QRX from CWOps CWT/MST

For a while I 'ran' in the MST and CWT ops mini-contests.  It was useful to prepare for the major contest of the year -- the Salmon Run (WA State QSO Party).

But that contest is over.  I'm still in the CWOps Intermediate Class but I've also been involved lately in the Long Island CW Club classes.  They are different modes of teaching.

The LICW classes are very open and not bothered by a rigid structure of registration or syllabus.  People show up -- usually regulars -- and we practice some things.

CWOps is about structure, and the class is rigid in that way -- we follow a syllabus.  But, there is not a lot of actual instruction from the staff.   CWOps is mostly a class structure where we break-off into smaller groups and practice sending things and copying things.

No one asked me and I'm not sure it will amount to much -- but I think I'd like to design a different kind of lesson structure to learning CW.   It will be a mix of two things that I find most useful.  Well, three things actually.

1. Confidence.  Being confident in using CW is extremely helpful.  Using the key/paddle and just making QSO takes a bit of confidence.   I feel like there are some basics that are seldom discussed:
1. Every CW Op is just glad there is another operator there who is also working CW.  No matter what your skill level, they are just glad you are there.
2. Make mistakes.  Make a lot of mistakes and just work through the QSO in CW.   For every operator who is impatient and leaves the QSO, I argue there are at least 10 or more who would hang out with you and make the QSO work.  They far out number the impatient.  Rely on this.
3. All CW Ops who know their way around the bands know these truths -- they want to work you, else they would not come back to your CQ.  And if you are the one chasing down a CQ'ing station, rest assured -- unless it's a rare DX station -- for the most part they want to work you too.
2. The speed is a key indicator.  
1. If they are working 25 wpm or slower, they'll work you.  
2. If they are working faster than that -- it's likely they are not into long QSO or really want to muddle through.  You can skip those for the time being.  
3. You'll get there, so don't fret over not working the 27 wpm station for now.
3. Work and Practice the things that matter and are useful.   
1. Learning words and phrases is fine, but in the main -- what builds confidence is actually logging a CW QSO and those have rough patterns.   Callsign, Name, QTH, and maybe one other personal item (type of rig, power, antenna, and maybe even weather.  That's about it.
2. If you know how to send those things and copy those things you're doing great.
4. Finally, but not the least important -- learning how to copy your own callsign and how to send your callsign perfectly each time.   Spend the time to practice sending your call so well that you don't even have to look at the key/bug/paddle.   And learning to recognize someone is calling you -- knowing what your call sign sounds like at speed is extremely important.

A "lesson plan" around those ideals is what I would do if I was to organize a sequence for learning CW.

There are way too many good tools out there for you to learn to recognize letters and words.  I've used many of them -- too many of them.   They are either useful and simple, or complex and too much hassle.

The ones I have found over the years of CW to be very helpful to me are the simple tools:

1. Ward Cunningham's MORSE trainer (re-imagined as the Morse Machine on the LCWO - http://lcwo.net web site).  I'd start there.
2. Then there's the Word/Number groups training on LCWO.
3. Then there's the MorseRunner application in "Single Call Mode" - it has the additional advantage to help you get used to the contest/key-bindings -- a good skill to have since contesting (not for winning scores, but for the practice of callsign copying) is very helpful.

I want to put something together that captures all of this and I will get to that soon.