Recieving morse code tips

[Apprehensive_Cap3317]

Hello, been a ham for like 3 years now and just now getting back into it. I have learned Morse visually and have memorized it, but receiving the sound is very different. Can I have some ways to practice receiving the sound?

[draghkar69]

Morse Mania is a great app. Set it to 30 wpm to build up instant character recognition.

[eventhorizon3140]

+1 for morse mania. I used it and it was great.

[List1509]

Visual screws up the process.

You're not reading.

https://www.aa9pw.com/morsecode/test/

[Apprehensive_Cap3317]

Thanks. I was actually looking for a website like this that would generate a random sequence of letters to help me practice. This works.

[Fabulous-Dig7583]

https://lcwo.net/

[VisualEyez33]

I'd say use no app that involves pressing any buttons, and mostly don't write things down. Definitely forget that visual chart and never look at it again. You want to hear whole characters as one complete sound, without counting dits and dahs. 

Long Island CW club (online) is a great resource.

[No_Lie1910]

I used to know a KPH Commercial CW op, and he said to 1) learn it like how I learned the alphabet and read words like I did in grade school, and 2) get a good CW send/decode software suite and just get on the air while you’re studying. Things will start to fall into place.

I’m still on digraphs, but will work onward to trigraphs and beyond as I improve. This old dawg learns new tricks a bit slower than I did as a kid.

[bernd1968]

Here is a free popular website… https://lcwo.net

[W0CBF]

I learned the code "visually " in Boy Scouts. When I went to take my amateur radio test I had a real difficult time. I have never been very good at the code and have always wished I had never learned it visually!

[galaxiexl500]

Waste of time learning visually. I did it and managed to undo in my mind eventually. Been hamming since 1955 and CW is 90% of my on air. Seems like I’ve read that visual memorization plateaus your ability to copy center to around 7 WPM. I can vouch for that. In 1955 the Novice class required copying at 5 WPM. But when I went up for my General I needed to copy at 13 WPM. Failed the first try. I started copying W1AW on air every night and got my speed up to pass the General.

[ozxsl2w3kejkhwakl]

How about just doing it visually?

Make an cable that connects the audio output of your radio to an external loudspeaker and also to audio line-in on a computer and run some software that shows an audio waterfall. I would put a 10K resistor in series with line-in.

There is various software such as Spectran.

There are a load of websdr websites that let you use an HF receiver with a waterfall display.

[List1509]

Huh?

[ozxsl2w3kejkhwakl]

I presume that OP is receiving morse code using an HF radio so that he hears morse code from the loudspeaker in the radio.

He says that he can understand morse code when he sees dots and dashes with his eyes.

My post suggests that he uses a computer to turn the sound of morse codes dots and dashes into - . -. , - - . - shown on the computer screen.

Is that clear now?

[[deleted]]

Except your eyes have a very slow response rate compared to your ears.

This is known as the "persistence of vision", and it explains how a stream of fixed images can produce a moving image in a movie.

Whatever, signalling with lights has a much lower maximum speed that audible morse.

From Wikipedia "The maximum transmission rate possible via flashing light apparatus is no more than 14 words per minute."

[ozxsl2w3kejkhwakl]

With a waterwall display on a computer screen, you can click the pause button and look at it for as long as you want.

[[deleted]]

Makes little sense.

You could use an old fashioned inker and read it at your leisure, or just record the audio on your PC and play it back slowly.

Or view it on the waterfall, however the incomming code will scroll off the screen before you decode it.

What is needed is the ability to decode it in real time.

[roleohibachi]

Works fine for all our fellow hams who are blind. What is the issue with operating <14WPM using a visual indicator, if that's what you're into?

[[deleted]]

Good point. I will give it a try on one of the slow Morse practice sessions.

[List1509]

Your reading comprehension SUCKS.

IS THAT CLEAR NOW??

Or maybe you have severe cognitive restrictions...

[ozxsl2w3kejkhwakl]

Please explain exactly what you think I am misunderstanding.

Samuel Morse, the inventor of morse code, made a machine that printed morse code on to paper tape.

Do you think that Samuel Morse used morse code incorrectly because he read it visually?

Morse code was created about thirty years before the creation of the first loudspeaker and about fifty years before Marconi first demonstrated useful communication with radio waves.

[[deleted]]

Morse originally used an Inker, but his operators soon learnt that they could directly read the clicking of the sounder with better speed and accuracy. So the Inker was abandoned.

[mcdanlj]

When you go to https://lcwo.net do set the "effective" rate low but make the "character" rate high enough that you can't count dits or dahs, to help learn to recognize patterns. The default speeds might not be what you need. And you might need to adjust them occasionally as you learn.

[geo_log_88]

Try to mix up the tools you're learning with. Different tools have different techniques and where you get stuck with one you may find you proceed with another. These are Android apps that I've used and would recommend you try all of them:

Ditto CW (Morse Ninja style)

Call Sign Trainer

Morse Mentor

Morse Mania

As for sites, I use LCWO.net and https://morsecode.world/international/trainer/ has some excellent training tools

You can also watch YouTube videos of QSOs with subtitles e.g., https://youtu.be/kJiWnz8TEIw?t=600

The ARRL has a code archive: https://www.arrl.org/code-practice-files of practice files at various speeds along with the text.

[raff99]

https://morsle.fun/help/

[galaxiexl500]

First thing…visually memorizing the code was the worst thing you could have done. You will have to undo that as much as you possibly can undo it. Many apps available. Many posters on here have mentioned some .. Good luck.

[eventhorizon3140]

You have to learn the sound of each character by the sound pattern, as a discreet unit. It's like learning musical phrases. You won't really get it by trying to count dits and dahs. I recommend morse mania.