K3WWP's CW Stories

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Dave - KC2AFK

John, I voted in the "other" category, perhaps "school" would have been more appropriate, but the class I attended certainly was not as rigorous as any from the military or RR. I learned morse (enough to pass the 5wpm test with a minute of copy, could not get 7 questions right!) at a local club's licensing classes. Proficiency and speed came from on air contacts. At that time I thought I wanted to do phone and spent about 8 months (from late November 96 when I got my ticket to early August 97) trying to get my code speed up to 13wpm for the general ticket and those coveted phone privileges. This effort was mostly listening to W1AW and working with an MFJ code practice box, often spending close to an hour a day at the task. My speed just would not go reliably beyond about 7wpm! Finally I told myself that this was crazy, I had invested serious time and a limited amount of money in getting that ticket and was not using it. So, I went and got on the air on the novice bands CW. Well, the code speed came right up and well before April 98 (when the next local hamfest and VE session was scheduled) I was a bit beyond the 13wpm speed. At that hamfest I passed the 13wpm easily (copy and answers!) and got lucky on the 20wpm test and passed it too.

And this followup note from Dave:
You may use the note as you see fit on your site. If it helps someone decide to try CW or to stick with learning it then I'm a happy camper. I didn't mention it in the original note, but I was 51 at the time. Guess it shows that age is not a huge barrier to learning the code. My only regret about my involvement with ham radio is that I did not pursue my interest when it first arose when I was a teen.

When you are through reading this page, close this window to return to the Stories index - or - click here to go to my home page if you came here from elsewhere.