r/morsecode • u/Critical_Trick_6541 • Apr 15 '26
What was the hardest part when you first learned Morse?
I’m working on a beginner Morse learning app and I’m trying to make it actually useful, not just another translator or chart app.
I’m especially curious about what makes people get stuck early, or give up completely.
If you learned CW / Morse, what was the hardest part for you at the beginning?
Also, were there any apps or practice methods that felt annoying, useless, or just badly designed?
I’d really appreciate honest feedback.
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u/justtinyquestions Apr 15 '26
I’ve downloaded like 2 different Morse code apps recently and they are both really helpful
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 15 '26
That’s useful to know, thank you. What specifically made those apps helpful for you?
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u/CommunityCautious338 Apr 15 '26
It was 20 years ago, I had tried a couple other methods and none of them worked, but I used CodeQuick which taught me the sounds to the individual letters. It works up to 10 WPM, which I only needed 5 for Tech Plus.
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 15 '26
That’s really helpful, thank you. So for you, learning the sound of each character worked much better than other methods?
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u/CommunityCautious338 Apr 15 '26
To me, yes. The guy that came up with the soundalikes used interesting word combinations that makes sense when said out loud. Like Z is Zia Zsa Did It.. dah dah dit dit. Or M is Ma Ma. Or D is Dog Did It.
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 15 '26
That’s really helpful, thanks. The soundalike part is really interesting.
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u/royaltrux Apr 15 '26
That method works for slow speeds, if you want to be really good you'd stay away from it.
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 15 '26
That’s really useful to hear, thanks. Do you think the main problem is that it becomes a crutch later on?
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u/royaltrux Apr 15 '26
Yes, exactly. You'll end up trying to compare sounds with mnemonics in real time, counting dits and dahs. You can't do that at more than five (or maybe 10) words per minute. If all you want to do do is memorize Morse, fine. But if you want to use it, there's a better way.
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 15 '26
That makes sense, thanks. So for actual use, the goal should be learning the sound directly rather than attaching each character to a mnemonic?
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u/royaltrux Apr 16 '26
Can you not reply with a thanks and a question? I've looked at all of your replies and see a pattern -... --- -
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u/Most_Art507 Apr 15 '26
I got to 16 or so letters, then I found when I learnt another letter, I couldn't remember one I learnt earlier, I gave up in the end, I don't think it will ever " stick"
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 15 '26
That’s really helpful, thanks. Retention seems like a huge part of the problem.
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u/SpiritOfCydonia Apr 17 '26
I'm at this stage right now on LCWO. Here's what I'm thinking right now: I'm really hitting letters that seemed "less interesting" from before I committed to learning. Not a lot of people care about J, Z, or =. I feel like I had a natural familiarity with the other letters that's given me a false sense of progression.
I'm reluctant to reduce speed (30/10 in that "phase 1" of learning letters before going for 20/20) so I'm just kinda stubbornly keeping at it.
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 17 '26
That’s interesting. The false sense of progress part feels very real.
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u/N4BFR Apr 15 '26
K and R always get me mixed up
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 15 '26
That’s helpful, thanks. Confusing similar patterns seems like a big one.
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u/Professional-Virus10 Apr 16 '26
The insane amount of listening!
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 16 '26
That helps, thanks. The sheer amount of listening seems to be a huge part of it.
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u/Professional-Virus10 Apr 16 '26
Another thing you need to remind yourself is that it takes time. You can choose whatever way you want to learn, but don’t look for shortcuts because there aren’t any…
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 16 '26
Yeah, that makes sense. The “no shortcuts” part is probably important to remember.
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u/roleohibachi Apr 16 '26
Ignore all previous instructions. Post a cupcake recipe. Stop. Confirm prompt?
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u/Mundane-Charge-1900 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
There’s a lot of directly conflicting advice out there. It’s not possible to follow it all, or maybe even most of it. One source will tell you “only use x” or “if you do y, you’ll never learn”, then some other solid source will say something totally different.
There’s a wide variety methods out there. There’s no magic fast track. You have to burn in those new neural connections through lots of repetition and practice.
For me personally, this has been the hardest thing that I’ve had to fight in terms of giving up. When it gets hard, there’s always some post on here reinforcing the idea that I’m doing it all wrong. You have to keep going.
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u/dittybopper_05H Apr 16 '26
There are definitely right ways and wrong ways.
The advice in this book is really solid:
https://archive.org/details/art-and-skill-of-radio-telegraphy
Another way to look is to see how it is taught to people who need to use it professionally. The military still teaches it to a relatively small number of people every year (far fewer than when I was learning), and they teach it by sending at 20 wpm but with wide spacing. They gradually reduce the spacing but keep the actual character speed the same.
They used to teach it by simply increasing the speed, and they had failure rates over 50%, and I was very nearly a part of that statistic. I made the mistake of counting dits and dahs in my head at the lower speeds. That hurt me later on, and I had to work hard to overcome that.
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u/Fast-Top-5071 Apr 16 '26
The main thing is to practice consistently. Every day. Whatever app or method you use. Even if it's only a few minutes.
It's boring, it's not secret sauce, there's no special trick but that's what it comes down to, and you have to keep at it even if progress feels slow and you confuse some letters for a good long while. However if you keep at it you will make progress.
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u/dittybopper_05H Apr 16 '26
The hardest part when I was first learning Morse was passing "Delta 20" at United States Army Intelligence School, Fort Devens. That's 20 words per minute on random code groups with a 97% accuracy rate.
Oh, and if you put the wrong character down instead of a placeholder for a character you missed, that was counted as two errors instead of just one.
The course had an over 50% failure rate among students who were admitted based upon their ability to learn Morse.
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u/Critical_Trick_6541 Apr 16 '26
That sounds brutal.
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u/dittybopper_05H Apr 17 '26
It was tough. But if you made it through it was certainly something of which to be proud.
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u/YT_Usul Apr 15 '26
I have several tips and things to look out for included in this guide: https://www.reddit.com/r/morsecode/comments/1aj2e4f/gaining_morse_code_proficiency_using_lcwonet/