My first encounter with CW¹ was learning it for the Novice Ham License test 47 years ago, in 1977. Morse code learning in those days began with a chart of the alphabet and the dots and dashes associated with each character. The mental challenge was translating a sequence of dots and dashes into a letter. Learn this for the alphabet, numbers, a few punctuation marks, and then practice doing it quickly enough to meet a speed goal. Practice was via either 33 RPM vinyl records, or audio cassette tapes. The code speed required for the Novice test was 5 words per minute, or about 30 characters per minute, 1 character every 2 seconds. I wandered away from Ham radio for a few years and came back to study for the General class license in 1988. The code speed for that license required 13 words per minute proficiency, about 1 character every ¾ of a second. I used morse code on the air for a couple of years in spare time, but then other parts of life became more important.

1. Continuous Wave mode of radio operation, which keys a transmitter on and off using Morse code. ↩︎

Thirty-some years later, I’m back to ham radio, having a great time, but still wrestling with a monster that’s left over from the wrong way of learning Morse code.

WRONG WAY?

It’s the wrong way because a decode engine gets implanted in the brain. Once that engine is implanted, it always takes over with this sequence: 1) hear a Morse code sound 2) the decode engine barges in and 3) you wait for a character to pop out. That’s OK at slow speeds, but one tries to improve code speed, the decode engine is always barging into the sequence, taking up precious time, becoming a barrier to progressing, creating what some refer to as plateaus. Many of us reach a plateau at 15-18 words per minute (wpm). Almost always it is those of us who learned the old way and have a decode engine still taking control. That decode engine has become what Glenn Norman, W4YES, (founder of CW Innovations) calls the Decode Monster.

A better way to learn

The modern method of learning Morse code focuses on the code as a sound based language. Don’t ever refer to a chart of dots and dashes. Don’t ever refer to any graphic form. Morse code is an audible language, not a written language. Pay attention ONLY to sound. Don’t aim for low speed recognition that you can grow. Start character recognition fast. Learn to recognize characters by hearing them at a high speed (typically 27-37 wpm, or higher, character speed). Don’t get freaked out by that speed. It isn’t an expectation of understanding the code at that speed, but hearing individual characters at that high speed. The speed has to be fast enough to discourage counting dots and dashes. Learn the sound, not the number and sequence of parts, but the sound, the sound, a single unit of sound, of a character. The technique is known as Instant Character Recognition. When one learns this way recognition eventually becomes instant, no decode time, no need for the Decode Monster to ever intrude. The sound didah becomes instantly recognized as an “a” and diddydahdahdiddy becomes instantly recognized as a question mark. People learning Morse code with this method usually progress smoothly towards the ability to stack characters into words, words into phrases, into sentences and into conversations.

Instant character recognition is absolutely essential. Recognition must be instant for progressing to fluency. One can recognize short words fairly easily, but once words become 5, 6, or more characters, if character recognition isn’t instant, decode processing time causes you to fall behind. Getting to Instant means slaying the decode monster. There’s no time for the decode monster to be in the way as streams of characters become longer or faster.

I’m not there yet. Character recognition still isn’t instant. The decode monster keeps demanding its share of my recognition time. One practice technique that holds promise is listening to 3-character groups with the MorseCodeWorld trainer. I started that practice with character speed at 28 wpm, but was still counting dots and dashes. At 36 wpm, the sounds are almost “single sound units” and after listening for a good while, 10-15 minutes, the sound units start becoming characters. I think I’m gradually wearing down the decode monster as I keep increasing character speed. By the way, practicing with 3-character groups is useful as a way of reducing the desire to also make a recognizable word out of the stream; less mental pressure. However, if I drop back to slower character speeds, the monster still wants to barge in. THAT is my current challenge. Does anyone know a better way to slay the monster?

Jump the bump

“Jump the bump” is another phrase that comes from Glenn W4YES. The concept is to practice much faster that what is easily recognized, past that bump, and then fall back to a comfortable speed for real recognition. On a positive note, I have experienced real progress when attempting word recognition. Some time ago, listening to lists of short words at 10 wpm resulted in about 80% success. Today, I can get to that 80% level at 18 wpm. That’s progress.

Meanwhile: Die, monster, DIE!

Update: 12/14/24 – changed all earlier references of “Translation Demon” to “Decode Monster” after finding a video where Glenn mentioned it once again.

Recent practice with 36 WPM character speed and 20 WPM Farnsworth is letting many more characters pop-up before the decode monster gets in the way.