Where, when, how and why...

K

kellys_eye

Member
...did you learn morse code?

Personally.... I trained as a sea-going RO starting as a student and was taught morse code at a marine college (1976-1980) passing the MRGC at 20wpm.  Subsequently I taught at that very same college and left to go back to industry before GMDSS was starting to be introduced.

Over those years I went from 20wpm to 45+ on a straight key and 50wpm+ on a bug, converted the college morse tutor room to fully automatic (coded an old Apple II PC for character groups and plain text that 'anyone' could set up) then - almost abruptly - stopped sending morse entirely!

It was over 20 years later that I took up the key again, re-learning morse reception, but found that it's like riding a bike - you never forget!  What I thought was slow speed morse when I listened in to a training session was actually 20wpm and it was 'easy'..... relearning a hand (straight) key however....... still 'improving'  ;D

I'm approaching retirement now and reverting in years (technically) to build tube receivers and transmitters on 40/20m.

I suspect many older members might have followed much the same path (marine or services) to learn code but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and memories as a thread that not only introduces myself (hi!) but let's me know a bit more about the membership currently involved on the site.

Happy to be here.
 
Hiya, and welcome!

Nothing so marvelous from my way I'm afraid. Taught myself Morse, used an old cassette recorder to tape myself and keep an eye on my sending, and used a (trusty) Datong D70 Morse Tutor for receive practice.

Passed the Morse test after about 3-4 months of daily practice. Because I chose to request a particular callsign I had to wait an agonizing three months before it came up for issue (no que jumping back then).

I have quite a few Morse Keys that I've collected over the years, mostly 'run of the mill' common ones. No real preference for any particular type of key, any and all keys are of interest.

I've been playing radio as a hobby for around maybe 50yrs now, with around thirty of those actually sporting a callsign.

73, Mark...
 
Morse code has been a significant part of my life....I first learnt it at age 13 when I joined the Air Training Corps. My eyesight was deemed too poor to undertake flying so it was recommended I learn radio communications which I thoroughly enjoyed. I learnt the code through cassette tapes and radio monitoring. That got me into SW radio, monitoring broadcast stations and the local 160m AM 'net' of radio amateurs. When I left school I went to radio college to obtain my radio officers ticket, and my ATC experience meant I hit the ground running. The Morse code and commercial working lecturers were first class and I loved my time there.

Took my 12 wpm Morse test in 1978 at Portishead Radio and obtained my Maritime Radio General Certificate the following year which included a 20 wpm test. Sadly never made it to sea as jobs at the time were few and far between, but ended up as an R/O at Portishead Radio where of course I took my amateur test 2 years previously! At Portishead you had one year to get your speed up to 27 wpm, but by working cw every day this wasn't much of a problem. And of course my sending and receiving speed increased over the subsequent years. I could probably work with speeds around 40 wpm if necessary. I took many amateur Morse exams until the RSGB took over the administration in the mid-1980s.

I came off amateur radio in the early 1980s as it was too much like work - but I returned to the hobby in 2010 and have been active ever since. Still operate 99% cw, and have a couple of ex-GKA keys in my armoury. Now having taken early retirement I have the time to pick and choose operating times.

73 to all....

Larry G4HLN +
 
I have admiration for those that learned morse for personal reasons rather than commercial as it takes a LOT of determination to achieve reasonable competency.

In respect to learning for commercial reasons we, as students, were given the morse alphabet on day 1 (of morse lessons) and told to learn it by heart (memorise it) for THE NEXT DAY or we were 'out' of the classes!  Now that's what I call incentive!

Of course, some students didn't believe the tutor but, true to his word, he chucked out everyone that couldn't write the alphabet down from memory the following day.  "Don't come back until you can" he said...... and given most of us were on Cadetships, missing class was a big no-no so the reprobates  ;D came back a day or so later (I think the worse one was three days) and they all managed to write the alphabet down.

From that point on it was all 'live' code receiving - we were allowed to use our crib sheets though - and progress was fast which wasn't surprising given we had 90 minutes to 2 hours of it every day!  Still, within a month we were over 6wpm and many were over 12wpm.

Cruel but kind springs to mind - unless you were one that was thrown out!

Given the many operators on here I think I made a mistake by registering using the wrong username - like many on here I should have used my callsign - G4GQB (maybe the Mods could change it before the kellys_eye monica becomes too well known?????)

Either way I'm trying to get my hand coding back up to scratch - age takes it's toll but if I get Parkinsons I could be doing 80wpm before I know it!  (poor taste joke but..... ;D)

 
I had to pass the code test to get on HF.  I studied and studied.  Had a computer program I found to help.  Passed the test and got on ssb HF.  Then in 2011 I think it was, decided that I wanted to relearn CW.  Relearned it and now I?m 99% CW.  I do a lot of QRP and CW is the only way I want to do it.  I?m still slower than I want to be but I?m CW and I love it.
 
I passed the 12WPM test in 1996 after many years as G8GGP. After all those years listening to weak beacons on the V/UHF bands I suddenly realised I could copy plain text!, so a few weeks with a little tutor made by the QRP component company I passed the test first time.
I still use CW mainly on the higher bands, my best DX in the weekly RSGB contests is invariably on CW?, those that don?t have the skill don?t know what they are missing.

Tim M0AFJ
FISTS 2824
 
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