Morse Tutor

[RobinBirch]

Whilst rummaging around my office I found the disc for my old morse tutor. This was bought in 1996 and got me my intermediate licence it's G4XUD's Super Tutor.

A bit more rummaging and hey, we have a working system

Comes of being bored waiting for bits to be delivered.

Cheers

Robin
G5HI

[David G4EBT]

There's an excellent (free) Morse Tutor at the link below by G4FON. You can set the delay between characters, vary the WPM up to 40. So for example, you could set the character speed to say 15WPM, but widen the space between characters to slow down the overall speed to say 5WPM, then over time, can progressively shorten the space between characters as you skill increases. You can set the signal strength from S1 to S9, and the background noise level from 'off' to S3/S5/S7S9.

http://www.g4fon.net/CW%20Trainer.htm

Hope that's of interest.

[MrBungle]

I've been using this: http://lcwo.net/

I am still relatively hopeless and I suspect that I'm going to end up on SSB pretty sharpish when I finally get around to sorting out a foundation license. I assume this feeling of hopelessness goes away after a period of time?

[russell_w_b]

I use the freeware 'CW-Player' occasionally, and when I'm in the mood. It can be set as described for other programs mentioned here, with the characters at the speed required and the gaps between them altered.

It does the usual stuff: plain text, mixed text, punctuation, letters and numbers, adjustable QRM, etc...

http://www.f1orl.org/cwpeng.htm

[SiriusHardware]

Originally Posted by MrBungle

I've been using this: http://lcwo.net/

I am still relatively hopeless and I suspect that I'm going to end up on SSB pretty sharpish when I finally get around to sorting out a foundation license. I assume this feeling of hopelessness goes away after a period of time?

I think it depends on the individual. I got good enough for a short time to pass the 12WPM morse test which was then (about 1996) still a requirement for anyone wanting to upgrade from a class 'B' to a class 'A', thereby gaining access to 30Mhz and under. But even during that short time, it never felt easy, effortless, or dare I say it, fun.

I wanted to become fluent in morse and, among other things, bought a little 2W Mizuho MX-14S 'handheld' which had CW and SSB capability, mainly with the intention of using it for CW. I do sometimes use it on SSB with often surprising results, but sadly have never used it on CW. Plus, I bought and built a CW TX kit and low pass filter from Kanga - it works, but I've never made a contact on it.

CW, like music or origami, should get easier with practice and for a significant number of people, it does. But I find I just don't have the aptitude for it. All I use it for now is to read the signature IDs of repeaters - those which still ID in morse, that is - when I'm in other places or perched in a high spot somewhere.

It's a pity, because CW still has great potential as the only mode for which you can be up and running with a homebrew TX made from one or two transistors.

[RobinBirch]

I must admit that I had a lot of fun with QRP and morse. Not having been on the air for a while I am slowly getting my act together to set up a station.

I rather liked this tutor as it does exactly what it says on the tin and is easy to fit a key to so that you can practice sending.

If the guy who wrote this is still around then I wouldn't mind porting it to a newer system but I'd need the code.

Robin

[kellys_eye]

After learning code for my early career (merchant marine radio operator) I was 'examined' at 20wpm but have always been comfortable at 40wpm. Seems as if time hasn't eroded the skills too much either although I do feel a bit 'rusty', especially trying to write the code down - seems to work fine 'in my head' ....

I did, at one time, write some BASIC/assembly code that ran on an Apple PC that formed the basis of a morse teaching room at South Tyneside College when I lectured there. It opened the class to allowing other lecturers to take rather than being a 'just morse people' taught class!

[G3VKM_Roger]

Originally Posted by David G4EBT

There's an excellent (free) Morse Tutor at the link below by G4FON.

I'd also recommend the G4FON tutor, the ability to simulate fading, interference and chirpy signals is very useful. I'd also suggest the French military training transmissions on 3881 kHz which are good practice as they have punctuation marks and groups of mixed letters and mixed numbers, so you can't "guess-ahead"!

73

Roger/G3VKM