| Here are some notes about the G3UPA Morse tutor pages. |
| and why, plus some other stuff. Many tutors treat Numbers as a completely separate entity when teaching the code. I do not. As far as I am concerned the sooner you get your brain into gear to recognize characters as a "rhythmic sound" the better and the figure 5, for instance, is a natural progression from the First group of characters E I S & H. Hence the inclusion of a number at the end of most groups. The character codes on the 'CW Characters' page are listed in the order in which I teach them. You should spend as much time as it takes to learn each group, until you Know it, 100%, BEFORE moving onto the next group. You don't have to stick rigidly to the order of the groups, but that's the way I teach CW. I have tried to ensure that the [Word practice] page contains words only appropriate to each group, and the list is growing, slowly. People have said to me "But I can't spell"... So what, neither can many of the other operators out there, but it's usually not a problem to understand what they meant. The Error code didididididididit (8 dits), meaning "I just screwed that up", is a character on it's own. During a qso it is usually replaced by a Query (?), or didit didit. (i i) If I make an error while sending, and it has been known, I personally use didit didit or ?, or even both. Many people have difficulty sending 8 dits and you will regularly hear 7, 8, 9, 10 or even more dits as the operator loses his rag with the 'stupid key that won't do as it's told'. On air it isn't really necessary to send didididididididit everytime you send the wrong character. Most operators will know what you meant, and if they don't they should ask. And anyway, since 50%+ of them can't spell either, how will they know it was wrong ?. (ooops) Another one you will occasionally hear is 'ditdit dahdidah'. It's Not EEK, It's 'O' K ok?. I believe it originated many years ago when operators would use 'ditdit' instead of O 'cos it's shorter and quicker to send. Normally though, ditdit dahdidah is only used by, more proficient or professional operators. Note: I am reliably informed that it originated from American Morse code or 'Railroad Morse' way back in the late 1800's I will use it, but only if it is sent to me first. I wonder if it was the origin of 'hi hi' as CW laughter? 'ho ho' would be much more appropriate. I haven't heard many people say hi hi as laughter, except maybe a few long haired, unshaven types. You will regularly hear 'didahdit' (r) at the beginning of an over, immediately following the call-signs and meaning 'Received OK'. It is a bad habit to automatically use 'didahdit', if you missed the name or qth or something else and didn't 'Receive All' ok. Use 'most ok' or something similar. Remember 'Bad Habits Die Hard', and there's enough of them around already. This page will grow, as and when I have time to spare, but don't hold your breath. Somewhere on site is a page containing many, or as many as I can remember, of the commonly heard abbreviations that you will encounter during a normal cw qso. You don't have to send them but you need to recognize them otherwise, in your early stages, you will be thrown by them. Have fun Learning CW. It's a Hobby, Not a life sentence to Hard Labour. Any comments or suggestions are welcome via g3upacw@gmx.com or Contact_us | G3UPA said that ! |
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