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Copy Letters or Not?
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Copy Letters or Not?
I have seen on CW boards on Facebook advice to not learn to copy letters but rather go faster and learn to head copy whole words. The reason being that this will allow one to copy at higher speeds. It makes sense; I find myself “head copying” on occasion. However, this is because we speak in known words. However, it seems to me that if one learned this way and ever had to copy code groups, they’d be lost. Any thoughts?
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4 Replies
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16
Don’t over analyze learning the code. It’s nothing more than reading with your ears and writing with a key.
Did you learn to read by copying down random letter groups? No!
Once you have the basic characters memorized, get on the air and use them. Speed and head copy will come with use and exerience. It’s harder to find long conversations on the air these days, so another source is the ARRL’s W1AW broadcasts or download the MP3s from the ARRL website to your phone.
All you’re doing is reading and writing. Don’t add anything to that. And have fun!
73 de Rick N8TGQ
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16
Actually, I did learn with letter groups. I learned 5 letters at a time. Yes, they created little words but mostly just random groups of those 5 letters. Gradually there were more letters added in groups of 5 and there were more words, but the random groups continued. Then there were the ARRL practice sessions. Text was from various issues of QST but each session ended with groups from the Tube Tables which amounted to random groups. These consisted mostly of numbers with a letter or two stuck in the middle somewhere.
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280
I’m actually split. Sometimes I hear words, other times I hear letters. For instance, friends’ callsigns I hear as a word. Most Q-codes also. I also hear words towards the end of a sentence. I find myself listening to the first few letters and then ‘expecting’ certain words. Same applies to sending code. Q-codes, CQ, my callsign, all these are mentally pre-programmed in my head from head to start.
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16
I hear all words or even whole sentences. It’s like having a conversation with someone. The only thing I write down is the other person’s call sign.
But there’s different ways for different folks. Ask 10 hams how to lean morse code and you get 15 ways! Use what works for you and have fun!
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