As many of you may know, I am a licensed Amateur Radio operator in the United States. Recently, I've taken up a desire to learn Morse Code at a full 25 WPM using the Koch method. I only started last week, and tonight I copied my first beginners code "A NOTE TO TENNESSEE", and other such silliness. I don't know how many of my readers are hams, and how many of them know their CW.
Some equipment that I'm practicing with:
- Morse Code Trainer- An Android application for both sending (tapping the screen) and receiving. It's flexible in that you can choose what to listen to, your speed, as well as your tone frequency and volume. Currently, I'm using it to largely just receive.
- MFJ-557 code oscillator with key. This is very much a beginners straight key, but it comes with its own speaker, so you can hear how you sound when you transmit.
- Morse Code Reader- Another Android application, this time for using the MIC input to listen to outside noise, and translate that to letters. I've found it to be somewhat unreliable, even in a quiet room, with only code to be heard. With that said, during the beginning stages, it seems to be more reliable than me on what it picks up and translates. So, it's good to look back, and see what I got wrong, and where I need improvement.
I'm hoping by the end of the year, I can copy code at a full 25 WPM with 90% or better accuracy. I'm not actually on planning to work on transmitting and spacing until next year.
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