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Re: Morse Code

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2018 6:57 pm
by Deeps
Been a long while since I did audible morse but I did find when you were at the top end of 'your' speed you didn't have time to break it down, it basically went in your ear an out the pen without you being able to take it in. When you're receiving at a slower speed you have time to 'hear' the characters and sometimes glance at what you're writing.

As you say Appin, its governed by the speed of the person receiving, QRS was always a handy opsig to remember. :lol:

Re: Morse Code

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:40 pm
by QUAID
Ive been doing morse for over 30 years... was properly trained too..
I maxed out at 22 wpm and ive seen guys take at 45 wpm....
Some people have a mental block and cant carry on at a certain speed, this varies.
But yeah my speed is now around 15wpm...
No matter what speed i received at, it was automatic = as soon as the character was sounded, without thought i just wrote down the letter.
Start guessing or reading the word and you'll lose track.

Re: Morse Code

Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2018 4:49 pm
by Deeps
QUAID wrote: Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:40 pm Ive been doing morse for over 30 years... was properly trained too..
I maxed out at 22 wpm and ive seen guys take at 45 wpm....
Some people have a mental block and cant carry on at a certain speed, this varies.
But yeah my speed is now around 15wpm...
No matter what speed i received at, it was automatic = as soon as the character was sounded, without thought i just wrote down the letter.
Start guessing or reading the word and you'll lose track.
Totally agree, when you're reading slower than your 'max speed' you have time to read and anticipate and if you get it wrong you can lose a character or two refocusing. Not a problem for me these days, I just don't do morse. 8-)

I did love it though, I thought it was a very personal way to communicate.

Re: Morse Code

Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 3:36 pm
by cadpat
I learned morse code, semaphore and signals when I was a Sea Cadet in the 70s - I actually have a couple of silver medals from communications competitions in NW England. It's all still in there but it needs warming up. I remember getting my Ys and Qs, Gs and Ws mixed up and stopping to think about anything when receiving is fatal because it is difficult to pick up again.

We used to practice five letter groups of letters rather than words; partially because the guy who taught us was a friend of my late Dad's from his service in submarines in WWII and everything was coded into five letter groups, and partially because it is good for practice not to guess words.