I have only limited experience (and not near enough patience!) trying to learn CW, but I have always heard that there are two things which are actively harmful to learning: 1) trying to visualize the dots and dashes, and 2) practicing at speeds slower than encountered on the air.
The best way to learn, according to the experts, is by learning to directly associate the sound that a letter makes with that letter. This takes lots of rote memorization at first, but it trains your brain to copy code "on autopilot," which is exactly what you want for something like this.
I liken it to music: musicians who learn to play by ear take the time to learn chords, scales, and intervals. It's a slog to start with and takes hours upon hours of boring practice. But once competent, they can play most pieces of music after one or two listens with only a little "noodling" to figure out the easiest 90% of the song.
I don't _think_ I'll ever learn CW well enough to do it in a contest but I've gotten a fair amount of mileage out of https://lcwo.net/morsemachine. It's essentially the audio equivalent to flash cards.
Another word of warning is that sadly, this knowledge doesn’t seem to stick if left unexercised. Few years ago I used this website to get good enough to be able to copy callsigns from real radio. Now I would have trouble to recall more than a few letters.
As is true with nearly any language. I originally got my ham license back in 1988 when I was a kid (was actually surprised/happy I could remember my original callsign and use that to look up my registration date). I got up to the 13 WPM needed to pass the General license back then, but then I eventually lost interest, especially when I went to college and the Internet (and especially the Web) was in its early stages. I sadly can hardly remember any of the codes these days.
It'd be interesting to see how quickly relearning it to ~the same level would be in terms of % of time spent originally.
I found something similar after going through several different keyboard layouts ~15 years ago. It turned out it only took a few hours for it to all come back so I make sure to use Qwerty and Dvorak at least once a year in case I ever need them (I landed on a 3rd).
For some mysterious reason I have a much easier time sending accurate Morse code than receiving it. This was true when I first acquired a ham license in the 1950s and it's still true today (KE7ZZ).
I was able to solve a game example at 30 WPM, but it's only five characters repeated, not so difficult. And as someone here has commented, one's code skill declines through neglect.
But, as with Latin and a few other examples, once a given skill has lost all relevance to modern life, my interest increases.
I think it's because your brain isn't working to autocomplete the words that are being sent, so there's more processing power available for your fingers to send the characters.
PS. I love your boating articles. I've read every one on your website.
It's fun to see this. My father (W7AAI) recently passed away, and we were just going through his QSL cards from the 60's and 70's. I never learned Morse code, but spent a lot of time hearing him using it as a kid. He first got his license in 1955, and my time in his HAM shack, playing with teletype tape, oscilloscopes and other such things was really pivotal for me becoming a CS major but handy with a soldering iron.
If you're curious about what it was like, here's something he wrote up in 2020 about his experiences with HAM radio in the early days. I see now I shared this once before on a YC post about QSL cards...
Sorry for your loss. I enjoyed the write-up. It's fascinating to see how much ham radio has changed. It used to be the height of novelty (and expense!) for the privilege of talking to someone across the world in real time via dits and dahs. A lot of people don't realize that even though telephones existed in that time, they were really only practical for local or regional calls.
For those interested in learning Morse Code by sound, https://lcwo.net (Learn CW Online) is a good resource, although not really usable on a mobile device.
Lastly, if you learn better in more social environments, consider the Long Island CW Club, which, despite its name, has members globally. https://longislandcwclub.org/
Hi folks! Love reading all the feedback. I originally released Morsle on April 1, 2023 as sort of a joke, but I’m glad that folks are still enjoying it.
The original idea was to make it more accessible to non-hams, which is why it has no Farnsworth spacing, visual aids, alphabetic keyboard, etc., but over time it’s become clear that really it’s just hams that are playing. So I should probably add more settings and proper training modes.
The option to start at a lower wpm or just to play one character a time could be useful for us software engineers who still harbor dreams of learning morse code.
40 wpm is way too much. I just want to practice at one character at a time. Maybe even start with a reduced character set, like Duolingo only teaches you a few foreign language words at a time.
Years ago I tried starting out with 5 wpm and 'working up', and just barely passed the 13 wpm test to get the 'Advanced' ticket. Only thing that stopped me getting Extra was that 20 wpm code test, that was still a thing in the 80s.
I let it all lapse for about 35 years and just got back into radio in '22, and tried copying some 5 wpm from W1AW, and could copy maybe 20 or 30% of that at best. So it came as something of a surprise, playing with Morsle for a few minutes, to discover I can do as well or better at 35 wpm as I can at 5.
You really get too much time at the slow speeds to engage the frontal cortex. If you learn to think your way to each letter, that doesn't scale very far.
Another Morse code learning resource, for those the seriously want to learn and build Morse code skills, is the CW Academy run by CW Ops. https://cwops.org/ Basically a friendly crew of skilled CW operators that want to invite more people to the party, and do online classes and mentoring.
This is fun. The UI and concept are well-executed.
I wish it did farnsworth timing, though. The idea is that the individualy characters play at full 30 words per minute speed, but the characters are spaced to be at your target listening rate.
You want to hear each letter as a distinct sound rather than hearing individual dits and dahs. The added time between each character with farnsworth timing gives your audio/memory system time to make the connection rather than slowing the whole character down so you have to remember that dit-dit-dah is U.
I can typically hear at about 30 wpm with farnsworth timing. It is, for me, much harder to hear when slowed down to 10 wpm with the dits and dahs slowed way down.
It has taken a few months of practice. I'm still too nervous to use it on the ham bands aside from scheduled chats with friendly operators. My favorite way to learn has been guided courses with experienced CW (morse code) operators from cwops.
I used that website everyday when I was prepping for my ham license upgrade and got reasonably good after a while, being 25 WPM my most comfortable speed. But then I learned that the CW exam in Brazil was carried out at 5 WPM. When I tried that speed, much to my surprise I couldn't understand a single word. I had to relearn slow Morse on lcwo.net from scratch weeks before the test. My takeaway was that our brains seem to get super specialized, so if you're studying for a CW exam yourself, I do recommend immersing yourself in CW at roughly the same speed as the exam.
Pretty cool, I will be using this. But.... the letters are spaced out more than they should be. I got the word in two tries at 40WPM... and I assure you that I can not take code conversationally at 40WPM.. or even contest exchanges at 40WPM. I got two letters on the first playback, and the remaining three on the second playback. Two attempts was very helpful, and the extra letter spacing is also a "crutch". I consider my "true" proficiency at the level where 25-28 WPM contest exchanges (where you know the format ahead of time) is comfortable. Conversational code I would have to slow down.
The other day there was a game where person wanted to play something while in the meetings without turning on the screen.
First thing I thought instead of random buzzes to reply to - trying to replicate it would be cool to buzz morse code and then having person tap back what was buzzed.
I recall listening to a cassette that would go through the alphabet, like a song. I tried hard, but never really got the hang out of it. But this time, Morsle would build the bridge more easily.
I have only limited experience (and not near enough patience!) trying to learn CW, but I have always heard that there are two things which are actively harmful to learning: 1) trying to visualize the dots and dashes, and 2) practicing at speeds slower than encountered on the air.
The best way to learn, according to the experts, is by learning to directly associate the sound that a letter makes with that letter. This takes lots of rote memorization at first, but it trains your brain to copy code "on autopilot," which is exactly what you want for something like this.
I liken it to music: musicians who learn to play by ear take the time to learn chords, scales, and intervals. It's a slog to start with and takes hours upon hours of boring practice. But once competent, they can play most pieces of music after one or two listens with only a little "noodling" to figure out the easiest 90% of the song.
I don't _think_ I'll ever learn CW well enough to do it in a contest but I've gotten a fair amount of mileage out of https://lcwo.net/morsemachine. It's essentially the audio equivalent to flash cards.
Another word of warning is that sadly, this knowledge doesn’t seem to stick if left unexercised. Few years ago I used this website to get good enough to be able to copy callsigns from real radio. Now I would have trouble to recall more than a few letters.
As is true with nearly any language. I originally got my ham license back in 1988 when I was a kid (was actually surprised/happy I could remember my original callsign and use that to look up my registration date). I got up to the 13 WPM needed to pass the General license back then, but then I eventually lost interest, especially when I went to college and the Internet (and especially the Web) was in its early stages. I sadly can hardly remember any of the codes these days.
It'd be interesting to see how quickly relearning it to ~the same level would be in terms of % of time spent originally.
I found something similar after going through several different keyboard layouts ~15 years ago. It turned out it only took a few hours for it to all come back so I make sure to use Qwerty and Dvorak at least once a year in case I ever need them (I landed on a 3rd).
I would say this is how one should learn any foreign language.
For some mysterious reason I have a much easier time sending accurate Morse code than receiving it. This was true when I first acquired a ham license in the 1950s and it's still true today (KE7ZZ).
I was able to solve a game example at 30 WPM, but it's only five characters repeated, not so difficult. And as someone here has commented, one's code skill declines through neglect.
But, as with Latin and a few other examples, once a given skill has lost all relevance to modern life, my interest increases.
A link to my Morse code page: https://arachnoid.com/morse_code/index.html
I find it easier to send as well.
I think it's because your brain isn't working to autocomplete the words that are being sent, so there's more processing power available for your fingers to send the characters.
PS. I love your boating articles. I've read every one on your website.
> I love your boating articles. I've read every one on your website.
Thanks -- this means a lot to me (https://arachnoid.com/alaska2018). One might call pages like mine the "geriatric Web". :)
It's fun to see this. My father (W7AAI) recently passed away, and we were just going through his QSL cards from the 60's and 70's. I never learned Morse code, but spent a lot of time hearing him using it as a kid. He first got his license in 1955, and my time in his HAM shack, playing with teletype tape, oscilloscopes and other such things was really pivotal for me becoming a CS major but handy with a soldering iron.
If you're curious about what it was like, here's something he wrote up in 2020 about his experiences with HAM radio in the early days. I see now I shared this once before on a YC post about QSL cards...
https://www.qcwa.org/w7aai-29229.htm
Sorry for your loss. I enjoyed the write-up. It's fascinating to see how much ham radio has changed. It used to be the height of novelty (and expense!) for the privilege of talking to someone across the world in real time via dits and dahs. A lot of people don't realize that even though telephones existed in that time, they were really only practical for local or regional calls.
I don't know what the US FCC rules are, but you might be able to inherit his callsign.
For those interested in learning Morse Code by sound, https://lcwo.net (Learn CW Online) is a good resource, although not really usable on a mobile device.
For building speed, I had the most success listening to random characters via https://morsecode.world/international/trainer/character.html during my morning walks. Another option to consider are the Morse Code Ninja https://morsecode.ninja/ YouTube and Podcast content.
Lastly, if you learn better in more social environments, consider the Long Island CW Club, which, despite its name, has members globally. https://longislandcwclub.org/
Hi folks! Love reading all the feedback. I originally released Morsle on April 1, 2023 as sort of a joke, but I’m glad that folks are still enjoying it.
The original idea was to make it more accessible to non-hams, which is why it has no Farnsworth spacing, visual aids, alphabetic keyboard, etc., but over time it’s become clear that really it’s just hams that are playing. So I should probably add more settings and proper training modes.
Thanks for playing!
The option to start at a lower wpm or just to play one character a time could be useful for us software engineers who still harbor dreams of learning morse code.
40 wpm is way too much. I just want to practice at one character at a time. Maybe even start with a reduced character set, like Duolingo only teaches you a few foreign language words at a time.
Disagree with 40wpm being way to much. You want to learn the 'sounds' of the characters, you don't want to count the individual dits and dahs.
Other posters have mentioned Farnsworth spacing, which increases the gap between characters, but keeps the speed of the individual letters.
https://lcwo.net is a good resource for learning as you start from K and work your way through the alphabet.
Years ago I tried starting out with 5 wpm and 'working up', and just barely passed the 13 wpm test to get the 'Advanced' ticket. Only thing that stopped me getting Extra was that 20 wpm code test, that was still a thing in the 80s.
I let it all lapse for about 35 years and just got back into radio in '22, and tried copying some 5 wpm from W1AW, and could copy maybe 20 or 30% of that at best. So it came as something of a surprise, playing with Morsle for a few minutes, to discover I can do as well or better at 35 wpm as I can at 5.
You really get too much time at the slow speeds to engage the frontal cortex. If you learn to think your way to each letter, that doesn't scale very far.
Hee hee. But it is Farnsworthed, the default 40 WPM is quite spaced out!
Another Morse code learning resource, for those the seriously want to learn and build Morse code skills, is the CW Academy run by CW Ops. https://cwops.org/ Basically a friendly crew of skilled CW operators that want to invite more people to the party, and do online classes and mentoring.
Very much this... and the Long Island CW Club (https://longislandcwclub.org) which has similar classes
That was fun. I passed my 20WPM way back when it was requisite for your Extra license. Took a few replays, but got the word at 35WPM.
It's funny how you can still retain it. But I did pound brass for years.
This is fun. The UI and concept are well-executed.
I wish it did farnsworth timing, though. The idea is that the individualy characters play at full 30 words per minute speed, but the characters are spaced to be at your target listening rate.
You want to hear each letter as a distinct sound rather than hearing individual dits and dahs. The added time between each character with farnsworth timing gives your audio/memory system time to make the connection rather than slowing the whole character down so you have to remember that dit-dit-dah is U.
I can typically hear at about 30 wpm with farnsworth timing. It is, for me, much harder to hear when slowed down to 10 wpm with the dits and dahs slowed way down.
It has taken a few months of practice. I'm still too nervous to use it on the ham bands aside from scheduled chats with friendly operators. My favorite way to learn has been guided courses with experienced CW (morse code) operators from cwops.
I used that website everyday when I was prepping for my ham license upgrade and got reasonably good after a while, being 25 WPM my most comfortable speed. But then I learned that the CW exam in Brazil was carried out at 5 WPM. When I tried that speed, much to my surprise I couldn't understand a single word. I had to relearn slow Morse on lcwo.net from scratch weeks before the test. My takeaway was that our brains seem to get super specialized, so if you're studying for a CW exam yourself, I do recommend immersing yourself in CW at roughly the same speed as the exam.
At any rate, really cool website!
There's a podcast of Morse Code QOTD at various speeds: https://www.morseresource.com/quotes.php
Nice!
If there are some morse enthusiasts here, I am developing an iPhone app for morse encoding and decoding with flashlight and camera.
If you want to test it, use: https://testflight.apple.com/join/ZXrZgfvd
Thanks for any feedback:)
Pretty cool, I will be using this. But.... the letters are spaced out more than they should be. I got the word in two tries at 40WPM... and I assure you that I can not take code conversationally at 40WPM.. or even contest exchanges at 40WPM. I got two letters on the first playback, and the remaining three on the second playback. Two attempts was very helpful, and the extra letter spacing is also a "crutch". I consider my "true" proficiency at the level where 25-28 WPM contest exchanges (where you know the format ahead of time) is comfortable. Conversational code I would have to slow down.
The other day there was a game where person wanted to play something while in the meetings without turning on the screen.
First thing I thought instead of random buzzes to reply to - trying to replicate it would be cool to buzz morse code and then having person tap back what was buzzed.
This is great, I'm going to start learning Morse code because of this.
I recall listening to a cassette that would go through the alphabet, like a song. I tried hard, but never really got the hang out of it. But this time, Morsle would build the bridge more easily.
There's also this resource from Google, https://morse.withgoogle.com/learn/
You can also set up morse as an Android keyboard.
I forced myself to use morse code keyboard for a week and it was fun but I switched back to the normal keyboard
might go back and do that again
Looks usable and useful unlike my joke version:
https://plingbang.github.io/morsel/
I called CQ with my horn in a traffic jam and got into a pileup, heh. Just kidding. A ham can dream.
Hmm maybe I should hook up my iambic paddle to the horn somehow. I'd need a keyer of course.
This is great! It's cool that you can listen to each letter individually
Paper version: https://www.nam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/learning-resource-...