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The video only seems to last a few second then returns to the start.

for anyone afraid that their age is going to get in the way of learning CW I love pointing to the clip from the tail end of DitDitDah Podcast Episode #7 - "The Bedtime Story Net" & Statue of Liberty at the 33 minute mark Emily Saldana, KB3VVE talks about Larry from New Jersey who learned CW at 72 and now 92 and head-copying. Lovely short story. Great episode to get over that age-stopgap for most folks.

Good advice, Keith. I come from the years when Morse code was a license requirement. Guys, you must do some code every day, not long sessions, but make it a habit. Get on the air and make contacts. Once you do that begin to send a bit faster than you are comfortable. You'll get code at that speed. Last thing, Keith, Morse is a one syllable name. Think of it as MORS. It is not mor-ris. Keep us these great videos.

#2 a big one. Every time I hear a conversation among cw hams, inevitably each one starts talking about how fast they can operate, usually with 30 wpm as the minimum and proceeding up from there. They may not intend to discourage new cw ops, but it gets ingrained in your mind that to be a good cw op you have to match that. I always try to put it out that, NO, you don't have to be a fast op to have fun. I have been a cw op for 50 years, 99% cw, and the highest test I can pass is the 15 wpm arrl proficiency certificate. After I retired, I was determined to get my speed to 25 and so for FOUR YEARS, I was absolutely faithful with 6 to 8, 30+ minute sessions a week, copying the w1aw online code practice at 25. After 4 years, I wasn't able to go on at that level of practice. And I never was able to pass the 20 wpm. I also realized that in all my years of good 10 to 18 wpm operating, it never stopped me from enjoying cw operating, by being a slow speed operator. Never! My suggestion to new or older ops, is to call CQ yourself, at YOUR comfortable speed, instead of always answering others. Most will match your CQ speed. I usually operate a bug, but will go right to my straight key to respond to someone sending CQ slower. The best way I learned to stick with CW is to fall in love with it's history and wanting to be a part of keeping it alive. I've studied the railroad land telegraphy and the maritime Morse code history and am fascinated with it from the great lakes to the high seas operators. And what's really been cool is that I've worked quite a few former maritime and railroad telegraph operators on ham radio. That's been a real treat. And speaking of slower speeds, if you listen to many of the old maritime cw recordings, often they are operating well below 20 wpm. On ham radio, most casual cw operating is between 13 and 18 wpm, a range that almost everyone can reach. When ham radio started in the early 1900's, the Morse test was 5 wpm in the US. Later it eventually 13, which was the general class that most hams were. So be encouraged. AA4WA

Keith . . . you absolutely define the word Elmer.

Love your videos. I wear hearing aids, too. CW since 1977.

Great video Keith. Thanks for posting.

Verry encouraging!!!

I have heard all the excuses as to why someone can't learn. VE3IIM/VE6PG

No disrespect but is that Walter white

Thank you. Appreciate the comment

Thank you Peter. Looking forward to seeing you either in class or on the air.

Great stuff ! Peter Hume ON3VCF LICW 5992 I like your videos and what you say made sense and helps. I am working to get to GOTA. That's why i joined. Very likely you will see le in a class Good on you Peter in Brussels Belgium

Saw you. Recognised you. Knew you had something meaningful to share !

I agree, even though sometimes hands do their own thing, a harm up before transmitting always helps!

That's very useful information. One thing I hadn't thought off is to listen for my own call being returned. I've been struggling to get my CW back for a very long time. I still don't have the confidence to do so but your information is very well worth knowing. 73. HS0ZLQ. G0MIH.

E T A O N I S H R D L U

Your video has certainly convinced me to come back to CW and to join the SKCC. I had about 12 words per minute years ago, but am very rusty, so find the typical QSO's intimidating. Now I know where to go to get better! Your humbleness and willingness to show a QSO with all the warts left in is very inspirational. Fine work! 73

I'd like to take the Long Island cw club course but unfortunately with exceptionally poor internet service and an ancient computer that has no video conferencing geegaws on it and no budget to upgrade, it's unlikely I'll be able to do that.

Made my first CW contact with the help of a club Elmer during Indiana QSO Party. Hope to work you on the air from my own call sign soon! I took part on the local club net last night and I had to correct my call sign twice, it's just how it is--I wanted to be there and I made sure they copied correctly... It's the same on CW and even more relaxed for the elmers in my short experience. Thanks for your insights VE3SVQ!

Thanks! Great tips.

Gotta tell ya, as a novice I worked a lot of Canadian's on CW. My Elmer and my dad installed my antenna one day while I was at school. It was oriented East West which meant the main lobes went North Sout. I didn't understand his comment when he left, "Don't work any Canadians". LOL. Had many a QSO with them!

It takes awhile. I ended up North American because that was the type of key I bought in 1990. It was what I could afford back then.

Yes, still figuring it out

congrats!!

I have the same straight as you. The nye viking master key. By chance do you know when they were made.? I picked up one at hamfest. Its pristine shape. Good video also. Dave, KQ4CW

Very useful information. Thank you for taking the time and effort to bring us this helpful presentation.

I never got above 5-6 wpm. I barely passed my novice test back in '88. I then immediately got my technician license, but had to wait a really long time to upgrade to general. To me, once you get much above 5 wpm, it just becomes an unintelligible mess. None of those "guaranteed to work" methods worked. I have never used code on the air, and have no desire to do so.

You have a contest call, do you have a rag chew call, a net call, a traffic call, a ssb call, an FT8 call?

Great Video ! I love mine I also work 40 and 20 meters on Pota your right they do great DX I worked Australia , Sweden, BC, Alberta, Portugal , Alaska, Colombia and so on happy DX Pota on brother ! Sal / KM4PPV

Hi, I still use one after 40 years it helps 😊

What?

Incredible thanks a lot for this

How do you get to have two VE3 call signs?

I don't care about your tips, really. No one cares.

Super! Thanks for the encouragement. 73 K6KRG

Thanks for this video. Several thoughts: 1) A script was absolutely crucial when I first got on the air with CW. I didn't write mine down, however, I just practiced it until I memorized it, and could send it confidently. Sure, I was still nervous, but eventually the script was second-nature to me, and could use it for any QSO. It has changed over the years, but I still use most of the elements that I had in the original. 2) Joining SKCC was absolutely the BEST thing I could have done to get on the air with CW. Because there was a set exchange that every SKCC contact had to have, you knew EXACTLY what was coming from the other operator, and exactly what you needed to send. It was great; it made it easy to copy. It really gave me the confidence to get on the air with CW. It even gave me the confidence to call CQ - especially during Week-end Sprintathon. 3) When I had the 'brain freeze', what eventually ended up helping me was the good ol' prosign of 'BT'. I would send BT several times until I could think of what to say next. That really helped calm me down. So, again, thanks for the video. I'll have to remember to share this kind of stuff when people ask me what I do when I get on the air with CW. DE K7RLN (SKCC #19199)

Can you please share the template of those scripts ? 73's /ct1bsd

Excellent video and great info. Thank you for posting.

Thank you for this down to earth kind of info. I’m into my learning journey right now with LICW and I’ve started listing more on the radio and is a beautiful thing how our brain starts picking some characters where a few weeks ago it was just indecipherable code. 73 de VA6JLG

@k8byp_542

Thanks for sharing Keith! Looking forward to giving this a try.

This is one of the beauties of the Reverse Beacon Network, you can set your freq, set the speed and see what's about.....great for a newcomer!

I needed this! I'm learning CW currently on LCWO and am monitoring POTAs from my shack. Getting on the air is still really intimidating but I feel like with this script I may give it a shot this week since it's so simple. Thank you! 73

I had internet issues while this was uploading yesterday. Final edits done this morning with correct title plus added links to the script and two other excellent RUclips CW sites. Ed W4EMB and Evan K2EJT

great and helpful video. tnx 73 Ron

Thanks Keith!

Thank you for your comment. Good luck with cw. It is a lot of fun.

Thank you so very much for sharing this information. I am still in the process of learning CW but, I have been on the KIUSN website and was a little confused about the learning process. Thank you for making this clear. I can't tell you how excited I am to be learning CW and can't wait till I can actually use CW to communicate, even on the KIUSN website. Thank You KO4UWU 73

It's a good idea. I did this to be sure what I wanted to say and get the spelling correct. I learned it to get my G4 call but was nosey and wanted to know what people were saying anyway. Having learnt it I was not letting it get away. I got my ex army key about 50 years ago and still at school aged 15 or 16 and paid 7/6d or 37½ new pence in today's money. G4GHB.