Recently, I had a QSO with Gary, W0ITT. Even though there was a fair amount of fading, we managed to have a nice chat. The next day, he sent me the following email:
Nice to talk with you again.
I had a typical QSO recently using my home brew regenerative RX. The other station wasn’t very strong, we had QSB, we had QRM at times, but I was still able to copy and had a good QSO.
In a significant number of my QSOs, the person on the other end just says “well, QSB, so QRT.” When I have QSB, I adjust my radio, sharpen my listening skills and wait to see if the other fellow’s signal comes back up (it often does).
A lot of successful copy isn’t just knowing the code, but more about listening skills. For example, how do you mentally pick out the signal you want to hear in various situations?
For instance, when I first got back on the air, I was using a QRP transceiver where the offset frequency was set quite low (maybe less than 200 Hz). Accordingly, I got very good at copying low-pitched signals because that is what I had to listen to. So today, if someone comes back to me close to zero beat, I just focus and copy it. Copying low pitched signals is a learned skill.
I could envision training people to copy stations at different volumes, at various pitches, with different kinds of interference, with heterodynes, with QRN, with zero beat QRM or close to it, with chirp or drift, with different equipment problems.
In my opinion, just working QRP is great weak signal training. It certainly helped me, but I could see benefit in training to deal with the copying problems people will encounter in advance.
So I see lots of information about the best ways to learn the code. I don’t see much about how to develop CW operating / copying skills. Have you run into any classes or information on that?
I am very happy to have the copying skills and experiences I had. But it took me 50 years. Is anyone working with that kind of training, or do people just (hopefully) pick it up on the air?
73/72 de Gary W0ITT
I think Gary makes some really great points. I also hate it when I get the”Well, QSB here, so QRT” message. While there are times that the fading is so bad that it makes carrying on the contact nearly impossible, this says to me that the other operator just isn’t very good or that he or she just doesn’t want to talk to me any more. If the latter, I’d rather they just come out and say it instead of making some kind of lame excuse.
As far as classes or information on developing CW skills, the CWops CW Academy is perhaps the closest that we have to that. It’s a series of three classes that take someone from newbie to 25 wpm. Along the way, students are encouraged to take part in a number of different operating experiences including ragchews and contesting.
Another resource is Morse Runner. This program simulates contest operation including pileups, other guys grabbing your frequency, QRM, and QRN. I keep meaning to try it myself, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. A lot of guys enjoy using it, though.
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