MORSE CODE
for AMATEUR RADIO including
MORSE CODE EQUIVALENTS
When you begin to learn to drive, it takes all your concentration to drive slowly.
Later, when you have mastered the necessary co-ordination skills,
you can drive at speed, and still listen to the radio, or carry on a conversation.
It seems as though you have trained your eyes and ears to tell your hands and feet what to do,
and that your brain is not really involved!
Learning the Morse code is a similar process.
The aim is to train your hand to write the characters heard by your ears,
but without thinking about the process of translation.
Like learning to drive, the more hours you practice, the better you will become.
You are advised to practice for at least 20 minutes per day, every day of the week.
Little and often is the best way.
To reach 5 wpm usually takes between 3 and 8 weeks, and 10 wpm requires
the same time again.
Some people learn quickly, and others have to battle for years.
Such is life.
There is no correlation with IQ,
and you can forget about the usual "cramming" the night before the
examination.
So never try to learn the Morse code by looking at the patterns
of dots and dashes on paper,
and always write down what you are hearing.
There will be plenty of time for "cutting corners" after you have
passed the examinations!
Be aware that sending is a much easier skill to master than receiving,
so don't even touch a Morse key at this stage.
Finally, please note that the Morse code characters shown
are the only ones included in the AOCP/NAOCP examination.
You can learn the other seldom-used punctuation characters later.
When sending, and you think that you have made an error, leave a
short gap,
send the error signal, and then start sending
from the start of the last correctly-sent word or group.
Written by John VK6NT
MORSE CODE EQUIVALENTS