CW Practice Methods

Preliminary 09/21/2023

The types of CW_Helps files available are designed to aid in first learning Morse Code, as well as helping to increase your fluency of Morse Code Characters.

Method #1: The 5-Minute Runs with 1 minute intervals for changes - Basic "eish5" Series

A very common problem was that it was for an individual to want to Mull over a character before dealing with the next one, so I created a version that would intentionally run over them, and it worked once they learned how to deal with it.

These are 5 minute Runs, where the letters are repeated 5 times at 15WPM, and you only copy when the letter is changed to the next letter. Such as e five times, then i five times, then s 5 times, then h five times, then 5 five times. These start in that order, but after that first run they are randomized. This goes on for 1 minute, after which the randomized letters occur only 4 times for one minute. Then next only 3 times for one minute, then only 2 times for one minute, then finally only once for one minute. Effectively, the initial WPM is less that 15/5 WPM, increasing to finally 15WPM, and it becomes a test to see how many minutes you can Copy Solid, before you drop out.

Method #2: CW Groups By Blocks

The first Group is the basic letters of the Alphabet grouped in a special form that I found really helps folks distinguish the Personalities of these individual characters. One of the early problems that I found that people encountered was, believe it or not, distinguishing between eve the dits from the dahs.

These are basically the same EISH, TMO0, RKPX, etc runs but with a slightly different slant: The first run of each is singular (not repeated) characters in the order given, for the first time, but after the first run they are scrambled. These Basic Sets are available at 12 different WPM Speeds

Method #3: CW Groups By WPM's

These are take-offs from the same as above, but Pre-Grouped into one defined WPM.

Method #4: Prefixes and Suffixes

A method that I learned from someone else many years ago, and have both incorporated it, and tried my best to improve on it. It is simply by repeating the first one or two letters 2 or 3 times, and then after repeating it again, tie one1 to 3 letters on to it, to construct a complete word. One of the secrets is that you do not have to copy those first letter repeats, but carefully listen to them, and then when the repeat with the following letters, copy them in a specific manner. Illustrations given here show CAPS, but in actual practice only lower case should be used by everyone.

These are given as common Prefixes and as common Suffixes, such as with certain words such as FL at, FL ip, FL op, FLee, FL ow, FL ing, etc....

Also as in: TH e, TH ese, TH em, TH at, TH ose, etc....

Method #5: Single Alphabetical Prefixes, by Selection

Method #6: Unexpected "Jumps" in the Text

This is during a text run with say 15WPM, and the word "thing" is given, but the "th" is given at 25 WPM, with a pause, and then "ing" is given at 20WPM. Then repeated at 15WPM for the whole word. There are a number of possibilities, that incorporate the previous Prefixes and the Suffixes, in Method #4.