.

Other Suggestions

Finger WritingTry some “copying” this way:--sit as though were going to write,using your index finger instead ofa pencil (or your hand as thoughyou held a pencil), letting it restlightly on paper while listening tothe code. You may try it as mo-tionless copying, not moving yourfinger, “copying in yourhead“only, or you may prefer to“write” with your finger. Eitherway, it can help wean us awayfrom that baby step of letter-by-letter copying, and graduate usinto seeing several letters or wordsas a unit in the mind’s eye.Once we’ve gotten the knack of it,we will discover that visualizingand holding the letters, even forjust an instant, will help us to copybetter and faster than the old on-the-edge way - almost a reflexaction. All this is training themind to dig up the images ofwords that have already been sent.It will develop a sort of automaticresponse: ears, mind, hand all co-ordinating together. Remember:to ignore any errors, not to worktoo long at a time, and - don’tforget: you’re just practicing. Sogive yourself a chance. In learn-ing to copy on typewriter, goslowly at first. You may find iteasier to use either caps or lowercase altogether at first. Until thetypewriter became practical oldtime Morse telegraphers copiedall messages with pen and ink in

beautiful longhand up to 3Ø - 35wpm - solid deliverable copy,while a real good operator using amill later could take 5Ø -6Ø wpmwithout overextending himself.Most copied 5 - 6 words behindto do this. (OT bulletin Jn 92 p13)

How Long Shall I PracticeUntil you have gained consider-able skill in copying, avoidworking too long at a time. butafter this point it is good to prac-tice copying for longer periodswithout fatigue. When you havereached a fair speed, long copy-ing practice can be helpful be-cause by the time we are gettingsomewhat tired, our subconsciousmind is translating the dits anddahs so that we do not feel thatterrific mental strain that is thecause of guessing at certain let-ters. Under these conditions onecan copy page after page and notbe aware of a single sentence in it.

Fading, Static, Interference andor Poor FistsIn the old days when all shipsused spark only it took a lot ofconcentration and skill to copy astation a thousand miles awaywhen another ship 15Ø milesaway was transmitting. When therewere static crashes it was hard(and they also often sounded likeparts of code letters). Learning tocopy a weak station thru static andinterference and fading is an artin itself, and to master it takesquite a bit of practice. It taxes theskill of the operator to the utmost,as it is often necessary to retunethe receiver and go back and fill



in missing letters in the copywithout actually losing a word ofa signal that can hardly be read.Signal fading is something tocontend with, but during practiceeven that may prove to be a bene-fit to us. Copy what you do hearand leave a space for what youcan’t. It can help us learn to ig-nore lost sounds.Quality of sending and on-the-airreceiving conditions have amarked effect on copyability. Anoperator who can copy solid codeat 25 wpm may drop to about 15wpm when static or interference ispresent. Bursts of static can takeout gobs of information. Old timecommercial operators copiedsolid right through static, interfer-ence and fading so bad that othershad to ask for repeats, and theykept right on copying when mostus wouldn’t even have heard thesignal at all. Their jobs dependedon it. That is skill, and CW doesget through. Some hams havelearned to do this just as skillfully-- they have learned to copy sig-nals against intolerable back-ground noise, noise to signal ra-tios of 1Ø dB or more.It takes practice and patience tolearn to hear the weak stationsunder the loud ones, but we canlearn to copy a weak station bur-ied under several strong ones.This is a truly remarkable abilityof the human operator: to readincredibly weak signals in the faceof strong distractions. It does takeconcentration, and the advancingoperator should be developingsome of it. Bum “fists”, badsending, is something else again.A skilled operator who can copysolid at 5Ø wpm with good qual-

ity sending might be able to copyonly at 1Ø wpm with poor spac-ing, poor rhythm or poorweighting.

Correcting Imperfect CopyHoles and errors in one-time copycan often be corrected, whetherthey originated in the sending orreceiving (including interference,etc.), by rereading and analyzingthe entire message. Look for keywords, clause and sentenceboundaries, linking words, etc.,for clues. The context can helpgreatly in filling in and correctingthings. Where a word is strange,look for the letter which mighthave been warped, mis-sent ormis-heard. Examining our prac-tice copy in this way can also be avaluable tool, and encouragementas we are learning.

Other ObservationsAt the expert stage where copyingis automatic, the most commoncopying error is said to be gettingso personally interested in what isbeing received that we begin toanticipate what is coming next,and then if it turns out to besomething unexpected, we maylose out something. Learning tocopy on the “mill” (typewriter)without knowing what is beingcopied was actually used duringWW2 in Africa, when operatorswere in short supply. Native Afri-cans who knew no English at all,were taught to associate each codesignal with its correspondingtypewriter key. They quicklylearned to hear the character andpunch the proper keys, and be-came quite proficient.



When making notes just for ourown use, we don’t need to copyevery single letter or word - wecan use any kind of shorthand orabbreviations we know, such as“RCVR” for receiver, “ A N T ”for antenna, etc., just enough toremind us later. The extra timelets us take it easy.During WW-II many operatorsfound it was no more difficult tocopy code by pencil in block let-ters at 25 wpm than copyingEnglish text at the same speed.Some of those messages lastedover an hour! But proficiency incopying coded groups can be adetriment to copying plain lan-guage. Coded groups are usuallyexactly so-many (usually 5) let-ters long, but plain languagewords are expected by the opera-tor to vary in length. When suchan operator moved from codedgroups to plain language opera-tion, he often tended to split thewords into 5 character groups.Background music or other softrhythmic sounds which do notdistract, have sometimes beenfound useful to relieve the tediumfor high-speed operators makinglots of copy.

98 Of The 1ØØ Most CommonWords

Arranged For Candler’s Prac-tice:

go he and how been into greatabout first their before shouldam if man any some very othershall could which little peopleme an him its then what everythese would there on us outmay like than by or not are

well more to in but now madewill of do was had work mustup is can two when they as beone the over said so at who forhave come she our such them i tmy has men only that all h i stime this no we say her yourfrom were upon

Chapter 9Sending and the StraightKey – Part IQuality Of Sending

Rule One:Never send faster than youcan send accurately.

Quality must always come first,and speed second. Stated anotherway - It is more blessed to sendgood code than to receive it. Aimto make your sending as nearlyperfect as possible. Smooth, uni-form characters and spacingpenetrate static and interferencefar better than individual sendingstyles. We should learn to send soclearly and accurately that thereceiving operator gets perfectcopy every time. (Most of the dif-ficulty in reading and copyingcode is due to irregularities inspacing between letters and words.See Chapter 15 Timing.)“Over 5Ø years ago as a trainee”said one commercial operator, “ Iwas told that it is better to send at2Ø wpm, and be received 1ØØ%the first time, than to send at 28wpm and waste time with re-peats.”



Rule Two:Never send faster than youcan receive properly

Break either rule, and you mayend up sending poorly formedcharacters or a choppy, jerky stylethat is hard to copy, and establisha habit that will be very difficultto overcome later. Bad sending isnot cured by changing keys, butby correcting wrong mental im-pressions.

Keying And What It MeansThe genius of the Morse code liesin its simple modulation require-ments - only two “states” areneeded: Ø and 1 (binary code).These two states may be any sortof distinct differences in condi-tion or quality of the modulation:ON\OFF, and for electrical andaudio signals may include pitchand quality, as well. This greatlysimplifies the equipment requiredfor transmission and reception.Any form of two-position switchwhich can be operated at a satis-factory rate of speed by a humanoperator or mechanical or electri-cal device will serve the purpose.For electrical and radio tele-graphic communication the switchmay simply control the “on” and“off” conditions (single-pole-single-throw switch).This opens a wide range of possi-bilities for mechanical designs, thesimplest being just touching twowires together and separatingthem (which has served in emer-gencies), to electronic “switches”which have no mechanicallymoving parts, but rather controltheir conductivity between very

high and low values by electronicmeans. For code transmission wegenerally call such switches“keys”, “keyers”, or “keyingdevices”. In this chapter we areprimarily concerned with handkeying, that is, using the simpleup-and-down hand key “straightkey”. (See Chapter 1Ø for othertypes and their use.)

The First Morse KeyAlfred Vail designed the first“straight” key and called it a“correspondent”. It consisted ofa board on which was mounted asimple flat metal strap spring at-tached to the board at one endand on the other end having asmall knob on its top side and anelectrical contact on its bottomside. This contact was arranged sothat when the knob was depressedit would make connection with asecond contact mounted directlybelow it on the board, thus per-mitting the closing and openingof a circuit. When the pressurewas released the spring caused thecircuit to open again. It had nostops or adjustments of any kind.This “classic” pattern of up-and-down movement has governed thedesign of all “standard” keysever since.. Later models havesimply been “improvements”,variations and elaborations of thisbasic concept.

Recommendations To The Be-ginnerSending with any kind of hand-operated key is an art that takessome time and practice to developproperly. For this reason someteachers today recommend that, if



possible, the beginner start outsending preferably with a key-board (or code-programmedcomputer). With a keyboard it isimpossible to send poorly-formedcharacters. A keyboard is a type-writer-like device which producesthe code character correspondingto the key pressed. There is noway you can misform a characterwith a keyboard - you can onlypush the wrong button. (SeeChapter 1Ø.)A keyer (see Chapter 1Ø) alwaysproduces perfectly timed signalelements and inter-element spac-ings. However, the operator mustcontrol the sequence of the spac-ing of letters and words. This re-quires considerable skill and maydiscourage the beginner. It is easyto send well-formed characters,but unintended or even non-existent ones may also be created.Therefore it seems wisest to beginlearning to send with either astraight key or a keyboard. (Astraight key does help to reinforcethe rhythm patterns of the char-acters more effectively.) In anyevent, it is well for the beginner toheed the advice of a wise teacherwho said:- “Do not touch a hand-key at any time until I tell youthat you may.”This advice has a two-fold pur-pose:1. To make sure that the stu-

dent has an accurate mentalimpression of the correctsound and rhythm of thecode characters before try-ing to send them, and

2. listening to one’s own poorsending may actually hin-

der learning (as noted inChapter 3).

So the best way is not to touch akey until you have developed agood feel for the proper rhythmof the letters. This usually meansby the time you can receive atabout 1Ø -12 wpm or more.When you begin with a straightkey you must have a good feelfor timing - that is, the threebuilding blocks of code: the dit,the dah and the several lengths ofspaces. (Those who have poorhand control should avoid the useof any hand keys, at least whilethey are gaining in receivingskill.)After you have learned the properrhythms, sending with a straight-key, whether for practice or inactual use, sending with it is quitebeneficial for building up yourreceiving ability in all its aspects.In addition it develops muscularm e m o r i e s w h i c h furtherstrengthen our perception andrecognition of characters andwords. Constant practice in send-ing this way does help build ourcopying ability. Sending practicealso prepares the hand and armfor transmitting over long periodsof time without fatigue. Fingerand arm exercises may also bedevised to help gain needed flexi-bility and strength.

The Straight KeyA standard “straight” key is onehaving a simple up-and-downmovement. In American usage thekey should be aligned so that keylever is in a straight line with theforearm. To control it, the opera-tor moves the knob by a pivoting



up-and-down wrist motion. (Thehand and arm muscles do not fa-vor the very small movementsneeded to control key motion.)The design of a key, its locationon the operating table and ma-nipulation tend to vary fromcountry to country, and its ad-justments in the final analysis de-pend almost entirely on the refer-ences of the individual operator.Here we can only give the gener-alities and some instructions byexperienced users.

The American Straight Key AndIts UseThe key lever is generally rela-tively thin and typically pivotedso that its front section is longerthan the back section, and oftendroops downward toward theknob end. Its control knob is flaton top and may have an under-skirt (originally designed to pro-tect the operator from high volt-ages on the key lever). The top ofthe knob should be about 1-1/2 to2 inches above the table, and havefirm adjustments for up-and-down movement (nominallyabout 1/16 inch movement at theknob, but adjusted to whateversuits the operator best).The key should be located farenough back from the edge of theoperating table (about 18 inches)that the elbow is just off the edgeof the table. The operator’s armrests lightly on the table with hiswrist off the table and more orless “flat”. His first finger restson the top of the key knob andhis second finger generally on topnear the edge. His thumb may restlightly against the other edge of

the knob, or not touch it at all.(The student should find his ownmost comfortable way.) Down-ward movement of the knob toclose the key and upward move-ment to open it are by rocking thehand, pivoting it from the wrist:the finger end moving down whilethe wrist moves slightly upward,and vice-versa, without any ac-companying independent fingermotion. The upward key knobmovement is produced by thebuilt-in spring in the key, but maybe helped by the thumb.Walter Candler’s advice to profes-sional telegraphers in training (toavoid developing a painful “glassarm“) was:-_ Hold the knob between the

thumb and first two fingersmuch as you would hold apencil. Hold it firmly, butdo not squeeze it or let goof it while sending.

_ The wrist - not the fingersor the whole arm - does thework as the key goes downand up. Keep the wrist offthe table.

_ Take care of the sendingarm - the forearm musclecarries the weight of thearm. Otherwise, keep thearm itself relaxed and atease as you move the keydown and up. - Immedi-ately below the elbow onthe lower side of the armthere is a nerve whichcomes close to the surface.If that nerve presses againstthe table it may begin tomake the arm cramp andproduce telegrapher’s pa-ralysis (“glass arm“or



writer’s cramp). If thishappens, put a soft pad un-der it there to relieve thiscondition.

_ There is no need to wasteenergy on springs. The keyreturn spring does not needto be stiff - just enough tokeep the contacts apart.

_ Contacts should be spacedonly wide enough apart tobe easily opened andclosed. A key is obviously ahighly personal object.Every one who has gottenhis own key adjusted till itfeels just right will be un-comfortable and fail tosend as well if he uses a dif-ferent key, even though itlooks exactly like his own.If you set up two differentkeys of identical design,with the same tension, andgaps, they will nevertheless“feel” different. They areas individual as violins.

Gaining Skill, Errors, andAutomaticityFor the skilled telegrapher thecharacters and words flow withoutconscious thought as to their de-tails. Proper and adequate practicehas made the action habitual,automatic and virtually effortless -almost like just talking. However,if something interferes, the con-scious mind jumps in and tries tomake the correction and take overcontrol. If this conscious interfer-ence continues, it may displacethe habitual coordination, result-ing in expending more effort thanneeded to send accurately. This inturn produces strain, and soon

one finds he working against him-self, and (with a straight key) if hesends for long periods of time thismay develop into “glass arm“.(See Walter Candler’s advice) Themaster operator does not send asingle needless dit or dah.What About Mistakes Made Dur-ing Sending? If you make a mis-take while sending, just correct it,if necessary, then forget it andcalmly continue on. Don’t letyourself get all tensed up and startto worry about making moremistakes (such as: “Now Imustn’t do that again!”). If thiskeeps bothering you, focus yourattention for a just few momentson sending each word (or maybeeven each letter) as it comesalong, sending evenly and withproper spacing, and then go onnormally as if nothing happened.This will help create a positive,constructive attitude rather than anegative one. As for correctingmistakes, general practice varies:eight dits (like HH sent withoutspace between the letters) is theofficial standard, but it is morecommon to use the question markand then send the word (or withthe preceding word also) againcorrectly. If you are chewing therag, you may just a pause a mo-ment and then repeat what wassent wrongly and go on. On theother hand, since it is usually thebeginnings of words that are mostimportant, if enough of the wordhas been correctly sent to be rec-ognizable it may be best just topause a moment and then proceedwithout comment. We wouldn’tdo this, of course, in the midst ofa formal message.



Personal Characteristics, FistsAll sending with any kind of ahand key will show little personalquirks, or characteristics collec-tively called one’s “fist”, whichunconsciously develop as one’sskill and experience grows, nomatter how precise an operatormay try to be. This is why a re-ceiving operator may immediatelyrecognize a sender and say: “ Iknow that fist,” even before heidentifies himself.. Our fist mayalso betray our mood or state ofmind - excitement, fatigue, bore-dom or laziness - much as ourtone of voice often does.Someone said of one operator:“his code almost seems toyawn”. But there is more to itthan that. The type of hand-keybeing used which may also affectthe sending. This does not meanthat high quality code cannot bemade on any of these types ofkeys, but rather that their particu-lar construction and use tend toproduce certain characteristics.With a straight key, side-swiper orbug it is easy to send a jerky or“choppy” sort of code, as well asto make inconsistently longer orshorter dits or dahs overall or incertain characters. A commonfault with using a bug is to makethe dits too fast as compared withthe dahs. Side-swipers tend to en-courage to some very oddly timedcharacters, inconsistent forma-tions. The type of key in use maygreatly influence one’s fist as itsounds to the receiving operator

Chapter 9Sending and the StraightKey – Part IIKEYSThe design of the key and whereit is placed on the operating tableare important for comfort andease of operation. The height ofthe knob or paddle or its feel maynot feel quite right, or the keymovement may be too much ortoo little, or be too stiff or toosoft. (One British examiner saidof candidates coming for theirsending test: “It never ceases toamaze examiners that some can-didates come for a Morse testwithout one [their own].Attempting to send perfect Morseon a strange key is an obstaclethat candidates should never bur-den themselves with on the day ofthe test.”) -- How does this key“feel”? Could I enjoy using it?One skilled operator said: “Whenusing a new key, for a few weeksall is well, and I love it. Then,suddenly, I hate it. Then I try an-other, yes, the cycle repeats itself!Why do I feel this way?” -- It isnot hard to see why some com-mercial operators always tooktheir keys home with them orlocked them up! Nor is it surpris-ing that the absolutely inviolablerule of the old time telegraph of-fice was: Never, never, never, un-der any circumstances whatever,touch the adjustments of anotherman’s key.Not only the key itself, but theheight of the table on which itrests can also be an importantfactor. Some have, often out of



sheer necessity, used a keymounted on their leg, on a handle,etc. Cramped and awkward oper-ating positions have often beennecessary. And then there is thematter of what we are used to.

The Traditional British Key AndIts UsageThe first impression of this typeof key to an American is the mas-sive ruggedness of its key leverand the height of its control knob.These notable features derivefrom a late 19th century Govern-ment Post Office design (they op-erated the telegraphs). Its keylever is a straight and heavy-looking brass bar pivoted some-what toward the rear of the mid-point. The major part of theweight of the lever works againstthe return spring. Its control knobis smoothly contoured and gener-ally resembles a wooden drawer-pull, somewhat pear-shaped, orcrank-handle shaped, usually witha distinctly rounded top surface.Its diameter swells from its base toa maximum somewhat below thetop. Its maximum diameter issimilar to or may be somewhatgreater than the typical Americankey knob. All versions are tallerthan the typical American knob.The net effect of its straight leverand taller knob means that incontrolling this key it is not suit-able for any part of the arm torest on the operating table. There-fore it is typically mounted so thatits knob is close to the edge of thetable, with the arm extending outfairly high in front of the table.As the years have gone by therehave been many variations of this

type of key, different spring ar-rangements, different dimensionratios, different knob contours,bearing supports, etc., but theheavy style lever and high knobhave remained as more or lesspermanent characteristics.The traditional way of using thistype of key is:_ to hold the key knob with

the first finger on top, thethumb underneath itsmaximum diameter on theone side, and the third fin-ger on the opposite sidefrom the thumb;

_ the operator’s lower armextends outward approxi-mately in line with the keylever (horizontally and ver-tically), unsupported by thetable, several inches fromthe side of the body, andforming an angle of ap-proximately 9Ø degreesrelative to the upper arm;

_ the main keying movementis at the wrist, not at the fin-gertips, with the wrist actingas a hinge between the armand the hand.

The hand, wrist and arm are notstrained or rigid, in spite of theseemingly awkward appearance ofsuch an operator’s arm positionto us in America. Beginners usu-ally adjust the key for a large gapso as to hear the sound of the keyclosing and opening. They gener-ally reduce this gap as their speedincreases (some reduce it to thebarest minimum). Some operatorscontrol the knob delicately withtheir fingertips, while others gripit with the whole hand. Again,



some operators prefer very lightspring force and use the thumb tohelp open the key by their wristmovement; others rely entirely onthe spring return action.As the beginners progress, theyadapt their keying style to what-ever is comfortable to them indi-vidually. There are many varia-tions in adjustment, depending onthe particular key design detailsand the operator’s preferences.The Australians and New Zea-landers appear to have followedthe British practice, but otherEuropean countries have not nec-essarily done so. Australians havesaid they found it very hard tosend properly with the Americankeys - with their flat topped key-knobs, located far back from theedge of the table - as installed inair-ground-air stations duringWW-II. They called these keyingarrangements “a flaming nui-sance!” In summary, with allthese variations in basic and detaildesign, it seems obvious that theremust be more than one way todesign a good key and use it.

Using A Straight KeyIt is, of course, impossible to sendabsolutely perfect code with anypurely manual device, but weshould learn to imitate perfectsending as best we can. If youhave an instructor, he shoulddemonstrate quality sending foryou to imitate something like this,for example: “Listen as I send thecharacter..., and then you say itsname as you send it back to mejust like you hear it.” This is re-peated several times until theteacher is satisfied, and so on

throughout the alphabet andnumbers during the early send-ing-practice periods.Another way, which can be usedwithout a teacher, is to use splitheadphones: one phone carriesthe recorded code signals, whilethe other phone lets the studenthear his own sending using anoscillator as he reads from aprinted copy of the recorded text.He endeavors to send in unison,and can compare his own sendingwith that of the recording.There is at least one computerteaching program (see below)which has an option which willevaluate the learner’s sending.Most teachers recommend begin-ning with relatively slow handmovements. About 12 con-sciously controlled hand move-ments per second is average, butsome people cannot exceed 1Ø. Itis the often-repeated reversalswhich limit performance. Totalreaction time from external in-struction until the hand reacts isabout 15Ø-2ØØ milliseconds(ear- or eye-brain-muscle). Re-sponses must be much faster thanthis for sending code, playing thepiano, etc. This is where theautomatic mental functions takeover.A good beginning practice with astraight key is to make a string ofdits at a slow, even rate for a min-ute or two, and then gradually tospeed up to a comfortable rate.Then send a series of 2Ø - 3Ø S’sevenly and smoothly , with properspaces between them. After that,send a corresponding string ofdahs, followed by 2Ø or more O’sthe same way. This will develop a



proper feel and a sense of controlof the key. After that, try a shortsentence in a slow and uniformway, with wide spaces betweenletters and words, something like:I Always Send Evenly AndSmoothlyTry this several times, graduallyshortening the spaces until theyare about normal. Listen as yousend it for accuracy of timing.Try recording it so you can listenlater to it without distraction andevaluate how it sounds to others.With a clear, easy and correct styleof sending it will take about tenminutes to get warmed up, andfrom then on you should be ableto send for a long time withoutthe slightest discomfort. A rea-sonably good operator can learnto send good quality InternationalMorse on a straight key up to 2Ø- 25 wpm. Some can make 3Øwpm, but 35 wpm seems to beabout the absolute limit (equiva-lent to about 45 wpm for Ameri-can Morse). On the other hand,don’t assume that just becauseyou can receive at say 25 wpmyou can send well at that speed.What isn’t intelligible isn’t worthsending.

Glass ArmCandler’s description of Telegra-pher’s “Glass arm,” or “telegra-pher’s paralysis,” is:

A progressive and painfulforearm condition where thearm gradually loses its formersnap and responsiveness, andthe dits become difficult tosend correctly at one’s cus-

tomary speeds due to partialloss of control.

Fatigue sets in early and sendingbecomes “rotten”, leading to dis-couragement or distressing irrita-tion. It may or may not beginwith a sensitiveness, which soonsubsides, but true glass arm hasneither inflammation nor sore-ness. This condition is caused byneedless strain or tension or poorkey handling, and is avoidable.Factors which may lead to it are:_ Poor posture,_ Holding the arm in an un-

natural or uncomfortableposition, so that blood cir-culation and nerve func-tioning are interfered with,making the hand uncom-fortable, cold or clammy,

_ Undue pressure of the un-derarm on the table,

_ Unduly long periods ofsending, confinement orlowered body tone whichinduce muscle strain andtension,

_ Conscious interference withnormal automatic habitualcontrol, or

_ Even the suggestion that byprolonged use the arm willultimately fail.

All these may be prevented orrelieved by proper mental andphysical corrections. Some havefound relief by rotating the key touse a sideways movement. Otherscured it by going to a side-swiper,or more often by going to a“bug”. Candler said that a falseglass arm may occur when someinfection is present which pro-



duces pain in the wrist, forearm,back and neck and/or headaches.Its cure is obvious.

Tests for Proper Operation of aHand-KeyFor the beginner everything willbe easier if any serious faults arecaught early, before they becomehabits. There are two generalkinds of tests for an operator’ssending ability. One concerns thequality of his sending, its read-ability, and the other concerns hisendurance and comfort. Qualityof sending may be evaluated inseveral ways. It is a good idea torecord some of your own sendingoccasionally and let it sit a day orso and then to listen and see whatit sounds like - is it easily read-able? A rougher way is to gage bythe comments of receiving op-erators (or by the number oftimes a repeat is requested). Thisis strongly suggested also for bugoperators.There are several computer pro-grams to evaluate one’s sendingagainst the ideal. One of the ex-cellent ones is Gary Bold’s diag-nostic program, DK.BAS, de-signed for this purpose, whichruns under QBASIC, a part of hisMorse teaching software. (SeeChapter 18) Looking at your ownsending may be very humbling,but this program will show exactlywhat’s wrong, and tell what youexactly what you need to do toimprove it.A typical comment of those usingit is: -- “My sending can’t reallybe that badly, can it?” But aftertaking DK.BAS’s advice, the sameoperator said: “Actually the

whole episode was quite enlight-ening, as I found that after anumber of attempts I had im-proved to the extent that I and thecomputer parted company onspeaking terms at least”. If youare sure there’s something wrong,but can’t quite put your finger onit, let such a program find it foryou. Your sending will reallysound better if you concentrateon making the improvements in-dicated.An excellent test for enduranceand comfort is to sit down andsend straight reading matter at acomfortable speed of from say 15- 25 wpm for about an hour. Itwill take about ten minutes to getthe fist limbered up, and if onehas cultivated that clear, easy andcorrect style of sending that is sodesirable, from then on one cansend for a long period of timewithout experiencing the slightestdiscomfort. On the other hand, ifthe fundamental principles of cor-rect key manipulation have notbeen learned, one may just ‘blowup’ after the first 15 minutes witha hand too jerky, and a wrist toosore to want to go on. That says,take a look for what you’re doingwrong.

What Is It That Makes a GoodHand-KeyEase of operation and positivecontrol are prime considerationsfor any hand operated key. Thefirst Morse key (called “corre-spondent”) was designed just tothe minimum needed to do thejob. Later designs took into ac-count other factors as well, in-cluding ease of use and appear-



ance. In the early days of highpowered wireless (spark) stationsfunction again took over andthese keys were awkward, massivethings in order to handle the hugecurrents involved.A good key lever should pivotfreely without detectable friction,and at the knob or paddle thereshould be no perceptible move-ment in any direction except thatfor normal keying. The returnspring should be adjustable forbest control (some recommend25Ø - 4ØØ grams pressure rangefor a straight key). This springshould not be so stiff that sendingis choppy, or so weak that signalstend to run together, but alwaysadequate to open the circuit byitself without assistance from theoperator.For a given rate of keying, theforce required is a function of thespring, gap setting and the inertiaof the moving parts. The keylever should be stiff enough togive a firm contact without no-ticeable vibration or bounce (nodouble contact). Bearings shouldbe solid at all times. (Firm electri-cal contact is best made with aflexible wire rather than depend-ing on the bearing points.) Thereturn spring should have ade-quate adjustment range to satisfyoperator preferences. Gap settingshould give a firm feel and have awide enough adjustment range forpersonal comfort. Is there a keydesign that is universally“ideal”? -- My impression is thatwell-accepted keys show a widevariety of design details to meetpreferences.

Is this telling us that it isn’t thedesign of a key per se that makesit “feel right”, but rather that it iswhat we are familiar with and areused to? It feels comfortablepartly due to national- historicaland partly personal preferences.For some unknown reason, shortor small keys have not beenpopular, although sometimes nec-essary. What a key is mountedupon - a wooden table, one’s leg,a concrete block, etc. - and how itis mounted can make a great dealof difference in how it feels. Itmay feel “great” or “respon-sive” or “dead” or have dis-turbing vibrations. These are allfactors that are partly hardware,partly psychological and quitepersonal.

Chapter 1ØOther Keying Devices AndTheir Use

In Chapter 9 the regular“straight” keys were discussedat length. Here we look at allkeying devices.

These may be classified as:_ Keys (including “straight”

keys, “side-swipers”, andsemi- automatic keys or“bugs”),

_ Keyers (keys and keyersmay be called “hand-keys”). and

_ Keyboards (including com-puters programmed to sendlike a keyboard).



All Kinds of KeysInnumerable variations of simplemechanical switches may be de-vised. Almost any conceivablekind of motion may be used tooperate the switch: up and down,sidewise, sliding, squeezing, twist-ing, etc. They may be actuatedby: human action (finger, hand,arm, foot, lips, neck, breath pres-sure, etc.), mechanical or electro-magnetic action (e.g., in a relay,to duplicate the keying patterns ina second circuit), etc.For the handicapped several kindsof keys have been devised to beoperated by breath pressure on adiaphragm or piston, etc. Some ofthe interesting recent designs takeadvantage of solid-state circuitryusing such things as a) the inter-ruption of a light beam by a fin-ger tapping in front of a photo-sensitive cell, b) the change ofcapacitance or resistance pro-duced by moving a finger to ap-proach or lightly touch a fixedmetal pad, c) the tone of a humanvoice humming in Morse codewithin the range of a tiny micro-phone, and other possible meansto control the keying. How doesone classify such devices?

Other Kinds Of Manual Keys

The Double Speed Key or Side-SwiperAfter the “original” Vibroplexspeed key was introduced in19Ø4 it soon began to be widelyused by commercial telegraphers(see “Bug” below). Those whoused it found its sidewise move-ments much more comfortableand natural, and also that it pre-

vented or reduced the risk of glassarm. However, it was rather ex-pensive. This idea of easier andpossibly faster sidewise movementlater led to the simpler, so-called“double-speed” key (also called“side-swiper”, or “cootie key”).The paddle of its key-lever closedthe circuit whether moved to theright or to the left. It sidewisemovement offered relief to op-erators who had suffered from“glass arm”. (A few operators,following this idea, simply turnedtheir straight key around 9Ø de-grees so it could be used with aone-way sidewise motion.)In use the operator formed thecode characters by using histhumb and forefinger to press thepaddle alternately from one sideto the other as he formed the suc-cessive dits and dahs for eachcharacter. For example, if he typi-cally made the first element of acharacter to the left (L), whether itwas a dit or a dah, its next elementwas made to the right ®, and soon, so that his pattern of move-ment was L-R-L-R-L-R . . . or R-L-R-L-R-L . . . This back andforth motion often tends to leadto a sort of peculiar rhythm of itsown, betraying that a “side-swiper” is being used.Commercially made double-speedkeys were relatively cheap com-pared to the Vibroplex, and it wasquite easy to make a good home-made one. No wonder that it be-came popular in wireless opera-tions, especially among hams, forsome years. (It does not seem tohave been used by landline tele-graphers.) Perhaps its novelty wasas much an attraction as its claim



for higher speeds and loweredfatigue.Of passing interest in 1926 was asimilarly connected key havingtwo pushbuttons, like typewriterkeys or pushbuttons, to be usedwith two fingers, called the“Cricket” by its manufacturer.The keys were to be used alter-nately to form the characters, aswith the “side-swiper”. It neverbecame popular.

The BugHistorically the Martin semiauto-matic key, introduced in 19Ø6 asthe “Auto” and later as the “Vi-broplex” - commonly called a“bug” - is listed here second be-cause of its greater mechanicalcomplexity and difference in use..The patented Vibroplex, bymaking dots automatically (by thesidewise vibration of its elasticallymounted arm), relieved much ofthe operator’s effort (although hestill had to form the dashes manu-ally), and increased his speed po-tential, while reducing the risk of“glass arm“(by sidewise move-ment and division of labor be-tween thumb and fingers).In its various models it becamevery popular and has been widelyused up to the present time.There have been many imitations,a few of which also producedautomatic dashes. Normal (righthanded) models formed the ditsautomatically with a right-wisemovement of the thumb and thedahs manually with a left-wisemotion by one or two fingersagainst a paddle assembly. A fewdesigns produced by a few manu-

facturers provided automatic dahswith by a second vibrating arm.On the Australian land-lines bug-keys were known as “jiggers”.Those issued by the Sydney GPOTelegraph Office in 1946 had 3knobs, two of them controlledseparate swinging arms, one forautomatically forming dits andone for automatic dahs and thethird for manually controlleddahs. The knobs could be posi-tioned at either end of the base-plate for easy use by right or lefthanded people. I have no infor-mation as to how these were used.

Using A BugA “bug” should not slip on thetable, and its paddles should beabout 2-1/2 inches above the ta-bletop. Most teachers recommenda light touch, pivoting the handon the knuckle of little finger andusing as combination of fingeraction and rolling wrist-motion.(Long-time speed champion TedMcElroy, however, said the wristand elbow should be off the table,and a full, free swing of the armused.) We may suspect severaldifferent styles are equally satis-factory. (It has been suggestedthat by holding a pencil in thesame hand while sending will helpone learn to relax.)Bug sending should duplicategood hand-key sending. Handle iteasily. Do not grip its paddles, butonly allow the fingers or thumb totouch the side you are pressing on- not touching the other side.When a bug is used for radiowork there is a tendency to makethe dits relatively too light. Ascompared to telegraph landline



sending, radio requires a heavierstyle to put the signal throughstatic and interference, and aheavier key will help do this. Sobe sure to set heavy enough ditsthat they are not likely to beswallowed up by moderate staticor interference.

Setting the Adjustments of a BugLike all keys, bug adjustments area highly personal matter, varyingfrom one operator to another.They are also sensitive to therange of speed. For example, abug set for 35 wpm operation willdo poorly at 18, and vice-versa. --Remember the rule: NEVER re-adjust another operator’s bug!Hugh S. Pettis, K3EC, recom-mends the following as optimumbug settings:_ It is to be understood that

operator’s personal com-fort and ease of operationgovern the details of settingthe adjustments.

_ First, set the adjustments forpaddle displacement so thatit moves a comfortable andequal amount for dits anddahs.

_ Set the spring tensions forcomfort of paddle opera-tion.

_ Set the movable weight onvibrating arm for the speeddesired.

_ Dit weighting is determinedby the distance of the sta-tionary dit post from thecontact on the vibratingarm.

He cites a common technique forsetting correct dit duration (a ditequals unit space) is to clip anohmmeter across the bug termi-nals. First, set it for full scale whileholding the paddle against thedah contact. Then adjust the sta-tionary dit post contact until itgives a mid-scale reading for aseries of dits, and finally settles ona full scale reading - a closed cir-cuit. His personal preference isfor the dits to taper off to a closedcircuit after about ten dits. Moredits will give a lighter weighting,and if the series leaves the circuitopen, it is too light. Fewer dits willproduce a heavier weighting, andif it is fewer than eight, the nomi-nal (8 dit) error signal cannot bemade.Robert. R Hall W9CRO recom-mends: (Some adjustments areinteractive.)_ Adjust top and bottom

pivot bearings so contactsare all on same level, justtight enough so that sideplay is barely perceptible.

_ Set the armature (the mov-able part controlled by thekey tabs) stops:--_ Adjust the dah stop

screw so the armaturejus t touches thedamper when heldagainst this stop.( D a m p e r c o n t a c tshould not be morethan just enough tostop the swing.)

_ Adjust the dit stopscrews so that end ofthe armature will os-cillate when it is moved



against this stop with abrisk paddle move-ment of about 1/8inch.

_ The tension of the armaturereturn spring should not beheavy, but just enough toreturn the armature to theright hand stop screw with-out any bounce, and with-out any tendency to bounceoff the damper.

_ Set the “dit” action verycarefully:--_ Set armature weight(s)

about _ of the way tothe slowest speed.Then,

_ Push the armaturepaddle to the dit posi-tion and hold it thereuntil motion stops, andcontinue holding itthere while adjustingthe contact screw sothat it just makes firmcontact (but not solight that it arcs ormisses). Some previousadjustments may needcorrection now.

_ Set the dah action:_ Set the contact adjust-

ing screw (which isalso the stop) so thepaddle moves about1/8 inch.

_ Its spring should be setto give about the samepaddle pressure as fordits.

Sending With A BugKey smoothly and easily with aminimum of effort. Let the bugdo the work - you just control it,with the arm resting on the table,touching the paddles loosely(lightly) between thumb and fore-finger. Control it without muchmotion of the hand or fingers. Aslight twist or roll of the wrist willchange from the dit to the dahside. Relax and enjoy it. Don’tbat out the dits and dahs out withthumb and forefinger so widelyseparated and so hard that it tendsto push bug around.There is a marked tendencyamong some bug users to set thedits too fast relative to the hand-formed dahs and spaces. Hand-formed spaces tend to become toolong in proportion. The result isoften a choppy sounding code orto signals which are certainlyreadable, but tiring to listen to andread. Katashi Nose KH6IJ pointsout that “at high speed one can-not put much force on the pad-dles.” He also said that “ If youmove your whole arm, the law ofinertia prevents you from attain-ing high speeds.”

KeyersKeyers are electronic devicescontrolled by paddles similar tothose on a “bug” for automati-cally making dits and dahs, andoften incorporate other usefuloperating features, includingbuffers and memories. Many in-clude “iambic” type of operationby a “squeezing” motion whichprovides for alternate dits anddahs, which further automates



sending and in this way reducestotal effort. An iambic keyer willalways produce perfect characters,even though they may not beused in our code.Katashi Nose here says “If youhave already mastered a bug, itwill take about three weeks toconvert to electronic-key sending.Once you are converted, you arehooked because now your bugfist is ruined [ed. for most peo-ple]; an entirely different tech-nique is required.” If your keyerhas “forced character spacing”(FCS), use it! This may take sev-eral weeks practice, but yoursending will be real armchaircopy. It is worth the effort.

KeyboardsFinally, the keyboard (includingthe use of electronic computerswith programs for using theirkeyboards) automatically makesall characters from a typewritertype of keyboard. Both keyersand keyboards often includeteaching programs for learningthe code and/or improving codeabilities, as well as having memo-ries for various purposes. This isabout the ultimate in code pro-duction. (Machine sent CW isconsidered almost a “must” forgood copy when signals are veryfaint, including QRP - and forvery high speed work (handsending just won’t hack that.)Keyboards also have much to of-fer the beginner in learning thecode initially and for improvingone’s skills. What may be possiblehand-key speeds?

Psychological testing shows theaverage rates at which people cantap a fingers:-On the High side: 9.7 per second,or 576/minute, (3ØØ in 31 sec)Average: 8.6 per second, or516/min. (3ØØ in 35 sec.)On the Low side: 6.7 per second,or 4Ø2/min. (3ØØ in 45 sec.)If we assume that a dit is one“tap” and a dah is equal to two“taps” (two nerve pulses: onedown and one up), then we maysay:

Taps Letters GroupFreq

Taps xFreq

1 E Ø.13Ø Ø.13Ø

2 T I Ø.166 Ø.332

3 A N S Ø.214 Ø.642

4 D H MR U

Ø.192 Ø.768

5 B F GK L V

W

Ø.124 Ø.62Ø

6 C O PX Z

Ø.139 Ø.834

7 J Q Y Ø.Ø24 Ø.168

Averageper let-

ter

1.ØØØ 3.494

Average for five-letter word =17.47 taps.At this rate, assuming the aboverates can be maintained for peri-ods of time needed to send mes-sages, news, etc., the slowest key-



ing rate would be 23 wpm, theaverage 3Ø and the highest 33wpm.

An Interesting BugThe Sydney Australia GPO Tele-graph Office in 1946 produced abug that had two separate swing-ing arms for dots and dashes.There were 3 knobs: one for dits,one for automatic dahs

and one for manually controlleddashes. The knobs could be posi-tioned at either end of the base-plate for easy use by right or lefthanded people

Chapter 11Further Development ofSkills

Recognition of CW is a proc-ess of learning to perceive in-termittent sounds as intelligi-ble “speech.”

Real skill begins when we nolonger think of the code as code,but only of the content. A goodoperator is one who feels quite athome with code, fluent in it. He isable to copy accurately up from alow of about 15 up to about 25wpm and can think and talk intelegraphic words, almost as if itwere ordinary language at speedssometimes up to 3Ø-35 wpm(“conversational CW” as oneteacher happily called “ r agchewing”).This ought to be the minimumambition of every operator, be-cause it makes the game all themore enjoyable, a very comfort-able working range. He enjoys it

and feels no strain or pressure. Heis competent. (Anybody can talkinto a mike.) By omitting needlesswords and with the help of com-mon abbreviations, Q signals, etc.,his rate of communication is highenough to be comfortable, and hefeels no particular drawbackswhen he talks in Morse code.Sure, he may spell or sound outunusual or strange words orproper names, just as he wouldwhen he meets them in reading orwriting, but mostly he hears wordsas words because he has becomemore proficient. Words are the“alphabet“of the skilled opera-tor.

Higher SkillsAs we talk about these highly pro-ficient men and women, we mustdraw a distinction between read-ing code at these speeds andcopying it. All through the his-tory of telegraphy skilled opera-tors have said they could “read awhole lot faster than they cancopy the stuff down.” Obviouslyno one can copy faster than hecan write - whether by hand or ona typewriter.We have already discussed copy-ing. In this chapter we addressreading skills again. We’re talkinghere primarily about amateurswho have achieved a still higherdegree of skill, not for commer-cial or professional reasons, butsimply because they want to. Itmay be for sheer enjoyment or tosatisfy an inner drive, but what-ever may be the reason, such anability is as worthy an objective asany other skill, and even more so,for it is useful as well as enjoy-



able. We need incentive - motiva-tion - to achieve, and that ought tobe enough.Doesn’t our satisfaction overmanaging to get even one recog-nizable word out of a high speedcode transmission trigger a desireto be able to read it all at thatspeed? “The joys of high speedCW are known only to those will-ing to put forth the time to learnwhat a unique world exists on ourbands.” This semi- pro is com-pletely relaxed as he effortlesslyreads or copies: he has no reasonto doubt - he knows he can read iteven while doing something else.Regardless of what he may bedoing, a skilled telegrapher hearswhat is being said in code withinhis hearing. He reads it like hehears the spoken word and mayeven be able to remember it laterwell enough to copy it down if heneeds to.The following is an interestingexample: On a local SSB net ofhigh speed operators the control-ler asked: “Gary, can you operateSSB as well?” After a short pause,somebody said: “Gary, He’stalking to you on SSB!” “ A h ”said Kirby, “So he is!” --!Morseis so much a second nature forthose with real skill that they haveto stop and think what modethey’re actually using. It will sur-prise you when you first experi-ence it.

Truly High-Speed CW AwaitedElectronicsHigh speed CW demands preci-sion: it did not become a realityfor most operators until digitalcommunication in the form of

microprocessor controlled key-boards became available. Thismade available at reasonable costthe two parameters which areparamount to enjoyable high-speed CW operation: -- accuracy,which is always the most impor-tant and never to be sacrificed forspeed, and speed.An operator cannot send accu-rately enough with a mechanicaldevice at speeds much over 4Øwpm for any length of time, but akeyboard makes that easy. In ad-dition, its features of memory, etc.give further help, making CWcommunication better, with theresult that operators can now con-verse instead of carrying onmonologues. The human mindmanifestly is better equipped thanany computer to copy the Morsecode, and the joy of operatingcomes from listening to accurateCW send by a skilled operator. Nomatter what sending device isused. The point is to send Accu-rately. It is the mind that copiesCW, and it is in the head thatpleasure is found.

Looking Backward And For-wardThere are said to be four phasesof skill:_ Hustling for the letters,_ Learning to hear words,_ Taking in several words, a

phrase or short sentence atan “ear-full”, and finally

_ The real expert who has thedetails of Morse code sowell in mind that he givesthem practically no atten-



tion at all, and only is con-scious of the content.

Remember that in the earlieststage we learn to hear the letters asunits of sound, rather than hear-ing the dits and dahs as such.Next, we advance to hearing manycommon words and parts ofwords as units, instead of stringsof letters spelled out. At this pointwe are quite conscious that thedits and dahs are there, and thisgives us a sort of inner confidencethat the foundation is in place(our security blanket). Up to thispoint we feel comfortable.The third step comes as we passthe point of being able to hear thedit and dah components anylonger - they seem to have van-ished into a blur. (We should stillbe conscious that the letters arepresent, however.) At first onemay feel somewhat helpless, asthough the supports had somehowgotten lost. However, the auto-matic mind, which has beentrained by enough of the rightkind of practice (and has beenactive all the time, though we mayhave been unaware of how far itsactivity extends), seems to be ableto hear those components andidentify the letters with no strain.What we must now learn to do isto Trust this mental ability al-though we are unaware of how itworks.“Conscious effort is fatal tospeed“is a common observationwith respect to any skill we haveacquired. “The moment you letyourself think and cease to relyon ‘instinct’ you will fail in thesespecial skills.” If a code transmis-sion is played at 2Ø wpm for the

rank beginner, his probable reac-tion will be: “I will never be ableto read or copy that!” However,after as few weeks of training hewill be doing it. High speed codemay seem far too fast ever to read,but it is not nearly as fast as itsounds to the uneducated ear. Agood share of the problem isovercoming the impression that itmight not be possible to compre-hend at such a speed. One stub-born fact faces us: others can doit, and surely I can, too. There-fore, take heart. We recognize thatit is hard to understand recordedspeech when it is played back attwice or at half speed because notonly the pitches but the soundsbecome so distorted.This is not true of code, where theimportant proportions are strictlymaintained the patterns are stillthere. Skilled operators need tolearn to read and copy over afairly wide range of speeds. TedMcElroy once said: “If you canpick out even one single characterat a higher speed you are on yourway.” So if you have ambition,take heart! When the mind is nearits limit, struggling, concentratingon each individual letter as it isheard, there is no time to identifyletters poorly sent, jammed to-gether or missed, or words mis-spelled, etc. But if we have a com-fortable margin of speed, thismakes everything easier andmuch more enjoyable.At slower speeds we can then rea-son out the words because wehave time to think over each wordas it comes in (we can’t changethe sending operator!). Early inthe day we are likely to try toohard. Especially when we are



fresh and alert the conscious, rea-soning part of our mind wants tocontrol our receiving ability, whilethe automatic part of our mindsays “I can do it myself withoutyour interference“. We must stopthis internal warfare, this con-scious attempt to control recep-tion. Make it let go let go, so theunconscious inner mind mayfunction. Give yourself permis-sion to let go of your consciousdemand to recognize each letter.The better you succeed and theless you try, the better and fasteryou’ll become at it.As one student said: “When I’mfresh and 1ØØ% alert, my codespeed is really bad, but when I’mreally tired I can keep up withbest of them.” Does that give us ahint as to how to go about it?(This is not speaking of the be-ginning student, who needs to puthis whole conscious attention onlearning the sound-letters, but tothe person aiming for very highspeed reception.)

The Skilled OperatorA long-time telegrapher was oncegiven the code test at 13 wpm fora General Class ham examination,but laid down his pencil and said:“I can’t copy that stuff.” Whenasked why, he said: “Well, it’s justtoo slow.” Everybody laughed,then they speeded it up consid-erably and he made perfect copy.The dragged-out characters areharder to recognize - patterning islost much below about 12 wpm

Faster – Faster - FasterThe expert, who is a step up, racesalong effortlessly up to around

4Ø wpm or more, so fast that mostof us can’t make out much morethan!a letter or a word or two - ormaybe nothing at all. In the pastthese experts were mostly profes-sionals, but now many are hamsOne old timer, now a silent key,who had begun as an amateur,then for an interim period of timewas a commercial operator andcould copy 4Ø-45 wpm with notrouble, and could easily read upinto the 5Ø wpm region, said thatas a ham he always listened forideas, for meaning, for sense, andwas hardly conscious of the actualwords sent. (This came outstrongly when I asked him oneday after a QSO: “What word wasit that W8xxx used to express . ..? -- He didn’t know. There wasan expert.)Above that speed is the super ex-pert who lives in that upper at-mosphere where 6Ø wpm is loaf-ing, and some have been able tocomprehend at 1ØØ wpm to ashigh as 125 wpm (one of thesewas the well-known Bill Eitel ofthe Eitel-McCullough Co., tubedesigners and manufacturers).Some of these whizz-bangs tell usthat they don’t think there is anyreal upper limit in speed at all.Like most of us at such speeds,probably none of them con-sciously hears more than a buzz.(He wouldn’t even think of tryingto listen for the dits and dahs.)But all the while the automaticsection of his mind is active andwell, reading it easily and tellinghim what is being said.What are these race-track opera-tors doing so differently frommost of us? -- They are hearing in



longer spans than we are. Their“groups” or units of comprehen-sion are longer than ours, andthey are not consciously thinkingof code characters, letters orprobably even in words as such.(See below and Chapter 26 Speedcontests)Somewhere above about 45 wpmspeeds become too fast for us tobe conscious of the differencebetween dits and dahs. The factsare that at these higher speeds -unless we have actual hearing de-fects - the interior workings ofour brain are quite aware of thesedifferences and can discern thepatterns accurately, and so canconvey to us the bigger picture ofwords and meaning, but for somereason will not allow us to be con-sciously aware of the details. Theexperiences of the operators de-scribed here are evidence of this.

Reading Versus Copying SkillMany highly-skilled longtimelandline and radio telegraph op-erators are said to have copied atsteady rates between 5Ø and 6Øwpm all day long for a 1Ø - 12hour day. This was common onpress circuits, as well as some oth-ers. (However, there are somequestions - we may suspect thatthey were typing 5Ø - 6Ø wpm inactual word counts, while receiv-ing in Phillips code, an abbrevia-tion system which typically short-ens the number of letters by about4Ø% [See Chapter 27.] If so, thiswould be slower actual codespeeds than in full normal Englishat the given speed.)At high speeds, over about 45 -5Ø wpm, many experts agree that

copying - but not reading -quickly becomes very exhausting,and can be continued only forvery short periods of time. Forthem as speeds go up, getting itfrom the ear to paper demandsthe utmost of concentration, shut-ting everything else out of mind.Some have described it as almostbeing hypnotized. (In great con-trast to “comfortable“speeds of2Ø to around 4Ø wpm, dependingon one’s degree of skill.) Tinylapses of attention for them canbe devastating. Since we have al-ready discussed copying (Chapter8), our attention here will be con-fined to reading the code

The Sound Barrier

Sound Consciousness - FromDetails To MeaningAfter an official amateur speedcontest about sixty years ago, oneof the judges, himself a formertelegrapher, asked the young manwho won at 56 wpm: “Listen, Kid,did you get it?” - ”Sure, why?” -”Well, all I could hear was justone endless string of dits withouteven so much as a space any-where.” That judge had passedhis limit.“Sound consciousness” has beenused to denote the limit beyondwhich a given person can nolonger consciously distinguish thecomponents of the code. Atspeeds somewhere around 5Øwpm it becomes impossible tomake out the separate dits anddahs any more - they become ablur. Conscious recognition ofdetails ceases, and if one is tocontinue reading the code signals,there must be a distinct change in



the consciousness of reception.Sound consciousness must shiftgears from letters to words andphrases.This ability is developed by al-lowing the automatic mentalfunctions to completely take overthe recognition of all details be-low word level, without any con-scious interference whatever, sothat from then on one is con-scious only of words, phrases andmeaning. One has to let go of anydemand to be conscious of thedetails.

How Can Such Skill Be Devel-opedOne man did it this way:-- whenhe got so he could copy 14 wpmalmost solid, he tried a 21 wpmtape speed and was surprised to beable to get about 6Ø% right off.After three 15 minute sessions,one a day, he was getting 4 - 5words or groups in a row withoutmisses. He alternated back andforth between the two tapes, andfound it helped both. Continuingwith still higher speed tapes, hewas able in about 5 months tocopy at 35 wpm. (Many havegotten to that speed muchsooner.) So, try listening at speeds1Ø or more wpm above your pre-sent limit, and as you listen see ifyou can hear anything recogniz-able. Want to understand whatyou hear.A number of the very high speedoperators have said that if you cancatch just one word in a highspeed transmission, you are onyour way to reading it. “If youstart hearing short words, thenyou’re on the right track, and are

already moving forward.” --!Listen, listen, listen and want tounderstand what you hear. Re-member the rules for practicing -work in short enough bursts ofspeed so as not to get tired, thendrop back to a slower speed againand it will seem much easier. Oneof these experts says that he feelscomfortable and does not senseany degree of tension or strain atall while reading or copying atthese very high speeds. Nor doeshe sense any changes in mentalaction or approach as he listens atany speed. He says that at thesehigh speeds he is not conscious ofdits and dahs, and only sometimesis conscious of the letters, spelling,etc. (“You don’t even need cor-rect spelling at these levels.”)Unusual words, a proper name,call sign, abbreviation, etc., do not“throw” him and so he doesn’tmiss anything following it. Headds: “The faster the code speed,the better.” (As for copying atvery high speeds he says: “I usu-ally listen for the first sentenceand then start to copy.”) In thesecomments he is joined by anotherexpert. Both of them were initi-ated into the code before the ageof six by expert close-relatives orfriends. They feel entirely com-fortable with code at any speed,and feel that there is no upperlimit in speed. “The one thingthat myself and others [find lim-iting] at high speed is the matterof putting QSO’s on paper.Copying is the only limit.” (Isbeginning at such an early agepart of the reason they feel so“comfortable?” We need somemore information on this point.)



Another of these experts describesthis skill as something like this: -“You mention [hearing only] a‘blur of sound’ at higher speeds.This happens to me too, where thecode [at first] sounds like pop-corn popping or chicken greaseon a hot griddle, and I have toconcentrate to ‘break the soundbarrier’ before it starts makingsense and I can read it. ... I haveto make my mind break into thisand begin concentrating on wordsand phrases.... [then suddenly]one word or phrase snaps me intogear and I go on from there.Then so long as I consciouslymaintain my concentration, I cancontinue to read it in my head ...without much sense of strain...[Then] so long as concentration isstrictly maintained, ‘drop-outs’[from this receptive state of mind]do not occur.”He admits that he misses occa-sionally - a hard or unusual wordor a misspelling, etc., but he justcontinues on - there is no time toponder about it. This indicatesthat he senses the need for somekind of mental “shifting gears”in the way he is conscious of whatis being received, and that once“in gear” he needs to keep de-liberately concentrating on it, butwithout evident strain. He suggeststhe following thought:- If youare listening to a news broadcaston the radio while reading thedaily paper, you have to give pri-ority of attention to one or theother. If your attention is on thenewspaper, you are usually beaware of the radio only as moreor less jibberish, a noise. Then, ifyou want to listen to the radio youhave to turn your attention to it,

and what was jibberish now sud-denly becomes intelligible. Snap-ping into high speed code may besomething like that.Ted McElroy and Levon R.McDonald were men who beforeWW2 demonstrated copying inthe 75 wpm range. A few yearslater Frank J. Elliott and JamesRalph Graham demonstrated thesame degree of expertise. Therewere others who were runners up.McElroy said there were manyothers who were as good as hewas, or even better, who never en-tered the speed contests. GeorgeHart said:” If you were born witha whistle and no voice box, you’dbe able to send and receive 1ØØwpm or more. I guarantee it! It’sall a matter of incentive.” “Sitand listen, and keep listening andwant to understand it.” “Anyonewho can type over 75 wpm cancopy code over 75 wpm if hereally wants to.”

Factors Needed To Get There

In Addition to PracticeOne vitally important point to re-member while receiving is to KeepCool. Don’t let yourself get flus-tered or distracted. If you misssomething, keep going. At highspeeds you can’t copy characters,you must copy words andphrases. You will be surprisedhow much you can get and howmuch fun it will be to listen tohigh quality code at 4Ø-45 wpm(as to the press in former ears).McElroy wrote: “I remember acontest where the word ‘hospitali-zation’ shot through around 57wpm. How is a fellow gonna grasp



at that speed? But half a minute orso later it came to me and Iflipped back and filled it in. Try itfor fun.” Keep cool, don’t letyourself get flustered or dis-tracted. Keep the mind on the in-coming stream of words. There isa limit to how fast we can con-sciously spell out words, but withthe sub-mind doing the work wedon’t know where that limit is.Strong emotions seem to makethe expert more fluent, but theless experienced tend to get rat-tled or upset.

Who Can Do ItIn England a blind and almosttotally deaf young man of 23could handle the code at 5Øwpm.: it was his only way ofcommunicating at all. In 1959Katashi Nose KH6IJ wrote “ A n yDXer worth his salt is good for atleast 6Ø wpm. He gears his speedto what comes back.” As notedbefore, Bill Eitel was one of thoseable to communicate easily at1ØØ wpm. That means there mustalso have been some other hamswith whom he communicated atthat speed!In looking over the years of con-tests and speed records madeelsewhere it seems as though thecapability to achieve ever higherspeeds is something that hasgrown, either due to improvedequipment or to better learningmethods, or both. Higher speedsrequire more accurately formedcode signals. Perhaps many su-per-experts were there all the time,but so busy they weren’t offi-cially recognized.

In 1845 telegraphers’ speeds wereabout 5 wpm. By 1855-6Ø theyaveraged 2Ø-25 wpm with 46 amaximum; by 1875 - theyreached 52 wpm; by 1897 63.5wpm. McElroy went from 51wpm in 192Ø to 56 in 1922, thento 69 in 1935 and to 75 in 1939.Other records were: 1937 - 4hams at 55; 1938 2 hams at 65;1945 - 79 wpm.In the mid 197Ø’s a group ofhams found that “their codereading ability had so far out-stripped their sending skill thatslow, frustration-filled 35 wpmQSO’s grew increasingly unsatis-fying.” They then bought com-mercial keyboards simply to havemore enjoyable chats with eachother. Their standard conversa-tional speed was about 65 wpm(reading, of course, in theirheads), but on good nights somewould go up to 8Ø.” One of theirlater participants said that hebought a keyboard and withinthree months his speed went from35 wpm to 65 wpm. “They didnot think they were doing any-thing particularly clever.”The observer felt that they werean except ional ly “Morse-talented” group who find codereading comes easily and havedifficulty understanding why oth-ers can’t do it. Why “can’t”they? There are good reasons tosuspect that these men, aboutwhom we have no present details,while they may have had somespecial aptitude, either benefitedfrom a wise teacher, or were sostrongly motivated that somehowthey all just stumbled onto waysto advance that did not penalize



them. Somehow it doesn’t soundlike all of them just happened tohave some special ability, does it?.The fact that they didn’t seem toconsider they had done anythingespecially remarkable stronglysuggests that they simply went upthe speed ladder without any star-tling “jumps” in skill. This issomething to think about.Fellows, with this many engagedin using it, high speed code mustbe really easy! Ted McElroy oftendemonstrated his skills in copyingbehind along with speed. He wasnoted for being able to listenrather casually for a number ofseconds, then dash into the key-board at high speed until he wasup closer to the incoming signals.Not many others seem to havedemonstrated this particular abil-ity, but rather tend to copy closebehind the incoming signals: of-ten only a couple of syllables orwords behind. (We see this inMcDonald’s statement regardingthe 1939 contests (see Chapter26).

Amateur High Speed ClubsThe European CW Associationwas founded in May 1961 topromote the use of CW. Memberclubs have developed within it.Those of interest here are:- TheHigh Speed Club, founded 1951,requiring a minimum speed of 25wpm; the Very High Speed Club,founded l96Ø requiring a mini-mum of 4Ø wpm, with about 28Ømembers; the Super High SpeedClub, founded 1983, requiringminimum of 5Ø wpm, with about2ØØ members; the ExtremelyHigh Speed Club founded 1983

requires a minimum of 6Ø wpm,has about 75 members.Similar high speed clubs exist inAmerica. CFO (Chicken Fat Op-erators) started out in the U.S.around 198Ø as a loosely-knitbunch of hams with a deep loveof CW, who enjoyed long rag-chews with each other, sendinglots and lots of beautiful CW ontheir keyboards from 4Ø-45 wpmup to about 1ØØ. Almost imme-diately there were about 7ØØmembers world-wide, and tenyears later they numbered about9ØØ. (Look for them on the airaround 7Ø33 kHz during thehours of US darkness, and onweekends.) Their identification isgiven at the end of a QSO by anchicken cluck in Morse, producedby an acoustical-mechanical de-vice invented by Kirby, WS9D.They meet together for “Cluck-ins” at hamfests and conventions.Membership requires one to beable to operate at their speeds ona keyboard and to be nominatedby a couple of members whodeem the person worthy. There isalso a “Five-Star Club”, a groupwho are said to communicateregularly at about 8Ø wpm.The truly skilled CW operator canaccurately read and transcribecode that by amateur standardsmay sound very strange indeed.The operators on foreign ships,where CW is used because it ischeap and reliable, are oftenpoorly trained and grossly under-paid. Their Morse, sent by handkey and rarely faster than 18wpm, can be very perplexing toread. A good commercial opera-tor can learn nevertheless to copy



them faultlessly, even while doingsomething else at the same time.There is always some speed atwhich we all fall apart, so what? --You will enjoy doing a bit faster.Listen to very fast code as if itwere music and soon you canrecognize character here andthere you will hear some wordspop out. High speed code has amusicality and beauty whichmusters respect and admirationfor those who work it. Back-ground music or other rhythmicsounds can be used to aid high-speed operators - it does not dis-tract, but rather relieves any te-dium.

Chapter 12How Long Will It Take ToLearn

Examples Of Effective CodeLearning - Your Approach IsVital

Here is a rather leisurely, easygoing approach that worked:Thirty Hours, One-half Hour aDay For Sixty Days To a SolidFoundation In Morse Code. Thatis what Marshall Ensor’s famouscourse given over 16Ø meteramateur radio-phone offered forover ten years to any and all inthe 193Ø’s period. How did heteach?

Marshall H. Ensor’s CodeCourseEnsor was a High School Indus-trial Arts teacher who volunteeredwith ARRL to teach amateur radioclasses. He designed and taught“The School of the Air”, cover-

ing the fundamentals of Amateurradio over his Amateur radio sta-tion W9BSP on 16Ø meter phoneby voice and oscillator. This wasa basic course of 6Ø lessons givenonce a year each weekday over atwo month period for over tenyears. He used the basic methodstaught here.Thousands of amateurs weretrained with almost 1ØØ% suc-cess. His students never thoughtof!the code as being hard tolearn.. He continually stimulatedthe student’s interest and attentionby a variety of lesson content andby his manner of speaking. Heencouraged students to write orvisit him and let him know howthey were doing. Every studentwas encouraged and he especiallycomplimented those who persistedin their ongoing study, eventhough they might miss out nowand then.Each lesson was an hour long andgenerally centered upon onetheme, presented partly by voiceand partly in code. Each lessonwas about half devoted to teach-ing the Morse code and the otherhalf to theory, fundamentals ofradio, themes of interest and gov-ernment regulations. There wasenough variety to keep the stu-dent’s interest peaked to knowand use the code and go ahead toget a license. To avoid any tedi-ousness or boredom, no adjacentlessons were identical in format orcontent, although many code“texts” were repeated over andover throughout the series of les-sons. In addition, the student wasurged from the very first to obtaina good key and make an oscilla-tor so that he could practice



sending accurate code betweenlessons.The code portion of Lesson Onebegan with a short explanation ofhow to “vocalize” the code, thatis, using “dits” and “dahs” toget and keep the student thinkingof the code letters as patterns ofsound rather than as visual dotsand dashes. It was illustrated bycomments such as:-It is this sound-pattern of eachletter that must be memorizedThese very important commentswere restated in various ways inevery lesson up to the tenth, andafter that they were reinforced inalmost every lesson in one way oranother. This constant hammeringof the importance of sound-onlydrove this key point home. Theyapparently all got it. Then in thatvery first lesson he sent the alpha-bet, numbers and punctuationmarks for the student just to listento, in order to give him an overallfeel for the wholeness of the codeas a system of sounds.In the following lessons up to thetenth when the alphabet only(each letter repeated three times)was sent in ABC order just to belistened to without copying. Butsometimes it was sent in charactergroups to be copied, writing downimmediately each letter the stu-dent recognized. Even in LessonOne the alphabet was followed bythree short sayings of 5 to 9words each. Each saying was firstread aloud - once or twice - thensent slowly, and finally readagain. A few lessons later every-one was to try to copy them, al-though only those who were

somewhat advanced were ex-pected to be able to get it all.He apparently never sent a char-acter at less than about 12 wpm.In the earlier lessons the upperactual limit of word speed rangedfrom about 5 to 1Ø or more wpm.Later from time to time the upperlimits were sometimes in the teensup to 25 wpm. The beginningspeed was not a progressive ad-vance, but rather was random -sometimes starting at 6 wpm, atother times 1Ø or more - to giveexposure to how the code soundsat various speeds. 12 to 14 wpmwere the commonest speeds. Inthe later lessons a wide variety ofsentences was sent in this part ofthe lesson. In the earlier lessonsthey were familiar sayings,!helpfulremarks and encouragement, andlater were usually taken from thetext of the lesson theme. (Afterlesson 3Ø portions from the Ra-dio Amateurs Handbook, and theRadio Amateurs License Manual,and finally all class B examinationquestions were included.)Beginning in lesson 3 he encour-aged the student to try to writethem down as words separated byspaces. If they couldn’t do thatyet, to write the letters in a con-tinuous string, without spaces. Allcopying to be done in ordinaryhandwriting, not printed. Up tolesson 7 the average student wasassumed to be able to copy theletters of the alphabet at wordspeeds of about 5 wpm. Begin-ning with lesson 8 the numbersand most common punctuationmarks were added to the alphabetreview and frequently also werevocalized up to lesson 27. Thiswas done less often in later les-



sons. The first 26 lessons werededicated primarily to establish-ing a firm foundation in recog-nizing and using the code char-acters. He used an automatic tapesender from about lesson 15 tosend texts at various speeds formore practice.The obvious goal was to make thestudent thoroughly familiarwith!the sound of each code letter,number and punctuation mark byrepeatedly hearing them over andover and copying them down.Each lesson from about thetwelfth also contained higherspeed portions for those advanc-ing more rapidly, and to tweak theinterest of those not quite toskilled yet to try to copy. As thelessons progressed he used differ-ent speeds up to about 25 wpm.To avoid “ear” fatigue the codepractice segments of each lessonwere separated by a few minutesof spoken comments, reading ofprepared text on the lesson themeor other items of general interest.Code sections of a lesson rarelyexceeded 5!to 1Ø minutes at atime. In later lessons these weresometimes an active part of theteaching of!radio theory andpractice. In some lessons he alsogave general comments on how togo about studying and learning.Beginning in lesson 13 he en-couraged the student to try tocopy at least a letter or two be-hind. After lesson 3Ø most of thethemes were taken directly fromthe ARRL Radio Amateurs Hand-book and the ARRL LicensingManual which each student wasurged to obtain. These were toprepare the student for passingthe radio amateur operator’s test.

Which covered the elements ofelectricity and radio, the U.S.rules and regulations concerningamateur transmitting, and amateuroperating practices. His studentseasily passed the 1Ø and 13 wpmtests with flying colors.Bruce Vaughan, now NR4Y, wasone of his students. He startedlearning the code in the fall of1938. Years later he wrote likethis: “I never understood whysome find learning code difficult.I remember only vaguely, when Ilearned to read CW, [so] I sup-pose my Maker installed a codereader in my otherwise hollowskull at the time of my concep-tion.” He learned the code duringthat two-month radio class andthen easily passed the governmentexam.

Another Example - Com-pounded By HandicapsSteve Katz, WB2WIK,!has taughthundreds of students in classes of5 to 15 students over the years,and says “CW surely isn’t diffi-cult.” Most of his students in atypical class,!he says, didn’t knowa dit from a dah, but after eightclass sessions they all (except oneor two) passed the 2Ø wpm CWelement for Extra.How did he do this? -- He tellsthem:” The code is the world’seasiest ‘language’. It has only 26words. Who here can’t learn 26new words in one night? When aperson learns a new language, hedoesn’t think about how eachword is spelled, or how many let-ters are in each word. He thinksabout how the word sounds, andwhat it means, The same goes for



learning Morse code. Each letterhas a sound and a meaning.That’s all one needs to know.”Then he begins with the simplestletters (E T I M A N S O) andprogresses to the intermediateletters (U D V B W G) and thenfinally the last twelve. He teachesby rhythm and sound, not by“dits” and “dahs” or dots anddashes. He teaches by vocalizationand demonstration - no assignedhomework or study of any kind.He uses his ham radio stationalong with an electronic keyerand key paddle to demonstrateand also uses on-the-air contacts.His “proven CW teaching tech-nique” after the ABC’s, he de-scribes as:--To make the student put away hispencil and paper and just listen tothe code at very high speeds,while he, Steve, sends familiar text,including words like the names ofsports teams, cities and so forth.He said: “Don’t write anythingdown. Just listen to the code, andif you get a little bit of it, that’sfine.”He taught his nine-year-oldnephew Rob (who has cerebralpalsy) when Rob got interested inham radio from watching Stevecommunicating with distant sta-tions. So Steve started teachinghim the code and in about 3weeks he passed the novice examwith flying colors at age 1Ø. Robhacked around in the Novice CWbands at 5 wpm for a while, whenone day he tuned where highspeed operators were workingeach other and was intrigued thatthey were going so fast. He triedto copy them but was disheart-

ened to find he couldn’t write asfast as they were sending. SoSteve helped him out, and said:“Don’t write anything down. Justlisten to the code, and if you get alittle bit of it, that’s fine.”So Rob just listened and soon was“copying” maybe!2%, and aftera few more days of listening tohigh-speed operators, he couldcopy maybe 2Ø%, which Stevesaid “is more than enough tomake a contact”. Steve encour-aged him to do just that - makecontacts with operators goingmuch too fast to “copy”. He didthat, even if he could only copy acall sign and name (Steve toldhim: “that’s a complete con-tact”). It didn’t take long forRob to copy in his head very sol-idly without pencil and paper(Steve said: “ I never use any ei-ther”). When Rob had upgradedto General Class, Steve encour-aged him to hang out near theExtra Class subbands and find thereally great operators to contact.He did that, too, and within threeweeks, he had increased his codespeed from 5 to about 35 wpmwithout using tapes, computerprograms or any other “artifi-cial” means. He just did it bygetting on the air and makingcontacts, which is how Steve sayshe did it, too.When Rob was 12 he passed theAdvanced exam, and also took theExtra Class exam where he passedthe code element easily (1ØØ%solid), all answers correct, withoutwriting anything down on paper,but he failed the theory parts ofthe exam because he hadn’t hadenough math yet in school. Just



before his 13th

birthday he didpass the full Extra Class exam. Henow works CW contests wheremost QSO’s are at 45-5Ø wpmand never writes anything downexcept the other station’s call inhis log.This handicapped teen can“copy” at almost any speed with1ØØ% accuracy, but he doesn’treally know a dit from a dah. Hedidn’t learn the code this way.Code was always the easy part forhim. Rob is certain that anyonewho can’t pass the code exammust be an idiot, since it wasn’tvery hard for him and he has alearning disability, cerebral palsywhich restricts his coordination.He had Steve’s excellent exampleand was never told it might be“hard”, so it was always easy forhim. He had a good attitude anddidn’t know there was any prob-lem. There seems to be no limit tohis ability. He was learning it theright way from the very first ex-posure.

More ExamplesThe U.S. Navy during WW-2 codecourses for the average personrequired about 3 weeks to achieve12-14 wpm to meet the rigidNavy requirement of perfect ac-curacy (military operations andsecurity at sea demanded letter-perfect accuracy). This time, theythought, could be shortened withbetter teaching methods.Waldo T. Boyd K6DZY was agraduate of the Navy RadioCommunications School. In 3months time he was copying 35wpm, and not long after that wascopying 5Ø wpm easily. Dick

Spenceley KV4AA known as“one of the world’s best opera-tors” taught Danny Weil so wellthat within one month Danny hadearned his license and was work-ing DX at 2Ø wpm. his was theresult of a good teacher and aneager student.

Some Outstanding Examples OfEffectiveness

Conditioning Is ImportantKatashi Nose KH6IJ (Physics De-partment, University of Hawaii),who became a high speed expert,taught teenagers the code for 25years. His students never heardthat “this will be hard, you’ll oryou’ll have to fight a plateau.”They learned rapidly to goodworking speeds of 2Ø - 3Ø wpmin two to three weeks.The fastest code learner we haveever heard of so far started codepractice for the examination justone week before he took the testand passed it! You say: “Wait aminute. What goes on here?”You’re right, there is a historybehind this achievement. Whatwas it, and what can we learn fromit?It was his conditioning, his back-ground. That played a crucialpart. His father was a skilled tele-grapher at a country railroad sta-tion. His earliest childhoodmemories were of sitting, fasci-nated, on the floor in his father’stelegraph office listening to thesounder clicking. Unconsciouslyhe learned to recognize when hisDad’s station was being called,and when he did, he would go toget his Dad. It was only after he



was quite a bit older that he real-ized that not all adult men couldautomatically read Morse code inthe same way that they could readand write English!His mind had become so sensi-tized to the sound of Morse codefrom birth and so saturated with itthat, when the time came to learnit properly, he had absolutely nohang-ups at all about “not beingable to do it”. He was totallyconditioned and prepared. And inaddition he may have felt, as al-most every teenager does, that“whatever Dad can do, I can dobetter”. Not many of us are sofortunate as to have this kind ofbackground, but does his historysuggest anything we could do? Isthere some way I can conditionmy mind to make it easier? Isn’tit the old story: what is familiar tous doesn’t seem hard - it is easy.Gary Bold, ZL1AN, well-knownteacher in New Zealand, relatedthis story of a friend of his, andsuggests one way to approach itthat works, even though it maysound silly. This is by playinghigh quality code tapes in thebackground (like music) whileyou’re driving to work, washingthe dishes, cleaning the car, etc.You don’t even have to listen to itconsciously, he says. - Will itwork? It’s certainly worth a try.At the lowest skill levels: four-years-olds, barely able to writeeven block letters have been ableto pass the code test. How manyof us are willing to admit a four-year-old can outperform us?Then consider these higher skilllevels:

Determination and PersistenceHow long it should take dependson various factors. The first es-sential is how we approach - this isvital. Am I prepared? Do I reallywant to learn? Will I stick to it?Am I determined to do it? Allthese are essential to rapid suc-cess.

By ContrastOld American Morse operators,using the old visual, then widelypracticed methods of teachingand experience, took about sixmonths to reach about 15 wpmand about two years to reach anexpert phase. Their code with itsinternal spaces does require moretiming sense than InternationalMorse.During WW-I in America, the ur-gent need for wireless operatorsshoved most of them out the doorinto military service with only abare code proficiency, no experi-ence in operating either theequipment or the procedures.WW-II American military radiotraining schools provided morerigorous code training, and someof them included, in their laterphases, operational experiencewith wired QSO’s and even in-cluded interference. These practi-cal exercises sometimes intro-duced progressively worse QRM.Some courses introduced typingfrom the very first, but for ad-vanced students typing was therule. Those receiving high speedtraining also learned to copy highspeed press. It is easy, and neednot!take long to learn the Morsecode if one goes at it prepared



with the right attitudes and meth-ods

Chapter 13The Role of Memory in Tele-graphy

Why Learning Initially bySight Doesn’t Work Well

If you “memorized the code” (asI did) from a printed chart of dotsand dashes, or from a cleverprinted diagram or picture whichvividly impressed the mind, youfelt you knew it. Maybe it onlytook you twenty minutes to“memorize” it, as some advertis-ers claimed - or perhaps it took aday or two. Then if you!tried tosend something in code with yourkey, it was easy: you had a vividmental picture as to just how longto hold each element of a charac-ter, and this seemed to prove youknew the code.But it was when you started to re-ceive, to listen to the code, that thetrouble began. The sounds youheard just didn’t seem to matchup with the dots and dashes you“knew” at all. Why should it beso hard to translate the codesounds into the dots and dashesand letters that you thought youknew so well? Those who havemade a study of memory tell usthat we have several separatememory banks: one for sight, onefor sound, others for touch, tasteand smell. (See, e.g., “Memory:Surprising New Insights Into HowWe Remember and Why We For-get” - Elizabeth Loftus, 198Ø)Now we see why: the code soundswe heard couldn’t make any di-rect connection at all with our

vivid visual memory: they weretwo different kinds of sensations(sound and sight) -- they didn’trelate. In order to cross that gapand relate them we had to giveconscious thought to build abridge between them: to convertthe sound pattern into a pattern ofvisual dots and dashes so that ourvisual memory, where the “mem-ory” was, could interpret them.That is why we stumbled and, un-der the pressure of time, oftenmissed out or even failed com-pletely. If we keep on this way wewill have to form additional asso-ciation links for each individualcode character in order to connectthem. This can be done, and hasbeen done, but it takes a lot oftime and also raises a new risk -the danger of interference be-tween them (two possible path-ways, one conscious, the other thenew association formed) and pos-sible hesitation as a result.Our memories are complexmechanisms. To fill in the picture,experimental studies on memoryhave for many years shown thatwe have not only several kinds,but also several levels of memo-ries. First are what may be calledthe “sensory registers”, the veryshort times during which, after wesee or hear something, its sight orsound persists in our conscious-ness as if we were still seeing orhearing it (persistence of vision orhearing) for a moment, thenquickly vanishes. However, if weare paying attention and are con-scious of a sight or sound, it willenter the appropriate “short-termmemory” and stay there formaybe 15-2Ø seconds before it,too, fades out unless we deliber-



ately try to remember it a bitlonger,!or make a real effort toput it into our “long-term mem-ory” bank by intending to re-member it (by reinforcing it).Long term memory is what weusually think of as our “mem-ory.” Because for most of us itseems easier to remember thingswe have seen than things we haveheard, the visual approach tolearning seems more attractive.But obviously, since receiving thecode is a matter of hearing, weshould begin the right way, bytraining our auditory memorybanks. Now we can see whylearning the code initially by eyeis really the hard way, and actu-ally creates a serious roadblock toadvancement.

Some Further Questions andThoughtsThe intricate inter-working of thevarious parts of our minds andbrains raises questions as to whatis going on as we consider re-ceiving in the telegraphic codes.Memory studies are usually con-cerned with things we are fullyconscious of and desire either toremember or to forget. With thehigher skills in code, however, it isthe operation of the unconsciousparts of the mind and its relationswith the consciousness that is ofprimary interest, and how these tietogether with the memory.As our telegraphic skill level in-creases, the ABC’s of the me-chanics of language become moreand more the actions of the sub-conscious mind, which in turnmay or may not bring them to theattention of our consciousness. In

the process of copying, the con-sciousness of content may bezero: you just mechanically copy(dictation) what is received, whileyou may be conscious only ofthinking of something quite ir-relevant. However, in reading thecode we are first conscious of thewords, and later conscious moreof the thoughts conveyed thanbeing precisely aware of thewords. In both these higher skilllevels, the words and thoughts aregenerally collected together intoat least the “short-term” memo-ries, and often carried over intothe “long-term memories,” sothat we “make sense” out of it alland follow what is being said aswe do in conversation.Perhaps the only thing we areconscious of, if we stop to thinkabout it at all, is that we want tounderstand and recall some of thethings said to us. Perhaps there isan analogy with driving a car.Here our eyes are receiving im-pressions from traffic, traffic sig-nals, certain sounds, and ourphysical responses on steeringwheel, accelerator, brakes are soautomatic that if we are askedlater about some particular detail,we just can’t reply. These habitualphysical responses to stimuli fromspecific events are especiallystrongly retained over long peri-ods of time. The complete re-sponse once started carries itselfout automatically and fully.Another, less frequent occurrenceis this: over the years it has beenfound that people sometimes haveretained mental “pictures” or“sound recordings” of things inearlier life to which they had paidno attention or had any interest



in. Under certain conditions theywere able to recall them - eventhings that!made no sense at thetime or later. One aged lady wasable to recall verbatim longspeeches (in a language foreign toher) she had heard many yearspreviously. Another sang a songin the native language of hermother, a language the singernever understood at all. The ex-perts tell us that “long termmemory” does not mean eitherpermanent memory or accuratememory. All memories tend toweaken or fade out with time, andfurther, that they can and usuallyare altered in various ways so thatthe recall is distorted, or some-times even reversed from theoriginal.One exception is those memoriesassociated with physically-relatedskills, such as playing a musicalinstrument, driving a vehicle, ste-nography, telegraphy, etc. Peoplewho have not practiced such skillsfor many years will generallyshow surprising agility after dec-ades of non-use. A little practicewill usually put them back tonearly their best performance,barring physical disability. Thishas been demonstrated over andover. There is certainly room herefor further research into this fas-cinating subject as we look forspecifically better ways to im-prove our telegraphic skills.Those operators in commercialwork who read the tapes by eyeseldom if ever learned CW as weknow it, but rather learned thevisual appearance of words andletters on the tapes in groups.There is also another aspect totape reading: it is more like read-

ing print with each character infull context, not in sequentialtime. One operator accustomed tooperating in the 35-4Ø wpmrange was out of it for five years.When he sat down to listen hecould copy only about 15 wpm:“I couldn’t believe it!” By noonhe was up to about 24 wpm andlater in the afternoon was up tohis old speeds again. Just a fewhours of practice were needed.“One can indeed get awfullyrusty,” he said

Chapter 14The Ear

By “ear” we mean our totalhearing and interpretive sys-tem, an intricate and ingen-ious complete system of per-ception and interpretation ofwhat is heard: ears, nerves,and mind.

The ears themselves are sensitiveover a very wide range of intensi-ties, but have their maximum sen-sitivity and selectivity at low vol-ume levels. Setting the soundvolume level just high enough tobe clearly readable, both protectsthe hearing and improves per-formance. The ear responds towhat it hears first.

Pitch Of CW SignalThe ear is sensitive to pitch. Fewpeople can accurately rememberpitch (“absolute pitch”), butmost have no trouble detectingchanges and differences in pitch.Not many seem actually to be“tone deaf.” The usual pitchrange used for CW is between5ØØ and 1ØØØ Hz. Some find



the best pitch for copying in in-terference is about 5ØØ Hz.Those with serious hearing losses- who cannot hear certain pitches,or who cannot distinguish codesignals in the usual pitch rangebecause their ears “ring” wherethe spaces should be - may find alower pitch (e.g. 3ØØ - 4ØØ Hz)helps. Sometimes using a buzzertone, or adding white noise to thetone may enable them to hearproperly. (Note: Avoid the use ofan actual buzzer in teaching as ithas a delay in starting to sound.This distorts the timing.)The usual narrow bandwidth oftone for CW is uncomfortable tosome people and may becomemonotonous, uncomfortable orunpleasant. The narrower thepitch range the more frequent thecomplaint. They find a morecomplex tonal pattern far less tir-ing and even pleasant. However,when interference is present morecomplex tones become a hin-drance.

Sensitivity To Duration Of SoundIn the perception of rhythm thehuman ear will adapt itself withinrather wide limits in the actualduration of sounds. Our judgmentof the duration of a brief sound ispoor, perhaps because of a per-sistence of sound (like persistenceof vision), yet we can judge therelative length of brief silent in-tervals rather well. (This is proba-bly why the telegraph sounder hasworked so well for receivingAmerican Morse, where rhythmpatterns are complex.) Thus, “ I fwe take care for the spaces, the‘marks’ will take care of them-

selves.” Some students may havedifficulty distinguishing dits fromdahs. (The normal ratio is 1:3.)For them it may help to overem-phasize the length of the dahs atfirst by lengthening them from 3units to 4. (It is interesting that inAmerican Morse the dahs tendedto become shorter than threeunits, to contrast with the longerdahs of L and zero. Again, it maybe the nature of the sounder thatled to this.)There are good reasons for be-lieving that we must distinguishbetween conscious perception ofduration and what the brain actu-ally is capable of perceiving atsubconscious levels. Support forthis belief comes from the experi-ences of those operators who canreceive code signals accurately atspeeds which far exceed the pointwhere dits and dahs all soundalike. See Chapter 1Ø.

The Ear Can Often Make SenseOut Of Poor SendingThe ear is remarkable in beingable to make sense out of somepretty badly mangled code, suchas is often heard on the air. It is aforgiving organ: by mental ad-justment one can quickly learn torecognize and read quite poorlytimed code - code whose glaringdefects would stand out promi-nently if traced out on paper.Within fairly wide limits the actualduration of the sound in a rhyth-mic pattern may vary and still berecognized. However, the spacingwithin and between characters andwords is a highly significant fac-tor.



Some distortions of proportionare less unintelligible than others.Better discrimination exists whenthe dits are too fast as comparedto the dahs than!when!the dits anddahs begin to approach the samelength (easily confused). The earcan often read this kind of stuffwhen “machinery” fails.

The Trained Ear Can Discrimi-nate Between SignalsThe normal ear can learn to sepa-rate between signals nearly, butnot quite, identical in pitch. Formany people the ear-brain filtercan focus on a bandwidth as nar-row as!5Ø - 1ØØ Hz. If one canfocus on a 5Ø Hz. bandwidth witha receiver having a 3 KHz. noisebandwidth, a CW signal nearly 18dB below the noise level can beheard. However, a bandwidth ofabout 5ØØ Hz., rather than a verynarrow one, makes the mechanicsof tuning easier and gives freerrein to the ear-brain filter.It is usually only when the goinggets quite rough that we need anextremely narrow receiving filter -and then there is the!risk of losingthe signal entirely if anythingshifts just a little. It has been saidthat “The amateur ear, trained todig out signals buried six layersdeep in murderous QRM is themost prized ear in intercept workin all the world.”

Headphones Are Superior To ASpeakerHeadphones effectively doublethe power of received signalscompared to a loudspeaker. Themuffs on the phones keep outextraneous noises and keep the

weak sound energy in. The sig-nal-to-noise ratio can be increasedby reversing the phasing of thephones: that is, the noise at onephone is 18Ø degrees out ofphase with the other and the braintends to cancel the noise. Noisetype ear plugs can also help withphones and/or filters to reducespurious noises

Chapter 15TimingTiming Is The Heart Of TheCodeTiming is the heart of the code:there is no code without it. Clearintelligibility depends upon rightproportions. However, it is truethat some distortions are less un-intelligible than others, and peo-ple can learn to read that sort ofstuff - but is it justifiable? Controlof timing rests entirely with thesending operator.For this reason, attention to care-ful timing is first needed when thestudent starts to practice with amanual key, especially a straightkey, though also with most othertypes. This is one reason whysome good teachers discouragethe use of anything but a key-board by a beginner. Most mod-ern teachers agree that it is im-portant not to specifically men-tion the subject of timing until thestudent has learned the alphabetand numbers so well by hearingthem that he recognizes their pat-terns without hesitation.Some teachers recommend thatother than using “dits” and“dahs” to verbalize characters,



they should not be time-analyzedat all in teaching, but that it all bedone intuitively by sound. On theother hand, some excellent teach-ers of the past (before keyers andkeyboards) have insisted onteaching precise timing, in termsof its elements, from the very first.Accurate timing is vital, but itmust never distract the studentfrom the basic recognition ofcharacters by their essential unityof patterning: it must not lead tohis breaking down the character-istic rhythm of the characters byanalyzing them into components.

The Basic UnitsThe basic unit of code timing isthe Baud, which is the duration ofone dit (or “dot”), denoted hereby 1 for the “on” signal, and by(the equal unit) Ø (zero) for si-lence, the “off” signal. The basiccontrasting signal to the “dit” isthe dah which has a duration of 3units (111). It is obvious that eachdit and each dah must be sepa-rated both before and after by atleast one unit silence (Ø) in orderto be distinguishable: this (oneunit) is the normal spacing be-tween parts of a character. Normalspacing between characters withina word (or group) is three units(ØØØ), and between words (orgroups) i s seven un i t s(ØØØØØØØ).Punctuation marks normally fol-low the last word with only onecharacter space (ØØØ) between. Itis these components of time, sig-nal “on”, short or long, and“off”, which produce the pat-terns or rhythms which distin-guish one character from another.

We must learn to hear these pat-terns, sense them, feel them, andthis is best done by hearing well-sent code. In actual practice, indi-vidual operators may and do de-viate somewhat from the standardsgiven above. This may be for em-phasis or because of communica-tion conditions, as well as uncon-scious individual variations.

Relative Duration And SpacingAre Very ImportantIn the perception of rhythm bythe human ear the precise dura-tion of sounds is, within fairlywide limits, unimportant. If thelonger signals (i.e., dahs) are sub-stantially longer than the shorterones (i.e., dits), the ear will be sat-isfied. While our judgment of theduration of brief sounds is poor,we can judge the relative length ofbrief silence intervals much moreaccurately.It has been said: “If you take careof the spaces, the ‘marks’ willtake care of themselves.” Spac-ing, the periods of silence betweenparts of a character, between char-acters in a word or group, andbetween words, is critical to goodreceiving. Sloppy or hastily sentcode can be a terror to receiveand understand. (Beyond somespeed the persistence-of-hearingeffect tends to fill in the smallspaces and make us unable toconsciously recognize characters.)[In American Morse with its threedifferent lengths of dashes, eachsuccessively longer one wastaught as being twice as long asthe next shorter one!-- an amountwhich is clearly “hearable” underalmost any conditions. In practice,



however, because they used atelegraph sounder which marksthe start of a signal by one kindof click, and its end by a differ-ent-sounding click, with silence inbetween, these durations were of-ten shortened without confusionfor reasons stated above. Thesame thing was true for its inter-nally spaced characters.]Code “translators”, micro-circuitry for converting code intoprint, break down when sending ispoor or interference is severe. Thehuman ear and mind, however,can copy rotten code far betterthan any machine. The “ear” is aforgiving organ: by mental com-pensation we can quickly recog-nize and read stuff as passablecode, which if it were recorded onpaper tape would show its glaringdefects. In the presence of inter-fering signals and static, and to alarge extent during fading, the“ear” can be trained to pick outa very weak signal and read itwell. (Chapter 11)

Irregularities In TimingFrom the very beginning of tele-graphy, as soon as the art beganto!spread, the individuality of op-erators became apparent. Littlepeculiarities in sending stood outto identify each one, just as voicequality and style do in speaking.Mostly these were subtle littlethings which did not distract fromeasy intelligibility. But they didinvolve aspects of timing andrhythm. We hear them today onthe CW bands among amateursusing hand keys just as they didamong all operators in the past.

For many operators there was acertain pride in this. However,there is a danger here also, be-cause some operators deliberatelycreated peculiar styles of sendingas a sort of trademark. When suchdistortion reaches a certain pointand becomes habitual, intelligibil-ity suffers. We hear some of theseoperators today on the air. Theydo not seem to realize, or perhapseven care about the difficulty theycause. With the advent of the“double speed key”, also calledthe “side-swiper” or the “cootiekey”, a key which is operated bysidewise movement, with onecontact on each side, a new set ofpeculiar styles of sending arose.Sidewise instead of up and downmotion helped relieve some formsof fatigue, but also the peculiarmotion patterns developed a dif-ferent timing pattern, one that issometimes hard to copy.The use of “bugs”, semi-automatic keys (the best knownbeing the “Vibroplex”) whichsoon became very popular, alsogave rise to various personalsending peculiarities unless theoperator was careful.SwingsOne of the most interesting devel-opments in disturbed timing ofhand sending was the rise of so-called “swings.” Swing has to dowith a change in the normalrhythm of sending, sometimesdescribed as a change in symme-try or lack of it: a peculiar way offorming the characters. Swingsmost commonly developedamong marine operators within aclose-knit group having a largevolume of specialized communi-



cations. Thus we have the names“Banana boat swing”, “LakeErie swing”, “Cuban swing”, etc.The operators of the large UnitedFruit Co. were especially notedfor this. Some have claimed thatswings developed as a most effec-tive way of copying the early dayspark signals (which sounded somuch like static) through heavystatic. The basic principle of“sea-going swing” was to exag-gerate the spacing between letterswhen a letter ending with a dahwas followed by one beginningwith a dah, and similarly for oneending in a dit when the next be-gan with a dit. The spacing beforeand after an!E!within a word wasoften made a bit longer for clar-ity. Exaggerated dah lengths werecommon also in the attempt toimprove readability: e.g., the firstdah in C was generally draggedout slightly.Other individual rhythmic distur-bances were common also, such asdrawing out the second dah in“Q” (which we often hear on theair today). In order to avoid con-fusion in the midst of typicallyheavy Gulf of Mexico static,sending the call signs of two mainshore stations was modified: -- theP of WPA was made with longdahs, while the space between Aand X of WAX was exaggeratedand the dahs of X were length-ened. This stopped the confusion.In later years such swings werefound necessary for intelligibilityin low frequency marine workwhen signals were barely audible.Some said “Banana boat” swingdeveloped from call letters KFUC,the general call for all UnitedFruit Co. ships. Others suggested

the rolling motion of boats con-tributed to forming it. The name“Cuban swing” or “Latinswing” came from the way mostCuban and Mexican operators rantheir words together. Sometimes itmust have been quite deliberate -just to try to be individualistic,such as!a jerk in forming H P C S4 5 Y Q; a lengthening of one ofthe dahs a bit in J, 1, etc.; any“funny” little stroke. But thesethings made them hard to copyby other operators.Early in 1936 the Eastern AirLines (EAL) communications su-pervisor decided to develop anEAL swing for its operators. Hedreamed up the idea of modify-ing a “bug” by moving the sta-tionary dot post a half inch for-ward. This produced a swing likenone ever heard before. The op-erators did not like it and soonrepositioned the post, but it un-consciously influenced the send-ing of many of them ever after.Recently operators in a foreignnavy were found almost impossi-ble to understand at first becauseof a peculiar rhythm taught bytheir telegraph instructors.Over the years, peculiarities of thissort have often been observed inother parts of the world as well.These, too, would have to becalled “swings“. Swings. Theearliest comment found so farabout swing is from Radio NewsDec. 1921 p.565: “The AmericanRadio Operator” (commercialand shipboard): criticizes “t hecultivation of a fancy or eccentricstyle of sending, believed clever inoriginality, but causes the receiv-ing operator to make more effortto copy than usual. He introduces



a jerk in his H’s, P’s, C’s, 3’s, 4’s,5’s, Y’s, and Q’s and makes oneof the dashes of J and 1, etc., atrifle longer than the rest... Atricky swing he makes as an effortto acquire the ‘funny’ stroke as hegoes on. - Consider the other op-erator!”

Chapter 16Other MethodsPersonal Computers And Key-boards For Self-LearningFor self-learning nothing is supe-rior to a Personal Computer (PC)or a keyboard where the studentcan push a key and hear eachcharacter (and see it in print ifthere is a screen), as often as hewishes or needs to get the feel ofits rhythm. The PC especially hasbecome such a valuable tool thatsome teachers (as Gary Bold)consider it to be superior to pri-vate or classroom learning._ It is consistent, always

sending perfect code in ex-actly the same way.

_ It is always available andready to be used wheneverthe student wants to prac-tice.

_ Most computer teachingprograms provide for easytailoring to the exact needsof the individual student.

_ A PC is impersonal andthere is never any reasonfor the student to feel em-barrassment, somethingwhich often is an emotionaldeterrent to efficient learn-

ing in the presence of ateacher or!classmates.

_ It can provide both an ex-cellent introduction to thecode and growth in skill toany desired degree.

Many Computer Programs AreExcellentSee also Chapter 18. Computerprograms have been and some arestill available for the Commodoreand Apple computers, but mosthave been for the IBM-compatible PC’s. They have beenof all sizes and varieties, accord-ing to the skill, teaching experi-ence and ingenuity of the pro-gramming writers. Many providefor connecting the computer withthe transmitter and using thecomputer as a keyboard Someprovide an evaluation of the stu-dent’s sending skills.One of the important features forrapid learning is the degreeof!adaptability to the student andthe amount of interaction withhim that is provided. How flexibleare they? Do they provide checkson skill and accuracy? One ex-ample of an interactive computerprogram (Gary Bold’s) starts thenew student out by having himhear the character, then keying inhis identification of it. If his iden-tification is correct, the characteris then displayed on the screen.But if he is wrong, his answer isignored, and the character is re-peated until he correctly identifiesit. The same character is then pre-sented several more times for hiscorrect response before taking upthe next one. If he delays toolong in responding, the character



is repeated (and may be displayedsimultaneously) until he gets it.After a number (per student’srequest) of new characters havebeen introduced, they are re-peated in random order, and ifone is misidentified, it is repeateduntil the student correctly identi-fies it. This program then ingen-iously ratios the next series ofrandom characters in proportionto the number of times any ofthem have been misidentified, un-til the student reduces this ratiosignificantly. Many PC programsprovide a considerable variety ofpractice material beyond the ini-tial learning and recognitionstage. Computer programs can beversatile tools for rapid advance-ment, tailored to individual needs.Keyboards may provide for someof these various factors, depend-ing on how they have been de-signed and programmed. Thereare some smaller pocket sized“computers” which are limited tohearing practice only.

Growing Up With Hearing ItOld timer George Hart W1NJM isone who learned the code origi-nally, as he says, by “osmosis”from an older brother who was aham - just by listening, with nointention of learning it or gettinga license. This way he learnedfrequent letters and operatingprocedures until one day he dis-covered he could communicateby code. From then on he washooked! He later wrote: “ [I was]practically born with a key in myhand, so CW [was] as natural tome as talking.”

Learning By Listening To HighSpeed CodeA few hams in years gone by havesaid that they initially “learnedthe code” by listening to fastcommercial press dispatches(probably 35 - 45 wpm), whichwere then available day and night.(Did they mean starting out, oradvancing? Just how they actuallybegan is not clear.) They claimthat they found they could iden-tify a letter here and there, thenshort words, and within a coupleof months were reading it all.However, this approach may nothave been very efficient - formost of us it might prove discour-aging - and probably dependedgreatly upon the mental makeupof the learner as well as his enthu-siasm. We mention it here only toshow what can be done if one isdetermined enough.

Further Comments On GainingSpeedWith many modern computercode programs available, pro-grammable keyboards and keyers,as well as tapes, etc., there are sev-eral attractive alternates available.With these, material can be bettertailored for our individual needs.The Farnsworth method suggestsitself here in the high speed range,too, to allow the mind time to di-gest and identify characters andwords. Using this, some havefound that to set up a characterspeed in the 5Ø - 6Ø wpm rangeand then widening the inter-letterand inter-word spaces initially,gradually reducing them as de-sired, can speed up the recogni-tion process.



Sleep LearningA number of operators in the pastwho desperately wanted to in-crease their receiving skills delib-erately tried sleeping beside theirreceivers or playback recordingequipment (or their line telegraphsounders in the case of landlineoperators) with fast code signalscoming through for several hoursor all night. They claimed thatwithin a surprisingly short timethey had great increases in re-ceiving speed. This procedure hasbeen challenged, but apparentlyworks for some people.One ham, who says he can copy at7Ø wpm and still wants to increaseabove that, has for years been lis-tening this way every night.Maybe it works for some people,but I wonder if it is actually ef-fective, and also whether they gotany restful sleep that way. It isinteresting that in the early192Ø’s a group of doctors werebeing trained to use Morse code.Their teachers tried sleep-learningwith them, and found that if theword “doctor” was sent whilethey were sound asleep during thenight, it would nearly always wakethem immediately - showing thatthere is some kind of unconsciousreceptivity and response.

Another Suggestion That HasWorkedWhen someone comes to me andasks how to make the 13 wpmrequirement for General class, Igive them the following plan ofworking:-“You need to listen every day togood sending, and I suggest the

W1AW CW bulletins. They are at18 wpm. Start out the first fewdays and just listen for no morethan one minute. Then turn it off.As you listen, pick out the char-acters you recognize. Don’t writeanything down at all the first fewdays like this. After a few days,increase your listening time to twominutes and continue to pick outas many characters as you can inyour head - and don’t write any-thing down yet. Then turn it off,as before. After eight to ten daysof this practice, go back to theone minute period of listening,but this time write down every-thing you can recognize. Try toleave blank spaces where you missout. Write down every letter youcan catch for that one minute pe-riod, then turn it off. Repeat thispractice for several days, then ex-tend the time to two minutes,writing down everything you canrecognize. After several days or aweek or so this way you will findyour comprehension coming upfairly rapidly because your con-centration is improving and youwill be surprised how much youcan copy in just this short periodof time. From here on graduallyincrease your listening time to 3,4, 5, 6 or 7 minutes. When youcan copy somewhere around 6Ø%of the bulletin materials you willfind that you can copy 13 wpm,the test speed, with flying colors.This scheme has worked well for anumber of people who hadreached speeds between 5 and 1Øwpm, but had difficulty in ad-vancing. This general patternshould prove of help to othersaiming for the 2Ø wpm test orhigher.”



McElroy’s Course and HisClaims For ItAlthough this does not fall intothe above categories, here is whatwas said:-In the Nov. 1945 QST, p 115, wasan ad in which Ted McElroy’sCompany offered to “send youthis complete course of instruc-tion (McElroy’s ‘Morse’ CodeCourse) free so you can see foryourself what it’ll do for you. Itwas said to contain “everythinghe has learned in 3Ø years of op-erating experience.” “Assumingthat the average person will prac-tice several hours the first day, wecan tell you ... that you’ll becopying That Very First Day,words and sentences at the rate of2Ø wpm. The thing is that ingen-ious! Ted has taken one-half thealphabet which appears on hischart No. 1, prepared a practicetape which runs for at least onefull hour without attention at therate of 2Ø wpm. You won’t copy2Ø full words in one minute. Buteach letter you write will hit yourears at a full 2Ø wpm and thespace between letters becomesprogressively shorter as the rollsgo along.” Since Ted’s receivingspeed records were tops in almostevery official speed contest, itwould be very interesting to seethis document. At present, theabove is all that seems to be avail-able.

Chapter 17Common Errors and What ToDo About Them

Both in sending and receivingerrors are sometimes made.

Good operators make very few ifany while sending, but “errors”do occur both during sending andespecially while receiving undervarious adverse conditions. Thesemake it necessary for us to keepin mind letters that may be mis-takenly formed or because ofpoor conditions appear to soundalike:-_ Dotting errors - too many

or too few dits are made orthought to be heard:- H/5S/H B/6 V/4 Z/7

_ Initial or final dits or dahsmissed or confused. (Onthe receiving end there is atendency to hear signals asbeing shorter than theyare):- J/1 C/Y P/J Z/Q W/JW/P

_ Other characters which be-ginners may confuse, par-ticularly:- F/L G/W Y/Q 6/5Errors that the beginner ortrainee experiences in hisown work can be turnedinto advantages.

Specific errors that are!often re-peated show us where we need togive special practice. If we tend toconfuse two characters, we caneliminate it by hearing them oneafter another until their differ-ences in rhythm become obviousto us.When we look over our copy

and find non-sense or ob-



vious missed out areas, thecorrection can often bemade simply from exam-ining the!context. (Thiswill!generally not work fornumbers, scrambled lettersor call signs, where there isno repetition to help out.)Normal procedure whenyou catch yourself makingan error while you aresending may be handledsomething like this: -

_ stop, indicate error by “?”(or by eight dits), then re-peat the last correct word(especially if it is short),and then the one sentwrong and continue on, or

_ in rag chewing unimportantmatter, simply stop a mo-ment and restart with theword mis-sent,

_ similarly, if it is a long wordand the first syllable or sohas been correctly sent, andit is a word which the re-ceiving operator surely willimmediately understand,just pause a moment andthen go on with the nextword.

(The pause will indicate to himthe problem.)

Chapter 18Computer Programs AndTapes For Learning And Im-proving Skill In CodeIt is always a bit risky to try to listcurrently available materials andbooks. These change with time,some for the better, a few for theworse, and some simply vanishfrom the scene. With that in

mind, the following programshave been found representative,both adequate and good. It isquite impossible here to go intothe many details of each program,so only the barest outline is givenfor information. They all providea range of speeds and pitch of thetone. Some provide various op-tions of screen or printing capa-bilities, etc., and/or allow the userto remodel it for his preferences,etc. Some provide various ways ofincreasing or decreasing speedwhile sending. All use the speakerin the computer for sound output.Helps are provided on screen inmos t o f the p rograms .(“Freeware” means that there isno mandatory cost to the userother than that of providing thediskette. “Commercial” meansthe program is for sale on themarket.) Unless otherwise notedall are IBM-compatible.

Morse University($5Ø)- was an excellent Ad-

vanced Electronic Applica-tions program for theCommodore C-64 com-puter, plugged into car-tridge slot, with manual.. Itincluded

_ a learning program,_ a proficiency program to

increase speed,_ a sending analysis (charac-

ters and spacings),_ a receiving game to recog-

nize characters under pres-sure and a Morse keyboardto compose ones own codepractice sessions.



1. Learning was at 2Ø wpmFarnsworth character speedswith a 3 second intervalbetween characters. Therewere 54 basic lessons, plus7 which teach the German,Spanish and Swedish char-acters, if desired. It wassuggested that one spendtwo 2Ø minute sessionseach day, and at the end ofa month many would haveachieved a solid 2Ø wpmreceiving speed, and haveenjoyed learning. Severaloptions were available.

2. Proficiency sent a randomsequence of characters withprogrammable starting andfinishing speed. Speed wasadjustable(5 - 99 wpm),length of practice (up to anhour), number of differentcharacters (up to 45), sizeof groups, and length ofintervals between charac-ters.

Late Note: “Morse University”,now called “Ham University”(because it also covers the writtenexams) is now sold for MicrosoftWindows by Michael Crick athttp://crick.com/hamu. This newversion also includes a new Morsecode game called “Pentode” thatwas inspired by “Tetris”.

SuperMorse By Lee Murrah,WD5CIDA great deal of variety was builtinto this program, which is reallya series of integrated programs. Alearning phase introduced thestudent to the code characters, aBuilding speed phase providedvariety in practice materials, an

Enhance phase extended this to asfast as one might want, while aMeasure phase provided for test-ing of skill with built-in or user-constructed tests, and finally anOperate phase. Interaction wasprovided in several aspects.http://www.murrah.com/sm/

Morseman+ By Robin GistNE4L/ZF2PMHas a Tutorial module teachingthe characters, a Trainer moduledeveloping skill, another, “Test-ing” provided for various evalua-tions of skill, while an Interactivemode provided for certain user-response reactions. Several typesof practice were provided in eachof these modes or modules.

GGTE Morse Tutor Gold

http://www.ggte.com/mtgold.htmVersion 2.Ø1 for IBM PC, XT,AST and equivalents ($29.95 plus$4.ØØ S & H). 11 lessons for ba-sic learning. Each lesson reviewedprevious characters as well as in-troducing new ones, up to lesson12 which provided random QSOpractice of infinite variety up to alength of 1Ø minutes per QSO.User specifies Farnsworth and allspeeds as desired up to over 5Øwpm. Character Excellent Non-Commercial Programs PresentlyAvailable. Morse Tutor Gold hasbeen tested by Creative Labs andis certified to work with all SoundBlaster sound cards.

The Mill. by James S. Farrior,W4FOKMILLØØa is the present status oflong MILL developments by



James S. Farrior, W4FOK. It isunique among the many freewareprograms in providing for bothold American Morse and Interna-tional codes at user’s selection.Jim has gone to great lengths indesigning the character formationcontrols to incorporate the featureof old Morse environmental vari-ability (see Chapter 2Ø) to such adegree that it sounds “natural” toold time Morse operators, unlikethe machine-regular Internationalcode, and has simulated soundersand output for regular telegraphsounders.There is a basic learning section, asection for sending any file theuser wishes to send, and anotherallows the user to create files hemay wish to use. Another featureprovides for using the computeras a control of the transmitter,using any of the other programaspects which are appropriate. It isa carefully designed and elegantprogram, and Jim continues de-veloping improvements. It waswritten in QBASIC. and is avail-able from James S. FarriorW4FOK, 1332 Harrison PointTrail, Fernandina Beach FL,32Ø34, and any user, includingTony Smith G4FAI at: 13 MorleyRoad, Sheringham, Norfolk NR268JE England.http://www.net-magic.net/users/w4fok/

The Morse Tutor ProgramThis program is the result of an-other similar development for In-ternational Morse by Gary E. J.Bold ZL1AN, professor and longtime code teacher in New Zea-land. It is written for GW-BASIC.

and may be readily modified bythe user. Like most other pro-grams, it has several unique fea-tures. Each portion is a self-contained program. “Teach”interacts with the beginner, andregulates the instruction accord-ing to correctness and error inresponses. “Random” practiceprograms are provided for codegroups for any subset of charac-ters or words from any source. Asending program sends anyASCII files for copying or read-ing practice. A keyboard programsends whatever is keyed in thekeyboard. An interesting moduleis provided for key input to ana-lyze the quality of the user’ssending.There are also other similar pro-grams both freeware and com-mercial. Some PC programmershave been able to prepare theirown programs tailored to theirown particular needs. A numberof interactive programs are avail-able which give either immediateor delayed helps to the student -these offer tremendous help inlearning. Some may also allowthe more advanced student toconduct QSO’s with the computerprogram, just as if he was actuallyon the air. The potential here isgreat indeed. Finally, there areavailable computer programs anddevices which can read receivedcode transmissions. Because theyare machines, they can only readcode signals which are reasonablyaccurate in timing. For the studentwho has access to one of these, itwill give him a chance to test hisown sending for accuracy. How-ever, they are not recommended



as substitutes for personal receiv-ing by ear

NuMorse by Tony Lacy G4AUDhttp://www.nu-ware.comNuMorse Professional is a brandnew code trainer that has some-thing for everybody.You have a choice of trainingcourses! The First Steps featurewill gently introduce you to thecode and take you through a step-by-step structured training course.NuMorse Pro can offer a Kochbased course as well!A. Lacy, Llanoris, Llanerfyl,Welshpool, Powys. SY21 ØEPUnited Kingdom

Code Tapes For Learning AndFor Other PurposesThe ARRL, several companies andsome individuals which make orhave made tapes for cassette re-corders for learning up to the2Ø+ wpm seed range and higher,and some have prepared punchedpaper tapes for high speed trans-mission and reception. Some ofthese tapes are excellent, but someare of poor quality. The ARRLtapes are of high quality.The Twin Oaks Associates (mentalhealth professionals) offered codetraining programs. Three coursesusing cassettes and an instructionbook, emphasized learning by ear- mentally or verbally recognizingwhat is sent automatically. Course1, alphabet took to over 5 wpm.“Practice listening through thefirst side, without writing anythingdown or rewinding to pick upanything. Side one first sounds

each character and then the nar-rator immediately identified it.Then did the same thing on thesecond side, reviewing all previousmaterial without the narrator. Thisis to train ear and brain to worktogether first without the compli-cation of writing. After comforta-bly mastering the first tape, go tothe second, etc, through all sixtapes. The first tape presents thecharacters E T I A M N whichhave one or two elements. Eachsubsequent tape adds charactershaving one additional element, upto the fifth tape where numeralsand punctuation are introduced.”To be practiced 3Ø minutes aday. The Study Guide detailedthe methods and theories used. --The two other courses take thestudent up over 13 wpm, and upover 2Ø wpm.In the past, as noted in Chapter25, the Instructograph Co. and theTeleplex Co. were the best knownmakers of punched and inkedpaper tape machines for code in-struction and training and usedboth by commercial operatorsand by amateurs.. Commerciallythe Boehm inked tape and theKleinschmidt perforated papertape machines were the mostcommonly used. We mentionthese here because they weresometimes used for teaching orpracticing the code, but muchmore often for commercialtransmission of code at highspeeds.Similar systems were manufac-tured during WW-II by TedMcElroy’s company. With thesemachines the operator would pre-pare the tape for transmission,either on a typewriter keyboard or



with a special three-key device,for transmission. Transmissionspeeds of the tapes might go up toseveral hundreds of words perminute when conditions weregood. At the receiving end theequipment would reproduce theincoming signals on a corre-sponding paper tape, inked orotherwise. The receiving operatorwas trained to read the tapes muchas the good reader of ordinaryprint does, by words or phrases.He would read the tape as it waspulled past his eyes in a sort oftrack while he transcribed it on atypewriter at comfortable speeds.Typing speeds of 6Ø - 7Ø wpmseem to have been typical.McElroy prepared and promotedmaterials for building up theseskills on his equipment.

Chapter 19A Brief History of MorseTelegraphy – Part IIt would be very interesting toknow the thinking behind the de-velopment of the original Morsecode. It had to be tied in inti-mately with the limitations of theelectro-magnetic mechanismsbeing designed to transmit andreceive it. Records show that be-ginning as early as the B.C.’s re-flected sunlight (heliography) byday, and lamps, lights or fires atnight, were used for some kind ofelementary signaling. By the A.D.17ØØ’s (and well into the18ØØ’s) several semaphore sys-tems had been devised and werein rather extensive use in Europeand elsewhere. These used an al-phabetic code formed by the con-figurations of two or more signal

arms or shutters making blockpatterns (at night some used lightconfigurations) for distance sig-naling within line of sight.All these systems (often aided bythe use of telescopes) were subjectto weather and visibility limita-tions, and generally required atleast two operators at the receivingend - one to look and the other towrite. Where considerable dis-tances (a hundred miles or more)were involved relay stations wereestablished. These signaling sys-tems conveyed a symbolic mes-sage or spelled out words for vis-ual reception. A few electric orelectrochemical systems were de-veloped using some method ofspelling out words by transmittedletter symbols. Morse’s systemwas not the first to use electricity.During the early 18ØØ’s severalelectrical and electro-chemicalsystems (which overcame the visi-bility problem, which was compli-cated by weather conditions) wereinvented and used. Some of themwere quite ingenious, but tendedto be cumbersome, rather slowand troublesome to maintain.Morse’s ingenuity was in com-bin ing a s imple electro-mechanical system with some sortof “linear” coding. Samuel F. B.Morse ingeniously foresaw thenewly discovered principle ofelectromagnetism in combinationwith some sort of “linear” cod-ing as the key to developing atruly practical telegraphic system.It could provide the relative sim-plicity and ruggedness needed forthe equipment. Like Marconi halfa century later, his vision to com-bine these newly discovered prin-ciples and the entrepreneurial



drive to bring them into use madetelegraphy what it became in thefield of communication for manydecades. Two features wereneeded: equipment and a suitablecode. As originally conceived itwas to be a self-recording system,inscribing the code signals on astrip of paper tape to be read byeye. There was no thought givento “reading” it by ear alone.

The Original Morse CodeHis coding system begun in 1832was a translation system consistingof two essential parts:_ a two-way code book or

dictionary in which eachEnglish word was assigneda number (and in order tospell out proper names, un-usual words, initials, etc.,when necessary, each letterof the alphabet was also as-signed a number), and

_ a code symbol for eachdigit from Ø - 9 to repre-sent that number.

So, the sender would convert eachword to a number, send that num-ber and the receiver would thenconvert it back again to the Eng-lish word with a reverse diction-ary. In devising the symbols forthe digits, Morse seems to haverecognized that a receiving op-erator could easily read by eye upto five printed dots, but that alarger number of dots would bemore difficult to read quickly andaccurately, and would be moresubject to error, as well as takinglonger to transmit.With such a system, the durationof the dots and spaces was not

critical, but it was a tedious, slowand clumsy system (as well asbeing rather subject to errorswhich could only be found ondeciphering). Not much ingenuitywas required to develop the codesymbols for the digits: he simplyused from one to five dots to rep-resented the numbers 1 -5, andextended this through 9 and zeroby a longer short space following(here indicated by the symbol @).Here is his code:- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Ø . .. ... .... ..... . @.. @ ... @ .... @ ..... @With such a system, the durationof the dots was not critical, but therelative spacings were important.What a tedious, slow and clumsysystem it would have been (as wellas being rather highly subject toerrors which could only be foundon deciphering). The overall ideawas ingenuous, and the actualcode signals used for the digitswere simplicity itself. But hiscoding system was the weak linkin his whole system, and wouldhardly find wide acceptance.(Later, this code-translation-bookmethod was applied in Chinawhere it made sense to convert theChinese characters to numbers,using an already available stan-dard Chinese dictionary in whicheach character had for other rea-sons been assigned a number.)

Who Invented What We CallThe Morse CodeChapter 2 of George P. Oslin’sbook “The Story of Telecommu-nications” opens with thesewords:“Ask almost any American whoinvented the telegraph, and the



answer will be ‘Morse’, but hedid not create the dot-and-dashMorse code, the Morse key, orthe stylus recorder.”

Who was Mr. Oslin, and where didhe get this information?He was a journalist who later be-came public relations director ofWestern Union. To prepare thisbook he exhaustively investigatednewspaper articles, magazines,books and more than 1ØØ,ØØØletters and diaries of those in-volved and condensed it. (He was93 years old when the book waspublished.) Pages 13 to 28 aredevoted to a summary of the ori-gins of Morse telegraphy, fromwhich the following quotationscome. Previous publications hadonly hinted at what Mr. Oslin hassaid so clearly. (The numbers inparentheses refer to pages in hisbook.)In order to understand the confu-sion we need to realize first that“Morse’s craving for fame was sostrong that he postured, pontifi-cated, tried to convince everyonehe was great, and was zealous indefending his claims.” (28, note27) To blow up his importance,Morse on several occasions madesome quite false statements andexaggerations. It is too bad thathe refused to give credit wherecredit was due, for he would haveshowed himself a greater man byit. From the very first, Morsemade strict contractual relation-ships whereby he alone was to becredited with all advancementsand improvements: all credits forwhatever anyone did for himwould [publicly] belong to himalone. Yet in a letter Vail, his ex-

pert assistant, wrote on March 11,1853 that “his agreement withMorse provided ‘that whateverMr. Smith, Dr. Gale, or myselfshould invent or discover, goingto simplify or improve Morse’stelegraph would belong to alljointly” (24).However, Morse never shared anyof this, and constantly cut Vail offfrom any public recognition forhis work. Because of this, weknow almost no details about thedevelopment history of the alpha-betic versions of the code. We canbe sure that if this code had beenthe work of Morse himself, hewould most certainly have care-fully elaborated every step of itsdevelopment. (This is one cluepreviously published materialsprovide us.) A second factor wasthat they were physically sepa-rated during most of the first sixor seven years: Morse was in NewYork City while Alfred Vail wasworking independently inMorristown NJ. This is only adistance of about 3Ø miles by air,but travel was difficult in thosedays.see this in the following: “O nOctober 18, 1837 Morse wrote toVail: ‘I long to see the machineyou have been making and theone you have been maturing inthe studio of your brain.’ LaterVail invited Morse to Morristown,where the artist realized his cum-bersome picture-frame equipment[for recording the signals at thereceiving end] was to be replacedby the practical and simple Vailinstrument. Morse was so upset,Baxter said, that he became illand was in bed for some weeks atthe Vail home.” (21) (Morse’s



feelings were badly hurt.) If Al-fred Vail had not joined Morse asassistant in the latter part of 1837,Morse’s telegraph system wouldno doubt have been a failure.Vail was not only a skilled techni-cian, but had a wider perspective,and must have quickly seen thatMorse’s complex translation-coding system and its equipmentwere not really practical: theremust be a better way. “It is evi-dent that Henry showed how totelegraph, Morse planned a cum-bersome system to do it, Galemade valuable contributions, andVail developed the code and in-struments necessary for successfuloperation.” (25) On October 18,1888, over 4Ø years later. AlfredVail’s widow wrote to H.C. Ad-ams, president of Cornell Univer-sity: 1888: “.. Prof. Morse ... sentfor me, and on his dying bed [hedied 2 April 1872, almost 81years old], with the forefinger ofhis left hand raised and moving togive expression to his words, hesaid: ‘The one thing I want to donow is justice to Alfred Vail.” (27note 18) As for his coding system,“Morse’s caveat of October 3,1837, and his letter to Vail onOctober 24, 1837 announcing thecompletion of his dictionary ofnumbers for words did not men-tion a dot-and-dash alphabet.” -- However, he kept working on ituntil 1843: “Six years after Vailcreated the Morse code [1937-8],Morse wrote to [F.O.J.] Smithabout the numbers-for-words dic-tionary he was preparing.” (23-24)Vail, in a letter to his father andbrother February 21, 1838, re-garding a demonstration he had

just given to the President and hisCabinet: “... The President pro-posed the following sentence,‘The enemy nears . . . It was thenput in numbers and written on theregister.” (27, note 16) On p. 39the caption under picture 2.5:“Alfred Vail who created theMorse telegraph key and sounderand telegraph code at MorristownN.J. while Morse was in New Yorkdevising a number for each wordcommonly used. Morse’s idea wasto transmit numbers instead ofwords to send messages.” “TheEngineering News of April 14,1886, stated that ‘credit for thealphabet, ground circuit andother important features of theMorse system belongs not toMorse at all, but to Alfred Vail, aname that should ever be held inremembrance and honor .” (24)F. O. J. Smith wrote: “It is evidentthat Henry showed how to tele-graph, Morse planned a cumber-some system to do it, Gale madevaluable contributions, and Vaildeveloped the code and instru-ments necessary for successful op-eration.” (24-25) “Vail watchedMorse gradually eliminate himfrom credit with mounting aston-ishment and anger, making nopublic outcry because Morse, in-volved in a multiplicity of courtbattles, required all possible sup-port to preserve the patents. WhenMorse later referred to Vail andhis father merely as ‘furnishingthe means to give the child a de-cent dress,’ Vail supportersboiled, and telegraph journalscontained many strong words.”(24)



Vail’s ThinkingIt would be very interesting toknow the thinking behind the de-velopment of Vail’s “Morse”code. It had to be tied in inti-mately with the limitations of theelectro-magnetic mechanismsbeing designed to transmit andreceive it. Factors which no doubtstrongly dominated Vail’s think-ing were: brevity, simplicity andaccuracy.Accuracy requires that the re-ceiving operator be able to distin-guish immediately between simi-lar characters without confusionor hesitation. (We must remindourselves that at this point in timeVail was thinking only of readinga record by eye on a strip of run-ning paper tape, not about re-ceiving by ear as was done later.)We must also realize that while“speed” was commercially im-portant, it was by no means sopressingly demanding in the mid19th century as it is today. Start-ing with Morse’ simple off-onsignaling system Vail developedthis original idea into a trulypractical alphabetic concept, onethat does not require furthertranslation. We may suspect thathis key idea was to use more thanone signal-on duration. (Did mu-sical rhythms also suggest the in-ternal character spaces?)This was totally different fromMorse’ code-dictionary concept. Note: Although Morse, in writingout his code dictionary, is said tohave written a dash in lieu of fivedots, there seems never to havebeen any hint of his using such asignal element in his code itself.

We cannot help wondering howhe determined that the use oflonger-than-normal internalspaces between elements wouldnot cause the receiving operatorconfusion in distinguishing be-tween characters.Vail did some testing to try it out.These interesting aspects seem tohave gone completely unreportedin contrast to the attempt to asso-ciate the briefest code symbolswith the most frequently usedEnglish letters, which is well re-ported (however, as if it wereMorse’s own work). “ In Novem-ber and December 1837, whenVail built the instruments, he vis-ited Louis Vogt, proprietor of aprint shop at Morristown, and,over a case of type, learned whichletters of the alphabet were usedmost frequently. He assigned thefewest dots and dashes to thoseletters.” (23)By January 1838, about threemonths after Vail had joinedMorse, he had produced the firstpractical “Morse” code, a purelyalphabetic code, which includedthe use of dashes as well as dotsand internally spaced characters.[However, at this point not everyletter had a separate code charac-ter; several (J = G, Y = I, V = L,and S = Z) were combined. Thiswould be ambiguous for receivingby ear, but more easily handledreading by eye from the contextof the inscribed tape record.] Thisalphabetic code would have madecoding and decoding almost per-fectly straightforward, and letoverall transmission speed jumpup immediately to about ten wpm.However, he did not tell Morseabout it:-- according to informa-



tion now available, for six yearslater Morse was still working onhis word-number and number-word dictionary. (Morse was soeasily upset by some of Vail’sexcellent inventive developments.)It is not clear whether any previ-ous inventor had used more thanone length of element in a linearcode system. (The idea of “lin-ear” is that of a simple signalrunning along a line in time, incontrast to simultaneous com-plexity of signals, such as a two-arm semaphore or a printed al-phabet.) Vail chose four kinds oflinear elements (besides the neces-sary minimal spacing between theelements of a character) to formcharacters:_ dot, the shortest,_ dash, appreciably longer,_ longer dashes,_ longer internal space.This gave four choices for theinternal elements of a character,and three choices for its initialand final elements (where internallonger spaces are obviously notapplicable). These choices nowallowed for a practical alphabeticcode for linear transmission. (ad-ditional spaces were of courseneeded between characters andwords.)By 1843, Vail had made suchmajor changes to this early 1838alphabet that the only letterswhich were not changed were E HK N P Q. These changes includedassigning to each letter a singlecode character. It is not at allclear from a comparison of thealphabets and the relative fre-

quencies of the letters why suchextensive changes were made, asthe same results could have beenachieved by changing very fewletters. (Were there other factorsinvolved than mere brevity?)Since Morse knew nothing aboutthis new code (he had many otherconcerns as well) and no one elsewould yet be using it, no confu-sion would result by whateverchanges were made.The average character length ofthe 1838 alphabet, calculated bythe same methods used in Chapter25 was 8.329. Thus the new 1844code with average characterlength of 7.978 was actuallyabout 4% shorter than in the 1838alphabet. (If he had interchangedjust two characters, L and T, in theoriginal 1838 alphabet it wouldhave averaged 7.95Ø units perletter or 4.5% shorter than itoriginally was, just a bit shorterthan the new 1844 code!) Someother variations could have re-sulted in a still shorter system.The 1844 code was thus not the“best“possible, but it proved tobe very practical. Vail’s finalcode was used successfully bymany thousands of commercialoperators, and was the standardfor wire telegraphy in the UnitedStates, Canada and a few otherplaces until nearly the mid-2Ø

th

century. Relative timing is criti-cally important to prevent confu-sion and misunderstanding by thereceiving operator. The least bitof hesitation in the wrong placewithin the character, or holdingthe key down an instant too longwould send the wrong character.If these very tiny differences in



timing were disregarded, the fol-lowing letters within a word wouldbe confused: I, O and EE; C, R, S,IE and EI; Y, Z, II, SE, ES, H andthe character &; similarly for“on” signals, T, L and Zerocould be confused with one an-other.Neither the final 1844 code norits successor, the InternationalMorse code, is perfect. Perhapsno code could be “perfect” forevery application, but it provedpractical, and together with thepromotion of the telegraph in-struments it came into wide andsuccessful use. Its efficiency inother languages will vary, de-pending on the relative frequencyof the letters.

Chapter 19A Brief History of MorseTelegraphy – Part IIThe Original Morse Code Modi-fied In EuropeMorse telegraphy was introducedinto Germany in 1847 by a Mr.William Robinson (withoutauthorization by Morse). Therethe Marine Dispatch Service be-tween Hamburg and Cuxhaven, acommunication system for ship-ping, was using an optical system,useless under bad weather condi-tions. They became greatly inter-ested in the potential of this elec-tric all-weather system.One of their officials who was alsoan engineer, Frederick ClemensGerke, immediately translatedVail’s book on the telegraph intoGerman. This systematic Germanengineer saw how easy it was to

confuse the receiving operator, sohe modified the original code toeliminate the internally spacedcharacters and the various lengthsof dashes. This left just twolengths: a dot and a dash. Eventhough this would make a trans-mission longer, it meant less skillwas required to achieve the samelevel of proficiency and accuracyof communication. He retained AB D E G H I K M N P S T U Vjust as they were, used I for both Iand J, and then formed new codecharacters for those deleted, andfor the numbers, etc.Other German and Austrian statessoon adopted the Morse system,but each state modified the Morsecode independently, making in-terstate communication difficult.In 1852 the German and Austrianstate telegraphs convened to unifythe codes in use (as well as thetariffs).Their principles were:_ uniform dot and dash ele-

ments (and spacings),_ letters to be no more than

four elements long,_ numbers to be five elements

long, and_ punctuation six elements

long.They took Gerke’s alphabet asthe basis, but changed his O P X Yand Z to the present “Interna-tional” forms, and developed thepresent systematic number system,etc. They made this code theirofficial standard on 1 July 1852. -The present form of J and otherEuropean language symbols wereadded in 1865 at the Paris Inter-



national Telegraph Convention,and for a long time this form ofcode was called the “Continen-tal” code, until wireless made it“International.” Minor punctua-tion changes were made 1 Sep-tember 1939.

EquipmentMorse’s original receiving systemwas a clumsy recorder whichmade marks on a paper strippulled along by a clockwork un-der a magnetically operated pen-cil, pen, or stylus. It presented an“on-off” record which was thenread by eye. Vail created a muchsuperior recorder. There is plentyof evidence that even Morse andVail had learned to distinguishmost letters by ear during the firstfew months of their primitivesending.As early as 1845 some other op-erators could identify most of thecode letters by ear as they listenedto the clicking of the recorder. By1846 many regular operatorswere doing so, or could. However,there was great reluctance on thepart of local office managers toaccept this method of copying,and some strictly forbad it. Theoperators who read by ear had tokeep the paper tapes as proof oftheir accuracy, and offered ameans of correction. (In copying,operators often used abbreviationswhich would be intelligible to thereaders).Morse’s original sending devicewas a sort of type-setter’s rulerwith dots and spaces. Vail’s firstsimple key, predecessor of laterhand-keys, was designed about184Ø. It was a simple flat spring

with a knob, which in time devel-oped into the improved and stur-dier designs we now know.Among several examples of re-ceiving by ear only are: -- JamesF. Leonard in 1847. He had en-tered the service as a messengerboy at age 14. Within a year hebecame an operator at FrankfortKY, and was reading by sound.Not only so, but he had alsotaught himself to send and listenat the same time, writing down anincoming message while sendinganother.

Some other operators by thatyear were listening to a mes-sage or two, then writing themdown later.

On the first of May 1847 the Al-bany Evening Journal reportedthat a business man named W. C.Buell was sitting in the telegraphoffice listening to the incomingmessages when the operator’stape printer fouled up. Buell wasfound to have correctly “read”and remembered what had beensent.That same year a Louisville bro-ker, who had been sitting in atelegraph office, was fined andjailed for listening to market re-ports coming in and not payingfor them (because he had no op-erator’s license)! That same year,a Mr. Books, operator at Pitts-burgh, wrote out a long messageby sound alone. Receiving by earalone was proving to be not onlypossible, but practical (and timesaving). Nevertheless, some of-fices were slow to accept receivingby ear alone, and required allmessages to be recorded eventhough the operator read by ear.



In 1852-3 an Erie RR conductorrefused to accept train orders re-ceived by ear, and complained tohis superintendent about the op-erator, Charles Douglas. WhenDouglas was reproved, he insistedon being tested, and demonstratedthat not only did he copy accu-rately for short messages, but alsofor very long ones. Thereafter theErie RR officially permittedcopying by ear. The sounder wasinvented in 1856 and was usedextensively and almost exclusivelyduring and after the Civil War,though a few diehards persisted inrequiring the old recorders to beused.

Early Day Operators UpThrough The Civil WarTelegraphy grew up with the rail-roads, making train dispatching,etc., easier and safer. At first, mosttelegraph offices were in the RRstations. Each station, as well asmany other important locations(such as switching points) wasmanned by an operator. Therewere many more “country” andsmall-town stations than “c i t y”offices. Most operators camefrom the country and small townswhere they remained, but somewere attracted to the advantages ofcity offices.Telegraphy was mostly a youngman’s occupation. The majoritywere boys whose ages rangedfrom nine upwards. Most of themranged from 14 to 18. Some werein their 2Ø’s, but few above that.Many of them became superboperators, very accurate, fast andreliable. Almost all were com-pletely trustworthy and loyal.

They refused to divulge the con-tents of messages to other than theaddressees. Many of these youngchaps who had served in railwayand public telegraph offices be-came operators for the armies ofboth sides during the Civil War,frequently doing service far be-yond the call of duty, and at greatpersonal risk. (Although theywere usually stationed right on thefront lines, yet they never receivedmilitary honors or pay.)In the early days pencils wereused to copy, and an adequatesupply of sharpened ones waskept at hand for each operator.Later, many telegraphers copiedwith pen and ink (in beautifulSpenserian script - think of therisk of blots with the old steelpens!), at speeds that ranged up to3Ø-35 wpm: neat deliverablecopy.

Operators After The Civil WarThis was a period of growth, bothin the number of RR offices, andespecially the size of big-city of-fices. Women in large numbersbegan to become operators in thecity offices because it was cleanerand more respectable work thandomestic or factory labor. Therewere several categories of opera-tors in the city offices: those han-dling slow traffic from countryplaces, those handling higherspeed material, financial reportoperators, and at the top, press(news).The goal of most male operatorswas to advance and be able tohandle high speeds accurately.These were honored men with thehighest pay. In a city telegraph



office it was common to “ h a z e ”a new operator. The others wouldarrange to have an unusual orgarbled message sent to him, ormore often a message sent atspeeds too fast for him and watchhim sweat and worry it out. If,when he looked around at theiramusement and realized it was puton, he took it pleasantly, he wasconsidered “initiated” and ac-cepted into the telegraphic frater-nity. But if he was infuriated orupset, he was considered still afreshman.When typewriters became practi-cal in the 188Ø’s they began tobe used in American telegraphoffices. A superb operator wassaid to be able to copy 5Ø -6Øwpm without trouble, and manyof these were said to have copiedregularly 5 - 6 words behind todo this.

The Introduction Of WirelessWhen Marconi entered the scenewith his wireless, the “Continen-tal” or “International” Morsecode was in wide use everywhereexcept in America. Wireless wasthen primarily - in fact, almostsolely - used where wire linescould not be strung. That meantthat it was almost entirely ship toshore or ship to ship. Americanoperators were American-Morsetrained, and soon had to add“Continental” code to their rep-ertoire, using both codes: Ameri-can Morse among themselves and“Continental” with other opera-tors. Many became highly profi-cient in both codes, using theminterchangeably as needed, on amoment by moment basis.

For a period of time up to aboutWWI this became a requirement.However, using the somewhatfaster and very “ditty” AmericanMorse with the early spark trans-mitters made copying difficultwhenever static was present. Thestatic and the signals tended tosound too much alike, and at thelow radio frequencies then in use,static was heavy during at leasthalf the year. During this periodthe U.S. Navy developed an en-tirely different set of code sym-bols, probably for this reason, butthey were abandoned in favor ofthe “Continental” code just be-fore the U.S. entered World War I.It was about the same time that the“Continental” form of Morsecode also became standard in theU.S. for commercial and amongalmost all radio amateurs.

When Were The Terms Dit AndDah IntroducedThe March 1926 Wireless Maga-zine refers to the 1923 Transat-lantic signals of (F)8AB as flut-t e r y 2 5 c y c l e with“dahdahdahditdit didah dahdit-ditdit”. Were there earlier exam-ples? With a sounder, instead of“dits” there are “iddies” and for“dahs” “umpties” to distinguishthe two types of clicks. Anotherdescription was “klick, kalunk”.In addition to this, of course, wasthe spacing between words. Goodsending had to be relatively pre-cise.Accuracy was demanded ofcommercial operators: they wererated on the quality of theirsending. A sender or receiver whohad to repeat or to ask for repeats



could be disqualified. It was notmerely a matter of courtesy, butof economics: errors meant delaysfor customers and cost time andmoney to the telegraph compa-nies. The good telegrapher ad-justed his relative lengths accord-ing to the perceptive skill of thereceiving operator, by makinglarger or smaller differences inthe relative lengths.One operator reports from hisexperience that careless Morsesounded worse on a sounder thanon CW. Words with lots of OldMorse letters: joy!jack jail Japanjelly jewel jiffy join jolly junglejury quick quality queer equipquote ill long loss late labor loyallegal limit lipThe signal AR Comes from theAmerican Morse fn = finished

Chapter 2ØLearning the American MorseCodeComparisonsHere we consider how to go aboutlearning the other code. Sincemost of us know the International(formerly called “Continental”)code, how do we go about learn-ing the old (“American”) Morselandline code? Do not use thefollowing comparative lists in anyway to learn the American Morsecode. Their purpose is solely toshow the differences between thetwo codes, and particularly theeffects on the structure of certaincharacters due to the Morse inter-nal spaces and the special length-ened dahs. They affect rhythms.

First, the old Morse differs fromInternational in four aspects:1. The following characters

are the same in both codes:A B D E G H I K M N S TU V W 4 (2/3 of alphabetletters)

2. A number of Internationalcharacters represent differ-ent letters or numbers orsigns in old Morse:

MORSE: F J Q P X 1 57 8 9 . ?INTN’L: R C F 5 L P oZ 6 X ? /3 . Certain old Morse letters

contain internal spaceswhich make them subjectto possible misinterpreta-tion as two letters:

C O R Y Zmight appear to beIE EE EI II SE4. Certain letters in old Morse

are different from any In-ternational character forEnglish:

L = a longer dah ,Ø (zero) = a still longer dah (seebelow).The following numbers are dif-ferent in old Morse from anyInternational English charactersound: 2 3 6.This does not include otherpunctuation, which differs and inold Morse landline circuits wasused extensively. It must be heardto learn it.



TimingThere seem to have been no rigid“standard” timing relationshipsin American Morse as comparedwith International Morse. That is,the duration of a normal dah isstated variously as being two timesor three times the duration of adit. (My own impression is that ittended to be somewhat shorterthan the corresponding dah inInternational code. This mighthave been done to save time andyet to keep the careful distinctionsbetween a dit and the definitelylonger dah for “L”, which nomi-nally was considered to be twiceas long as the normal dah.) Theimportant thing was to clearlydistinguish between “E” and“L” and “T”. Zero (Ø) wouldbe intentionally longer than “ L ”when there would be a risk of itsbeing misread, but otherwisewould be about the same. (Somehave described “L” as being asshort as 4 or as long as 7 units,and zero as short as 5 or as longas 1Ø units. There seems to havebeen better agreement on thespaces.)The important thing was “This iscommunication. Things shouldhave to be sent only once. Havingto repeat wastes time andmoney.” Are the words andnumbers being clearly understoodby the receiving operator?”Commercial telegraphers wererated by their accuracy first andspeed second.In the same way, the space in theinternally spaced characters (3above) is usually stated to be theduration of two dits, but tended to

be shortened just enough to beclear, so the receiving operatorwould not be confused. Thespacing between letters in a wordnominally appears to have beenthe duration of 3 - 4 dits, andbetween words about the length of4 - 6 dits. Before and/or after theinternally spaced characters aslightly longer than normal letterspace was often felt necessary,depending on the code environ-ment.. Again, these values wouldtend to vary according to the skillof both operators. The object was,as always, perfect copy withminimum time to transmit, leavingconsiderable flexibility to the in-dividual operators. Yet the de-mands of this code for accurateproportioning -- intolerance ofthe least bit of hesitation, key upor key down (e.g., the person whosent the word “telegraph” insuch a way that it was copied as“jgraph”) -- show how muchmore acute timing is in AmericanMorse in contrast to InternationalMorse.

No Need For ConfusionThree general features distinguishold Morse from InternationalMorse code:_ Most obvious is the differ-

ence in basic rhythm: In-ternational has a distinctly“regular” sort of rhythm,while old Morse has acatchy sort of apocopatedrhythm - it marches in astriking sort of “go andhalt” way, which, when sentby a skilled operator, isunmistakable.



_ Along with this is a ratherobvious “ditty” character-istic of old Morse by con-trast with International.

_ Not quite so obvious is thatold Morse is about 1Ø%faster than!Internationalwhen the same lengths ofdashes and spaces are usedin both codes (that is, it willtake about 1Ø% less time tosend the same text). Inter-estingly, old Morse also re-quires about 15% less effortto send. It tends to be moreof an art form, with consid-erably more variation in“fists,” or sending styles.

At first sight, with some charactersthe same and others different,confusion between the codesmight seem considerable inlearning the other. - Take heart!In a personal letter in 1942 Mr. R.J. Miller, a skilled teacher with theold Teleplex Co., wrote: “O n ewho is expert in only one code,e.g. American Morse, can masterContinental Morse in ten days totwo weeks and be as expert at thenew code as he was in the oldcode. This is because his mind istrained to recognize the quicksounds. This theory has beenproved many a time.”Notice his words carefully: “ ex -pert” and “his mind is trained torecognize the quick sounds.”These are not trivial words. It isthe operator who already canhandle the one code like an ex-pert, because his mind has beenwell trained to recognize the lettersounds instantly when they aresent at a good speed, who is goingto learn so fast and well. Just how

Mr. Miller defined “expert” isnot pinned down, but we can as-sume that such an “expert” wasbetter than the minimum re-quirement for a commercial radiooperator of those early days. It isprobably safe to say that a personwho can easily handle the codesomewhere in the 25 - 35 wpmrange will find Mr. Miller’s wordsto be true, if he puts himself to it.From this we may assume thatthose of us who are less skilledand want to learn old Morse mayexpect to take somewhat longer toget there. (Is it possible that inlearning the second code in theproper way we may actually im-prove our skill in the code we al-ready know, since immediatecharacter recognition is the keypoint?)

Learning ItHow should we go about learningold Morse? -- First of all, we haveto hear it properly sent, becauseits rhythms are different. Weshould have little trouble withrecognizing it on the air: its pecu-liar rhythms and “dittiness” willquickly identify it. But also wewill find we can easily read manycommon words because theysound the same in both codes (e.g. “and, the, it, but, these,thing,” and many others) -- that’san encouragement: we don’t haveto relearn their sounds. Listen toget the swing of it, then practicewith your key, imitating the ex-perts. This will help reinforce thesounds.Consider the following sugges-tions:



1. Just ignore the idea of pos-sible confusion: over theyears many operators withvarious degrees of skill,from quite modest to ex-pert, have managed to useeither of both codes with nodifficulty. In early “wire-less“days a commercialoperator was generally re-quired to do this, and manyof them were not very fastoperators.

2. You already know two-thirds of the alphabet andone of ten digits: so youdon’t have to give theseany special thought at all.

3. Think of all the charactersthat are different - differentin the one code from thosein the other separately.Learn and think of eachone of them as part of thecode system to which itbelongs. Don’t mix orcompare them - keep eachone separate and distinctfrom the other: (For exam-ple, don’t under any con-dition let yourself start tothink: that’s “C” in Inter-national so it is “J”. In OldMorse) There must benothing standing in be-tween the signal you hearand its immediate recogni-tion as being the letter. (Aperson who knows Germanas well as English knowsthat the letters ch are pro-nounced differently inGerman than in English -there is no confusion at all.We need to think the sameway here.)

4. Remember that learning oldMorse is going to be mucheasier and faster thanlearning International codebecause we already knowhow to go about it and thatmany, many others havesucceeded well. This oughtto give us great encour-agement and confidence.

Some excellent suggestions comefrom those who have long knownand used both codes. One of theseis to use a Morse sounder insteadof audio tones to provide a com-pletely different sound environ-ment to help distinguish Morsefrom International. (If this isdone, one needs to get familiarwith receiving by sounder. Seebelow.) If one does not intend touse a sounder, there is no point inpracticing with it. Some experi-enced operators see no benefitfrom it.So there need be no confusion atall. We can simply go ahead andconfidently learn the old, butnew-to-us Morse code and enjoyit, using the principles already setforth here. Perhaps some of theold timers who have learned themboth long ago may be pleased togive us some additional advicefrom their experience also.[Expertly-sent Old Morse tapesmay still be available from CecilLangdoc, 2Ø1 Homan Ave.Elkhart IN 46516. They make forgreat listening.]A Railroad telegrapher’s story:--a beginning operator was sendingas fast as he could with a bugwhen the other operator cut inwith what he copied as “REND



STOW IMA GIRT”. He asked fora repeat and got the same copy.He turned to his supervisor andasked: “What’s wrong with thatoperator?” The reply: “Nothing,she’s just saying ‘Send slow I’ma girl.’ You’ve gotta learn thedifference between R and S and Tand L. Didn’t they teach youanything in that school?”Here is an example of all-dot”sentence”: Her Irish eyes cry cosshe is so sorry.

Learning To Read By SounderLearning to read by sounder is nomore difficult than by tone orbuzz. It is just different. Thesounder makes two differentkinds of “clicks” which corre-spond to movements of the key.The down-stroke produces asharp (high pitched) click to de-note the beginning of the “ o n ”signal. The up-stroke is a dullersound, indicating the end of sig-nal (“off”). The length of theintervening silence between themcorresponds to the duration of thecode element, distinguishing a ditfrom a dah. Practice first with astring of dits and then of dahs tillyou get the hang of it, and thenwith some common words untilyou get familiar with this methodof hearing the code signals. (Useletters which are common to bothcodes - see l above.) You willprobably find it interesting and achallenge at first.American Morse was designed foroperation over wires, where staticand other interference are absentor minimal. Although the Inter-national form of the code was de-veloped and adopted in Europe

only 5 years later, in America theearlier code was first used forwireless. Two factors probablyacted to effect the change-over:the predominantly “ditty” char-acter of American Morse soundedmore like static than the Interna-tional form, and the world-widenature of shipboard wireless op-eration urged a common code.This would have become moredemanding as international com-mercial and amateur operationbecame commonplace.

American Morse - An ArtAmerican Morse telegraphy isconsidered by many of its practi-tioners as a thing of beauty, awork of art. The “tune sung ou t ”by a local sounder “outranks themost precisely tuned aircraft en-gine in terms of sheer beauty”,according to one old timer.

Some Further ComparisonsIf the identical duration of thebasic unit of time (the dit and unitspace) is used for both codeswhile sending the same message,the skilled American Morse op-erators will have completed themessage while the Internationaloperators are still sending andreceiving. The message will in factactually have been handled at arate about 45% faster* on theMorse line than on the Interna-tional channel.*) Here the skilled old Morse op-erators will normally be usingshorter dashes and spaces (asnoted above) than their Inter-national peers. This, combinedwith the 73% shorter average let-ter and 65% shorter number in



old Morse accounts for the appar-ent discrepancy between the pre-viously cited 1Ø% faster.Therefore, when we read of thespeeds achieved under AmericanMorse operations we need to rec-ognize that the sending operatoris having an easier time than thecorresponding International op-erator, but the receiving operatoris under the same burden, butneeds a more acute ability to dis-criminate small differences thanhis corresponding Internationaloperator.In addition, when both have com-pleted sending the message, theMorse operator will have usedonly about 91% as many key-strokes and about 85% of the totalwork or energy expended by theInternational operator.These gains are achievable at acost. First, the American Morseoperator must learn to make somefiner distinctions in sound thanthe International operator. Hemust readily recognize the inter-nally spaced letters (C O R Y Z)and the lengthened dah characters(L and zero) as distinguishedfrom what might be their equiva-lents, and he must generally livewith closer spacing between char-acters and words. There is also theproblem of the difference be-tween reading by sounder in thetelegraph office and reading sig-nals over the air where static andinterference can cause loss of sig-nal components.Ambiguities introduced by thespaced letters and the shorter dahsin American Morse under radiooperation stand in sharp contrastto the standardized durations in

International, making the lattereasier to interpret under adverseconditions. I suspect that OldMorse operators under radio con-ditions tend to lengthen (or exag-gerate) their time intervals (signal“on” and spaces) to aid incopying. If they!do so, then thetime gain is less.

Some Practice Materials ForLearning

Words which contain only letterscommon to both codes:(a e i u b d g h k m n s t v w)the and end man men view stew mustmist missed kid king thing dig dumbsing sting stub hide side vast wastewaist medium wide stab tug aim bugtame name magnet tube gust huge In-dia ink sink had mad made humanmagnitude dean heat hum ham him saddash dish shade gush bush hush mashsmash biggest mug hug bag sag wagstage wages vague stag that tug heedhead hasten skate hate date night mightkite fight invite begin began behavebehead aghast mane tame inane gamewane hank bank stink winkWords containing only the Let-ters Unique to American MorseDits Onlycheese choose coop cop cope coppercopy core creep creepy crop cross cryecho eyes hoe hope horse hose ice oozepeer pie pieces pose precise press priceprize prose recess repose rice ripe ropeRoy seer seize series she sheer shoeshy size sore spice spree spy yippyzero zoo



Only Letters Unique to Ameri-can Morseclop color crop off for joy fly lop offerplop roll jollyUsing Only the Letters UniqueTo American Morse Plus TheRest Of Its Vowelsall aloe career clap clay clear cliff clipclique collar cruel equip expire explorefall fall fill fizzle flail flare fly for fullfail jail jeer jello joy jury leap lily lopoil opera pear peel place play quailqueer quip quiz rap reaper repair rill rollxray year zeal

From the MILL ØØa Opera-tional Notes

by Jim Farrior W4FOKwho originally learned Ameri-can MorseA considerable variation exists inthe way American Morse is sentby different operators, and thereis no rigid standard. Although it isnot typically sent exactly that way,it is convenient for some purposesto assume that the Morse standardis the same as the CW standard,except that certain Morse charac-ters contain a wider space betweentwo of the dots, and the Morseword space is 1 unit shorter thanthe corresponding CW space.Also, Morse L is a dash approxi-mately twice the length of thestandard dash, and the Morse zerois a dash approximately threetimes the length of the standarddash.This results in the followingMorse “standard”:dot = 1 unit,normal space = 1,

special Morse space = 2 units,dash = 3 units,Morse L = 6 units,Morse Ø = 9 units,character space = 3 units,word space = 6 units.Although I haven’t spent muchpractice time with learningAmerican Morse, it isn’t easy forme to distinguish the differentlengths of dahs and to perceivethe spaced characters as units,rather than e’s and i’s, withoutpaying close conscious attentionto them.My suspicion is that I have for somany years been trying to readpoorly sent International Morsethat my perception of these smalldifferences in length and spacinghas become badly desensitized. -American Morse operators couldnever have lived with that kind ofcarelessness. They would haveshuddered at such sending. -Poorly formed InternationalMorse, where the dits and dahs areoften grossly distorted: on the onehand it is sometimes hard to tellthe difference between dragginglong dits and clipped dahs, and onthe other where the dahs are far,far too long for the sendingspeed, with many simply irregu-larly sent. Add to that the carelessspacings internally between letterswithin a word, and one has to do alot of mental adjusting to under-stand such poor sending.



Chapter 21Methods Not Recommended

In almost every subject wemay study there are efficientand inefficient ways to goabout learning it. It seemsfoolish to go about learning ina hard way, if we know of aneasier, better one.

Doing It the Hard Old WayBeginning somewhere back in thelater 18ØØ’s, even the bestschools for telegraphers startedteaching the new student theMorse code by giving him aprinted chart code to “memo-rize” visually. The implicationswere that learning the code is go-ing to be hard and will take a longtime to master. So the student ex-pected it: that’s why, if he couldafford it, he went to a telegraphschool. Without realizing it, hewas thoroughly prepared to beginin the worst possible frame ofmind and way.This attitude carried over natu-rally into the early days of ama-teur radio and continued for along time afterwards. The wholeatmosphere was “it’s hard”. Isn’tthat still the attitude of most peo-ple today? We need to get rid ofthe idea that it is hard - it isn’t.Experience has shown that thebest teachers have avoided thatidea completely. Learning thecode, as well as using it, ought tobe an enjoyable experience, easyand even “fun”. Such teachersalso ignore a student’s errors inorder to avoid negative rein-forcement.

The old way of learning by a vis-ual memory or by counting ditsand dahs analytically is almostguaranteed to!produce that oldand famous “plateau“at the fast-est speed the mind can handlesuch a burden at a conscious level- usually around 7 - 1Ø wpm.Those who take each code char-acter and put it through such amental routine to get the letter forwhich it stands are on their wayfor trouble - they soon get stuckon a plateau.. Why should anyonebother to make the consciousmind go through that sort ofthing at all, since it is so futile andis really working against us? Theonly obvious reason is that theydon’t know any better.An analysis of that old way oflearning is like this:

The student_ First creates a mental table

of the printed charactersand the dot and dash pat-terns (how many and inwhat order) belonging toeach one. Then he beginslistening and copying prac-tice and

_ He then hears the sound ofcharacter as it is sent,

_ Mentally breaks it into somany dots and dashes, and

_ May then say the dots anddashes to himself,

_ Which pattern he now looksup in mental table, finds it,and

_ Identifies it with the corre-sponding printed character,and finally



_ Writes it down.How clumsy and awkward

As late as 1975 George Hart inthe August QST (p. 1ØØ) wrote“Most code learners start out bymemorizing the alphabet in termsof “dots” and “dashes” or“dits” and “dahs”. Even thosewho are cautioned by an enlight-ened instructor that A, for exam-ple, is not a dot followed by adash. but a sound whose closestvoice emulation is “didah” -even those usually “memorize”that it is a short sound followedby a long sound. . . . Thus, theinitial stage of code learning withmost people is a counting proce-dure, and no amount of emphasison sound is going to changethis.” How discouraging and un-necessary! He pointed out thatthe way to learn the code is byfirst hearing the characters it at aspeed too fast to count andlearning them as rhythmic unitsof sound - sound patterns. This isthe way the ARRL code teachingprograms now do it.

Other Discouraging ProcessesMany, many people have man-aged to master the code by meth-ods which we cannot recommendtoday, but they have done so at aheavy cost in time and effort, andoften have experienced great dis-couragement along the way. Theyhave managed by persistence toovercome the stumbling blocksand achieve success in spite ofthem. But countless others havegotten stuck and given up at someslow speed, generally less than 1Ø- 12 wpm.

Through the years all sorts ofschemes have been devised for“memorizing” the code, andsome of them quite ingenious.Most of them involve some kindof visualization: a pictorial or asystematic arrangement of printedcoded characters, based on theirstructure,!a “chain” of relation-ships of some sort, adding to orexchanging components of onecharacter to obtain another. A fewhave devised words or phrasespresumed to have a sort of“sound-alikeness” to the codecharacter. Such methods probablywould help a person who mightsometime need to signal for helpin a dire emergency, but they areworse than useless, of no value atall for regular telegraphic com-munication.There is never any reason to seethe code in written form. Nevertranslate “dit plus dah means A”and then write it, or as another hassaid: “If you find yourself hear-ing ‘dahdidahdit’ and saying toyourself ‘Aha, that’s a ‘C’, andthen writing it down, you’re introuble - that’s translating.”Most of these well-intentionedaids to learning have overlookedthe fact that the code letters are analphabet of SOUND. Their“aids” have interposed some-thing else between the letter-sound and the letter. Most ofthese methods present theirschemes to the eye, not the ear.Even those which purport to usesound (such as “sound-alikes”)fail to provide the necessary unityof sound pattern (partly becausethey are too slow, but also becausethe “sound-alikes” are extrane-



ous and distracting). Both kindsrequire one or more extra steps -translation steps - to get there.Those which require some sort ofanalysis (such as how many ditsand dahs) of each character inorder to identify it, or which runthrough a series of some sort, alsohave introduced needless stepswhich inevitably slow the learnerdown, and usually severely limithis achieving speeds over aboutfive to ten wpm. Avoid them.Very many of those who origi-nally learned the code from aprinted chart of dots and dashesbegan the bad habit of countingthe number of dots and of dashesfrom a mental chart. Then theymust decipher the longer charac-ters by counting: for example, toseparate B from 6 and 1 from J.Some of these hams were able bymuch practice, and perhaps real-izing the nature of the problem, toovercome their speed plateau. (Iknew one experienced ham-ex-navy-commercial operator whocould go right along at 2Ø wpmthis way, but that was his ultimatelimit. He loved the code, butcould never advance a step fur-ther. That was as fast as he couldanalyze - pretty fast at that!).Those who have learned by the“sound-alike” methods, (e.g,they hear “didah”, and it soundslike “alike”, which they havebeen taught means “A”)!rarelyreach even a ten wpm plateau.One method extensively adver-tised for many years “ taught”the beginner by the scheme “EatAnother Raw Lemon,” which wassupposed to remind him how eachof the four letters E A R L was

formed, each one adding oneelement to the previous one. Thiswas illustrated by large printeddots and dashes. There must havebeen a good many who startedout this way, and in spite of it, atleast some of them finally man-aged to become proficient. I knewof one such amateur who got toaround 2Ø wpm that way.The expert teachers tell us thatany kind of printed dots anddashes or any other such pictorialimpressions will only impede thestudent’s progress when he is be-ginning to learn the code. Chapter13 explains why.All such methods violate goodpedagogy, because they do notteach the code the way it will beused, as actual sound patterns.They also require the student tolearn something (which he mustlater forget in order to advance)in addition to the sound of thecode itself. While these methodsmay seem to make it easier at first,they actually make it muchharder, or even impossible, to ad-vance. The wise teacher and stu-dent will avoid these approaches.

So:_ Never even Look at a writ-

ten table of the Morse codebefore starting to learn, andcertainly Never attempt tomemorize one visually, orhave anything to do withsoftware that “shows youthe Morse characters on thescreen”.

_ Don’t have anything to dowith methods that ask youto listen initially to succes-sions of dots and dashes, or



parts of characters. Doingthis will Retard your pro-gress. Listen Only to com-plete, correctly sent, char-acters.

_ Never listen to Morse at acharacter speed of Lessthan 12 wpm. Use 14 wpmor faster, if possible.

_ Don’t learn by memorizingopposites, such as ‘K’ and‘R’. This actually causessome people to confusethem ever after!

_ Don’t spend lots of timecopying random codegroups. Reading plain lan-guage is very different, andthat’s what the test requires.Random code groups arepopular because computerprograms can be easily de-signed to send them. Theydo have a place - that is, forfirst identifying charactersand then later practicingany “hang-up” characters,but that’s all.

When a old timer, who had“learned” the code as it used tobe taught from a printed chart,suddenly recognized that thesound pattern is the letter, it waslike a light bulb flashing on. Afterthat he began to progress rapidly.

The Futility of Wrong Practice

Arnold Klein N6GAP said“For more years that I care toadmit to myself, I have beentrying to master a simple task:copy code at 2Ø wpm for theExtra class ticket.”

He practiced so much that therewas no extended period of freetime when he wasn’t thinkingcode. He wore out a cassetteplayer listening to tapes whiledriving, cutting the grass, sweep-ing, planting flowers, walkingduring lunch, using the tread millat night and while washing thedinner dishes, while watching softball games he had the earphoneson and copied in his head. Hecopied code while waiting in thedoctor’s office, while parked ashis wife went shopping in the eve-ning he copied CW on the rig, agray haired man wearing ear-phones and writing on a clip-board!“The results were frustrating. Thespeeds ranged from 2Ø to 24 wpmand always there was that sense ofpanic, that I can’t keep u p ” -“tailgating” - that was exactlywhat he was experiencing. Theproblem was he didn’t know whathe was doing wrong. Asking thosewho passed the test resulted in thecasual answer: practice. “Well, mypractice just wasn’t doing it” .Magazine articles on copying be-hind did not relate how to learnthe technique. The stock phraseseemed to be that the ability tocopy behind will magically ap-pear after enough practice.He wrote like this after readingthe principles presented here: “Mastering the code has takenon a life of its own and I am de-termined to do it. I have now triedthese during the week since get-ting them and they do work! I amlosing the pressure to keep up.Keep calm is my newest admoni-tion. They have given me the an-



swer to the problem I’ve carriedfor years.”The methods presented in thisbook are time-tested practical,working methods.

Chapter 22Word Lists For PracticeThe 1ØØ Words Grouped ByFunction(And adding the words “I” and“ a ” )(This will make it easier to con-struct sentences to use for prac-tice.)a an the this these that some allany every who which what suchother;I me my we us our you your hehim his she her it its they themtheir;man men people time work wellMay will can one two great littlefirst;at by on upon over before tofrom with in into out for of aboutup;when then now how so like as wellvery only no not more there than;and or if but;be am is are was were been hashave had may can could willwould shall should must say saidlike go come do made work.

Some sentences composed ofthese words alone are:_ It is only there._ You will like your work.

_ Have you been out?_ Was he with her?_ I can go now._ We must say that._ Would the people come?_ She has a great work._ There are more over there._ Such men may go in._ These men may come first._ All but you have been

there._ It was as little as that._ You should not have said it._ How has he made up your

work?_ He has been very well._ No man said more than

that._ He may not do any more._ We must like this._ Are they like them?

The Rest Of The 5ØØ MostCommon Words

did low see yet act die sea run age endnew set ago sun eye nor son air way faroff ten big arm few old too ask getown try add God pay use boy got putwar car law red sir yes why cry let satcut lie saw Mrs ill also case even fivehead less just mile once seem talk wallbank fill want tell seen open mind lifekeep hear four ever city army back costface full held kept line miss part shipthus week lady many went told showpassmost live kind help gave fact dear bestbill does fall girl here king long movepoor side took were whom town soon



read much look knew high give feetdone body book don’t felt gone holdknow lost name real sort tree widewind true step rest near love land homegood till door both call down find halfhope last make need road stop turnwish came drop fine hand hour latemark next room sure wait word yearwalk take same note mean left idea hardfire each careyoung watch thing speak right paperleast heard dress bring above often wa-ter think stand river party leave heartearly built after carry again fight horselight place round start those wherealone cause force house marry plantserve state three white still today wholeshort point might human found childalong began color given large monthprice small story under world whosetried stood since power money laborfront close among begin court greenlaugh night quite smile table untilwrite being cover happy learn orderreach sound taken voice wrongchance across letter enough publictwenty always change family matterrather wonder answer coming fathermoment reason result appear demandfigure mother remain supply arounddoctor follow myself return systembecame dollar friend number schoolsecond office garden during becomebetter either happen person towardhundred against brought produce com-pany already husband receive countryAmerica morning several another eve-ning nothing suppose because herselfperhaps through believe himself picturewhether between however presentwithoutnational continue question considerincrease American interest possibleanything children remember businesstogether

important themselves Washingtongovernment something condition presi-dent

Some Common Prefixes AndSuffixes

Prefixes Which Are Not Fre-quent WordsUn ex re de dis mis con com for persub pur pro post anti para fore counsusp extr transSuffixes Which Are Not FrequentWords:Ly ing ify ally tial ful ure sume sultjure logy gram hood graph ment posepute tain ture cient spect quire ulateject ther

Some Common Phrases ForPractice

We are in the he is and the will be wewill that the it is do not I am to the forthe of this to them it was and he of afrom me that was on the they were sheis I will in a there is he was I will thatwas

Some Long Words For Practic-ing

Somewhere newspaper wonderful ex-change household grandfather over-looked depending movement handsomecontained amounting homestead work-manship production discovered prevent-ing misplaced requested breakfast de-partment investment throughout fur-nishing regulation forwarded friendshipherewith foundation deportment geog-raphy important lemonade graduationfederated educational handkerchief con-versation arrangement nightgowncommercial exceptional prosperity sub-scription visionary federation heretoforeingredients certificate pneumonia inter-



view knowledge stockholders propertychaperone permanently demonstratedimmediately responsible Chautauquacandidacy supervisor independentstrawberry epidemics specification agri-cultural catalogues phosphorus sched-ules rheumatism temperature circum-stances convenience Pullman trigono-metry bourgeoisie slenderize camou-flage broadcast defamatory ramshacklebimonthly predetermined clemencybeleaguered voluptuous intoxicatingdepository pseudonym indescribablehieroglyphics morphologist Yugosla-via cynosure parallelogram pleasurabletoxicology bassoonist influenzaPracticing words such as thesemay help you get used to readinglong words without missing partsof them.

Chapter 23Making Sure You’re Under-stoodFrom The Originator’s Stand-pointCommunication fails unless ourmessage gets across and is under-stood. Weak signals and poorconditions during transmission(static, interference, fading) allcontribute to partial failure to getthrough. In all of these condi-tions, telegraphic communicationis vastly superior to voice becausealmost all its energy is effectivelyconcentrated within a very narrowband. Yet it pays a cost for this bytaking more time to communicatethe!same words. In addition, it toocan suffer partial loss due totransmission conditions as well asfrom just plain accidental misun-derstanding. How can we reducethese losses to a minimum? Let’s

focus on the originator’s use ofthe words themselves (by“words” we include the use ofabbreviations and Q-signals).

Feedback And RedundancyWe rarely think much about howwe speak when we are conversing.When we speak face to face wecan generally tell whether we arebeing understood or not by feed-back through the reactions andresponses of the listener. Butwhen our communication is re-mote, by voice over a wire or theradio, the visual clues to thehearer’s understanding are miss-ing. When the telegraph code isthe link, auditory clues (tone ofvoice of a comment or reply,“uh-huh”, “yeah”, etc.) are alsomissing. Relatively awkwardbreak-in is the only possible di-rect feedback while transmittingin code, and it is an ambiguousinterruption, until the receivingoperator explains his problem.It is when we speak, whether faceto face or by remote means, thatmost of us tend to use more wordsthan the bare minimum necessaryto be understood: this is calledredundancy. The degree of re-dundancy varies from person toperson and from situation tosituation. Redundancy increasesthe context from which the hearerto may understand.When we write we generally aremuch more careful of how we saythings that are important thanwhen we speak. We give morethought to the choice of wordsand the way we write them: webecomes more circumspect andprecise in order to minimize the



reader’s possible misunderstand-ing of what we mean. Since wehave no feedback at all, we gener-ally tend to use more words thanthe minimum necessary in orderto make up for that lack.In telegraphic communication thetendency, largely because of thetime required to transmit, is toeliminate every word which doesnot seem to be absolutely neces-sary. We abbreviate in variousways - generally down to barebones: the minimum required toexpress the thought. First we leaveout words, and then we tend toabbreviate what is left as much aswe think we dare to omit and stillhave it understandable. (This isespecially true when paying on aper-word basis for transmission.)What we have been saying is this:redundancy helps to insure ade-quate and more accurate commu-nication. That is, we normally usemore words and expressions thanthe bare minimum required to getour meaning across. Time, how-ever, is a factor working againsttelegraphic communication. It isnot as rapid as speech in terms ofwords per unit time. In order tobalance the time factor against theintelligibility factor, the originatorof a telegraphic message gener-ally weighs more carefully exactlywhat words to use and how to putthem together. If he is wise he willalso consider the effect of possi-ble mistakes or distortion duringsending and receiving whichmight produce ambiguity.

Repeating And Counting WordsWhat can we amateurs do tominimize misunderstanding or

complete failure of our commu-nications? One of the commonestthings is simply to repeat eachword or words, or the whole mes-sage. We may repeat only themost critical words or numberstwo or three times. (Numbers arealmost impossible to correct be-cause there is no significant con-text to help out.)Another form of repetition is toask the receiving station to repeatthe message back to the senderword by word. This nearly assuresperfection. But this, like repeatingeach word as it is sent, requires atleast twice the original time on theair.Counting the words in a transmis-sion has long been a commoncommercial practice, but is notgenerally used except for messagetype traffic. It does not assurecomplete accuracy (exact wordsand spelling).

Using Redundancy IntelligentlyWe can often prevent misunder-standing by adding a word or twoto a short communication. Forexample, to confirm a scheduledQSO later in the day, to say“CUL this afternoon,” or “CULin pm” instead of just “ C U L ”helps insure that the other opera-tor knows that you mean today,and that you are not canceling it(as he might assume otherwisedue to some interference, etc.).When conditions are rapidly dete-riorating this may be our onlyhope to get across before furthercommunication becomes impos-sible.A little forethought along theselines on the originator’s part may



help avoid unfortunate misunder-standings. Especially when wesimply must get through, andconditions are very poor, weshould choose our words and ex-pressions carefully.

At The Receiving EndHere we ask “Will I be able tocopy (or read) it?” and if I can’t,“What is the problem?” - ”Whatcan be done to improve the qual-ity of this material I am receiv-ing,”!or “What can be done tomake sense out of this somewhatgarbled transmission which is all Ihave?” -- “What is the nature ofthe problem?”During the communication, speedof transmission is an importantfactor, one directly controlled bythe sender. Both too fast and tooslow sending can cause trouble inreceiving - here the receiving op-erator must tell the sender to slowdown or speed up to meet the re-ceiver’s needs. Quite naturally,speed of transmission must set bewithin the receiving operator’scapability.It may be that the weighting ofthe dits is too light and I’m miss-ing some of them. If so, can thesender make them a bit longer(heavier)? Maybe the sharpness ofthe pulses has been rounded offtoo much to remove “clicks” andthe signals sound mushy. Athigher speeds, perhaps the dits aretoo heavy and confusing the ear.These are things which the sendermay be able to modify on thespot, but he must be told.In Chapter 14 “The Ear” wehave discussed some of the thingswhich can be done to help, espe-

cially the use of filters. Here welook at the filter requirements foran audio filter. We want a filterwhich will separate the desiredsignal and still keep it intelligible.At this point we are not concernedwith any of the radio frequenciesof the signal as it passes throughthe receiver, but only with theaudio beat signal which is output.That audio signal consists of_ An audio frequency (the

beat frequency, analogousto the carrier frequency ofan AM signal), and

_ The off-and-on modulationof its envelope (corre-sponding to the audiomodulation of an AM sig-nal) produced by the key-ing device at the transmit-ter.

The audio frequency is expressedin Hertz or cycles per second,while the corresponding tele-graphic signaling “frequency” isusually expressed in bauds. Onebaud equals one telegraphic ele-ment (called “unit” in Chapter28) per second. Since the baudmay be unfamiliar, let us examineit.The minimum basic telegraphicelement is the “dit, an “on” sig-nal lasting a given length of timein seconds. For example, a 1Øbaud rate of signaling means thatthere are ten basic telegraphicelements per second (or 5 cps orHertz), and each element lasts1/1Ø of a second, the reciprocalof the baud rate. Obviously, toperceive a dit or a dah requiressilence both before and after it.The minimum element of silence



(space) is also equal to one dit.One dit followed by one elementof space constitutes a square wavetwo telegraphic elements long andmay be called one “cycle,” byanalogy with a cycle of sinusoidalwave. (This is expressed symboli-cally in Chapter 28 by “1Ø”.) Acontinuous series of dits wouldthen for a given length of timehave twice as many bauds as cy-cles per second. A sequence of 25s u c h d i t s a n d spaces(1Ø1Ø1Ø1Ø..., 5Ø elements) inone second would thus corre-spond to a frequency of 25 Hertz,5Ø bauds. It is in this sense thatwe compare these two frequencies(audio frequency and telegraphickeying frequency).For a filter the two predominantfactors for intelligibility are passband width and center frequencyof the beat note. (The actualshape of the filter’s frequency-amplitude response curve is alsoof importance but for other rea-sons: see Chapter 24 and engi-neering manuals.)There must be enough audio cy-cles to fill in the keying pulseshape of the smallest code ele-ment, the dit, in such a way that allcode elements begin and endclearly and are therefore properlytimed. That means that the audiocenter frequency (pitch of thebeat note) must be high enoughto preserve the square wave shapeclosely. A mathematical (Fourier)analysis shows that the centeraudio frequency needs to beabout 7 times the telegraphic cy-cle rate to give the best shape oftelegraphic pulses.

A square wave frequency relatedto words-per-minute, and the du-ration of one telegraphic unit canbe worked out for English usingthe data in Chapter 28 as follows:-For standard English text, thereare 49.38 elements per word. Thisis only 1% less than the standard5Ø elements used as today’s stan-dard word, so we shall use the 5Øelement standard here.If this 5Ø element word is, forexample, assumed to be sent inone second, it will be at the rate of5Ø bauds, or 25 Hertz,(cps!square wave equivalent). Forthis example there will then be 6Øwords in one minute -- 6Ø wpm, ahigh speed. Using this to convertwpm to bauds we multiply (wpm)by 6Ø/5Ø, that is by 1.2. Since theduration of one basic telegraphicelement is the reciprocal of thebaud rate, in this case it will be1/5Ø second.Now to determine the minimumaudio frequency needed to fill inthe telegraphic square wave shapewell and give really high qualityaudio code signals, the followingfactors must be taken into ac-count:_ At least two samples per cy-

cle of audio frequency areneeded to identify a fre-quency, (this factor of 2 forsamples per cycle is can-celled out by the cps = _baud rate). and

_ Up to the 7th harmonic isneeded for high quality.

So, we merely multiply the baudrate by 7, the highest harmonicnumber.



For our 6Ø wpm example above,this means an audio frequency of5Ø x 7 = 35Ø Hertz for bestquality of code pulses. Thus it canbe seen that, except for extremelyhigh speed transmissions, therewill be no problem, since the typi-cal values of beat frequency are inthe 4ØØ - 1ØØØ Hz. range.The minimum bandwidth will beconcerned with signal stabilityand intelligibility limits. If thebandwidth is too narrow the signalmay drift out and be hard to findagain. If it is too wide the risk ofrandom noise and interfering sig-nals increases. The rise-fall timeof a filter to square wave inputshould not exceed about half a ditlength. Working through thearithmetic for 6 dB down showsthat the minimum bandwidth forStandard English should not beless than about 1.33 x (wpm).This is well below the bandwidthneeded for signal stability, sothere is no problem here for nor-mal CW use.Finally, if your copy doesn’tseem to make good sense, andthere is no way to verify it, see theend of Chapter 8 “Copying” forsuggestions.Signal required for CW with 5%character errors is 2Ø dB belowthat of double-sideband a.m. Agood operator with CW at 15 wpmin presence of thermal noise, asignal to noise ratio (in one kHzbandwidth) of -1 dB is requiredfor 1Ø% character errors and +1dB for 1% character errors. Thislatter is 22 dB below double side-band order-wire quality. However,17 dB below double-sidebandAM for CW was chosen to ac-

count for differences between op-erators.Thus:CW - needs at Ø dBcompare with SSB - needs at +14dB (room for improvement)DSB - needs at +17 dB (5 dB Dif-ference in operators!)Reference: Power relationshipsand operator factor: (QST Fe1967 p 46, US Army Rept

Chapter 24Bandwidths and Key ClicksAs discussed in Chapter 23, key-ing is usually expressed in baudsrather than in Hertz, or cycles persecond. One Baud is one keyingelement per second, so one squarewave keying cycle per secondequals two Bauds. Using the stan-dard word as 5Ø units, then(wpm) / 1.2 = Bauds. (Since 6Øseconds divided by 5Ø units =1.2)Harmonic analysis of the on-offkeying wave shows that strongodd-numbered harmonics andweak even-numbered harmonicsare present. It has been found thatunder good conditions, adequatereadability results when the 3

rd

harmonic is present, but underpoor conditions we need upthrough the 5

th

harmonic. (Reallygood quality, however, will in-clude up through the 7

th

har-monic.) International regulationshave specified accordingly thatminimum acceptable bandwidthsshould be at least three times thekeying speed in bauds for good



conditions and five times for poorconditions.Thus, working from standardwpm, convert to Bauds by divid-ing by 1.2, then multiply by thehighest harmonic (3, 5, or 7) de-sired. (Since this modulates thecarrier frequency, the transmittedbandwidth will be twice this valuebecause of sum and differencefrequencies.) Accordingly, e.g.,for 2Ø wpm, covering the 3rdharmonic requires a 5Ø Hz.bandwidth filter; for the 5th har-monic coverage a 83.3 Hz. band-width filter.A perfect square wave will gener-ate strong transient over travel,both!initially and at the end ofeach pulse. These spikes are espe-cially objectionable, as they gen-erate a host of harmonics whichwill interfere with other transmis-sions. For the receiving operatorthey produce an unpleasantlyharsh quality. Shaping to roundoff these sharp corners of thewave by making a 5 - 7 millisec-ond delay gives satisfactory re-ception, but if it is lengthened toomuch it tends to blur the signalsand make them hard to read. Thissituation can be taken care ofonly at the transmitter, of course.It can be seen that there is a deli-cate balance between “goodquality” and troublesome har-monics. Refer to the handbooksfor corrective measures.

Chapter 25Code Courses and DevicesAdvertised in the OlderDays

Dates show what I have beenable to find

These items are in partial supple-ment to chapter 25.Morse’s first “sender” usedtooth-like raised characters on astraight edge “ruler,” over whicha follower-contactor was pulledalong in order to send. No doubtderived from this idea Morse (in1844) is thought to have built a“transmitting plate,” a board ofinsulating material having thecode characters composed ofmetal bits imbedded in it. Theywere arranged so as to producethe code character (whose namewas marked beside it) when ametal stylus was dragged!acrossthe surface at an constant speed.(Such a plate was independentlydesigned in Germany about185Ø.)Telegraph teachers realized earlyin the game that the student needsa lot of practice hearing goodquality sending. The transmittingplate may have become theearliest self-teaching device.(Such boards were advertised aslate as 196Ø)

The OmnigraphThe Omnigraph, which first cameout in 19Ø1, was an obvious de-rivative of original Morse“sender” with its raised “teeth.”It was a mechanical device con-sisting of a hand crank, clockwork



or electric motor to drive an as-sembly of thin interchangeablemetal disks bearing the codecharacters past a follower-keyingdevice. Several disks were stackedup together on a spindle-carrierwhich was driven by the “ m o -tor.” The whole assembly ofdisks looked like a cylinder withlittle “bumps” on it. A widerange of speeds from about 5 toover 6Ø wpm was provided for byadjustment of the brake on a flyball governor which held thespeed constant after it was set.Each disk had five groups of codecharacters cut like gear teetharound its periphery, and eachgroup was composed of five char-acters plus a separating space. Aspring-loaded “follower” rodealong the edges of the disks,opening and closing the keyingcontacts. A clever adjustable se-quencing mechanism actuated bythe rotating disk carrier causedthe follower to move up or downat user-selected points duringeach revolution. Various modelsprovided for from five to ten ormore disks. By changing thestacking of the disks and by ad-justing the sequencing mechanismthe five character groups could besent in many different sequences.There was, however, no way toalter the order of characters withina group, and all keyer-followermovements occurred betweengroups.These machines were to be usedwith a sounder for AmericanMorse or a buzzer or oscillatorfor International Morse. Theyseem to have had a very wide us-age for basic learning and devel-oping speed among would-be op-

erators, including amateurs. (Ad-vertising often claimed that amonth of serious study couldqualify an operator.) The gov-ernment licensing authorities alsoused Omnigraphs to administerthe code tests for operator’s li-censes for many years, at leastuntil 193Ø, when I was tested.The Omnigraph ManufacturingCo., New York City. A 1922 adread : “Learn Telegraphy (Wire-less or Morse) at Home in Halfthe Usual Time... Just Listen - theOmnigraph will do the teaching.”You will be surprised how quicklyyou will attain speed. Even if youare already an operator the Om-nigraph will help you. It willmake you more proficient, moreaccurate and more confident...”In 1918 the Electro ImportingCo., NY, advertised them startingat $16.ØØ for a five disk machine,and $23.ØØ for a 15 disk model.Additional disks were available atfive for $1.ØØ. Ini19Ø2 ThomasA. Edison’s book “TelegraphySelf-Taught” was published byFrederick J. Drake & Co. in Chi-cago. It was written with the phi-losophy that “it is not the speedat which the letter is sounded thatperplexes the learner, but therapid succession in which theyfollow each other.” (This is iden-tical with the so-called Farnsworthmethod today.) The book wasaccompanied with a small hand-crank-driven tape puller and a setof paper tapes with the code char-acters punched in them. The tapeswere designed to start out withvery wide spacing between char-acters , and as the stu-dent!progressed these spaces werereduced to normal. The goal was



a practical working speed of 25wpm. The actual speeds, ofcourse, would depend on how fastthe student turned the crank onthe machine.In 1917 the Marconi-Victor set ofsix double-sided phonograph re-cords, described in. the firstsound-only course for Interna-tional Morse for a phonographseems to have come out. It con-sisted of 12 lessons recorded onsix 78 rpm records produced by a“code expert,” approved by theMarconi Wireless Telegraph Co.and put out by the Victor Phono-graph Co. Lessons 1 and 2 gavethe code and conventional signs.Lessons 3 and 4 contained easysentences, etc. Lessons 5 & 6 hadMarconi Press and then messageswith static interference. Lessons 7& 8 were press with static, andmessages with errors and correc-tions. Lesson 9 was press with in-terference from another station.Lessons 1Ø through 12 weregroups of figures, ten-letter wordsand ten-letter code groups. It wasan ambitious program which in-cluded realistic, typical, practicalproblems of reception. Playingtime was short.In1921 the Wireless Press, NewYork City, advertised: “Study theCode Anywhere” appeared. Thead said: “This New Way - TheSound Method for Memorizingthe Code. For success in tele-graphing the letters must belearned by the sound. Each letterhas a distinctive cadence orrhythm which is easily memorizedby a few hours’ practice. Thecharts attached give the key to therhythm of each letter of the tele-graph alphabets. It forms no pic-

ture in the student’s mind, butinstead a sound is memorized likea bar of music. An hour a daydevoted to memorizing the dis-tinctive rhythm of each letter willenable the student to send or re-ceive a message in a few weeks.The beginner is strongly advisednot to practice with charts orbooks which show the actual dotsand dashes. Once a picture ofeach letter is formed in memory itwill be found difficult to send orreceive by sound. Don’t try toteach the ears though the eyes.”[It would be very interesting tosee a copy of their coursemethod.]National Radio Institute. Wash-ington DC. Radio News Se. 1921.“Wonderful Natrometer GivesYou Code-Speed in Half UsualTime. will send messages in ahuman and not a mechanicalmanner at a rate which you canvary from 3 to 3Ø words perminute. ... The effect of static in-terference may be added to themessages being copied. ...A be-ginner can quickly learn the al-phabet from our A dial.” Pictureshows a mechanism similar toOmnigraph, but about half thetotal size, using ten disks whichwere exchangeable. Price notstated.The first ad for the Dodge RadioShortcut (Later “Shortkut”)called “BKMA YRLSBUG”, byC. K. Dodge, Mamaroneck NY.was seen in Radio News Dec.1921: The ad said: -”MemorizeContinental Code Almost In-stantly. Two hundred beginners in44 states have reported mastered[sic.] code in 2Ø minutes, in onehour, one evening, etc., etc....” It



was a large 5/8 column ad. Theusual later ad was about one inchin one column, though sometimeslarger. Price at first was $3.ØØ forsmall booklet. These ads appearedfor many years afterward. (This isthe worthless “Eat Another RawLemon” method mentioned inChapter 21.)Memo Code, H. C. Fairchild,Newark NJ. Radio News Aug.1922. “Boys and grown-ups.Makes you a real radio operator.By my System and Chart, you willknow the code in 3Ø minutes...Complete system $1.ØØ.” Abuzzer-blinker key practice setavailable with course for $5.ØØ.In 1922 a Radio News ad ofOct.1922 read: “The fastest wayto learn the radio code .” TheAmerican Code Co. of New YorkCity put out a phonograph courserecorded by the famous hero op-erator Jack Binns, whose braveryand skill saved almost every lifeaboard the liner Republic after itwas struck in 19Ø9. “Two pho-nograph records made by JackBinns and text-book $2.ØØ. ”This course claimed to be able toteach the code in one evening!Pretty Ambitious !Teleplex Co., New York City. Firstad in QST seen Apr. 1927:“The Easy Way to Learn theCode Cuts Learning Time in Half.The famous Teleplex for self-instruction at home. The quickest,easiest and most economical wayof learning Morse or Continen-tal... Faithfully reproduces actualsending of expert operators.”Next month’s ad: “At last! TheFamous Teleplex ... with only ascrew to turn.... 5 to 8Ø words per

minute.” Third month: “Learnthe Code at Home This Easy WayWith Teleplex. Complete course.”They provided a code instructionmanual and help and advice per-sonally by correspondence. It wasinitially a spring-driven punchedpaper tape machine. Later modelswere electric-motor driven. In1942 they produced a paper tapemodel which could record one’sown sending (using electro-chemical means) as well as senduser-prepared tapes. In 1956 theyreverted to punched tape again,and in 1959 they went to a ma-chine resembling the Omnigraph.Prices never published in ads. TheTeleplex Company later broughtout an inked paper tape type ofmechanical keyer, which wasavailable for several years. It usedthe sidewise motion of a pen witha conducting ink (apparentlymade from a silver compound),and was followed by a similar me-chanical design using a chemi-cally treated paper tape. The usercould make his own recordingswith a key or from a receiver.Playback was by a pair of spring-loaded fingers which contactedthe conducting ink to close thecircuit. Later designs used a pho-tocell instead of direct electricalcontact for reading the tapes. Thispermitted the use of non-conducting inks. These differedonly in degree from Morse’soriginal “recorder.” McElroy’scompany also manufactured thistype of recording system. Thesetypes of systems were generallyfar beyond the average ham’spocketbook.The Candler System, Chicago.First ad seen in QST dated Sep.



1928 (probably advertised earlierin other magazines), last ad seenin QST Feb. 1959. Emphasis onhigh speed and “scientific” na-ture of course. Large ads fromtime to time, but usually aboutone inch in a column. Price notadvertised. See Chapter 3Ø.The Instructograph Co., Chicago.Must have been in use before firstad seen in QST of Jan. 1934.“(Code teacher) The scientific,easy and quick way to learn thecode. Machines, tapes and com-plete instruction for sale or rent.”Similar to the Teleplex punchedpaper tape machine, speeds from3 to 4Ø wpm. Last ads seen in197Ø ARRL Handbook.Øther devices included machinesfor producing code practice usingpunched paper tapes. The tapeswere wound on reels and pulledby a clockwork-type spring motoror electric motor having adjust-able speeds. The tape perforationsactuated a spring-loaded contac-tor to open and close the circuit.Commercial machines were in uselong before they entered theamateur field. There, Teleplexand Instructograph were theearliest and best known; otherlater imitators were AutomaticTelegraph Keyer Corp., Gardiner& Co., etc. A few provided forpunching one’s own tapes. TedMcElroy, the long-time codespeed champion began making aseries of similar high-qualityequipment primarily for commer-cial and Military use during theWWII period and continued forsome time afterwards.Some of these units could berented as well as purchased out-

right. In either case, it involved asubstantial amount of money,which most amateurs could notafford. In addition, the varietyand amount of practice materialthey provided was often ratherlimited.McElroy’s “free code course”offered in 1945 and again in 195-appears to have been associatedwith the use of one of his codemachines. For its use the claimwas “Assuming that the averageperson will practice several hoursthe first day, we can tell you...that you’ll be copying that veryfirst day, words and sentences atthe character rate of 2Ø wpm. Tedhas taken one-half the alphabetand prepared a practice tapewhich runs for a full hour withoutattention at 2Ø wpm. You won’tcopy 2Ø full words in one minute,but each letter you write will hityour ears at a full 2Ø wpm rate,and the space between the lettersbecomes progressively shorter asthe rolls go along.”An odd little unit offered in 197Øwas called the “Cotutor.” It wasjust a simple whistle with a set ofdisks which contained the alpha-bet and numbers. Each disk hadsix characters, punched throughso that the characters would soundwhen one blew into the mouth-piece while at the same timeturning the disk by hand.

Recorders And ComputersThe real turning point in avail-ability and variety arrived with theadvent first of the wire recorderand then of the tape recorders.Here, like the phonograph, the“machine” was probably some-



thing already owned and could beused for other things besidescode-learning. This kept the costdown. Many prepared code tapesbecame commercially available,or could be self-recorded fromthe radio or other sources andplayed over and over as desired.Many good courses became avail-able and more are available today.Some electronic keyboards andkeyers offer a wide variety of pre-programmed practice materialsfor practice. One of their mainadvantages is that they alwaysproduce perfectly formed char-acters - something that greatlyexpedites initial learning.But personal computers, whichentered the scene actively in theearly 198Ø’s, offer the widestrange for basic code learning andfor advancing in skill. A wide va-riety of freeware programs forlearning and for practice areavailable, as well as programscommercially produced. Not afew PC programmers have beenable to prepare their own pro-grams tailored to their own par-ticular needs. A number of inter-active programs are availablewhich give either immediate ordelayed helps to the student -these offer tremendous help inlearning. Some may also allowthe more advanced student toconduct QSO’s with the computerprogram, just as if he was actuallyon the air. The potential here isgreat indeed. (See Chapter 16)Finally, there are available com-puter programs and devices whichcan read receive code transmis-sions. Because they are machines,they can only read code signals

which are reasonably accurate intiming. For the student who hasaccess to one of these, it will givehim a chance to test his ownsending for accuracy. However,they are not recommended assubstitutes for personal receivingby ear.

Chapter 26Speed ContestsSpeed contests - officially andunofficially - have been held overalmost the whole history of tele-graphy in America. Both the pro-fessionals and the amateurs havehad a pride of accomplishmentwhich begged competition to dis-play and reward. Speed contestsprovided that.After WWI speed contests amongamateurs, but open to others also,began under the sponsorship ofthe ARRL and also local hamfestsand amateur clubs. Ted McElroy,who was not an amateur, stood outas the world’s speed championfor decades beginning in 1922.(In 1933 he lost out to Joseph W.Chaplin, but regained the titleagain in 1935.) There were otherswho demonstrated almost equalability, and McElroy himself saidon occasion that there wereprobably many others who wereas good or better than he. Severalunofficial records have been es-tablished in this country, andlately the European clubs havereported some astounding high-speed champions.At first, in the latter 18ØØ’s,contests seem to have been con-cerned only about sending ability.This implies that receiving ability



exceeded their ability to send -which is borne out as we readhistory: operators were then lim-ited by their sending ability only.Only later, as “speed keys” andthen machine sending entered sothat truly high sending speedscould be achieved, do receivingcontests seem to have become im-portant. That means until aboutthe turn of the century. We havealready looked into sending abili-ties in Chapter 9, so we turn hereto receiving contests.We have little detail about most ofthese receiving contests. Howeverfor the one conducted at theARRL Convention in Chicago, inAugust, l933, where former Worldchampion Ted R. McElroy wasdefeated by Joseph W. Chaplin,we have extensive informationprovided by Ivan S. Coggeshall,one of the four judges. Mr. Cog-geshall was a telegraph operatorhimself, and later a vice presidentof Western Union. He was theonly non-amateur judge. (QSTNovember 1933 p 3., personalcorrespondence with Mr. Cogge-shall and comments fromMcElroy, etc.) From these materi-als the contest may be describedas follows:-It was an “open” championshipfor the world’s speed title andcup. More than 25Ø contestantsshowed up, both amateurs andprofessionals. Silver trophies wereto be awarded in eight classes, be-ginning at 8 wpm. The contestwas run in two sections, the first apreliminary classification test onAugust 4, eliminating most con-testants, and the final run-off thenext day. The first section of testbegan at 8 wpm, then 1Ø, and at 5

wpm increments up to 55 wpm.At each change of speed the con-testants first listened to some fa-miliar taped material, followedimmediately by the fresh test tape.The test tape material was in plainEnglish taken from Chicagonewspapers and carefully editedso as to contain no difficult orunusual words or figures, andonly the simplest of punctuation.Each section of test tape ran forfive minutes at each speed.The set-up provided 2ØØ pairs ofheadphones to listen to the 1ØØØcycle tone of the oscillator as itwas controlled by a Wheatstoneautomatic keyer. The availabletest room was small and not manyvisitors could watch the proceed-ings. Because there were so manycontestants the first test series hadto be run in two heats.Mr Coggeshall’s personal reac-tions to the tests are interesting:

“At 8 wpm you sit back andtwiddle your thumbs, youyawn... At 15 you take up yourpencil and leisurely jot thestuff down... At 2Ø you see thefirst signs of life. For a minuteor two you sit back and copy,and then, on second thought,you hitch your chair forward abit and straighten the paper.At 25 you quit ‘laying behind;you decide to close the gapuntil you read about a wordbehind the sender. Not so bad,now. At 3Ø the fun begins.You can read it all right, butthe pencil seems to be gettinga little sluggish - better make agrab for a ‘mill’ [typewriter].At 35 you begin for the firsttime to think about errors:



‘How many am I allowed on a5-minute test run of this?’ At4Ø it gets hotter and very sud-denly, too. The last 5 wpmhave more mustard on them, itseems, than the first 3Ø. Youare holding your own withmany a crack commercial ra-dio or telegraph operator now.You quit worrying about singlewrong letters and start hopingyou can put a typewritten linedown without leaving a wordout. At 45 the jig is up. Youquit, but half a dozen of thechamps go on.... At 5Ø wpmthe dots and dashes getblurred and jumbled at 53 it isjust a lot of static - no sensenow in trying to hear any-thing. At 55 there is nochange. Just as easy to readthe QRN [static]...”

As each group reached its limit,the contestants left the test room.Finally, eight passed the test thusfar. Between this test section andthe final run-off a WU cable op-erator, J. C. Smyth, copied 5-lettersolid cipher code correctly at 45wpm, making all the other con-testants look like amateurs, andthus putting their attitudes on amore nearly equal footing for thespeed grind to follow.The test tape for the final run-offhad been prepared and sealed inNew York in the presence of In-spector Manning of the FederalRadio Commission, and wasopened by Inspector Hayes of theChicago office at the scene of thecontest.The final run began at 4Ø wpm -then 45 - then 5Ø, 53, 54.1, 57.3and 6l.6 wpm. (The machine ap-

parently could not be accuratelypreset at these speeds, and speedwas determined afterward by wordcount and time elapsed.)Rules of the contest allowed amaximum of 1% error for each 5-minute run. At 61.6 wpm allmade more than 15 errors. At57.3 (1432 characters or 286.7 5-letter words) Chaplin had 11 er-rors out of an allowable of 14,while at 54.1 wpm he had but 5errors, and McElroy made 8 atthis lower speed. Chaplin was de-clared the winner at 57.3, break-ing McElroy’s 11-year old record(1922) of 56.5 with one error ona 3-minute run.From this we can see that the 5-letter word had been standard forsome time, and is in fact repre-sentative of regular English. It isnot difficult to compare this withthe present 5Ø-unit standard word(as in “Paris”) by using letter-frequency tables (such as used incryptanalysis. See Chapter 25).From this it can be shown that aword count based on standardwritten English may be expectedto come within about one percentof the present standard of 5Øunits per word.Regarding speed contests in gen-eral, Lavon R. McDonald wrote in194Ø: “About the speed tests,government count is used, that isfive units to the word. Only plainnewspaper English is used, eve-rything having clear meaning, notrick stuff.”As for the well known 1939 speedcontest, where McElroy was cred-ited with winning at a speed of75.2 wpm, McDonald wrote: “ I nthe Asheville tournament, the



speed was practically the same forMcElroy and myself. We bothcopied solid (press matter pre-pared by the FCC), but they sentsome stuff at 77 wpm and I didn’tget a good start on it. McElroymade something that looked likecopy, but pretty ragged looking,so they gave him 75.2, I guess itwas. If only first class copy hadbeen counted, it would haveended a tie. McElroy and I havehad about the same telegraph ex-perience.”At the present time the Europeansappear to have exceeded our re-corded contest speeds. In the1991 International Amateur Ra-dio Union high speed telegraphicchampionship contest Oleg Bu-zubov UA4FBP copied 53Ø fig-ures (numbers) per minute withonly one error: that is 1Ø6 wpm,8.83 figures per second! Amaz-ing! (See Morsum Magnificat 22-4) However, the duration of thesetests is stated to be one minute.This seems rather too short in it-self or to be in any way directlycomparable with the contests runin America. It seems doubtful thatthese speeds could be maintainedfor three to five minutes.Some of the others who haveachieved very high speed havebeen:Eugene A. Hubbell, Wayland M.Groves, J. W. Champlin, J. B.Donnelly, V. S. Kearney, J. S.Carter, Carl G. Schaal (W4PEI),Frank E. Connolly, Wells E. Bur-ton.

Chapter 27AbbreviationsSome Of The More CommonAbbreviations In CW Work

ABT about

AGN again

ANT antenna

BCI broadcast interference

BCL broadcast listener

BK break

C yes

CUD could

CUL see you later

CUZ because

CW continuous wave

DX distance

ES and

FB fine business; excellent

GA go ahead; good after-noon

GE good evening

GM good morning

GN good night

GND ground

GUD good

HI high; laugh

HR here

HV have

HW how

LID poor operator

MSG message

N no



NR number

NW now

OB old boy

OM old man

OP operator

O T old timer

PSE please

PWR power

R received as transmitted

RCD received

RCVR receiver

RFI radio freq. interference

RIG station equipment

RPT repeat; I repeat

SED said

SIG signal; signature

SKED schedule

SRI sorry

TMW tomorrow

TNX thanks

TVI television interference

TT that

TU thank you

UR your

VY very

WKD worked - working

WKG worked - working

WL well

WUD would

WX weather

XMTR transmitter

XTAL crystal

XYL wife

YL young lady

Abbreviations Used In TrafficHandling

AA all after

AB all before

ADR address

BN all between

CFM confirm

CK check

DLD delivered

GBA give better address

MSG prefix to radiogram

NIL nothing; I have nothingfor you

PBL preamble

REF refer to

SINE opr’s personal initials

VC prefix to service mes-sage

TXT text

WA word after

WB word before

WD word

Examples Of The Phillips CodeThe Phillips code was developedto bring the sending operator’sskill up toward that of the receiv-ing operator, who typically couldreceive much faster than anyonecould send by hand. Phillips codeis a systematic, rigid system ofabbreviations used along withnormal spelling of all other words,and cuts total transmission timeabout in half. There were about6ØØØ abbreviations under this



long-used system. It was used incommercial press (news) transmis-sions. A skilled operator couldeasily keep up, typing out thewords in full as fast as the sendercould hand send, but he didn’tdare let his mind wander.Words were cut to their “back-bone”, leaving only the lettersthat carry the brunt of their pro-nunciation. See the list below forhow this was done. Abbreviatedwords were modified by, e.g.,adding “d” for the past tense ofverbs and “g” for -ing;“s” was added to nouns for theirplural; some words added “b”for able. A couple of simple ex-amples of text are given here.Example of 188 letters reduced to116 (?) 61.7%:-“T DCN CD MEAN T END FUNPRECEDENTED TWO Y CDYBTL, T FS D US X ASURROGATE MOTHER WSTKN TO TRL FO BACKINGOUT O AN AGM TO TURN OVA CHILD SHE BORE UNDCAK.” Translated into normaltext, it says:-“The decision could mean theend of the unprecedented twoyear custody battle, the first in theUnited States in which a surrogatemother was taken to trial forbacking out of an agreement toturn over a child she bore undercontract.”AB about

ABV above

ADZ advise

AF after

AG again

AJ adjust

ANR another

AR answer

AX ask

AY any

AYG anything

AYM any more

B be

BC because

BD board

BF before

BH both

BK break

BN been

BTN between

BTR better

C see

CCN conclusion

CD could

CK check

CKT circuit

CL call

CLO close

CLR clear

CMB combine

CNG change

CT connect

CU current

CY copy

D in the

DD did

DT do not

DUX duplex



EMGY emergency

EQ equip

EQPT equipment

F of the

FD find

FJ found

FM from

FR for

FT for the

FYI for your information

G from the

GD good

GG going

GTG getting

GV give

GM gentleman

H has

HD had

HM him

HR here, hear

HS his

HV have

HW how

ICW in connection with

IM immediately

INVG investigate

IX it is

TGH telegraph

KW know

LV leave

M more

MK make

MSG missing

MSJ message

MSR measure

N not

NA name

NF notify

NI night

NTG nothing

NUM number

NR near

NV never

NW now

NX next

OD order

OFS office

OP operate

OTR other

OV over

PGH paragraph

PLS please

Q on the

QK quick

S send

SAF soon as feasible

SAP soon as possible

SD should

SED said

SES says

SM some

SM somehere

SMG something

SM some

SN soon



SNC since

SPL special

STN station

SVL several

T the

TGR together

TI time

TK take

TM them

TNK think

TRU through

TS this

TT that

TTT that the

TW tomorrow

TY they

U you

UN until

UR your

VY very

W with

WD would

WG wrong

WH which

WI will

WIN within

WIT witness

WK week

WN when

WO who

WR were

WS was

WT what

WY why

YA yesterday

In addition to these there were alarge number of very short specialabbreviations for phrases com-mon in news releases, such as for“President of the United States,”etc. Usually these consisted of 3 -5 letters, very brief.

A Few Useful Z- SignalsThe Z-signals were developed andused for a time by some commer-cial operators. A few of themwhich might be useful to amateursare:-ZCG local receiving condi-tions good

ZCP local receiving condi-tions poor

ZLS we are suffering from alightning storm

ZSH static is heavy here

ZOK we are receiving OK

ZSR your sigs strong read-able

ZGS your signals are gettingstronger

ZWR your sigs weak butreadable

ZFS your signals are fadingslightly

ZVS signals varying in inten-sity

ZFB your signals are fadingbadly

ZGW your signals are gettingweaker

ZSU your sigs are unreadable



ZAN we can receive abso-lutely nothing

ZUB we are unable to breakyou

ZVF your signals are varyingin frequency

ZDH your dits are too heavy(long), please adjust

ZDL your dits are toolight(short), please adjust

ZMO stand by a moment

ZMQ stand by for...

ZLB give long breaks

ZWO send words once

ZWT send words twice

ZSF send faster

ZSS send slower

ZTH send by hand

ZCS cease sending

ZAP acknowledge please

ZHC how are your receivingconditions?

ZRO are you receiving OK?

You will notice that these signalsare much easier to remember thanthe Q-signals. The two letters fol-lowing Z- are suggestive. (QST1943 No p. 63In 191Ø some wireless abbrevia-tions were:GA = go ahead,4 = please start me, where...,13 = understand,25 = am busy now,3Ø = no more,77 = message for you,99 = keep out

Chapter 28Letter Frequency CountsInternational Morse Code

Freq. Letter Structure U n i t s T o t a l13Ø E 1ØØØ 4 52Ø92 T 111ØØØ 6 55279 N 111Ø1ØØØ 8 63276 R 1Ø111Ø1ØØØ 1Ø 76Ø75 O 111Ø111Ø111ØØØ 14 1Ø5Ø74 A 1Ø111ØØØ 8 59274 I 1Ø1ØØØ 6 44461 S 1Ø1Ø1ØØØ 8 4842 D 111Ø1Ø1ØØØ 1Ø 4236 L 1Ø111Ø1Ø1ØØØ 12 43234 H 1Ø1Ø1Ø1ØØØ 1Ø 34Ø31 C 111Ø1Ø111Ø1ØØØ 14 434



28 F 1Ø1Ø111Ø1ØØØ 12 33627 P 1Ø111Ø111Ø1ØØØ 14 37826 U 1Ø1Ø111ØØØ 1Ø 26Ø25 M 111Ø111ØØØ 1Ø 25Ø19 Y 111Ø1Ø111Ø111ØØØ 16 3Ø416 G 111Ø111Ø1ØØØ 12 19216 W 1Ø111Ø111ØØØ 12 19215 V 1Ø1Ø1Ø111ØØØ 12 18Ø1Ø B 111Ø1Ø1Ø1ØØØ 12 12Ø5 X 111Ø1Ø1Ø111ØØØ 14 7Ø3 Q 111Ø111Ø1Ø111ØØØ 16 483 K 111Ø1Ø111ØØØ 12 362 J 1Ø111Ø111Ø111ØØØ 16 321 Z 111Ø111Ø1Ø1ØØØ 14 14

1ØØØ Ave. Structure length 11.23 Ave. 9.Ø7 9Ø76

The letter frequency counts (left-most column) are taken from oneof the common books on cryp-tanalysis, based on number of oc-currences per thousand of normalEnglish text material. Each char-acter is analyzed (“structure”)into units, 1 for minimum signalduration (one dit), 111 (threeunits duration) for a dah, andeach equal unit of silence denotedby!Ø (zero). The required threeunits of silence separating eachcharacter is added (ØØØ) to eachone below.From the above, if we take fivetimes the above average letterlength and add the space requiredfor word spacing (seven total orØØØØØØØ) we arrive at thenormal English word length as 5x 9.Ø76 + 4 = 49.38. This is justa bit less than 1% shorter than 5Øunits per standard word. (By con-trast, a random five-letter groupaverages 6Ø.15 units. This is

2Ø.3% longer than normal Eng-lish word length.)A similar analysis of numbers willshow that the average length of anumber is 17 units (minimum 12,maximum 22) or a group of fivenumbers takes about 1.78 times aslong to transmit as a five letterword.Comparing these calculations willshow some of the reasons whyreceiving speeds vary with thekind of material being sent.As a matter of interest, we list herethe letters from the shortest to thelongest by the number of units(less letter space) -- notice that alllengths are odd numbers:1 - E;3 - I, T;5 - A, N, S;7 - D, H, M, R, U;9 - B, F, G, K, L, V, W;



11 - C, O, P, X, Z;13 - J, Q, Y.

Foreign Adaptations Of The In-ternational Morse CodeIf the same kind of calculationsare carried out for several foreignlanguages, the following resultsare obtained for the average char-acter length: (Frequency datafrom Secret and Urgent, FletcherPratt l942 Tables II to IV, p. 253ff.)German 8.64Ø,French 8.694,Spanish 8.286 .These range on the average from5 - 9% shorter per character thanin English. There seem littledoubt that if the code were some-what redesigned and adjusted tooptimize it for English a reduc-tion of about 5% could be made.

For the Original AmericanMorse codeMr. Ivan Coggeshall made ananalysis of American Morse com-paratively, using the same normaldah lengths and word spacingsone unit shorter, and arrived at anaverage letter (frequency) lengthof 7.978 (as compared with9.Ø76) !and average numberlength of l4. As noted in Chapter16, American Morse timing isopen to considerable variation

Chapter 29The Koch ResearchesThe obviously extensive re-searches of Ludwig Koch, Psy-chologist at Die Technische

Hochschule, Braunschweig, Ger-many, reported in Jan-Feb. 1936(see Sources), seem to be virtuallyunknown outside of Germany.His goal was to discover the mostefficient way to teach the Morsecode to prospective radiotele-graph operators to meet the Inter-national requirements for com-mercial radio operators.These requirements were:_ send 1ØØ words in five

minutes,_ copy a 1ØØ word telegram

in five minutes, and_ copy 125 words of ordi-

nary text in five minutes,one word being reckonedas five letters

Koch’s researches involved: de-termining what competent opera-tors are doing,!examining teach-ing methods in current use, thendevising better methods, and test-ing them in actual classes. Hisconclusions and recommenda-tions seem to be the earliest realresearch into how best to teach theMorse code. They agree on thewhole with the best methods oftoday, and may offer some fur-ther ideas of value to us. They aresummarized!here.

Tests To Determine What Com-petent Operators Are DoingHe ran three series of tests to de-termine how the code is compre-hended and for this purpose usedfour competent , act ively-practicing radio telegraphers.Three of these operators hadlearned the code solely by sound,while the fourth was self-taughtfrom printed code charts.



Sending TestsFor the first test each operator wasto send by regular hand key theseries of ten letters b c v q f l h y zx at various speeds while moni-toring his sending with a pair ofheadphones to satisfy himself asto its quality. Out of his sight andhearing a recording system madean accurate timed graphical re-cord of his sending, so that theactual timing of signal and spacedurations could be examined indetail. He was instructed to send,using standard InternationalMorse timing, at each of six dif-ferent speeds ranging from about2Ø to 8Ø characters per minute.Standard International Morsetiming, as described in Chapter12, was then used to comparetheir sending at all speeds.Below about 1Ø wpm the onlyoperator who closely conformedto standard timing was the onewho had visually learned thecode. The three others deviatedconsiderably from “standard”timing. At 5 wpm these deviationswere appreciable:_ The dits were too short,_ The dahs tended to be

longer than 3 times ditlength, and

_ The spaces between char-acters were too long.

However, spacing between thecomponents of a letter was almostperfectly equal to their ditlengths.At successively higher speeds thissituation changed slowly andsomewhat irregularly until by

about 1Ø wpm character rate allfour operators were formingfairly accurate patterns of sound(nearly to the International Stan-dard), except that the letters them-selves were somewhat faster andthe spaces between letters weresomewhat longer than standard.By about 12 wpm all sending hadbecome quite consistent with thestandard. (Only the well-knownindividual peculiarities of sendingby hand were obvious. At 1Øwpm and above these deviationswere always very small.)The three operators who hadlearned by sound obviouslyshowed no real sense of soundpatterning (Gestalt) at these verylow speeds: no sense of unity, butrather just a series of separateelements strung together. Only byabout 1Ø wpm were the codecharacters now felt to be entitiesof sound in themselves, patternswhich were clear-cut in each op-erator’s mind,!no longer shatteredelements, disjointed parts.

Receiving TestsTest number One: - Each operatorwas to copy the 3Ø GermanMorse characters sent by a ma-chine in perfect “standard” tim-ing!at each of four differentspeeds over the same speed rangeas before.At about 5 wpm these experi-enced operators hardly recog-nized a single character correctly!At 7 wpm only 4Ø% to 6Ø% ofthe letters were correctly identi-fied. At 1Ø wpm all operatorswere getting about 95% correct.By 12 wpm all of them correctlyidentified every character.



Test Number Two - Here thelength of the spaces between theletters was doubled. This time theoperators recognized almost allletters correctly at all speeds. Thatis interesting.From these tests it was concludedthat experienced operators recog-nize a code character by its over-all acoustic pattern (Gestalt), andthat this pattern stands out clearlyonly when sent at a minimumcharacter speed of about 5Ø char-acters per minute. At lower speedsit is heard simply as a disjointedseries of signals. --!Koch con-cluded that these operators couldrecognize the too-slowly sent let-ters only when letter spacing wasdoubled, because this increasedinterval gave them time to inte-grate the sound and mentallyspeed it up to where they couldrecognize it. (A beginner wouldnot have the skill to do this.)The operator who had learnedfrom a printed code chart appar-ently formed better proportionedcharacters at very low speeds be-cause his visual mental picture wasso strong. However, the price paidfor this was that it limited hismaximum speed of copying: hecould barely meet the minimumrequirements - a marginal opera-tor. (See below.)

Analysis And Criticism Of Pre-vious Teaching MethodsThe “Analytic” Method intro-duces the student to the code us-ing some sort of systematic ar-rangement, or chart, where thecode characters are arranged bynumber and type of related ele-ments, etc., in a visual form. The

student is required to memorizethis as a mental picture beforegoing any further. After that, thecharacters are sent to him in stan-dard timing, at first very, veryslowly. This means they are sentwith long drawn out dits, dahs andspaces. The speed is then verygradually increased in tiny steps.The faults with this system are:_ To begin by learning visual

symbols creates a uselessdetour

_ Slow sending destroys anyunity, or coherent sound-patterning

_ The disjointed signaldoesn’t meet our need for asense of unity

_ Learner can hardly helpcounting the dits and dahs

_ The long spaces betweenletters distract his attentionfrom listening by:_ Encouraging him to

think and try to put theshattered parts togetherto make sense of them,a shaped unity, (Ge-stalt), or

_ Guessing what maycome next

_ At each increase in speedeverything sounds different,and he virtually has to startover again.

In short, the student is sidetrackedand severely penalized all the wayalong: needlessly translating frombits and pieces of sound to try toput it together into a meaningfulwhole, then converting that to vis-



ual form and then finally to theletter.The “Sound-Pattern” Methodfirst introduces the Morse char-acters to the student at a characterspeed fast enough for them to beperceived as an acoustic unity(Gestalt), but with wide spacesbetween the characters. However,the student has usually alreadyvisually mastered a code table oris encouraged to do so as helearns.Unfortunately, visual mental pic-tures are usually very muchstronger and easier to recall thanauditory sound patterns. Thus thestudent tends to convert the signalpattern he hears into the corre-sponding visual representation,break it into its component parts,and then finally into the letter.This complex action tends at leastpartially destroys the wholeness ofthe acoustic impression.This series of actions is encour-aged by the long pauses betweencharacters, giving adequate timefor thinking, speculation and thecumbersome translation proc-esses. With increasing speeds thepause time becomes too short togo through all this, and so thestudent gets stuck below oraround 1Ø wpm, just as with theanalytic method.So this method tends to sufferabout the same faults as the ana-lytical method. Both generallylead directly to that troublesomeplateau at around 1Ø wpm, wherethe distinct change in perceptionfrom bits and pieces to coherentunity of each signal occurs.

Analyzing these methods, twoclasses of errors can be seen:_ Errors which hinder the

building of a sense ofacoustic!unity_ Detour through an op-

tical symbol._ Disintegration of the

acoustic form of thecharacter.

_ Errors which prevent goingdirect ly f rom acous-tic!impression to the letter:_ Thinking about the

signal during longpauses.

_ Guessing what maycome next.

_ Converting or trans-lating from sound tovisual and from visualto the letter

_ Converting or inte-grating into a totalrhythm pattern.

The remedy is obviously to elimi-nate all visual references and as-sociate the sound directly with theletter, to send fast enough fromthe very beginning so that coher-ent sound patterns are immedi-ately sensed, and to eliminatenon-normal spacing between let-ters.Tests To Establish A BetterTeaching MethodCharacter Speed For InitialLearningThe obvious goal was to meet theInternational requirements. Thequestion is how best to get there.



Would it be better to begin fromthe first using a 1ØØ characterrate per minute, or some lesserspeed? This experiment was tried.For the average student it wasfound that the demands on hisconcentration were significantlygreater at 1ØØ letters per minutethan at 12 letters per minute, es-pecially as more and more newcharacters were introduced.(Above average students did well,however, at the higher initialspeed.) But, of course, if onelearns initially at some lowerspeed, speed is going to have tobe increased to meet the require-ments.Various tests showed that about12 wpm was an optimal speed formost people to begin learning. Itis far enough above the 1Ø wpmplateau to avoid it. Further testsshowed that once the student hadmastered all the code characters at12 wpm, it was relatively easy forhim to advance to 7Ø letters perminute, and by continuing topractice using the same principles,to advance fairly rapidly, step bystep, to the required speeds. Thusa 12 wpm beginning speedseemed well justified.

Can The Rhythm Patterns BeEnhancedKoch observed that in the earlystages of learning, the beginnerhas to concentrate intensely tocatch the letter rhythm-patterns. Isthere anything which could bedone make this easier for him?He observed that some teacherswere speaking, or even almostsinging, the sound patterns ofcode characters using the syllables

“dit” and “dah”, whose vowelqualities and lengths make soundpatterns stand out somewhat likelittle melodies. This helps accen-tuate the differences betweensound patterns and simultane-ously promotes an immediatesense of meaningful unity of theacoustic patterns.Could the use of two differentpitches, one for dits and the otherfor dahs, make it easier for thenew student to recognize thewholeness of the rhythmic pattern(“melody”) of a code character,and make it easier to learn?Could it help reduce the stresscaused by the intensity of hisconcentration in the early learn-ing stages, while he is being intro-duced to the rhythms and tryingto get accustomed to them? Itlooked worth a try.He conducted two classes simulta-neously to evaluate the merits ofthe two-tone approach. After thefirst lesson, at each stage the two-tone group averaged two lessonperiods ahead of the monotonegroup. (For the two-tone class thepitches were gradually mergedinto one by about mid-course.)Results:- the two-tone class in 24sessions reached what took themonotone class 28 lessons toachieve. Total teaching time was12 (two-tone) to 14 (monotone)hours. (With both groups therewere the usual, occasional shortplateaus, each lasting generally nomore than one lesson period.)Conclusion: - this is a worthwhileimprovement to help the begin-ner.



What Letters Should BeTaught First1. Distinguishing Between

Similar Sounding PatternsWhat characters should first bepresented to the student? Al-though tests had shown that stu-dents can, in their first lesson,readily learn to distinguish similarpatterns such as the series e-i-s-h,the degree of concentration re-quired had a negative effect onthem. Experience has shown thatmany sound patterns, as speedsrise, can be mistaken for similarsounding patterns, especially inregard to the number of ditswhich become pretty short athigher speeds: e.g., S and H, or Uand V. The dah characters do notrun this risk so much: e.g., W andJ. In addition some beginners doexperience temporary confusionbetween mirror image characters,such as B and V, D and U. Thus itseems best to begin with soundpatterns which are distinctly andobviously different. In this waythe student can learn more gradu-ally to discriminate betweensmaller differences.2. Letters that Tend to be

TroublesomeKoch says these (for German stu-dents) are generally x y p q. (Z isvery frequent in German.) If theseare introduced during the firstthird of the program, there ismore opportunity to give themadequate practice, and this gener-ally results in shortening the totalprogram.

When To Introduce A NewCharacterHis tests showed that it is safe tointroduce a new character into thelist only after the student knowsthoroughly all the characters hehas already studied. He set hisworking standard at a minimumof 9Ø%: that is, not to introduce anew character until the studentswere getting at least 9Ø% correctcopy at any stage. This provided agood measure for comparison,and at the same time let the stu-dent evaluate his own progress. Itis indeed interesting that the testclasses showed that studentslearned new characters almost inexact proportion to the number oflesson periods (total hours). Theexperiments also showed thatthree to four new characters wereabout optimum for any one les-son period.Should Practice Be ByGroups Of LettersThe question he asked is this:should the student practice onegroup of characters until heknows them well, then work on asecond group separately in thesame way, and after that combinethe groups?He began this teaching test withcharacters composed of dahsonly: t m o ch (German singlecharacter ch). After enough prac-tice (a couple of class sessions) to“master” this group of letters, hebegan teaching the dit group e i sh by itself in the same way. Nexthe combined these two groupstogether, and found that somehowduring the intensive study of thesecond group, the students had



forgotten the first group almostcompletely, and their confidencewas badly shaken. He had to be-gin all over again teaching theseeight letters together until theywere mastered together.After this, when these eight lettershad been practiced to the pointwhere they were correctly andconsistently identified, two newgroups were studied separately inthe same way as the first twogroups. First the group d b g, thenafter that the group u v w. Next,when these two new groups weremixed together, it was found thatthe d b g group had been forgot-ten. But worse, after these twogroups had been re-learned to-gether (d b g u v w) to the pointof correct identification, and thencombined with the first 8 letters,alas, the (combined) first twogroups of 8 letters had been virtu-ally forgotten!It appears that the student’s in-tense concentration upon a newgroup of characters by itselfcauses that group to override andreplace what had been previously“learned”. He sensibly con-cluded that teaching by groups iswrong-headed. Therefore, themost efficient way is to introduceone new letter at a time and thenimmediately integrate it into thegroup of letters already learned,until finally the whole alphabet iscomplete. In this way all the pre-viously learned characters are un-der constant review and repeatedfrequently without lapses.Troublesome CharactersExperience has shown that quite afew students have some troubleidentifying one or more individ-

ual characters, tending to miss orconfuse them. They show up aslittle plateaus on his record of ad-vancement. What letters these arevaries greatly from student to stu-dent. The five-column copyingforms described below serve tohelp identify which these trouble-some ones are - needing morepractice.How Long Should LessonsBe And How Distributed InTimeHe cited B. Jost’s researcheswhich found that people learnmore quickly and retain it longerfor a given total learning time,when the lesson periods areshorter and widely separated intime. E.g., for a total of 24 lessonperiods (which always includereviews):- to schedule four lessonperiods a day for six days is fourtimes more effective than toschedule eight lesson periods aday for 3 days, and that to sched-ule two lesson periods a day for12 days is eight times more effec-tive. That is, spread out the lessonsin time.What is the ideal length of a les-son period? -- Koch found bytesting that to have a long morn-ing lesson, and then after corre-sponding length of rest period tocontinue in the afternoon, de-manded too much intense con-centration. The students got tiredtoo quickly and the repetitionpractice was not as effective as itshould be. By trial he determinedthat a half-hour lesson period wasabout optimum. (Even a 45 min-ute period began to show dimin-ishing returns.) He finally rec-ommended two half-hour periods,



one in morning and one in theafternoon as optimum.Several courses using various ofthese principles were conducted.However, at the time of this report,he had not had classes where hecould combine all the optimumtest conditions. The students sav-able were people who were inter-ested, but not primarily, at least,for professional purposes. Fur-thermore, they were employed atfull-time work during the day,and were often tired by class time,which had to be scheduled in theevenings. Also, he could scheduleonly two or three half-hour lessonperiods per week. Hardly ideal.In spite of this progress was good,and no difficulties were encoun-tered. Three to five characterswere presented and learned in thefirst half-hour period. He aimedfor many repetitions during eachlesson, never less than ten repeti-tions of each character during agiven lesson period, even after theentire alphabet had been intro-duced. Each successive periodbegan with a lively review of whathad been learned up to that point.New Philosophy For Teaching_ It is a mistake to let the stu-

dent see a code character inany kind of visual form,because a visual impressionis so strong that it will al-most invariably lead toanalyzing it into dits anddahs, and thus shatter itsunity.

_ Each Morse code charactermust retain its unitary na-ture, its acoustic wholeness

at all times. This is facili-tated by:_ Sending at a speed of

at least 12 wpm (6Øletters/minute) fromthe very first. This willpromote the sense ofacoustic unity and by-pass the discouraging1Ø wpm plateau (tran-sition) region com-pletely.

_ Emphasizing the me-lodic nature of thecode patterns initially,like a little tune, by theuse one pitch for thedits and a slightly dif-ferent pitch for thedahs. These pitches arethen gradually to bebrought closer to-gether so that by aboutthe mid-point of theprogram they areidentical and continuefrom there on as a sin-gle pitch.

_ From the very first all prac-tice is to be in five-lettergroups, with normal spac-ing between the letters, as inciphered texts, but with dis-tinctly longer pauses be-tween groups. This has adual purpose:_ To leave no time for

conscious thinking ortranslation betweenletters, and thus to re-quire direct passagefrom sound pattern tothe letter itself, and

_ So that the student willimmediately become



used to hearing lettersin groupings as innormal communica-tion, and not as iso-lated letters.

Designing An EfficientTeaching Program1. The first exercise is to teach

the student to hear and be-gin to become accustomedto hearing the differentoverall rhythms of soundand silence:-

a. Character rhythm:Character - space -character - space

b. Group rhythm: Letter-group - space - Letter-group - space ...

From the very first, to get the stu-dent accustomed to overallrhythms, he is supplied with“copying” sheets having severalsets of five-column groups of lit-tle squares like graph paper, asshown below. They will also beused for all subsequent regularcopying practice.

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

. . .

Five letter random groups arethen to be sent. At first these willall be unknown letters. As hehears each acoustic pattern of aletter in a five-letter group, he isto place a dot in the square whichcorresponds to the position of thatsound pattern within its group.Thus he works along across thefive-space line, becoming used tohearing each letter-rhythm patternand then writing a dot for it in theappropriate square. (At this stagehe only recognizes the soundpatterns as entities, nothing more.)He continues to work line by linedown the column as each newgroup is heard. In this way he be-gins the practice of focusing:a. On the coherent acoustic

forms and

b. On the associated rhythm,letter by letter, of the writ-ing hand, and

c. On recognizing the pauseafter each group.

A relatively short initial session(1Ø minutes or so) of this willbegin to accustom him to theseoverall and detail patterns ofsound as entities.2. The second exercise is to

start him on the way a. To recognize the dif-

ferences in rhythm-pattern between twoq u i t e d i f f e r e n t -sounding letters, and

b. Become familiar withthe sound patterns of



each character, and tobecome accustomed tothem. (all sending tobe machine precise.)

A. This begins by introducingthe two first characters justas sound patterns - withoutidentifying what letters theyare. They are to be sentseparately and at randomuntil the student definitelyrecognizes and distin-guishes their individualpatterns (pattern one andpattern two, or whatever).At this time they are not yetto be identified with theirprinted letters: they aresimply recognized as dif-ferent patterns of sound.

B. Only after he has becomeaccustomed to distinguish-ing the first two letter pat-terns from each other, andto the rhythm groups asthey are, and writing dots inthe little squares, is he to betold the names of these firsttwo characters. He shouldfrom then on have no diffi-culty in writing their lettersdown in the little squareswhenever and as he hearsthem.

This is to train him during theseearly stages and later on that he isto recognize and react to the pres-ence of each and every acousticpattern, either by identifying it orby a dot in the square, and of thelarger groupings of letters identi-fied by the longer space.It is obvious that, especially in thelearning stages, there are going tobe acoustic patterns passing bywhich he may or will not be able

to recognize immediately andautomatically. He must get ac-customed to giving such signalsno thought at all (except to putdown a dot), so that he can givehis undistracted attention to thenext incoming sound pattern.Otherwise, during the all-too-shortpause after each signal which hedoes not immediately identify andbefore the next one is heard, he isgoing to try to think about whatsignal it was. But while he isthinking about it the next signalarrives, tending to upset him andcause him to lose the flow of therhythm. This interruption mustfrom the very first be stopped. Histeacher must insist that wheneverthe student does not immediatelyand automatically recognize asound pattern, just to put a dot inthe corresponding square, thenimmediately let it go, and con-tinue on with the rhythm. Thisaction must become habitual, andthis technique has been devised todevelop it from the very first.Now as he identifies the acousticpatterns he will write their corre-sponding letters in the littlesquares. If the teacher chooses tomix into the 5-letter groups codecharacters which the student hasnot been taught, there should bedots to correspond with them.After one or two short (about 1Ømin.) practice periods this way,the relationships between theacoustic impression and the lettersthey represent should have be-come so closely knit together thatthere is an immediate transitionfrom the acoustic sound pattern tothe letter (or a dot). Only when



this point is reached is a third let-ter to be added to the first two.3. Only one new letter at a

time is to be introducedand added to those alreadyknown. The criterion foradding a new letter is:when at least 9Ø% of theletters already well knownare correctly identified.Each new letter is added tothe group of recognizedsound patterns in the sameway as the first two were:first by simple recognitionof the pattern withoutknowing what letter it is,and in contrast with thepreviously known ones,and only when he readilyrecognizes it its individualsound pattern is he to betold what letter it is.

As an example of the introductionof characters and the five-lettergroups used, if the sequence ofletters taught were h - f - a - g -etc.: for the initial two-characterlesson, groups were like:l. hfhhf fhfhfh 2. Next character: aahfh

fahfh 3. Next: ggbaf ghfah 4. Next: ccgaf gcafh ,5. etc. (In this example he did

not begin with the morefrequently “troublesome”letters.)

Summary“It strikes me that Koch was al-lotted too little finances and waspressed too hard to get it out.Koch worked under several diffi-

culties. First, he had only 4 regu-lar operators to study -- that's piti-fully few as a sample, but barelyenough (because he had been anoperator himself) to draw solidconclusions.) Koch had very fewclasses to teach, and most studentswere only somewhat interested.None planned to enter telegraphyas a profession or hobby noamateurs were participating. Mostor all had put in a full workdaybefore coming to class in the eve-nings. He did not get to try com-bined techniques, but could onlysurmise they would function to-gether.This semi-translation takes thesefactors into account and makessome effort to summarize them.Koch used 12 WPM characterspeed and standard character andword spacing, (his purpose was toleave no time for consciousthinking or translation betweenletters). I think if he had permit-ted or understood “Farnsworth”spacing he would have been wise,based on the US experience. Sub-sequent practice would shortenthese extra spaces as faster char-acter recognition was achieved.With just normal spacing, thecharacters just come too fast foreasy initial recognition, and so hecould not use much faster basiccharacter speeds than 12 wpm ormany students would have be-come discouraged. Personally Ibelieve that 15 wpm should be thebare minimum initial characterspeed and that 25 wpm may betoo fast for some people untilpattern recognition becomes ob-vious.



Koch's first concern was, the stu-dent has to get familiar with thecode-type of rhythm patterns, andhe can only do this when thecharacters stand out alone clearlyand are unitary in nature (not ajumble of dits and dahs in series).The wholeness of each characterpattern is vital. Musicians seem todo this more quickly and easilythan non-musicians, who mayneed to learn it. N1IRZ DaveFinley has said this well in hisbook “Morse Code: Breaking theBarrier”. Koch seems to have hadlittle appreciation for the value ofthe so-called Farnsworth (spacing)method, where characters are sentat higher speeds than overallwords per minute actual count. Atone point he barely mentions ex-tra word spaces. Nor does Kochrecognize the value of starting thelearner on longer characters (suchas Q Y 1 5, etc., rather than onshort characters and groups as E IT A N so as to learn early to hearout the whole character beforeidentifying it.It is this very first stage of learn-ing that is so vital. Unless eachcharacter is so thoroughly learnedby “reflex action” (stimulus-response) practice that immedi-ately after its sound (e.g., “dadi-dadit” ) stops it is instantly rec-ognized as the character “C” thelearning process is incomplete.Any attempt to build up speed isgoing to fail, and the joy of usingthe code is going to be dimin-ished or lost.”

Chapter 3ØThe Candler System

No treatise on learning thecode would be complete with-out a summary and discussionof this famous and formerlylong-advertised course.

BackgroundBy 19Ø4 Walter H. Candler hadlearned the American Morse codeand worked for two years as atelegrapher. He had practiceddiligently and felt qualified toapply for a job as commercialrelay operator in the WesternUnion office at Atlanta GA. Buthe didn’t last out there even oneday, and had to take a night shiftjob as telegraph operator at asmall town R.R. station. He wasdeeply hurt and puzzled. Whatwas the matter? What mysteriousingredient was missing?As was the custom at the best tele-graph schools, he had visuallymemorized the Morse code froma printed table of dots and dashes,and then practiced and practiced.(This “standard” procedure wasconfirmed by a former teacher atthe well-known Dodge’s Institute- no connection to the later C. K.Dodge “Radio Shortkut”.) Onenight on the job, quite by acci-dent, he discovered that whenonce in a while he dozed off atthe operating table, he could readthe fastest code coming over thelines to his sounder. Yet when hewas awake and alert he couldcatch only a word here and there.It was then that he began to real-ize that telegraphy is primarily a



mental process, and that the so-called “sub-conscious mind”must play a vital part in it. (At thattime here was quite a bit ofpopular writing about the “sub-conscious mind,” which no doubthelped him put it all together.) Hebegan experimenting until he hadsolved his own problem and mas-tered the code himself, and intime he became qualified to teachothers how to do it, too. By 1911he had established his own“school” in Chicago to teach“The Candler System,” latermoving it to Asheville, NC.Although he died on 23 April1Ø4Ø, his wife, who was alreadyan experienced telegrapher her-self when they were married in1924, and had worked with himsince, continued to handle thecourse for a number of years. (Itwas last advertised in QST in1959.)The CourseOriginally his “High Speed”course was designed for operatorswho already “knew” AmericanMorse, but were stuck at some toolow speed. Later he added the In-ternational code to it, coveringboth codes. Still later a newcourse, called “The ScientificCode Course,” designed to besuccessfully used by beginnersworking alone, was created fromthe regular “High Speed” courseby modifying it to add helps toget the beginner started. (Thus itcontained all that the “HighSpeed” course contained.) Thatnew course was later renamed“The Junior Code Course,” andwas the one I obtained in October

1939, and made extensive noteson.There is evidence that, althoughthe essentials stood out stronglyand firmly, over the years the de-tails varied in minor ways. Hisbasic philosophy may be statedas:- “This system trains you touse your mind” to develop “sci-entifically your coordination,concentration and confidence” -your responsiveness. The courseconsisted of ten lessons plus con-siderable valuable supplementarymaterial, mostly as letters. It issummarized below.The Essential PrinciplesSince Candler was concerned withthose training to become com-mercial operators, he first empha-sized the importance of healthyliving: eating, exercise, breathing,etc. This emphasis was needed inthose days because the typical cityoperator worked long hours inunhealthy smoke-filled, darkish,crowded and poorly ventilatedoffices.l. Develop “sound con-

sciousness.” -In Lesson 7he wrote: “In learning codeit is necessary to con-sciously count the dits anddahs of the various signals,both in sending and re-ceiving. By repetition, thesub-conscious mind gradu-ally assumes this burden ofcounting them. As long asyou must consciously countthem, work will be slow, butas the sub-mind takes them,they go faster and faster.”“As you progress,” hewrote elsewhere, “Begin torespond more readily to the



sound patterns than to vis-ual ones: learn to shift fromwhat you mentally see towhat you hear. So long asyou must consciously re-mind yourself that so manydits and dahs ‘stand’ forcertain letters, you are notlearning code.” So, “whenyou hear didah, no longersay to yourself: ‘didahstands for A.’ Instead, whenyou hear didah, hear A. Donot translate.” “In learningcode you do not have torelearn words, but you dohave to change the ap-proach...from visual toauditory... Once you havemastered this consciously,your sub-mind will handlethat detail, and do a faster,better job than your con-scious mind possibly can.”

CritiqueWe must remember that he andmost of his students had already“learned” visually, and now thismust be replaced by direct audi-tory recognition. Here was thereal reason they all had gottenstuck at some slow speed. Thistraditional approach must haveblinded his thinking so that it didnot occur to him to start the be-ginner with sound alone, and sosave the beginner from having tocross that annoying hurdle with itsdiscouragement.2. Your sub-mind will only do

what you have consciouslytrained it to do. Therefore,teach it the right way andthe same way consistentlyfrom the beginning. Think

and act positively: (The “ Ican do it” attitude). If youmaintain a positive attitudeas you think and consis-tently practice, the sub-mind will take over the taskmore quickly, and it willbecome easier each timeyou do it. Conscious effortis needed until it becomesautomatic. First you learnby consciously employingthe principles in yourregular daily practice. Thengradually, if you practice asdirected, your sub-mindwill take over the job withless and less conscious ef-fort, and you will makegood progress.

3. Learning to read code, toreceive , is the importantthing. That is, to understandwithout having to write itdown. Reading means lis-tening and understandingwhat is being said, just as inreading ordinary print orwhen listening to someonespeak. Reading code mustnever depend on copying.As soon as you havelearned all the letters, startlistening to good code onyour receiver (or nowadays,practice tapes, etc.) for 5,1Ø, 15 minutes at a time, oruntil you become tired -even if you cannot put to-gether enough consecutivesignals to form!words. Keepon, and soon you will becatching small words andthen larger ones. But do notpractice too long at onetime - never when fatigued.“I am acquiring the ability



to read words subcon-sciously now. When readingcode, I know, as soon as aword is sent, what the wordis, although I didn’t con-sciously spell it out to my-self as it was comingin,”!wrote a student.

4. you cannot write downwhat you cannot read (re-ceive). This is step two afterlearning to receive. Writingdown what you receive is aroutine matter that will takecare of itself if you areproperly trained. Of course,in the initial stages oflearning the alphabet andnumbers, etc., you mustcopy letter by letter, slowly,just as you had to learn toread that way. After thisstage, stop until: When youget so you can listen tocode and read it at 15 to 25wpm without copying, youmust begin copying someat each practice period.Commence this way: eachday copy for 1Ø - 15 min-utes, striving to copy one ormore signals behind, thenspend a similar period justlistening to good codewithout writing.

5. When you do copy, learn tocopy behind. If you havebeen copying letter by let-ter you must begin system-atically to overcome it, andthe best way is to listen togood code and form thehabit of reading it withoutcopying. As you acquirethe independent codereading habit, by dailypractice, you will find it

easier to drop behind a fewsignals without confusionor fear of losing out whenyou are copying. You mustbreak the bad habit ofcopying letter by letter. Getin the habit of carrying theletters in your mind, form-ing them subconsciouslyinto words and sentences,without writing them down.“When I found I could be-gin to read small words aseasily by sound as by sight,I was delighted. I soonlearned to read words ‘inmy head. After that, copy-ing them by pencil waseasy. Previously, I hadbeen writing words downletter-byletter: that waswrong!” wrote a student.

6. Practice Intelligently: In theright way, Daily, regularly,in short and well- spacedperiods, purposeful ly.Never practice error. Prac-ticing when tired is not effi-cient use of time. A goodschedule is 3Ø minutesdaily, 15 minutes in themorning and 15!minutes inthe afternoon or evening.The time between practiceperiods is important - use itto prepare yourself to bereceptive by cultivating apositive attitude towardyourself and what you aretrying to do. the ten lessonsWith these statements of ba-sic principles in mind, let uslook at the lessons for thebeginner. Note that eachnew group of code letterswas presented in the oldvisual dots and dashes



manner, but the student wastold to think of the letters interms of dits and dahs asthey sound. He seems tohave anticipated that a typi-cal student would take aweek or two to completeeach lesson.

Lesson OneEmphasis on sound units. Thefirst group was E I S H, to be sentsmoothly and in accurate, regulartiming by the student with his key,saying the dits as he poundedthem out. Candler recommendedthat two or more beginners worktogether so each could send toand receive from the other. Assoon as he can recognize themeasily and send them smoothly, hewas to form words, such as “he, is,see, his, she.” Next to take theletters T M O, and do the sameway, saying the dahs as he sendsthem, and then to make smallwords using both sets of letters, asbefore. Lastly the letters: A N WG. Then practice small words, in-cluding as many of the 1ØØ mostcommon words as can be formedfrom these eleven letters. At oneperiod Candler either supplied orrecommended the use of me-chanical senders, such as theTeleplex, with his course for thestudent studying alone. Thiswould provide an accurate timingsense as well as good hearingpractice. With a machine or com-panion, he would be able to listenand, during this initial period,copy letter by letter as he heardeach character.

Lesson TwoEmphasis again on thinking ofthe letters in terms of dits anddahs as they sound, not as theyappear in dots and dashes. Groupsof new letters to be learned thesame way: D U V J B; R K L F; PX Z C Y Q. Words to be practicedincluded the rest of the shorter1ØØ most common words. Em-phasis on accuracy of timing, andthat repetition builds habit(whether good or bad).

Lesson ThreeEmphasis on knowing you areright, then going ahead andmaking it a habit by repetitivepractice. Analysis of the letters incode, accuracy of signal, spacingand speed: precision. Get in thehabit of instantly recognizingeach and every letter when youhear it, without having to stop andthink: automatic association ofeach signal with its letter. Alsonow learn the numbers and com-monest punctuation. When youhave learned the letters so thatyou do not have to “stop andthink” of what character anycombination of dits and dahs rep-resents, begin listening to goodcode every day regularly withoutcopying, even if only for 5 min-utes at a time. (The radio was hisfavorite source of good code:commercial press and governmentstations were on 24 hours a day.Now we have ARRL code practice,tapes. etc.) Catch everything youcan as you listen. You may notget much at first, but keep tryingand you will soon begin to hearletters and words.



Lesson FourThink of the code as being easyto learn. Trust your sub-mind todo its work. Review and practice,especially any characters you tendto miss or confuse, until they areautomatic. Every character muststand on its own feet. Keep drill-ing on the 1ØØ most commonwords, both receiving and send-ing. Begin using the “two-column drill” where you set uptwo parallel columns of three orfour letter words, each having thesame number of letters; then godown the columns spelling theword in the first column out loudwhile simultaneously writingdown the other. Then do thesame, reversing the columns. (SeeChapter 8, “Conquering OurFears of Losing Out,” third para-graph.) These are the first easydrills on learning to copy a wordor two behind.

Lesson FivePractice each letter and characteruntil you know them all so well -whether receiving or sending -that you don’t have to stop andthink about them at all. Do thesame with the 1ØØ most commonwords. Keep up the practice of thetwo-column exercise started inlesson 4, going on to words with afew more letters as you find iteasier. This is to help disengageconscious attention from theproper functioning of the sub-conscious mind so that it can doits work unhindered. Learn totrust it by continuing this kind ofpractice until it becomes easy.This is a highly successful methodof training to shift the effort from

conscious to automatic, that is,subconscious, making it a usefulhabit.

Lesson SixDevelopment of skill is develop-ing coordination, where every-thing runs smoothly. It begins byconstant practice listening to andsending consistently and perfectlyformed code characters, learningto recognize each code signal in-stantly, learning to read it all eas-ily, and when copying, to write itdown in a uniform, simple style ofhandwriting. Watch for any stepalong the line where there is anyhesitation or question, and prac-tice to overcome that block. Givethis your attention, and allow timefor it to develop until it becomesautomatic, habitual. This is thescientific way. Do some practicecopying mixed five-letter groups,but do not write down any lettersof a group until the whole grouphas been sent. Have wide enoughspaces left between groups to al-low you to write it down beforethe next group starts. (His empha-sis throughout the course is onreceiving and copying normalEnglish, not ciphered groups.)

Lesson SevenEmphasis on proper timing whilesending. Start by sending a seriesof letter E’s with wide spaces be-tween them, first with six countsbetween letters, then graduallyreducing the space to normal oneletter space. Then do the sameway with S, T, H, O, etc. (Here hediscussed “counting” as givenabove under “1 - Sound Con-sciousness, Critique.”)



Lesson EightA discussion of “glass arm,” ortelegrapher’s paralysis, and itsprevention by certain exercises,relaxation and proper warm-up.Continuing practice of funda-mentals.

Lesson NineObstacles to progress listed as:_ Lack of practice,_ Thinking visually rather

than by sound,_ Hesitation over poorly

learned signals, causing lossof the following ones,

_ Looking back over one’scopy while copying,

_ Negative attitudes. Onemust force oneself to copybehind by degrees, gradu-ally.

Lesson TenLearning to carry words in yourmind by continuing the copyingbehind practice. Learning to writerapidly and legibly as an aid toreceiving. Learning to copy onthe typewriter. (He had a separatecourse specifically for this.)Learning by doing until it be-come second nature.

Chapter 31The So-Called Farnsworth orSpacing Method

This method (in which thespacing between letters andwords is lengthened to facili-tate recognition of characterpatterns and words in the early

learning stages) is obviouslyexcellent.

This is actually an old procedureused by many teachers long be-fore Farnsworth, who popularizedit. It appears that the first clearmention of this approach is byThomas Edison, a highly skilledtelegrapher himself in 19Ø2. Hehit the nail on the head when hewrote as follows about hispunched tape course called“Audio Alphabets” (by Freder-ick J. Drake & Co.) for teachingthe American Morse code: “It isnot the speed at which a letter issounded that perplexes thelearner, but the rapid successionin which they follow each other.”A few students have felt tempo-rary rhythm recognition problemswith the way this method was usedby some teachers as the speedswere increased by shortening thespaces, making the charactersseem to run together. They mayfeel a bit frustrated, but this iseasily avoidable.This effect seems to be most no-ticeable when using a characterspeed of around 13 wpm, and isone of the reasons why it is rec-ommended from the very begin-ning to use character speeds of 18- 25 wpm. These higher characterspeeds also make it easier to con-centrate on the character as aunity of sound, without the risk ofcounting or analyzing it as a col-lection of shorts and longs. (Ofcourse, after learning the code, weneed to get used to hearing it atvarious speeds, including thoseslower than our initial learningspeed. One reason: operator’s



tests for license will be slowspeed.)This method starts out by havingthe beginner hear each characterfrom the very first at a highenough speed for it to be per-ceived as a unit of sound (whichmeans at least at a rate of 12 ormore wpm), rather than as com-posed of dits and dahs. It accen-tuates this perception by separat-ing the letters and words at firstby wide spaces, giving the studenttime to recognize each one clearlyand associate it with its printedletter, or number, etc., and then asthe student progresses, graduallyshortens the spaces to normallength. It has been confirmed byexperiments in psychology whichhave proved that if a stimulus canbe grasped as a single unit, awholeness or “Gestalt”, learningwill take place at a rapid rate. Andwith respect to how this coursehandled it, he added: “The prin-cipal feature of the Audio Alpha-bets is the graduation in the inter-vals between the letters. By begin-ning with a record in which thecharacters are widely separatedand then changing to others withless and less intervals, the studentgradually reaches the one havingnormal telegraph spacing.”This spacing method is perhapsthe most obvious and effectiveway of focusing a beginner’sconscious attention on the Gestalt,or form, of each individual codeform of letter. It makes the letter-patterns stand out prominentlyand allows him time to associate itwith its equivalent printed letterwith a minimum of interferenceand distraction from all othercharacters.

So this is actually an old proce-dure based upon the experienceof many teachers long beforeRuss Farnsworth (W6TTB), whosename apparently became attachedto it because of his Epsilon Re-cords Code Course consisting of 3LP phonograph records in an al-bum put out in 1959. In thatcourse the characters were fromthe very first sent at 13 wpm,widely spaced, and the time be-tween them gradually reduced asthe student became more profi-cient. Next of record we find twobulletins published in 1917 and1918 by the Federal Board ofEducation which recommendedsending each character at a rate of2Ø wpm with rather lengthypauses between them.In Chapter 11 of “Radio Simpli-fied”, a popular book of 1922-3,authors Kendall and Koehler, in-structor and director respectivelyat the YMCA Radio and TechnicalSchools in Philadelphia wroteabout learning the Code: “T obegin with, the novice should notset out by committing [to memory]the number and order of the dotsand dashes in the various lettersand figures in the code, as forexample, that “dash-dot-dash-dot” equals “C”. Much of the en-ergy so spent will be wasted. Theradio operator does not recognizeletters as so many dots and somany dashes nor does he trans-late signals in that fashion. Theoperator hears and learns to rec-ognize each letter as a combina-tion of sounds “dah-de-dah-de”[sic.] as the letter “C”, “de-dah-de” as “R” , “dah-de-dah” as“K”, etc., in much the same man-ner as children in the primary



school learn to read words bysounds instead of by learning tospell them.”Although they do not mention thespacing method directly, they im-ply it by comparing it to howchildren learned to read in thoseday, by recognizing letter formsand spelling out words at first.This involved one at a timelearning with spaces as a naturalpart of learning, without callingany special attention to it. In194Ø, in his Master’s Thesis“Teaching Radio by Radio”Marshall Ensor summarized hishighly successful code teachingmethods (which began about1929 from Olathe KS). He clearlyused this spaced-learning methodto teach hundreds of studentsduring his one-hour lessons dailyon 16Ø meter phone “broad-casts”. Each lesson alternatedteaching code, theory and regula-tions. (See Chapter 12)In 1945 Ted McElroy offeredprinted copies of his free“Morse” Code Course said tocontain “everything he haslearned in 3Ø years of operatingexperience.” He claimed that,“Assuming that the average per-son will practice several hours thefirst day, we can tell you ... thatyou’ll be copying that very firstday, words and sentences at therate of 2Ø wpm. ... You won’tcopy 2Ø full words in one minute.But each letter you write will hityour ears at a full 2Ø wpm andthe space between letters becomesprogressively shorter as the rollsgo along

Chapter 32Other Alphabets

This would be incompletewithout some mention of non-English alphabets.

Other languages require certaindiacritical marks, or additionalletters, or symbols for commondigraphs (single sounds repre-sented by two letters in writing,like our th). Here we shall includethe Germanic group, French,Spanish, and Polish, Hungarian,Turkish, all of which use the Latinalphabet, and Greek, Russian, He-brew and Arabic, which use dif-ferent alphabets. Japanese doesnot have an alphabet, but uses asyllabary (spelling by syllablesinstead of single sounds), and re-quires 73 - 78 characters In gen-eral, letters which representsounds more or less identical tothose in English are representedby the same code signals as inEnglish. For example, B, D, F, G(hard)*, K, L, M, N, P, R, S*, T.“A” represents the letter “A” inEuropean languages, includingRussian, and Alpha in Greek,Aleph in Hebrew and Alif in Ara-bic. “C” represents written “ C ”in European languages and Pol-ish, but é in Greek, thƒ in Arabic,samech in Hebrew, and tseh inRussian. “E” represents “E” inEuropean languages, Greek andboth yeh and eh Russian, but vavin Hebrew, and hamza in Arabic.“G” represents ghain in Arabic,not jŒm. “H” represents “H” inEuropean languages, “H” inGreek (a vowel), “X” in Russian,HeT in Hebrew and guttural Hƒ inArabic. “I” represents the same



letter in European languages andGreek, i and i-kratkoyi in Russian,yod in Hebrew and yƒ in Arabic.“J” represents this letter in Euro-pean languages, the diphthong“Yi” in Greek, ayin in Hebrewand jŒm in Arabic. “O” repre-sents this letter in European lan-guages, but He in Hebrew and khƒin Arabic. “Q” represents thisletter in most European lan-guages, but Psi in Greek, shcha inRussian, qof in Hebrew and qƒf inArabic. “S” also represents shŒnin Hebrew as well as sŒn. “ U ”represents this letter in Europeanlanguages, “Y” in Russian, thedigraph “OY” in Greek, Tet inHebrew and Tƒ in Arabic. “ V ”represents this letter in mostEuropean languages, dotted z inPolish, zheh in Russian, the diph-thong “HY” in Greek, and Dƒdin Arabic. “W” represents thisletter in European languages,“B” in Russian, ê in Greek, tsadein Hebrew and waw in Arabic.“X” represents this letter in mostEuropean languages, “hard” L inPolish, Xi in Greek, both tvyordyznak and myakhky znak in Rus-sian and Sƒd in Arabic. “Y” rep-resents this letter in Europeanlanguages, “Y” in Greek, yerih inRussian and Zƒ in Arabic. “ Z ”represents Z everywhere exceptArabic dhƒl. “8” also serves torepresent the diphthong “Oi” inGreek. Additional code charactersare needed or used for the trans-mission of other languages. Suchcharacters are:- didahdidah: „ ,Polish nasal a, Greek diphthongAi, Russian ya, Arabic 3ayin. di-dahdahdidah: , † dididahdidit: ‚,Polish nasal e, Arabic final hƒ.dahdahdahdit: “, Polish digraph

cz, Greek diphthong “îY”, Rus-sian cheh, Arabic zƒi. dididahdah:_, Polish ziet, Greek diphthong“ A Y ” , R u s s i a n y u .dahdahdahdah: digraph ch,Greek X, Russian sha, ArabicshŒn, Turkish sh-sound.dahdahdidahdah: ¤, andHungarian ny. didahdidahdit:Polish ¢. dahdidahdidah:Polish digraph sz. didahdahdidah:Polish cie. dahdidahdidit: Turkish‡. The Hungarian vowels markedwith double quotation mark-likeaccents have the same Morsecharacters as those with doubledots.

Chapter 33A Brief History of UnitedStates Operator LicensingRequirements and MilitaryTrainingIn the BeginningPrior to 1912 no licenses of anykind were required, either for sta-tions or for amateur operators.An amateur, however, might applyto the Navy Department whichwould issue a “Certificate ofSkill.” This merely stated that thesuccessful applicant was “profi-cient” in code. It had no legalvalue or necessity.

The First Laws 1912 to 1927In 1912 Congress passed the firstlaws requiring licenses for wirelessoperators and stations whose sig-nals would:-a. Interfere with government

or bonafide commercialstations (those open topublic use) or



b. Cross state lines.c. This meant that very, very

many “Little” stations andtheir operators did not needlicenses. “Little” often in-cluded even those up to onekilowatt, the maximum al-lowed for any licensed sta-tion. This was because the“passive” (mostly crystaldetector) receivers in thoseearly days were so insensi-tive that reception over landmasses beyond a hundredmiles or so was exceptional.The word “amateur” doesnot appear in these regula-tions, but is covered by theterm “experimental”. [InEngland, by contrast, a li-cense was required even forowning receiving equip-ment.]

From 1912 until 1933 operatorand station licenses were sepa-rately issued and were impressivediploma-like documents about 8by 11 inches. They had to beposted at the station location andwere usually framed by the op-erator. Initially there were twoclasses of license, with identicalqualifications. Amateur FirstGrade was by examination by agovernment examiner covering:radio laws, regulations, properadjustment and operation ofequipment, along with sendingand receiving tests at 5 wpm inInternational Morse code. Forthose living too far away to comein for personal examination, therewas an Amateur Second Gradewhose applicant had to certify bymail that he could meet theseidentical requirements. In Aug.

1919 the required speed wasraised to 1Ø wpm.When the U.S. entered WW-I allradio activity, receiving as well astransmitting , except for that spe-cifically authorized by the Mili-tary, was prohibited. All equip-ment (including all antennas) hadto be either dismantled or sealed.This began on 17 April 1917 andcontinued until 12 April 1919when receiving was once againpermitted, and finally when ama-teur transmitting was again al-lowed on 1 October 1919. 1923:-a new Extra First Grade was cre-ated requiring at least two yearsexperience as a licensed operator.A new written examination in-cluded requiring the applicant todiagram a transmitter and receiverand to explain the principles oftheir operation, plus a code speedtest at 2Ø wpm (the speed re-quired of a Commercial FirstClass operator). The license wasprinted on pink paper! Such op-erators were qualified for “Spe-cial” station licenses which con-veyed CW privileges on certainwavelengths longer that 2ØØ me-ters and also gave them distinctivecall signs. As shorter wavelengthscame to be used this grade of li-cense lost popularity. In the early192Ø’s licensed amateurs beganto get skittish about working unli-censed stations (with their self-assigned calls), including the “lit-tle boys with spark coils.” (Theywere often a big annoyance andsource of interference.) The De-partment of Commerce, how-ever,!seems to have taken littlenotice of them unless they causedserious interference



The Radio Act Of 1927Most of these unlicensed stationshad already vanished!from the airwhen the Radio Act of 1927 re-placed the Radio Act of 1912 andbrought all radio transmissionsunder regulation for the first time.(Legal doctrine had by then cometo hold that Congress had powerto regulate intrastate activitywhere its total effect reacted uponinterstate activity.) The days ofthe “little unlicensed station”were over. 1927:- “Special” sta-tion licenses. Amateur First Graderenamed “Amateur class”.Amateur Second Grade renamedTemporary Amateur Grade andvalid for one year only, and re-newable. 1928:- “Special” li-censes reinstated on somewhatdifferent terms, and called “ExtraFirst Class” operator. 1929:- the2Ø meter band was opened tophone, and Extra First Class li-censes were extended by an en-dorsement “for unlimited radio-telephone privileges” on thatband. ?? 1932:- Extra First Classrenamed Class A, Amateur Classrenamed Class B, and TemporaryClass renamed Class C. Ten (1Ø)wpm speed required of all classes.Operator and station licensescombined on wallet sized card.The special endorsement (of1929) became available for allamateurs with at least one year ofexperience, upon passing a specialtest on radiotelephone subjects.This endorsement was now ex-tended to include use of phone on75 meters also.

1933 And AfterIn 1933, after the creation of theFederal Radio Commission, ama-teur regulations were completelyrevised and operator and stationlicenses were combined on a sin-gle, wallet-sized card, good forthree years. Extra First Class li-cences would no longer be issued.A minimum code speed of 1Øwpm was required of all threeclasses of license: A, B and C.Class A (advanced) required oneyear of experience, a written ex-amination on both phone andtelegraph theory and regulations,and conveyed exclusive phoneuse on 2Ø and 75 meters, and wasrenewable by application. TheClass B (general) examinationcovered less on phone operation,and gave all privileges not re-served for Class A, but requiredre-examination for renewal. ClassC, a temporary license for thoseliving 125 or more miles from anFRC examining point (adminis-tered by class A or B amateur),differed from Class B only in be-ing taken by mail. 1936 the codespeed for all classes was raisedfrom 1Ø to 13 wpm.

1951 And After

1951The whole structure was revisedfor Amateur licenses: Extra Class(new, available 1 Ja. 1952), 2Øwpm, no exclusive privileges, twoyears Advanced Class (previouslyClass A), 13 wpm General Class(Previously Class B) 13 wpmConditional Class (previouslyClass C, by mail, 125 miles ormore), 13 wpm Technician Class



(new, available 1 July 1951), 5wpm, 5 years Novice Class (new),5 wpm, one year, non-renewable1952Hams licensed before May 1917eligible for Extra class withoutexamination.1953No new Advanced Class to be is-sued.

1954Novice and Technician availableby mail only after 1Ø Jan., if over75 miles from examination point.196417 Mar. filling fee $4.ØØ assessedfor new or renewal of license, ex-cept no feel for novice.1967Incentive licensing was adopted.Advanced class was reactivatedand given more spectrum thanGeneral class, but less than Extraclass. Novice class licenses wereextended to two years.1968Advanced and Extra were madeavailable for shut-ins, and Techni-cian class eligible for Novice.197ØFees increased to $9.ØØ, fiveyears license duration.1976Required new Technician class tobe tested by FCC examiner.

1983Volunteer Examiner (VE) systemset up to conduct Technician and Gen-eral class by December.

Various Military Training Re-quirementsAt the outbreak of WW-I the U.S.Military forces desperatelyneeded wireless operators andequipment. Many amateurs vol-unteered as operators and asteachers. Training in all phaseswas minimal, and “operators”were usually graduated withouthaving had any hands-on experi-ence with the actual equipment oroperating procedures. (Absoluteradio silence was the rule in gen-eral - except for the most extremeemergencies on the high seas.)For operators in the WW-II periodSignal Corps graduation require-ments were: 25 wpm plain lan-guage, 2Ø wpm code groups withpencil or mill, receiving, and 25wpm sending. Qualifications forfield operators - 2Ø wpm pencilprinting copy and perfect sendingcopy at 15 wpm; for fixed baseoperators - 35 wpm straight copyon mill.For Marine Corps graduation theywere: 2Ø-23 wpm plain text, 15-18 wpm coded groups, 17 wpmperfect sending of plain text.WWII training varied widely be-tween various schools, but in-cluded actual operating proce-dures though wired QSO’s amongthemselves to overcome the be-ginners’ initial “buck fever” andto set them up as operators.Real radio interference learning tocopy through QRM and noise was



added, and it became louder asthe student progressed. Advancedstudents also practiced on the“mill” (typewriter). For highspeed training, there was a roomwhere high speed press was cop-ied for practice.In 1988 a U.S. Special Forces ra-dio operator’s test required!18 5-character groups (e.g., QY9/Z6G.J4 X5,B7, etc.) a minute.

Chapter 34Examples which Illustratethe Nature of Real Skills

The following are samplestaken from the literature toshow various skills some op-erators have achieved.

They illustrate clearly the auto-matic, subconscious nature of realskill in telegraphy, that it is a ha-bitual form of behavior, donewithout conscious intervention oreffort. They also show what canbe done by what has been done.People who do things well do notstruggle with them: they enjoydoing them. It can be seen thatthere is a hierarchy of skill habits,ranging from lower degrees tovery high degrees of skill, eachstep leading to greater freedom ofaction than before.

Receiving Code While DoingSomething ElseBoth in the past and in the presentthere are very many examples ofsending or receiving whilespeaking or doing other things atthe same time. Old land line op-erators typically could do this atspeeds up to 35 to 4Ø wpm. Some

hams today can and often do thesame things.

Sending and writing at the sametime

Almost all old Morse operators devel-oped this kind of skill to some degree,and usually were able to send with onehand while writing on the messageblank the number, time, date, etc.,with the other hand. Pressure of workalmost demanded it in a busy office.

Sending and receiving simulta-neouslyA regular RR agent-operator at asmall town near Salina, KS, wasobserved to be sending a bunchof RR manifests (lists of freightcargo, giving details) when he wascalled on another wire. Withoutpausing, he opened his key withthe other hand, sent an acknow-ledgement, closed the key switch,picked up a message blank andslipped it into the typewriter,rolled it into position and pro-ceeded to copy the message withone finger of his left hand whilecontinuing to send the manifestswith his right hand. This was notat all unusual for regular opera-tors: there are many examples. Aslightly different example is withthe many old RR operators whoregularly would copy down anincoming message with one handand simultaneously send it ondown the line with the other hand.

Receiving two or more messagesat same timeOne ship operator offshore ofCalifornia had the amusing expe-rience of simultaneously receivingthe identical message for him



from two different shore stations,KPH and KPJ. Both called him atsame time, and he told the one togo ahead, but instead, both beganat once to transmit. He tried tocopy them both. This becamevery easy when he discoveredthey were both sending the samemessage. The climax came laterwhen both of them billed him forthe same message! In 1924 in theBoston Postal Telegraph office awire chief claimed he could si-multaneously copy one messagein French with one hand and an-other in English with the otherhand. His chief operator took thechallenge, promptly went out andpicked up one message in eachlanguage, provided pencils andpads to the wire chief, and had thetwo messages sent to him simulta-neously at the usual keyingspeeds. The wire chief made goodon his word in the presence of allthe other operators in the office,and made perfect copy on both.A former Navy operator claimedthat while copying one message,he often could mentally noteother messages which were inter-fering with the reception of theone he was copying, and do soaccurately enough to write themout later. He said that, especiallywhen he was copying some par-ticularly dull and uninterestingmaterial, he was always fully con-scious of the content of messagesheard at the same time on adja-cent frequencies concerning shoreleave, pay or other interesting as-pects of these transmissions.One expert operator in San Fran-cisco is credited with having re-ceived three separate dispatches atthe same time, writing each of

them out correctly by memoryafterward. That looks a little hard!Using both American Morse andMorse International codes simul-taneously: - Rober t (Dick)Johnstone of old KPH was a phe-nomenal operator, said to be oneof the best of his day. He couldsend one message in InternationalMorse while simultaneouslysending another with his otherhand in American Morse. Similarclaims have been made by othersalso.

Comparison with other mentalfunctions and discussionCan’t we compare this to a certainextent with other habitual activi-ties, such as driving a car whilethinking of something quite dif-ferent? (Later wondering, e.g,,“Did I stop at. . . , or did I driveon?”) Or like the stenographerwho looked at her notes aftertaking dictation and was startledto see she had written a joke beingtold in the same office while shewas taking dictation?Doing two things at once, onesubconscious or automatic andthe other conscious is relativelycommonplace. For example, I canread aloud from printed matterwhile consciously thinking aboutsomething quite different, and stillread so that it sounds meaningful- yet afterwards have little or norecollection of what I had readaloud (and sometimes wonderingif I had included anything of whatI had been thinking at any pointalong the line.As for the operators who couldcopy two messages simultane-ously, is it possible that both ac-



tions were automatic? Were theyhearing one with the right ear andwriting it down with the left hand,while hearing the other effectivelywith the left ear and writing it withthe right hand, or what? Or, wasthe one automatic and the otherconscious, although done at fairlyhigh speed? If both were auto-matic, were they free to think ofor hear something still different atthe same time? This seems possi-ble from the experience of a fewwho have said that they were at-tending to two messages and yethearing salient points of still athird, or voices in their environ-ment. Or, is this something likethe “sandwich” operation of alarge computer where each ofseveral different people seems tobe doing his job as the only onein control, yet the computer isapparently handling them simul-taneously. Actually the computerdoes this by dividing the jobs intoparts which are scheduled andprocessed in an interwoven man-ner by a schema for optimum us-age of computer functions,!time-slicing and controlling to keepeach one separate, and onlyseeming to give each operatorsole control. For a human exam-ple, how does the traffic controlofficer of an airport keep alert tothe arrival and departure of manyaircraft all at the same time,seeming to give each “simultane-ous” attention? Very interesting,isn’t it?

SpeedsBy 1933 it was written that a goodcommercial operator can anddoes average about 4Ø wpm overan 8-hour stretch, handling eve-

rything from straight news totabular matter. Hand sending wasabsolutely steady, rhythmic andeven, intelligently coded andspaced - a joy to listen to. On themain traffic arteries of the Associ-ated Press, speeds up into the 6Ø-7Ø- wpm range were said not tobe uncommon. In 1937 WCK hadtwo press schedules, one at about45 wpm to be copied by ear andanother very much faster forautomatic recording and visualtape transcription. Yet Pete Pettitand Paul Magarris, Navy opera-tors, could copy the higher speedpress solid, and others were run-ners up. Ralph Graham, W8KPE, alandline telegrapher, demon-strated at Smithsonian duringAWA conference before ten wit-nesses, copying a 79.4 wpm. -George Batterson W2GB (firstAWA president) at age 94 couldstill copy 5Ø wpm, but com-plained that his sending speed hadslowed down to only 35. MikePopella KA3HIE could copy 45wpm by hand on paper.Jim Farrior W4FOK wrote thisway:- “When I was a boy of 13 Ilived in a small town in AL. TheRR telegraph office was one ofthe few things in town that inter-ested me. One of the three agenttelegrahers gave me his sounderand telegraph key. The nightagent usually had little work to doand often helped me by sendingto me and telling me about oper-ating procedures, etc. Thesounder there was nearly alwaysactive, and I gradually becameable to copy directly from thewire. I guess I learned it prettymuch like one learns to speak,because I don’t remember trying



to learn. I was told that it wasreally very easy, and I guess I be-lieved it. I was just having fun,and dreamed that some day Imight become a telegrapher.”

Some Interesting Examples OfYoung Skilled Operators Of ThePastIn 1856 seven year-old JohnO’Brian delivered telegrams forhis brother Richard, who at age 15was the telegrapher for the localRR office. After two years of thisJohn prevailed upon his brotherto teach him how to operate. So,while still only nine years of ageJohn became a good operator andwas eager to have a job of hisown. The RR offered him the po-sition at a nearby town, and hesnapped it up. People in thosedays were used to seeing youngtelegraphers, but not this young!Very soon, however, they becameso pleased with his work that nomore questions were asked.Those youngsters were motivatedand quick to learn. When the CivilWar began he volunteered alongwith many others, became theiryoungest operator, and by early1862 was already the assistant op-erator at the important militarystation of Ft. Monroe, VA, andconsidered an expert. When theCommander, General Wool, firstsaw him he was astounded. On asubsequent military assignment atNorfolk, VA, on one occasionJohn scrawled down two incomingmessages while he was actuallyasleep, writing them down in abook he had been reading. (CivilWar operators often worked im-possibly long hours under diffi-

cult or dangerous battlefront con-ditions, and when things let up abit, easily dropped off for a fewwinks of sleep.)James H. Bunnell became an op-erator at age 13. He was so shortthat he had to sit on a stool toreach the telegraph instruments.At age 16 he was one of the bestoperators in the country, notedfor his speed of 38 wpm (by ac-tual word count). These are justtwo examples of the many, manyboys who quickly became skilledtelegraphers in the mid-18ØØ’s.

Examples Of Effective CodeLearning

LearningAt the lowest skill levels: Four-years-olds, barely able to writeeven block letters have been ableto pass the code test. How manyof us are willing to admit a four-year-old can outperform us?Then consider these higher skilllevels:- In 19Ø9-191Ø Don C.Wallace learned the code with afriend, John Cook, and the help ofthe operators of Commercial sta-tion PJ in San Pedro CA. In 191Øhe set up his first station. In 1915he passed the test for a first classcommercial operator’s license,said to have required demon-strating ability to handle 25 wpmin Continental code and 3Ø wpmin American Morse code. Laterwith Tony Gerhardt he played agame they called “burnout.”One would send as fast as hecould with speed key (bug) whilethe other copied on a typewriter,the idea being to see who couldgo the faster. This continued



wherever they were until Doncould send in excess of 45 wpmand receive about 55 wpmLater he needed a staff of 35 as-sistant operators of about his ownspeed capabilities. Within a shorttime he found them among Navypersonnel where he was stationed,and did it this way: by sending hisrequests at these speeds and see-ing who responded to what hesent. Here were at least threedozen men with high speed skillsbefore 192Ø. They were men whoenjoyed the code so much theyachieved high goals. Moral: Ifyou want to do it, you probablycan.Arnie’s Father was chief telegraphoperator at a RR station and hadonce won a 6Ø wpm award in acontest for RR operators. His son,age 8, Arnie hung around the sta-tion all his spare time. He didn’tsay how, but he learned Morse onhis own and soon had learned tosend and receive at about 25wpm. When dad was out he cop-ied down the train orders for him.He wanted a job as operator. Aftermuch pleading, his dad said hecould operate the station all byhimself when he reached his 9thbirthday. So he did, all day, whilehis dad looked over his shoulderand smiled a time or two. Arniebegged the RR to let him be asecond shift operator after schooland weekends for 5Ø cents anhour as second shift operator. Hewas required to pass the cooked-up special qualifying test: ofsending a train order at 25 wpmusing one key with his left handfor the dashes and a second keywith his right hand for the dots.He succeeded in doing it some

months later, and finally wasgiven a job as sole operator onsecond shift all summer.


AppendixA New Way To Talk“It was in 1925 in eastern Penn-sylvania that Ed Hart at age 15became a ham with his first op-erator's license and call 3NF (twolicenses were required in thosedays) . His 3-1/2 year youngerbrother George got curious. Whatwas this Ed was doing and havingso much fun with? Was it somesort of new language he was us-ing? -- George said:--”I admiredmy big brother Ed. He was myideal. He was 15 and I was 11.I began to learn the Morse codelike a baby learns to talk – by lis-tening to my big brother operateand I picked up the code by 'os-mosis' -- recognizing and imitat-ing the more frequent sounds Iheard. I wasn't aware of any suchthing as “dots” and “dashes”,but only of symbols with mean-ing.I quickly learned the sounds ofhis frequent CQ's, his call 3NFand special procedure signalssuch as “AR K”, “DE” and“R” (all still used), and “U” (forUS calls to foreigners before theprefixes W and K were issued),and absorbed other sounds, assounds with meaning. I just sortof drifted into it by listening. Itwas easy for me.“I didn't start out with any deter-mination to learn the code, or toget a ticket, or get on the air. Butone day -- it was 14 Sept. 1926 --using my brother's station, when Iwas 12, that I made my first QSOwith W9CRJ in Lexington, KY,. Iwas pretty shaky on that first

contact and Ed had to finish it forme.“When I was 14 I clocked myselfat 34 wpm, plain language. I dis-covered that I had mastered theMorse code and was able to carryon a conversation just like Ed did.“So my advice is: to acquire pro-ficiency in code sit and listen, andkeep listening and want to under-stand it. Anybody who's learnedto talk can learn CW. It's thateasy. Just live with it and it willcome to you. Morse code is justanother way of talking.” [Young-sters and adults will no doubt be-gin to learn differently.]Learning conversational CW ismore like learning to talk than itis to learning another language. Itis far easier -- you don't need tolearn how to pronounce or hearstrange new kinds of sounds, learna new vocabulary or a new gram-mar. It is just recognizing thesimple mono-tone sounds andimitating them. Learning it is “al la matter of incentive.”“In my opinion achieving high-speed CW is a natural progression,if you learn it right in the begin-ning and continue to practice itthe right ways.” .For receivingGeorge has for many years beenable to read code up to 6Ø wpm,almost 7Ø, but now he can onlysend at about 4Ø, and so hisQSO's today are rarely over thatspeed.TalkingMost of us talk so fluently and soeasily that we scarcely give athought to how very different weare from every and all the ani-mals. From birth we are well on



our way to learning to express ourneeds:-- for water, for food, to getrid of some discomfort, and forcompanionship, to be cared forand loved. To be part of thefamily and society around us --communicating first in body lan-guage and simple cries, and soonin the spoken language of family,friends and neighbours.Behind “language”, communi-cation is this growing overallsense is our ability to think. Hu-man thinking is a God-like activ-ity. At first we tend to think ofconcrete things: things seen, felt,tasted, smelled and heard. Butsoon we begin to have thoughts ofthings not having physical exis-tence, things we remember orimagine. We learn to think andexpress our thoughts about these“things' in words, too. And peo-ple around the world do this inover six thousands recognizedand different languages and dia-lects.Writing and learning to read areother skills, not “natural” or in-herent or innate, but by practicethey seem almost automatic, astalking is. Learning to write andto read takes conscious effort oneach one's part, and lots of activepractice. Written records of what was oncejust spoken have been kept for atleast some 6ØØØ to 7ØØØ years.Strings of spoken sounds or syl-lables (Japanese, etc.), and some-times whole words (e. g., Chinese)have been given arbitrary, butconventional symbols (“charac-ters”).. One such set of symbolshas been generally agreed uponwithin each language group.

Now, what about Morse and othertelegraphic codes? Where do theyfit in? What are they? They aremore like writing than they are ofspeaking. They are more like adifferent alphabet or (small) set ofsymbols than like a language it-self.Many of us today are so literatethat we read as easily and readilyas we talk. We hardly see the oneas being any different from theother.. We can think, and to ex-press what we are thinking andcommunicate with those aroundus, we use our native language. .Let us here in this appendix re-think our views and our attitudetoward the Morse code. This year,. 2ØØ1 A. D., the so-called Morse telegraph codereached its 163nd year or age.Like printing, it can talk in anylanguage. Using simple stop-start,on-off type signals or motion, wecan communicate using touch,sound, light, electricity, radiowaves.It has no dialectical peculiarities,no lisps, no strange or difficult-to-hear or pronounce sounds, or“speech defects”, nothing tomake it hard to understand..Paralysed persons can use it to“talk” by blinking the eye orwiggling a finger. More normalpeople can use it by radio to talkto those on the other side of theworld or in space. With practiceand the help of modern sendingequipment it can be transmittedand “read” by ear at speeds al-most as fast as ordinary conversa-tion. It may be sent and receivedautomatically at speeds many



times faster, but this is not of in-terest to us here...Edward Vail, one of SamuelMorse's hired and most valuableco-workers, did not realize what awonderful communication tool heinvented in 1838.Let's keep these words in mind:- itis a communication tool.In the early days of telegraphy itwas thought of as “writing at adistance”, which is what the wordtelegraphy means. (See Ch. 19.)But very soon the early operatorsfound they could understand theletters and words from the noisesthe printer made. Then they dis-covered they could also just con-verse together without having towrite anything down. This all oc-curred within 1Ø - 15 years of thestart of telegraphy. Talking byMorse code is not something newat allHow then did we radio amateursget started thinking of it assomething to have to learn towrite down? It is because writingit down exactly as it is heard is theonly proof positive that we havecorrectly received it. This is called“copying? And to obtain an gov-ernment amateur operator's li-cense we had to be able to copy itat various specified speeds. (Thisis still true but at a speed which ishardly practical - 5 words perminute.) But do we copy down everythingwe hear on the telephone? Evento think of that would seem silly.We understand speech because itis spoken as strings of sounds oneshifting or blending into the next,forming words and sentences. We

learn to understand code the sameway, but with a different form ofcharacters, spelled out as words.In this way it resembles reading,because we need to know how tospell. This is an added (hopefully)small difficulty for Englishspeakers languages. Spelling ishardly a problem for speakers ofItalian or Spanish, which arespelled almost exactly as they arepronounced..These are clues to help us speedup to near talking speeds. Now inthe next chapter let's see how togo about it. QRQ OperatorsThe experiences of a Number ofQRQ Operators Who HaveAchieved itThis is roughly in historical se-quence --documentation of spe-cific high-speed operators, mostlyamateurs.:I. Highest hand-sent code speedsin the range of 45-55 wpm usinga bug.As test speeds were achieved bycommercial high-speed punched-tape sending machines. The em-phasis was the evidenced ability tocopy.Reading did, not count.#1 Theodore McElroyWho was a commercial telegra-pher, not a ham. Perhaps the ear-liest and most famous name athigh-speeds is Ted McElroy whoalmost permanently held thehigh-speed record of copying at75+ wpm from 1939 wpm on.What many may not know is thatat 75 wpm Ted acknowledged that



there were many other operatorswho had abilities as good or betterthan his, but they did not enter thecontest. What most people do notknow is that Lavon N. McDonaldwas equal with him, and but for aslip in the increase to 77 wpmtrial, might have been the techni-cal winner.Ted was born 1 Sep. 19Ø1 anddied suddenly in Nov. 1963. Hewas one of four brothers whowere telegraphers. He left schoolin 1916 and went to work forWestern Union as a messengerboy. As he passed by the telegra-phers, he saw how many of themcould nonchalantly turn out 5Ø –6Ø messages per hour. He man-aged to get some of them to teachhim Morse code during their 15minute rest periods and after afew weeks he imagined that hewas himself to be a good opera-tor.He got a try-out - it was tough -but it gave him a start. He foundodd and ends jobs here and thereand finally wound up at FortDevons, near Ayer MA, where hecontinued until the end of the warin 1918.Back in Boston he got a job usingInternational Morse code at sta-tion RCA, Chatham MA. It wasrough getting used to the new(International Morse) code duringthe first two weeks. In 192Ø thestation moved to NYC, but it did-n't work out well for him and hemoved back to Boston and got ajob with WU again.On 6 May 1922 he learned of anExposition in Boston which wouldinclude a code speed contest. Hisboss allowed him the evening off

to try, and he easily wound up --using International Morse code,which by then he hadn't used forabout a year -- at 51 wpm.. It wasgreat fun for him. Later in 1922at Chicago he won the trophy at55-1/2 wpm with perfect copy forWorld's championship. He lost itto his friend Joe W. Chaplon at55.3 wpm with 11 errors. In Sep.1935 a contest at Brockton MAhe retook the title. Again at theWorld's Fair he scored 69 wpmwith only two errors, while JoeChaplon made three. In July 1939he and Lavon McDonald of Chi-cago tied at 75 wpm. But whenthe speed increased to 77 wpmMcDonald fumbled worse thanTed did. So Ted was called winnerat 75.2 wpm which has remainedas the official world's record.In a telegram to Frank Borsodydated 14 Sept. 1933 he wrote “ t omy old pal Frank Barsody, ingrateful recognition of the valu-able coaching and assistance hegave me, to which I owe my abil-ity to gain the world's champion-ship as Radio Operator. Andagain in a letter dated 4 Sep. 1935to Frank Borsody Ted wrote“You have been the best friend tome on this code racket that I'vegot. I cannot understand how Ican fail to win it this year. As I sitin this chair I am copying solid(?) without a single error for fiveor ten minutes at a time, at 7Øwpm, and I cannot understandhow any XXX living man can dothe same, because I know that thesignals I am copying can't be read[copied ?] by anyone else, that is,without error .In a telegram from DorchesterMA dated in 1935 to F Borsody,



McElroy wrote: “I want to tellyou that I very deeply appreciatethe help you give me in winningthe title.. Your equipment andadvice really won the title. I willnever forget the debt I owe you .”[Notice that this totally refutes therubbish he wrote as to how muchCandler's method had helpedhim.]Borsody, in a letter marked in ink“received April 1975” to Eitelthat he clocked McElroy at aninformal run [“I invited him to sitdown and take a little workoutreceiving some high-speed code.My sending operator, JackMcKessy, punched up the tape,and the receiving operator, rightthere at the exhibit, let McElroysit down in his chair and typedown the copy. In another placeBorsody says that showed an ac-curate 79 wpm for 75 lines with-out a single error. Elsewhere Bor-sody says that he and Taylor veri-fied McElroy's [later] contestspeed as 76 wpm, containingtechnical material with which Tedcould not have been familiar.Ted also said at another time thathe could read the code muchfaster as many others he knewalso could -- it was typing whichlimited him.#2 Lavon McDonaldWas another commercial operator,but a radio operator equal withMcElroy. He definitely tied withTed McElroy in the 1939 contest.No further information on him,except that he was also a ham.KeyersII. Keyers made it easier to sendfaster, and there must have been

an overall general speed increasewith their arrival in the 196Ø'sBut it was the keyboard that reallystarted the great step upward inspeed.Among the early high-speederswere:1961 the “Codamite”, .in 1967one designed by John RicksW9TO these and others had nei-ther memory or a space bar.(Others had no more than just theautomatic individual letter spacingafter each character). Spaces werehand created.In 1974 the “Curtis KB-42ØØMorse Keyboard”, was one of thefirst units with. a space bar to pro-vide normal word spaces, and hada 64 character type ahead mini-memory. A meter showing howmany character spaces there werebetween typing and sending al-lowed a form of “continuoustyping”#3 James B. (Jim) Ricks, W9TO b: 1914-12-23 promoted anddeveloped the keyboard systemHe first designed a keyer usingvacuum tubes, (Gary Bold usedone of these for 15 years begin-ning in 1966, when he then wentto the Curtis Keyer.) Jim was acofounder of the CFO club andmust have been a high-speed manhimself. No information on hisbackground.#4 William (Bill) Eitelb19Ø8, d. 1989. And perhaps hiswife Laneil.On High-Speed Code



Taken from a file of some of hisletters and replies from friendsand others beginning in 1974..His early radio and code learninghistory does not seem to beknown in any detail by any corre-spondent now living. He was ac-tive in radio in the early 192Ø's,and was familiar with the argu-ments between spark to CW en-thusiasts in those days.. He was agenius in the development ofhigh-powered vacuum tubes andother electronics aspects, and wasa co-founder of the well-knownEimac Co. in 1934... He was adeep thinker. Most of the follow-ing materials are in his ownwords.The potential of Morse code forcommunication, using the benefitsof modern equipment, expandsour past ability in a manner neverthought possible. Some amateurshave been and are talking to-gether with Morse code at speedsof 8Ø - 1ØØ wpm or more. Thesenew high-speed operators acceptnew equipment as a means of im-proving their operating ability (atool) and not as a threat to theirstatus. It has and is being done. Itis interesting to note that the 5-Star hams attained their speedsusing keyboards having no mem-ory such as we have today.Because with our older toolscould only send so fast, is thisreally also the upper limit for ourreceiving ability? Let us not resisteither improved operating meth-ods or equipment that will allowbetter use of the code for somevague “romantic” connectionswith the past -- history.

Have we forgotten the history ofkeys?. Stop and think of thegains in ease and speed when wewent from a straight key to a side-swiper, to a bug, then to a keyer!Is a keyboard something evil?Is the true measure of one's re-ceiving proficiency one's abilityto copy to “put it down” on pa-per? Copying was very importantwhen messages were being han-dled and the code had to be re-corded so the message could begiven to the recipient in a usefulform.Official government messages,diplomatic and military requiredabsolute accuracy, but when wesee the Morse code as a means ofcommunication between individu-als and not as a means of han-dling messages, we have a wholenew set of circumstances andbenefits, it is no more desirable to“put it down” than it is to putdown a phone conversation.This use of the code can becomea challenge both to master thecode and the associated modernequipment available at speedsabove and below 8Ø wpm. E. g.,in a round-table one can transmita thought while waiting for theVOX to respond to SSB. Yes, there may be some whosephysical or mental limitationsprevent these speeds, but the big-gest deterrent is the lack of a realinterest.Once you determine to master theMorse code, I believe it will befound that practice can be asmuch fun as operating. The mostimportant and final ingredient isthe determination to use the key-



board, and any other usefulequipment. GOOD code becomeseasy at high speeds.Good spacing tends to be a prob-lem, but one that practice canovercome.5-STAR club originally required7Ø wpm, but soon raised it to 8Øwpm. There were four othermembers originally, but by 1974had increased to a total of 1Ø.There must have been others also. (See QST November 1974 page155 for a good photo of Bill andhis wife Laneil in an ad promot-ing the Ten-Tec Triton as work-ing well with high-speed codekeying input. The letter-headgives the Butro Ranch and Labo-ratory at Dayton, NV 894Ø3, andwas dated August 2 4, 1974.) .#5 Tom Alderman, W4BQF.First person story:--As a boy of 8or 9 I was wondering what myDad found so entertaining aboutsitting at a desk copying all thosedits and dahs; but I could tell thatit was something he greatly en-joyed as a CW traffic net opera-tor..Therefore, I didn't start hammingwith the slightest negative attitudeabout code and so I never gener-ated the attitude that “I'll never beable to do that”. In fact, copyingCW is one of the great enjoymentsthat I get out of this hobby. It isfun .Before I had finished my year asa Novice ham, I too, was into CWtraffic nets and enjoying it tre-mendously. So for the past 49years (since 1951) I've been en-

joying CW and still think of it as“ f u n ” .I'm still enjoy high speeds at near8Ø wpm as W3NJZ, K3TF,KB9XE, and I 'harass' each otheron Wednesday night for about anhour on 3.533MHz. My realhigh-speed pal, Ira-NU2C, used to'challenged' me to actually deter-mine how fast I actually couldread code. We found the maxi-mum speed that I could under-stand and correctly respond to hisquestions, was 144 wpm. (I amnot a “freak” -- hi..hi).I suspect the starting key to beingable to copy high speed code isone's initial learning attitude. Itmay be strongest factor.I believe that learning code hasforever been talked about just likewe talked about that 'awful'mathematics stuff in high school,therefore most potential hamsstart off with a 'bad' impression ofcode.I'm pretty much convinced thatthere is a 'speed hump' that mosthams (myself included) seem tohave a problem exceeding. I thinkthat speed hump range is between45 and 6Ø wpm. Almost everyoneI have helped get into the 6Ø+wpm area, have had an extremelydifficult time debunking thatmythical 'negative attitude' andactually copying faster than thathump. I can imagine what most ofthem thought when I would tellthem to try not to think of copy-ing 6Ø wpm as something theycan't do, think of it as just learn-ing a different way of talking.Because I'm convinced that QRQCW is one just conversing in asecond language.



How does one read CW in excessof, say 8Ø wpm? I can honestlytell you that I have no clue!Around 5Ø-6Ø wpm one nolonger copies dots and dashes,they literally begin copyingwords. As the speed increases, Idon't think your copying wordsany more, you get into the flow ofthe conversation and literally be-gin copying phrases or completesentences. Interestingly enough, Ifind that when copying over 8Øwpm, I don't even realize I'mcopying code, unless a majorword is either misspelled or reallyhacked on the keyboard. I don'tconcentrate on the code, I con-centrate in what is being said.There is no difference in doingthat, as having a native Americanconverse fluently in French.Code ReadersIt certainly bugs me that mosthams think that if your using akeyboard and/or your runningCW over 3Ø wpm, that you MUSTbe using a code reader! (I thinkthat's another part of the universalnegative attitude about code.)Sometime around 1968-69 I be-gan trying to copy the QSO of theguy in New York and the guy inFlorida, who almost nightly held a1ØØ wpm one-hour long chat.My wife (I still don't know howshe found out about them)bought me an Info-Tech Morsecode reader for my birthday,which of course I, at that time,sneered at. But I found that whenI was trying to copy the 'hump'speeds around 55 wpm, if Imissed a letter or a word, mybrain would freeze up and tryconcentrating on deciding what

word I had just missed thereforelosing total concentration; byglancing up at that code reader,my brain would be quickly satis-fied, and I would continue withthe copying! At the time I didn'trealize this was actually happen-ing, however after about a year ofthis, it suddenly dawned on methat I was not looking at thereader any longer and I wascopying in excess of 6Ø wpm. Ina sense, we are pretty lucky withcode readers, they copy extremelywell in the speed ranges we needthem to help us get over the'speed hump' but with the QRN of4Ø/8Ø metres, once you try to getthem to consistently decode CWover about 7Ø wpm, they just cantdo it because of the normal bandnoise!He says “There is a lot more tobe said on this subject. zzz'#6 Bill Pletting KB9XEHe was about age 35 and was en-joying personal radio communi-cation with CB. It was real fun.His CB buddies were havingweekly get-togethers just to so-cialize. Then he discovered thatone of them was also a ham,whom he visited in his home. Billwas astonished to hear Morsecode and, like many others, ap-parently had never heard com-munications in Morse code be-fore. It fascinated, intrigued him.Then and here he became so en-thusiastic to learn it that hebought a set of learning cassettetapes from Amateur ElectronicsSupply,. A reputable and well-known company in Milwaukee,which advertised in QST. [Quite a



few others also had such courses,including the ARRL.]Bill became so “obsessed” withthose dit and dah characters, thathe quickly learned the sounds ofthe alphabet, numbers and punc-tuation, and within a couple ofweeks he had begun to practicewherever he was and would notdisturb others. He would tap outall kinds of stuff with his finger asif using a key.-- or saying them in“dits and dahs” (At home it wasso bad that his wife was gettingirritated !)He was determined to do it. Ap-parently he did not questionwhether it would be either“hard” or “easy”.-- he just didit . So it was “easy”, because henever thought of it being “ha rd” .He eagerly wanted to do it andlearning was enjoyable -- fun. .And because he started learning itas it is used -- hearing it andsending it as sound patterns -- hedid not have to do any relearning.He was learning it in the perfectway. He was practicing it almostconstantly and enjoying everyminute of it.It was “easy” because it wasn't“hard” in any way. It was some-thing to be enjoyed and done --that was it. About this time hebought a ham band receiver justto listen to amateur signals. Meanwhile he also read and un-derstood or memorized the an-swers to the necessary technicalquestions and regulations so thatwithin a month he took and easilypassed the 5 wpm code text andthe written test, and soon receivedhis first license - as a Novice.

Now Bill got a transceiver andwent on the air using code ac-tively in all QSO's. But also oftenaway from the radio he justtapped out the code with his fin-ger.. He knew he needed to buildup his code speed to be able toread most signals. He did so wellthat within a year of getting hisNovice license, he took and suc-cessfully passed the Extra Classlicense (2Ø wpm) exam..With total access now to the hambands he tried RITTY and someother digital transmission meth-ods, but absolutely nothing couldhold his fancy like Morse codedid. He was also discovering thatthe more you practice doing athing the right way, the better youget at it.Higher speeds were a constantchallenge. He still kept hearingstations that were too fast to un-derstand, and he wanted to under-stand everything he heard. --these were like a spur jabbed intohis side. He kept telling himself::“I've just gotta read that.” Thiswas the incentive that drove himonward.During this period a number ofnew build-it-yourself kits cameout, including some Heathkits.One was the Heathkit Ultra-ProCW Keyboard which came out in1983, and he built several of these-- some also for friends.Along the way a number of high-speed operators helped him:--W4BQF Tom Alderman, WØGHXRay Larson, W9TO: Jim RICKS,.K9AMC Christ C. Kovacheff,KU2D Daniel E. Silsona (de-ceased), KØPFX Melvin L. Whit-



ten and others Soon, in onlyabout 4 years from when he gothis first ticket, he reached the 8Øwpm speed range, and has pur-sued it ever since. In short, he“took off and flew.”Since that time, like Tom Alder-man and others, he welcomes anynewcomer and tries to help himget into the higher speed ranges.#7 Harry W. Lewis W7JWJ(b.: 1923-Ø2-Ø2) is another oldtimer of high skill.. (The materialhere was gleaned from World Ra-dio Aug. 1991 p. 56, and March1993 p. 31,32 and a number ofpersonal letters. Sometimes thingsare paraphrased to bring out thebasics.)He got interested in ham radio inHigh School when a friend'stransmitter penetrated the schoolmovie sound system. He washooked. He found the two Morsecodes in a physics book andlearned both all by himself. Hedoes not seem to particularly“love” the code, but it consti-tuted a challenge to him. As longas he has felt a challenge he hasbeen driven to it.When he was having an earlyhealth problem, he saw learningthe code as a goal to help recoverhis health. Learning the code tothis degree of skill was not easyfor him.He decided to become a part ofthe magic world of radio, so whenhe finished high school (about194Ø) he entered a radio andtelegraph school to learn the codereally well, because it seemed tobe a prerequisite to progress..There the better students com-

peted one against another to be-come head of the class. At 45wpm an attractive young lady stu-dent still paralleled his speed, andso he pushed himself harder bylong (up to six) hours of dailypractice.After school he spent some yearsin military service as a flying ra-dio operator and instructor, andthen entered the commercialworld of radio broadcasting andTV. Over the years he worked atnine different radio stations, threeTV stations, a telephone company,a computer center and severalother places. Lots of experience. Since 1946, during part of hisvarious jobs, he managed to teachamateur radio classes. He helpeda total of some 3,5ØØ students toobtain their amateur licenses. Heloves teaching Ham radio andreadily admits it..He observed that over this longperiod the average age of appli-cants gradually increased by 15years and it was taking longer andlonger to teach them the code. Toattract high speed code operatorsand learn the secrets of how theygained that skill, he started givingcode contests at various hamfests.This wasn't just for the fun of it -he wanted to learn more and bet-ter teaching methods.He applied what he was learningto his own practice and he beganto approach the 1ØØ wpm ratefor copying. But he was disap-pointed that the same things didnot help the students to improvegreatly, as he had anticipated. Heresearched books on the psychol-ogy of learning, etc., and foundthere are five fundamental factors



involved if one expects to havesuccess in teaching how to copycode:--1. First and foremost, the stu-

dent must be strongly self-motivated. But it was hardto convince the students ofthis.

2. Diet The over consumptionof sugar, pre-processedfood and meat productsseemed always to impedethe code-learning process.[Note that Candler saidmuch the same thing yeasbefore.].

3. Exercise (such as push-ups,running, etc.) before andafter practice periods [Can-dler also agreed here, but inhis day cramped workingquarters, poor sunlight andair circulation were com-mon problems.]

4. Correct methods of codepractice. Successful codelearning results in the indi-vidual copying totally bysubconscious mind activity,but that does not occur un-til the mind has been prop-erly trained. [Lewis wasaiming at copying ability,not just understanding.]

Another factor involved the riseand decay times of the code sig-nal envelopes (the dits and dahs),the frequency (pitch) of the toneand its timber, etc., adjacent voweland consonant combinations, etc.,to optimize the impression to ourears.When asked in 1991 what it is liketo copy at very high speeds hereplied “at 75 to 85 wpm there is

absolute concentration, almost toa state of hypnosis.” When askedif he could start copying immedi-ately at 75 wpm, he said “NO! Iwould have to prepare myselfpsychologically first, and thattakes from a few minutes to asmuch as 45.”He then was asked if he thoughtthere is an upper limit to receivingspeed, he said “It is definitelyabove 12Ø wpm, because hisfriend Jerry Ferrell had beenclocked at 9Ø% complete readingat 125 wpm.”He was certified by the ARRL in1988 at 76 wpm copying . Nowwith advancing age (7Ø) he feelshe is slowing down somewhat.#8 George Hart, W1NJM,A long-time ARRL headquartersham. First Peson story:-In 1924 in a small town in Penn-sylvania Ed Hart became a hamwith an operator's license and call3NF. His little brother George wascurious. What was this Ed wasdoing and having so much funwith? Was it some sort of new lan-guage he was using? What didGeorge have to say about it?“I admired my big brother Ed.He was my ideal. He was 15 and Iwas 1Ø. I began to learn the codelike a baby learns to talk -- bylistening to my brother operateand picked up the “code” by'osmosis' – recognizing and imi-tating the more frequent sounds Iheard.. I wasn't aware of any suchthing as “dots” and “dashes”,but only of symbols with mean-ing. I quickly learned the soundsof his frequent CQ's, his call 3NFand special procedure signals



such as ARK (now DE), U (usedbetween calls), R (signal strength),and absorbed other sounds, assounds with meaning. I just sortof drifted into it by listening. Imust have been born with a keymy mouth.“I didn't start out with any deter-mination to learn the code, or toget a ticket, or on the air. .But oneday -- it was 14 Sept. 1926 -- Imade my first QSO with W9CRJin Lexington, KY, using mybrother's station. When I was 12 Idiscovered I had mastered it andwas able to carry on a conversa-tion. I could communicate likehe did, I could do 34 wpm send-ing with a straight key. Finally mybrother Ed bullied me into gettinga temporary license in 1931. Thecode was not a problem, but Ibarely passed the written theorytest with a grade of 7Ø. I receivedthe call W3AMR, which has agreat CW swing and I learned tolove it. I wasn't capable of build-ing my own station yet.“So my advice is to acquire pro-ficiency in code sit and listen, andkeep listening and want to under-stand it. Anybody who's learnedto talk can learn CW. It's thateasy. Just live with it and it willcome to you. Morse code is justanother way of talking.”Learning conversational CW ismore like learning to talk than itis to learning another language. Itis far easier - you don't need tolearn how to pronounce strangenew kinds of sounds, learn a newvocabulary or a new grammar. Itis just recognizing the simplemono-tone sounds and imitating

them. Learning it is “all a matterof incentive.”“I was given a Vibroplex key in1929 and in my late teens andearly 2Ø's I could send almostlike a machine at 45 wpm. Butfirst with straight key and laterwith a bug he developed the pain-ful 'glass arm'. When keyboardscame out he found he could sendwith his two-finger method up ato about 55 wpm.“I never learned touch-typing, sothis is a handicap with the key-board. I use two-fingers and whencopying text to send the maxi-mum I can do is was 55, because Imust keep shifting my eyes backand forth from text to keyboardquite rapidly. Thin not only slowsme down, but promotes errorsincreasingly as I grow older.“In my opinion high-speed CW isa natural progression, if you learnit right in the beginning and con-tinue to practice it “.For receivingGeorge has for many years beenable to read code up to almost 8Øwpm, but now he can only sendabout 4Ø, and so his QSO's todayare rarely over that speed.Most of the time since 1957 hehas actively promoted high-speedreception by putting weekly prac-tice periods and occasional quali-fying test sessions on the air, andawarding certificates of profi-ciency. He did this first from asmall club he formed, advertisingin the QST. Later with help fromfriends in a the Society of Wire-less Pioneers. His transmissionwere made using a tape puller atspeeds ranging from 2Ø wpm to7Ø wpm. Only recently has heceased doing this.



Now he rarely sends over 3Ø - 35wpm. He feels he could maybemake 4Ø in copying it down.He feels that “personal aggran-dizement is a basic motivation ofthe Amateur radio pursuits, espe-cially DX-ing and contesting. Wedo what we do because we enjoyit”, and some do enjoy it purelyfor itself.#9 John F. Rhilinger, KC1MI,Was able to read at 8Ø wpm, andto copy at 7Ø. In 1992 I askedhim some 22 questions, each ofwhich he answered, plus severalnice letters. Here is the essence ofwhat he says was his experience..His father W1QQS was a closefriend of Ted McElroy, the longtime speed-record holder, whofrequently visited them, andwhom he knew as Uncle Ted. Byage 6 he became interested inMorse code and from them at thattime he learned the code up to arate of 1Ø - 15 wpm, but did notget a license.In his later years when he had be-come a ham and reached a speedof 3Ø wpm, he began to practicesleep-learning. (Sleep-learningwas a method successfully triedby some in the early 192Ø's.)Generally he practiced it up tofour hours each night. He used atape recorder to send continuouscode materials previously heardand recorded at various speeds,and speeded up ultimately to the6Ø wpm range or higher by therecorder play-back (running 1-3/4 inches a second.).. This seemsto have been the main way hereached the higher speeds. He wasalso actively hamming six hours a

day and probably aiming at thehigher speeds he heard.He has not sensed any loss of restduring sleep with the recorderplaying. He does not need anyprepping-up to start reading athigh speeds. He just starts. Typi-cal misspellings and other sucherrors cause him no problems inreading. He does not lose out..#1Ø Katashi Noshe, KH6IJ.,was a long-time ham, a DX manand code teacher. What his topspeed was is apparently not re-corded, but he used up into the6Ø wpm range in DX, and hisstudents advanced rapidly fromzero to 3Ø - 35 wpm with noproblems. In 1959 Katashi NoseKH6IJ wrote “Any DXer worthhis salt is good for at least 6Øwpm. He gears his speed to whatcomes back.” He was a well-known DXer.#11 Jerry A. Ferrell WB7VKI(CFO # 76Ø) is another veryhigh-speed operator.(over 1ØØwpm with whom I had extensivecorrespondence in 1992. He wasborn in 1927. In 1945 at age 18he joined the US Coast Guard andaptitude tests showed he shouldmake a good radio operator. Hewas assigned to the six-month ra-dio course at Atlantic City, wherethe goal was 2Ø wpm of ciphered5-letter groups. Only a very littlestandard English was practicedtoward the end., but he was nottoo good at that.) Otherwise hewas at the top of the class. Thecourse plan at the CG school wasto start out at some 5 wpm (ap-parently using very slow codecharacters -- far below their rec-



ognition as patterns, which occursin the range of 1Ø-13 wpm), andprogressed faster by one week at atime increments until reaching2Ø-wpm.After school he started out on USCG ships, but left for part of1948-9 and went into RR telegra-phy. He spent one month at theirtelegraph school for the AmericanMorse code and then went ontemporary assignments. Later in1949 he returned to the USCGand stayed until his retirement in1966. During various assignmentin the CG he copied normal Eng-lish messages at 2Ø-25 wpm, andpress broadcasts for the ship'snewspaper at 35-4Ø wpm. He wasso good that sometimes the shorestation operators would punchtapes to send to him at 5Ø-6Øwpm to try to trip him up - but hedid not miss, and they wonderedwhat was going on. Then for aperiod of 12 years, 1996 to 1978,he worked at different occupa-tions with no radio or telegraphyactivity. In early 1978 he got aham license. And in May thatyear he visited the VancouverHam Fair. On entering the build-ing heard code signals and lo-cated their source, as a code speeddemonstration for a crowd ofspectators being given by HarryLewis who had a keyboard, a TVmonitor and a meter showingsending speed. Jerry asked for atry, starting at 3Ø wpm and in-creasing by 5 wpm increments,copied up perfectly through 5Øwpm. At this time he becamefriends with Harry Lewis whofrom then on lent him equipmentand helps, and encouraged him toincrease his speed capability. So

he bought a reel to reel tape re-corder and a keyboard and madesome 5Ø large reels of 1/4 inchtape at speeds ranges of 5Ø - 75,6Ø - 8Ø and 7Ø to 9Ø wpm forpractice. Later he made moretapes with 5 wpm speed incre-ments between 5Ø & 8Ø, etc. Hehas a 75 & 1ØØ wpm. “warm-up” tape that makes the othersseem rather slow.I sent him a list of questionswhich he answered in consider-able detail:--.1. He rightly suspects that the

main reason for the in-crease in number of highspeed operators is the wide-spread use of keyboards forsending, but as for key-boards which also receive, Ihave heard of none. (Somecomputer programs can re-ceive, however, but I do notknow how fast.).

2a. He felt that it would be sostressful for an operator tocopy at 6Ø wpm for 1Ø -12 hours daily as to be vir-tually impossible. He feelsno strain while reading, buthigh speed copying isstressful for him. He isquite correct that readingcode and copying code aretwo different kinds of op-erations -- copying beingby far the more difficult.This because one must getthe code from you ears,process it through the brain,then on down to your fin-gers to the typewriter.

2b. For him, he finds it hard tosustain for very long. It iswith this he must practice



for an upcoming contest.For the upcoming contestin five months he wouldspend at least an hour eachday. He must also getpsyched-up before a con-test.

2c. He says he is sure that thesecret of learning to copy athigher speeds is to start outlistening to and trying tocopy 1Ø or so higher thanone is comfortable with andthen dropping back. Likedriving a car at 9Ø mphand then slowing down to8Ø seems slow.

3. He says that to him Inter-national Morse code at 75wpm or more sounds like“chicken fat in a hot grid-dle.” To start reading it hehas to make up his mind tobreak into it and beginconcentrating on words andphrases.

4. Then so long as he con-sciously maintains his con-centration, he can continueto read it. What does heconcentrate on, and howdoes he do it? He visualizesit as something like this -:“Listening to a newsbroadcast on the radiowhile reading the daily pa-per, one or the other willhave priority of attention:While I focus on one, I amconscious of the presenceof the other, but not fullyaware of its contents- in factit is may be more or lessgibberish to me.” [Para-phrased} This is an inexactparallel, but it is this snap-

ping of attention that makesthe difference betweenreading and hearing it asnoise. Hard or unusualwords, etc., are sometimesdifficult, but generally donot cause drop-outs by de-stroying overall concentra-tion. He may be consciousof missing something (dueto misspelling or sendingerror, etc.) and be momen-tarily puzzled, but not forlong, as he continues on.Attention is on under-standing - that keeps himgoing. Long words do notcause any problems.

5. He does not know whetherthere is a limitation on thespeed of understanding, butthinks there must be.

6. He has always been able tolisten to the code or send itwhile doing other things --typing at moderate speeds,conversing with others, re-tuning, etc. While he was ashipboard operator and re-turning with others fromshore leave after being stillsomewhat inebriated theywould sometimes try to triphim up by sending himwords spelled backwards,etc. But he did not trip up.

7. Although he can read andcopy American Morse upto around 3Ø-4Ø wpm itdoes not sound right to himwith a CW base. He doesenjoy reading it occasion-ally from taped sounders,however. He never prac-ticed at higher speeds.



#12 Frederck M. Ryan W3NIZ(b. 1932 -Ø1-2Ø)In about 1942 when he was 1Ø,Fred's Father as a Christmas gift,gave him a toy telegraph setwhich could be used to send be-tween two stations, using a buzzer,a clicker (sounder simulator) or alamp. There is no doubt as towhy he was given that. His Fatherwas a telegrapher on the Pitts-burgh and Lake Erie RR, hisGrandfather was a telegrapher onthe Pennsylvania RR, and an uncleon the Baltimore and Ohio RR.He taught himself the letters andnumbers by memorizing them ata very low speed..After WW-II when ham radio wasagain allowed, he decided to im-prove his code ability and take theexam. He practiced on his tele-graph set and also mentally put-ting advertisements (posted in thetrolley car during rides into townor in newspapers) in to code. HisFather was not much help becausehe knew only American Morse.He took the test in 1946 andfailed the 13 wpm code exam. Atthat time one had to wait sixmonths before trying again. So,during that interim he practicedmore, as he had previously, andremembers that his sending speedwas good up to 18 - 2Ø wpm, buthe barely made it at 13 wpm, andso successfully passed it early thenext year.Since he expresses himself interms of “dots” and “dashes”,he probably followed his father'scopying and thinking approachand practice, rather than the morerecent ham practice speaking in

terms of sound as “dits” and“dahs”. Whether he learned it bysound or visually, he says he wassort of “stuck” at the test speedof 13 wpm for a while. He hadlittle time for speed building be-cause he was busy with highschool studies, and since that wasthe limit of most of his contactshe felt no interest or incentive togo any faster anyway.In the early 195Ø's when he wasin the Army he was using astraight key up into the 15 - 17wpm range.Sometime in the 196Ø's his firstreal improvement began when hestarted listening to the ARRL codepractice transmissions in prepara-tion for taking the Extra classexam. He knew from experiencethat one tends to do worse undertest conditions, so he waited untilhe could copy at 3Ø wpm beforebeing tested at 2Ø. Of course hepassed.On into the 197Ø's his compre-hension and sending speeds in-creased slowly to about 4Ø wpm,when he used a keyer for sendingand was no longer copying it alldown. In the mid 197Ø's, whenkeyboards became available, heheard some fellows sending over8Ø wpm, but could understandvery little of what they were say-ing. He thought that would surebe fun to do. But he thought“They are really in a differentleague than I am and what theyare doing is above my ability. Ihad little time to try it because ofthe pressures of my job.”.“When I retired in 1992 I finallyhad leisure time to spend on CW,so I bought a keyboard and



started sending at 45 wpm. Thenhe heard some guys holdingQSO”s at over 6Ø wpm, I decidedI could would see if I could im-prove to that level.“It took a lot of desire and prac-tice, but over the past three years(from 1997 to the end of 2ØØØ)I have gone from 45 wpm to over7Ø wpm. I intend to keep it upand improve more. It has been alot of fun, and I have met somegreat people also who acted asmentors to me.”In his own experience he says hefinds the way his brain functionsis:- “below about 55 wpm I startconstructing the words from let-ters, and comprehension isthereby cumbersome. Especiallybelow about 25 wpm I find thatmy attention span in remember-ing the slowly incoming lettersand constructing words fromthem is tedious. Above 55 wpmmy brain starts paying little atten-tion to the letters, and the wordsjust “pop” into my head. Even at9Ø wpm I am still getting wordsand putting them together to formthoughts. 9Ø wpm seems to beabout my limit to do that, and Ibelieve that to comprehend over9Ø wpm I will have to change theway in which my brain operates.Further practice and time hasraised his comprehension speed toover 1ØØ wpm.Raising His Typing SpeedFred tells how he improved hissending and reduced the numberof errors at speeds over 7Ø wpmon the keyboard. He experi-mented and found that it tookabout ten days of practice to ex-ceed 1ØØ wpm. .

He began his experimenting andpractice at his then present 7Øwpm. Successful changes were:1. He turned off the side-tone

completely, and.2. stopped looking at the

screen, except maybe aglance when his fingers tellhim he has made a mistakeand,

3. He did not look at the key-board either. These threechanges eliminated the dis-tractions, so he could con-centrate on his fingers;

4. While he does not look atthe keyboard, he “visual-izes” it, so he could men-tally concentrate and directwhere his fingers are goingto go next. He just “wills”his fingers to go there andthey do. It is rather hard todescribe.

5. He compared it to this:“When I was seriously intoplaying the piano, althoughI was aware of the presenceof the piano keyboard, Inever looked at where thefingers were going to go.Even if I was jumping sev-eral octaves quickly, I couldhit the proper note(s) ex-actly without ever turningmy head. Looking to thekeyboard to see where thefingers were supposed toland would have madegood piano playing impos-sible.”

6. Within a couple of weeks ofexperimenting and prac-ticing, he found he couldsend as easily at 1ØØ wpm



as he had before at 7Ø.. Butwhat most surprised himwas that now he could chatjust as easily at 1ØØ wpmas he could before at 7Ø.He said “I can get thethoughts organized in timeto keep the fingers busy atthese higher speeds. When Ihad mastered this tech-nique, I found to my sur-prise that getting thethought-flow going at lØØwpm became very easy. Iwas wrong”.

7. One further thing -- heneeded to improve the ca-dence of his sending.--sending each letter at ex-actly the same rate. Hesaid: “Errors that I make,such as sending “adn” for“and”, are due to hittingthe “d” finger out of ca-dence, too quickly to allowthe “n” finger to type.Now I concentrate onkeeping the cadence con-stant, something that I havenever done over the past 5Øyears. I had thought thatwould be the really hardthing to master. But it was-n't .”

How observant and thoughtful hewas. Are these suggestions I needto follow?He has noted that in his 53 yearsof hamming he has not operated agreat deal-- typically less than anhour or two a week. Even now heis fortunate to find one week in amonth when he can communicatewith a truly high speed operator.High-speed operators in the U.S.are rare today.

#13 Ted J. Newport(b. 1919-Ø9-11 (age 81) Firstperson account. “I learned codewhen I was in flying school dur-ing WW-2. We had to send andreceive 12 wpm before we couldstart our flying training. After thewar I bought my son a short wavereceiver, heard CW on it, and re-learned the letters I had forgotten.I taught myself code with tapesand with friends helping me onthe air, I owe what speed I havethrough the help of two friendsboth deceased, who worked withme on the air for years, helpingget my speed up. The were JimmyMoss W5GRJ and Gene W4JKTwho kept pushing me.“First you must have the desire tolearn CW, and to like/love CW, andhave the desire to increase yourspeed, instead of staying at a pla-teau.“Next, practice practice, practice.When you reach a solid copyspeed, then you must have thedesire to want to go up to the nextlevel of copy speed. Tapes arefine, but the best practice is to geton the air with friend who willpush you to the next level, andwho will send to you on a regularbasis.“Gene taught me how to increasespeed. When I got to one solidcopy speed, he would increase inssending speed. When I could notcopy solid at the increased speed,he would then send to me at a stillhigher speed. I was not able to gettoo much of it, but when hedropped back to the one I couldnot copy solid, it would thensound slow and I could copy



solid. In other words, he wouldnot slow down when I wasn't get-ting solid copy, but would go to astill higher speed and let me listento it, even if I could only get aword or two, and then, when hedropped down to the lower speed,it would seem slower then and Icould copy it. “I cannot copyand send as well as Tom Alder-man and the others do I don't geton much any more and my read-ing (not copying ) speed is in therange of 6Ø to 7Ø wpm.#14 Rodney L. Whitten W4BI(b. 1912-Ø4-22) is one of ouroldest available examples of veryhigh-speed operators. His interestbegan in 1924 when he was 12. .Spark was beginning to lose itsrough, noisy thrill and sense ofpower (like a motorcycle), andwas going out of use, displaced bythe tiny vacuum tube with itspeeping CW signals and the rapidincrease of DX occurred as“short waves” became shorterand shorter -- into the “useless”range.He was interested and wanted tolearn. .He joined the US Navy in and wasselected to be a CW operator. Hewas trained as one of that specialcrypto “over the roof gang”, anelitebunch of guys trained to learnvarious codes (he learned to copy8 different codes) before andduring WW-II. In all they in-cluded some 178 men who wereso trained. Their work includedQRQ copying..

He spent most of his time in thesouth pacific and was at Pearlwhen it was bombed.#15 Melvin L. Whitten KØPLX(b. 1946- Ø3-Ø5). He learned theMorse code from his Father,W4BI, (see above) who startedteaching him the code when hewas about 9 or 1Ø years old.Since his Father-teacher was aQRQ expert, Mel was never trou-bled by first “memorizing” thecode visually as printed dots anddashes, but rather heard it as it is,as patterns of sound.. Further-more, he must have had no con-cerns as to whether it was “ h a r d ”or “easy” to learn.. It was just tobe learned like anything else. Ifthere were any difficulties alongthe way, his Father encouragedhim to keep on, with somethinglike: “Look how much you havelearned and can do already.”Then, because the FCC office was15Ø miles away at the time, heused his Father's call sign for acouple of years until finally hemanaged to get to the FCC officefor the test and to get his own li-cense and call in 1958.He was able to copy 4Ø wpm upuntil somewhat more than 2Øyears ago when both he and hisFather got electronic keyboards.His sending speed began to go upand along with it his copyingspeed rose to 45 then 5Ø and fi-nally reached 55 where it startedbeing work -- above that he mustsweat up to his absolute limit of6Ø wpm. His comfortable range is45 - 5Ø...



He says he owes his “QRQ” to35 years of QSO's with his Fatherwho has long been able to copyover 6Ø wpm...He feels that if he would work atit, he is sure he could increase iteven more. “It just takes a lot ofpractice.”#16 Ira I. Silverman,No data other than that he is avery fast operator, can type intothe 14Ø wpm and receive at leastto 1ØØ#17 Oscar (Ozzie) LevinW5RK.(b. 1918-12-4) This is one of themost interesting cases, for it illus-trates “normal” learning.He “got interested in Ham radioback in the mid-thirties after vis-iting a Boy Scout that had a hamstation.” - He was more than just“'interested.”1. He wanted to learn the code

and had no preconceivedideas about it. We may sayhe loved it already.

2. He started from the conceptof the code presented assound --:”spoken” ditsand dahs -- not printed dotsand dashes. He had no vis-ual road blocks. What didhe do? -- He “learned thecode on his own” becausehe “had no mentor or any-body to send code to him.”He learned it by looking ata newspaper and saying thedits and dahs to himself forall the letters and numeralsin the story he was readingHe took the examination in

1937 and passed both the1Ø words a minute codetest and the theory test.

3. He had no initial mentalblocks -- that it might be“hard” - but rather just“that's the way it is”,something, like everythingelse that he wanted to learn.He enjoy learning it. It wasfun. Without the excessmisdirected baggage somany unwittingly carry, hereached a 5Ø wpm copyingability in three years. Hisevidence joins the rest ofthat relatively small groupwho did it right from thebeginning and had nothingto have to relearn.. That iswhy it seemed “natural” tohim. He “entered the CoastGuard in 1941, just beforewe got into WW-2, and wasassigned as an apprenticeSeaman operating the high-speed circuits along withveteran operators. {Afteranother assignment} he leftthe service in 1946.

4. For ten years he was inac-tive, though he continuedhis license. In the late '6Ø'she ran into the Chicken FatOperator's Club [CFO's}where one of the operatorsobserved he had beencopying the high-speed andasked him if he wanted tojoin them. He did, but soonfound he could not keep uphis sending speed with justa paddle, so he built anelectronic keyboard.

The use of a keyboard, which isonly a tool, is the almost



universal newer hardwarekey which gives that boostto pass the frequent “pla-teau”, the speed “barrier”around 5Ø - 6Ø wpm.

Some kind of internal change inmental approach seems generallyneeded (Is it a change that is hid-den from our conscious under-standing?) .He could now practicewell-sent code at home or duringQSO's with others using key-boards. (Bug or keyer sending isa special skill that not manyachieve at those speeds).This change resulted in a notice-able increase of his receivingspeed and he was soon sending7Ø wpm. “It was a wonderful ex-perience.” Today he finds fewhams using these high speeds.#18 Florence C. MajerasW7QYAb. 21-1Ø-1915. Bill Eitel said,“She is a very talented and prac-tical woman. Her accomplish-ments are many and unknown tomost people, because she is amodest and sincere person. She isa pilot, musician, school teacherand a top CW operator. She doesnot have to take a back seat to anyone when operating CW. She cansend it, read it in her head, orcopy it down on a manner whichpeople do not realize because sheis no show-off. She is the kind ofperson I formed the 5-Star Clubto recognize.”I have no information as to howshe learned or when she startedinto ham radio.

#19 Gary Bold ZL1ANis the only known New Zealanderwho belonged to the CFO club.He says: “4Ø - 45 wpm is as fastas we ever go. Keyboards are notin general use. He was quite as-tonished to learn that some hamsin America were conversing inMorse code at 1ØØ wpm. Garyhad himself written computerprograms to read code at fairspeeds, and using them, managedto reach his present limit at 55wpm.#2Ø Jesse W. Caravello, Jr.W8MCPb. 1936-Ø6-Ø7 The followingcomments are from Gary BoldZL1AN. In 1985 I visited AnnArbor on Sabbatical leave andencountered him on the packetsystem. He invited me to visit hishome.. He told me he was also aCFO Club member. I thought itwas defunct. Learning that I wasrig-less, Jess lent me a SWANtransceiver, power supply, tunerand filter which at our rentedhouse, put me in regular contactwith other CFO members and netswhenever possible. He also con-nected us home to our teenagechildren through the ZL packetsystem. When I went back to ZL,we kept schedules on 4Ø whenconditions were right. Later went Ireturned to Ann Arbor severaltimes, each time I enjoyed his andhis wife Brenda's hospitality. Theybecame very dear friends to me.I know virtually nothing of hisearly Morse experiences. I amsure that he would have told meeverything. A couple of years ago



Jess passed away, I think due to amassive heart attack.Jess was, indeed, a first class CWman. I know he had spent time asa sea-going operator. I don'tknow how fast he could receive,and I never saw him use a key-board, but he could read any-thing. He could copy noisy, weaksignals covered in static and QRNfrom which I was gleaning mereletters and occasional words.Strange fists were no problem tohim. Nor do I have any informa-tion on the following names whoare supposed to be very high-speed operators:-David H Freese Jr. W1HKJWrote software for 99 wpm andon Bill Eiel's request revised it torun at 16Ø wpm. No further in-formation on him.Others in the high-speed class onwhom I have no other informa-tion:--.Fred C. Clarke W9AMC,Christ C. Kovacheff K9AMC,David H Freese Jr, W1HKJ,Charles F. Vaughn, III, AAØHW,b: 1958-Ø1-18,J Philemon Anderson W9TPb: 1929-Ø5-31,Raymond H. Larson, WØGHX,b. 1936-Ø8-Ø1,Charles F. Vaughn, III, AAØHW,b: 1958-Ø1-18,J Philemon Anderson, W9TP,b: 1929-Ø5-31,William Sepulveda, K5LN K5LN,

b: 1944-Ø8-Ø1,Carlos Dale Hamm, W5LN,Melvin J. Ladisky W6FDR,Charles H. Brown, JR, W4AFQ,b: 1928-Ø5-28,Wells E. Burton, N4EE b: 1919-Ø7-14Other older operators for whomwe have no data on their leaningmethods: Frank J. Elliott, Cpl.James Ralph Graham, at 6Ø wpmor more:-- A.J Burkart (1913), E.Proctor, W5FDR Earnest L. Sitkes(W4AFQ), W5GET, W9RUM, Wil-liam L.Gardiner, Wells E.. Dur-ham (N4EE), Cpl G.Schaal, othersin Eujrope, who used these speedsdailyThere were nearly one thousandlisted members of the Chicken FatOperators club, which required atleast 45 wpm for entry, before itfaded out as a club a few yearsago.I suspect that the number ofhighly skilled commercial opera-tors and hams around the worldwho can or could receive at over45 wpm would add up to manythousands, with a large number ofthem capable of well above 6Øwpm.


Sources of MaterialThe following are the majorsources for the concepts ex-pressed here.Very few of them have beenquoted verbatim, but when theyhave, they have normally beenenclosed within quotation marks.(References in general are to thefirst page of the article only.)QST

1923 Jl p52; 1925 Mr p45; 1929De pI, 1933 Fe p76, No p39 --1935 My p68 -- 1937 Au p7, Nop26 -- 1939 Ap 6 -- 194Ø Oc p9,73, De p9Ø -- 1941 Ja p45, Fep48, Jn p66, Jl p44, Au p51, Sep35, Oc p44 1942 My p66, Sep23 (Au p4Ø, Oc p28 -- 1943 Jap17, Fe p13, Ap p13, My p14, Jnp4Ø, p5Ø, Jl p9, Au-p9 -- Theseitems concern military schools)-- 1944(?) Ja p34, Mr p19, Ocp3Ø -- 1949 Oc p1ØØ -- 1951Fe p54; 1952 Ja p49 -- 1972 Myp1Ø1, Au p58 -- 1975 Au p1ØØ-- 1976 Se p53 -- 1978 Jn p48 --1979 Jn p51, Au p58 -- 1982 Dep55 -- 1983 Ja p76, p77Au p45,Oc p3Ø; 1985, Au p49; -- 1989Ja p9 -- 1991 Oc p6Ø, p66;1992 Mr p 51

Ham Radio

1988 Ja p1Ø, p35, p36

73 Magazine1971 De p83; 1972 Fe p , Jlp12Ø; 1978 Ja p8 CQ: 1959 Fep63; 1963 Ja p47; 197Ø De p35;1972 Mr p45; 1973 Mr p28;1987 Oc p1Ø6; De p56Worldradio:

1987 No p24; 1989 Fe p7,42;1991 Au p56Break-InOfficial Journal of the NZART,“Morseman” column (by GaryBold), various issues.Radio1935: How Telegraph Operatorsare Made, 3 parts -- McElroy Ja,Fe, My (Related article in RadioNews No 1939)KEY NOTE CW Fists Clubvarious issues.

Dots and Dashes, (MorseTelegraph Society)

various issues.Learning The RadiotelegraphCodeJohn Huntoon, ARRL 1942Your Introduction To MorseCode:ARRL 19 ARRL National Educa-tional Workshop: #1, #2, #3Conquer the Code with Rhythmarticle, source unknown pp. 17-21Old Wires And New WavesAlvin Harlow 1936.Army Technical Manual TM-11-459TO 31-3-16

Sparks Journal, various issues

Morsum Magnificat, EnglishEdition, various issuesRadio Handbook

Bill Orr 21st Ed.



Radio SimplifiedWhat It Is - How To Build andOperate The Aparatus, by Lewis FKendall and Robert P. Koehler,John C Windston Co. 1922Psychological ReviewVol. IV (1897) p27-53, Vol. VI(1899) p345-375.Journal Of Experimental Psy-chologyXXXIII (1943) “The RelativeDifficulty of Morse Code Alpha-bet Characters Learned by theWhole Method” S.D. S. Spraggp1Ø8-114.

Journal Of Applied Psychol-ogy1943 “New Method of TeachingCode Reception at Columbia U.p4Ø7-415; “Errors Made inTelegraphy” p5Ø4-5Ø9; 1944“Errors, History p254-266; 1945“Second Level Training in Re-ception” p161-3; 1946 “Effectof Phonetic Equivalents” p265-27Ø.Memory: Surprising New InsightsInto How We Remember AndWhy We ForgetElizabeth Loftus, 198Ø Zeitschriftf_r angewandte Psychologie undCharakterkunde. Feb. 1936, pp. 1- 7Ø, Ludwig Koch “Arbeitspsy-chologische Untersuchung derT„tigkeit...f_r Funker”The Candler SystemJunior Course. Walter Candler1939 edition.Book Of Facts About The Can-dler System1939 ed.

The American TelegrapherA Social History 186Ø- 19ØØ.Edwin Gabler 1988. BRASSPOUNDERS Young Telegraphersof the Civil War. Alvin F. Harlow1962.The Military Telegraph DuringThe Civil War2 vol. William R. Plum. 1882.Peak PerformanceDavid R. Krauss 1984The Psychology Of SkillWilliam Frederick Book.Your First Year Of TeachingShorthand And TranscriptionMarion M. Lamb.

Geschichte Der TelegraphieTh. Karasss, Brauschweig. 19Ø9p.347-35ØGeschichte Der Nachrichtentech-nikV. Aschoff. Band 2 p. 198-2Ø8The Story Of Telecommunica-tionsby George P. Oslin, 1992 MercerUniversity Press. Chapter 2.The American LeonardoCarlton Mabee 1943, New YorkSamuel F. B. Morse, Letters AndJournalsStudents' Manualfor the Practical Instruction ofLearners of Telegraphy, J. H.Bunnell & Co. 1884, reprint by L.A. BaileyThe Edison AlbumLawrence A. Frost 1969, Seattle



Cyclopedia Of Telephony AndTelegraphyVol. IV American A TechnicalSociety, 1911 & 1919Personal Correspondence fromR. J. Miller, Teleplex Co. 22 Oc.1942 Raymond K. White, DodgeTelegraph School L. R. McDon-ald, high speed contestant Ivan S.Coggeshall, Western Union, con-tests and misc. John F. Rhilinger,KC1MI, high speed code DonaldK. deNeuf, WA1SPM, various as-pects old and new George Hart,W1NJM, high speed code TonySmith, G4FAI, general and his-torical L. A. Bailey, AmericanMorse operator William K. Dun-bar, K9IMV, AD9E, AmericanMorse operator Verle D. Francis,WØSZF, American Morse opera-tor Charles Bender, W1WPR, for-mer chief operator W1AW ARRLStation Cecil Langdoc, Elkhart,IN, American Morse tapes JamesS. Farrior, W4FOK, computerprograms both codes, Warren L.Hart, AA5YI, general Steven D.Katz WB2WIK, general Tom Per-era K2DCY, general Louise Mo-reau, W3WRE, general LoraineMcCarthy, N6CIO, general CarlChaplain, W7QO, general Gary E.J. Bold, ZL1AN, and probablyseveral others.Personal discussions with a num-ber of CW operatorsGeorge Marshall, amateur 9AER,9CX, commercial first class from1915-6, and Navy to about 1945;Quido Schultise, amateur 9NXand commercial from 1919,K6TK, K5OJ; Alvin B. Unruh,9BIO from 1923, (W)9AWP,commercial, and WØAWP; and

others later, including ClarenceWallace (W)9ABJ, my brother P.Kenneth Pierpont, KF4OW vol-unteer instructor; all of whomcontributed something of value(including some materials). Sincethese materials have been assem-bled over a period beginningabout 193Ø, some few sourcesmay have been misplaced or lost.With the Psalmist we may wellsay: “I will praise Thee; for I amfearfully and wonderfully made.Marvelous are Thy works, andthat my soul knoweth right well.”William G. Pierpont NØHFF

Third Revised Edition-March 16,2ØØØ


Indexabbreviations38, 5Ø, 53, 54, 55, 6Ø,74, 94, 139, 159, 176, 179, 18Øability22, 29, 49, 58, 59, 65, 66,69, 71, 74, 78, 85, 94, 96, 97, 99,1Ø3, 1Ø9, 149, 156, 171, 198, 215accomplishment 24, 43, 171accuracy35, 4Ø, 43, 49, 51, 84, 95,1Ø9, 122, 129, 136, 139, 144, 16Ø,171, 2ØØacoustic wholeness 19Øadvance16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 38,55, 56, 68, 96, 1Ø3, 1Ø6, 141, 154,186afraid of losing something 57, 68age27, 1ØØ, 1Ø8, 14Ø, 157, 213,214, 215alphabet13, 14, 18, 26, 29, 3Ø, 34,35, 43, 55, 58, 71, 83, 94, 1Ø6, 117,125, 13Ø, 132, 135, 136, 137, 139,143, 146, 152, 153, 168, 17Ø, 189,19Ø, 198, 2Ø5alphabet of sound 14, 29attention11, 14, 2Ø, 21, 22, 23, 34,36, 46, 49, 55, 57, 59, 61, 62, 63,64, 66, 71, 8Ø, 96, 97, 99, 1Ø1,1Ø5, 113, 114, 117, 125, 151, 17Ø,185, 193, 2Ø1, 2Ø3, 2Ø4, 213attitude15, 2Ø, 22, 26, 28, 44, 8Ø,1Ø9, 151, 197, 199attitudes22, 23, 24, 25, 112, 173,2Ø2average letter length 181avoid1Ø, 12, 17, 21, 31, 35, 61, 63,73, 78, 79, 1Ø5, 1Ø7, 12Ø, 152,154, 161, 186background 19, 74, 11Ø, 111baud 162, 163beginning11, 13, 14, 18, 22, 28, 32,44, 63, 84, 97, 1Ø1, 1Ø6, 119, 12Ø,131, 147, 148, 154, 171, 172, 186,187, 197, 2Ø3best9, 12, 13, 17, 18, 24, 26, 37,38, 39, 4Ø, 44, 45, 47, 51, 55, 66,67, 77, 78, 8Ø, 83, 87, 97, 11Ø,114, 115, 118, 12Ø, 13Ø, 138, 151,157, 162, 163, 169, 182, 186, 188,195, 198, 212, 214

better than others 17, 24, 61bored 33, 66buzzers 48by listening18, 29, 4Ø, 56, 61, 64,71, 123champion 12, 52, 9Ø, 169, 171, 172clubs 1Ø3, 1Ø4, 171code is sound 55coded groups 75, 21Øcoherence 4Ø, 7Øcomfortable17, 2Ø, 21, 23, 24, 28,37, 45, 48, 5Ø, 51, 52, 56, 61, 65,66, 68, 79, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88, 9Ø,94, 96, 97, 99, 1ØØ, 131commercial operator49, 73, 75, 81,98, 1Ø4, 13Ø, 138, 142, 146, 154,179, 196, 213, 215common13, 19, 29, 38, 42, 43, 51,53, 54, 55, 58, 59, 6Ø, 63, 68, 69,74, 8Ø, 81, 91, 94, 96, 99, 1Ø7,12Ø, 141, 146, 148, 149, 16Ø, 179,181, 2ØØ, 2Ø1, 2Ø5common phrases 38common words13, 19, 38, 42, 55,58, 68, 69, 96, 146, 148, 2ØØ, 2Ø1contesting 51copy behind18, 66, 68, 69, 7Ø, 156,2Ø2copy letter-by-letter 68copying in your head 72cycle 81, 142, 162, 163, 164, 172daily practice 42, 197, 199deliberate 121determination 28, 43develop16, 18, 24, 31, 43, 47, 57,58, 59, 64, 69, 72, 77, 8Ø, 84, 121,133, 193, 196, 2Ø1developed2, 2Ø, 26, 48, 77, 99, 1Ø3,12Ø, 121, 132, 134, 135, 136, 139,14Ø, 142, 148, 176, 179, 211developing skill 12, 128distracted 24, 1Ø2earliest51, 96, 11Ø, 121, 165, 169,182echoing 35



element51, 77, 88, 1Ø8, 1Ø9, 112,13Ø, 136, 137, 148, 154, 162, 163,164enjoy the learning process 28example13, 16, 27, 33, 34, 39, 5Ø,53, 54, 59, 62, 65, 68, 69, 7Ø, 83,88, 9Ø, 95, 1Ø9, 122, 146, 147,152, 154, 16Ø, 162, 163, 194, 2Ø4,2Ø5, 211, 212, 213expert operator 168, 212fading 62, 63, 64, 73, 119, 159, 179familiarity29, 34, 38, 45, 56, 58,6Ø, 7Ø, 71faster13, 14, 16, 18, 21, 24, 28, 3Ø,31, 36, 37, 38, 4Ø, 41, 43, 45, 46,48, 5Ø, 61, 67, 68, 72, 75, 76, 84,88, 94, 97, 1ØØ, 1Ø4, 142, 145,147, 148, 149, 155, 176, 179, 183,194, 197, 213, 215fatal to speed 96fear of losing out 71, 72, 199five-letter groups 191, 194, 2Ø1for learning26, 28, 36, 93, 1Ø8,13Ø, 171forget it 37, 66, 67, 8Øgeneral9, 25, 34, 54, 56, 66, 8Ø, 85,1Ø7, 121, 125, 145, 174, 2Ø5, 2Ø8,21Øgetting stuck 1Øgive yourself a chance 72glass arm 79, 8Ø, 85, 88, 89, 2Ø2good operator13, 28, 3Ø, 58, 68, 73,84, 94, 164, 214handicaps 27higher skill 111, 113, 214how fast 4Ø, 43, 46, 1Ø2, 167ill19, 24, 28, 56, 63, 92, 111, 118,134, 143, 149, 156, 157, 2Ø3immediate recognition 147instant recognition 18interference11, 17, 4Ø, 44, 46, 48,52, 62, 63, 64, 73, 74, 75, 8Ø, 85,9Ø, 97, 1ØØ, 111, 112, 115, 119,148, 149, 159, 161, 167, 168, 174,175, 2Ø3, 2Ø8, 21Øinterference and static 11, 48introduction 122, 194irregularities 75is comfortable 2Ø, 51, 83keep on copying 47keyboards92, 95, 1Ø3, 1Ø4, 118,123, 17Ø

keyer5Ø, 77, 92, 1Ø8, 166, 169, 172keying speed in bauds 164learn at your own rate 21, 24, 28learn to copy17, 26, 65, 68, 69, 7Ø,74learn to hear words as words 58learn to trust the mind 57learning to send 77let it go 63, 193letter frequency counts 181letter-by-letter copying 72license9, 2Ø, 42, 48, 5Ø, 69, 1Ø5,11Ø, 123, 14Ø, 2Ø3, 2Ø7, 2Ø8, 2Ø9,215listen and enjoy it 45listening and writing 33listening only 33long term 114long time 1Ø, 12, 84, 129, 139, 151long words 62, 159make it fun 39making sense 1Ø1mental16, 25, 26, 37, 4Ø, 41, 45,46, 47, 48, 58, 59, 62, 63, 68, 7Ø,73, 76, 77, 84, 85, 96, 99, 1ØØ,1Ø1, 112, 114, 116, 119, 123, 13Ø,151, 152, 154, 184, 185, 196, 212military 12, 1Ø9, 111, 141, 214miss something 57, 71, 1Ø2missing something 66most common words18, 38, 42, 58,68, 69, 2ØØ, 2Ø1noise12, 64, 74, 1Ø1, 115, 117,163, 164, 21Ønot recommended 129, 171notes 54, 74, 196, 212obsolete? 11of success 36operator12, 13, 19, 24, 26, 28, 3Ø,36, 41, 42, 43, 49, 5Ø, 52, 53, 54,55, 58, 65, 67, 68, 69, 73, 74, 75,76, 77, 78, 8Ø, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85,86, 87, 88, 89, 9Ø, 94, 95, 97, 98,1Ø4, 1Ø7, 115, 117, 12Ø, 121, 126,131, 132, 136, 138, 14Ø, 141, 142,143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 149, 154,159, 161, 164, 165, 166, 168, 172,173, 175, 176, 182, 183, 184, 194,195, 196, 2Ø3, 2Ø4, 2Ø7, 2Ø8, 21Ø,211, 212, 213, 214, 215over-learning 29, 46passband 162



perfectly formed characters 17Øplateau15, 22, 27, 41, 11Ø, 152,154, 185, 186, 19Øpositive attitude 24, 25, 44, 197, 199practical11, 12, 56, 72, 111, 132,134, 136, 137, 138, 14Ø, 142, 156,167practice17, 18, 19, 2Ø, 21, 22, 23,25, 26, 3Ø, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39,4Ø, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 53,54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 6Ø, 61, 62,66, 67, 69, 7Ø, 71, 73, 74, 77, 78,8Ø, 83, 84, 92, 96, 1Ø5, 1Ø7, 11Ø,114, 115, 117, 118, 119, 122, 123,124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 13Ø,146, 151, 152, 154, 156, 16Ø, 165,167, 168, 169, 17Ø, 171, 186, 188,189, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197,198, 199, 2ØØ, 2Ø1, 2Ø2, 2Ø4, 21Øpractice by 26practice copying 66, 73, 2Ø1practice listening 36, 61, 2Ø1practice material17, 38, 6Ø, 66, 123,128, 17Øpractice periods39, 44, 45, 48, 59,83, 193, 199practice sending 4Ø, 1Ø5practicing17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 35,4Ø, 45, 47, 6Ø, 72, 1ØØ, 131, 147,155, 182pressure in short bursts 23prevent anticipating 38proficient operator 43quality22, 47, 48, 5Ø, 56, 63, 64,74, 76, 81, 83, 84, 85, 1Ø2, 111,119, 129, 13Ø, 143, 161, 163, 164,165, 169, 183ragchewing 51, 126random33, 34, 38, 4Ø, 47, 67, 69,7Ø, 1Ø6, 122, 127, 128, 155, 163,181, 191, 192receiving11, 16, 18, 19, 2Ø, 25, 26,29, 37, 39, 4Ø, 47, 49, 51, 54, 55,56, 57, 59, 6Ø, 62, 64, 66, 73, 74,75, 78, 81, 86, 97, 99, 1Ø2, 111,113, 114, 116, 117, 119, 121, 124,125, 126, 127, 13Ø, 131, 132, 134,136, 138, 139, 14Ø, 143, 144, 147,148, 149, 159, 16Ø, 161, 165, 171,172, 176, 179, 181, 197, 2Ø1, 2Ø2,2Ø7, 21Ø, 211receiving by ear only 14Ø

recorders for learning 13Øregular practice 48relative83, 92, 116, 118, 132, 133,137, 138, 143relax 21, 25, 28, 45, 56, 57, 9Ø, 2Ø2repeated38, 83, 84, 1Ø5, 1Ø6, 122,126, 189right way2Ø, 21, 26, 27, 38, 42,1Ø9, 113same way22, 33, 46, 63, 84, 11Ø,122, 144, 147, 188, 189, 193, 199,2ØØ, 2Ø2self-study 34sense of accomplishment 24short practice 59signal12, 16, 17, 55, 6Ø, 64, 66, 73,74, 77, 9Ø, 91, 117, 118, 119, 131,136, 137, 143, 147, 148, 149, 153,161, 162, 163, 164, 175, 181, 183,185, 186, 193, 2ØØ, 2Ø1signal element 77, 136signal-to-noise ratio 12, 117silence39, 6Ø, 118, 119, 148, 162,181, 191, 21Øskilled operator1Ø, 24, 43, 5Ø, 51,65, 74, 81, 94, 95, 145, 176solid copy 66sound consciousness 58sound is the letter 27sound pattern13, 14, 27, 28, 29, 3Ø,31, 32, 35, 39, 45, 47, 55, 112, 153,154, 155, 183, 185, 186, 187, 191,192, 193, 197sounder52, 11Ø, 116, 119, 135,14Ø, 142, 143, 147, 148, 149, 166,196, 213speed records 1Ø2, 125standard word 163, 164, 173, 181static11, 17, 26, 4Ø, 48, 52, 63, 7Ø,73, 75, 9Ø, 119, 12Ø, 142, 148,149, 159, 167, 173, 179static interference 167success15, 2Ø, 22, 24, 29, 36, 44,1Ø5, 111, 153, 167swings 12Ø, 121take it easy 45, 75tapes and courses 35the ear17, 21, 22, 27, 3Ø, 31, 37,38, 39, 4Ø, 51, 53, 56, 64, 67, 83,86, 96, 99, 1Ø6, 117, 118, 12Ø,124, 132, 141, 142, 148, 151, 153,



155, 161, 165, 167, 169, 17Ø, 182,187, 2Ø2, 2Ø7thinking in code 27timing16, 17, 19, 31, 35, 4Ø, 48,63, 77, 84, 111, 115, 117, 118, 119,12Ø, 129, 138, 144, 145, 171, 182,183, 184, 199, 2ØØ, 2Ø2to start17, 29, 32, 33, 45, 166, 185,192unique sound pattern 3Øunit of sound 3Ø, 2Ø3variety17, 21, 34, 66, 87, 1Ø5, 1Ø6,123, 128, 17Øwant to learn1Ø, 13, 15, 27, 29, 111,146whistle it 48wide spacing 167

wireless11, 53, 86, 89, 111, 139,142, 146, 148, 18Ø, 2Ø6, 2Ø9wpm1Ø, 12, 16, 19, 27, 28, 3Ø, 31,32, 35, 36, 4Ø, 41, 42, 43, 47, 49,5Ø, 51, 52, 62, 65, 67, 68, 71, 72,73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 84, 86, 9Ø, 93,94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 1ØØ, 1Ø1,1Ø2, 1Ø3, 1Ø4, 1Ø6, 1Ø7, 1Ø8,1Ø9, 11Ø, 111, 115, 123, 124, 125,127, 128, 13Ø, 131, 137, 141, 142,146, 152, 153, 154, 155, 163, 164,166, 167, 169, 17Ø, 172, 173, 174,183, 184, 185, 186, 19Ø, 194, 198,2Ø3, 2Ø4, 2Ø5, 2Ø7, 2Ø8, 2Ø9,21Ø, 211, 213, 214, 215WPM 194Z-code 53

the art and skill · 2019-12-01 · the art and skill of radio-telegraphy 2 william g. pierpont...

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