Jan

2

General Post Office Morse code sounderI was thinking about Morse Code today and recalled that when learning the code it was actually counter productive to try to begin learning by listening to characters transmitted at a reduced speed and then progressively picking up the pace. Seasoned hams are familiar with either the Farnsworth or Koch methods. to quote Wikipedia:

People learning Morse code using the Farnsworth method, named for Donald R. "Russ" Farnsworth, also known by his call sign, W6TTB, are taught to send and receive letters and other symbols at their full target speed, that is with normal relative timing of the dots, dashes and spaces within each symbol for that speed. However, initially exaggerated spaces between symbols and words are used, to give "thinking time" to make the sound "shape" of the letters and symbols easier to learn. The spacing can then be reduced with practice and familiarity. Another popular teaching method is the Koch method, named after German psychologist Ludwig Koch, which uses the full target speed from the outset, but begins with just two characters. Once strings containing those two characters can be copied with 90% accuracy, an additional character is added, and so on until the full character set is mastered.

The point being that learning the code by hearing it at its normal (high) speed from the outset is easier than having to learn how to ramp up your speed as you progress. I was thinking that if you had a trading simulator that operates at speeds faster than real time, then you could learn to recognize set ups more quickly and perhaps be more agile when it comes to actual trading in real time.

Counters and algo writers may find dichotomic search interesting as well.

Jeff Watson writes:

When I first learned the code back in 1967, I didn't use the Farnsworth or Koch methods. An 80 year old guy (got his ticket in 1918) taught me the code by sending at high speed (40+ words per minute) and combining all the dits and dahs into entire words and making me learn whole words from the sound. He would not let me copy the code on paper, making me learn it in my head and drilling it in. Whereas a person could learn the code using the aforementioned techniques in a couple of weeks and be able to easily copy the minimum of five words per minute (required for the Novice license at that time), it took me five months of practicing code every day to learn and get dialed in, but I was copying code at 38 words per minute right out of the chute. He told me that the method I learned was the same method that they used to train the old telegraph operators in the 1880s.

To this day, I don't write my code on paper, instead copying it in my head, without the use of any computers or other such heresy. With 43 years of practice, code (CW) is like a second language to me. There is a certain elegance in in using the code, and there are many old-school diehards such as I who refuse to give up using CW. With the advent of electronic keyers and computer technology, it is possible to send code perfectly spaced and without personality. Using old-fashioned straight keys and Bugs, one was able to develop a personalized style of sending code, and the code would have an accent, an individual swing of sorts. One could identify the sender just by listening to his CW. I still use my old Vibroplex, and refuse to go to a keyer, where all functions are on a chip. There is also computer software that will copy code very fast, but it only works with the perfectly spaced code from a keyer. We know who the people using artificial cheat methods are.

There are many of us tradition-bound hams and many youngsters who still use code on the amateur frequencies. We are a rare bunch, with only an estimated 30,000 of us left in the world. I wouldn't count CW out as of yet, because it is still the best communication method when conditions are noisy or bad. Voice might be distorted to the point of being unintelligible, but CW will usually get through. On a personal note, I am rarely on SSB, AM, or FM, preferring to use CW for my communication needs. In fact, the only time I get on voice is when the International Space Station or the Space Shuttle has an operator on 2 Meters, and it is passing overhead. I will give them a shout. It's pretty cool to talk to someone orbiting the earth. It's also cool to send a CW signal up to the moon and bounce the signal off the moon and work people anywhere in the hemisphere.

Jeff Watson, surfer, speculator, poker player and art connoisseur, blogs as MasterOfTheUniverse.


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