The Ever Useful Good Old Morse Code.

[gil]

Amazing what the human brain can do!

You prob can handle 3, 4, & 5 char words in your conquered char list of 15, right?

Maximum, yes, but then the code coming after that distracts me...

One comment in one of the videos is very interesting:

You need just practice and you start hearing it. Not consciously, but unconsciously. You just write it down and you see that your guess was correct. You are surprised. It's like your brain does not belong to you. You type what you consider right, and you are amazed that your brain told you to type this variant and not the other.

I will definitely try to build my speed up as soon as I get all the letters.

We'll have to set-up a QSO once you get on the air, but you'll have to slow down for me  ;)

Gil.

[grainum]

I will definitely try to build my speed up as soon as I get all the letters.

I think I'd be easier now, with lots fewer characters.  I'm thinkin' If this delay's me a month or two, oh well.  Fluency is worth it.

We'll have to set-up a QSO once you get on the air, but you'll have to slow down for me  ;)

I don't know why, that seems scary.  It shouldn't though.  I don't think I'm ahead, just a little faster with fewer char's
Brian

[gil]

That vertical key is something else! I went to the Vibroplex web site, and I like their vibrocube.. Pretty tough looking.
I have started using the lcwo.net site.. The first time I tried it, it didn't quite work, and some sections still do not.
Probably a setting to change, flash version or whatever. I like the "Morse Machine" and "Word Training" options.
I'm going to stay on lesson 15 for  while to build up speed...

Today I converted my 2-band K1 filter board (I have the 4-band) to an 80/17m board.
Unfortunately the 17m side does not work properly. The board worked before, so either
I messed-up, or the tuning is really hard; but I tuned 80m in three minutes flat...

If I get sufficiently better at Morse code, I might just have a small SSB radio tucked away for emergencies,
but primarily operate CW. One can only hope... The LCWO site is motivating though, because you can keep track of your score...

Gil.

[K7KEV]

Gil,

You'll find a way to learn CW.  I had great luck with MA  Morse Academy.  It doesn't work well on Windows now, it was written for MS DOS.  Primitive but very effective.

My suggestion is this, once you have learned the characters, make a recording of common words.  I would made a "tape" of the words and listen to them over and over.  What really helped me was to make the recording of several words repeated several times in a row.  Like this:

THE THE THE THE THE THE THE THE THE THE
ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON ON
NAME NAME NAME NAME NAME NAME NAME NAME NAME NAME
QTH QTH QTH QTH QTH QTH QTH QTH QTH QTH
ICOM ICOM ICOM ICOM ICOM ICOM ICOM ICOM ICOM ICOM
ELECRAFT ELECRAFT ELECRAFT ELECRAFT ELECRAFT ELECRAFT ELECRAFT ELECRAFT ELECRAFT ELECRAFT

I'm sure you get the picture.  Then I used the words in random order.  lastly I use them in sentences.  The object is to hear not the characters "T"  "H"  "E", but the sound "the" makes in morse code.  I didn't attempt to learn the sound of all words in the English language, just a bunch of them.  This giave me time to "decode" mentally the other words I haven't learned.

Good luck and let me know when you'd like a sked.  My email is good in QRZ.COM.

Keith, K7KEV

[gil]

Thanks Keith, I will try that too. The LCWO site is a great help right now for getting all the letters!

Gil.