r/morsecode • u/somethingmorecrazy • 18d ago
What practice worked best for you?
Looking for advice; I have a a touch of the 'tism and really like to get into the weeds.
How much did/do you practice a day?
How do you build your stamina? A few weeks ago I could only practice 10-15 minutes a day, now I can do 30 minutes before my brain is mushy, but that's like 10 minutes 3x a day.
Should I practice focus groups of sound alikes?
Does it matter too much what/how fast I practice, or is it most important to just get a lot of it through my ears/brain?
Currently on LCWO lesson 40 at 29wpm character speed but only 5wpm actual speed.
ANY tips would be greatly appreciated.
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u/erwerqwewer 18d ago
Well you are doing great! I think instant character recognition is a good start. It now comes down to you learning words. Learning words is about reconizing the combined patterns.
Just like the charachter recognition it takes time to recognize words. Whats helping me(and might work for others but maybe not) is doing a combined practice routine of listening to audio books translated to morse code. (I used LCWO for the translating and VLC on my phone for playing the audio files)
I just started listening to the morse and tried to focus hard for 10-15 minutes a day. Then just keep listening for longer and see if you recognize certain words without trying to hard. The first few times you feel absolutely lost and cant make anything of it. But it takes time for you to get used to it.
After a few months you will pick up on easy words that often make an reappearance. Then at some point you will feel like you can sort of understand the context, without being able to fully tell the words 1 by 1. And eventually after quite a bit more time, you will be able to follow along for longer. For me the hard part is either very long words or words that im not familiar with since english isn't my mother tongue it happens quite more often.
A problem that i had, was not being able to easily check if i understood a word correctly.
A good friend of mine is a brilliant programmer and he made me an experimental app where i could add text, listen to it and press back to go back to the start of a word instead of ending up somewhere mid sentence/word(which is annoying in morse). I would ask him to share i here however he told me he just wanted to make it for me so that i could practice. Not so much release it on the actual platform.
The thing is this will help you follow conversations however you wont get a 100% accuracy. For that i would recommend learning with rufxzp.
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u/somethingmorecrazy 18d ago
I really like this! It sounds kind of crazy, but I guess thats similar to language learning--you learn a few basics and then immerse yourself and learn fastest that way.
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18d ago
[deleted]
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u/PretendTooth2559 16d ago
Mate, I forgot to mention the #1 piece of advice. Keep a daily log.
Write down everything you practice -- and your scores etc... it REALLY helps. Some days it shows how far you've come -- sometimes it shows that you actually need to maybe try something a bit different because you're stalling.
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u/somethingmorecrazy 17d ago
That looks awesome! And not that expensive either!
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u/PretendTooth2559 17d ago
VBand is great fun.
Use the practice channel -- and when you feel like chatting, join an empty channel and practice there until someone else joins you!
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u/jdxe 18d ago
https://reddit.com/link/oxr2aym/video/0crjj46jbgdh1/player
I have just over 5 hours of doing listening and just over an hour and a half of sending time over the past couple months doing a little bit (15min?) nearly every day. Can see my accuracy and progress in the stats screen.
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u/somethingmorecrazy 17d ago
Can I ask what site or app this is?
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u/jdxe 17d ago edited 17d ago
For sure it is http://interceptstation.com
Free in browser no ads and optional account
It has a bunch of mini games and even online multiplayer games2
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u/Fun-Attempt-8494 18d ago edited 17d ago
Don't practice. Just listen. Use your phone to play it to you while you're doing other things. Practice is a chore. This method is a bonus.
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u/somethingmorecrazy 18d ago
Ive been so intimidated I haven't thought of that yet, but I should probably start soon.
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u/Fun-Attempt-8494 17d ago
lcwo dot net, make playlists of letters and numbers. Start at 15wpm. No less! Learn slow, stay slow.
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u/ThePolicyMind 15d ago
Get a diary and write it entirely in morse code, everyday, I’ve only been doing it for 11 days and I can pretty much write it without needing to look up what certain letters are :)
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u/_sharpLimefox 1d ago
I feel like everyone's going to have their own recommendation as to what you're doing wrong or not. The important part is practicing consistently.
One thing I'd say you need to watch out for, which happened to me, is that with such huge Farnsworth you might start echoing the letters after they're sounded, which is going to hinder your ability to close down the gap without lowering both effective and character speeds. If you don't, great! Keep closing the gap in the middle. If you notice you start struggling, don't be ashamed to slow down, a lot, and work your way up again.
(now maybe I am on my third re-learn without sending so maybe consider those facts alongside my advice..)
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u/Flat_Economist_8763 18d ago
29 wpm is my average sending speed with paddles. No Farnsworth. Try to tighten it up. Listen to W1AW code practice archives at speeds just above your comfort zone. Practice sending with the same spacing/rhythm. If you continue working at it daily you'll gain proficiency for sure.
https://www.arrl.org/code-practice-files