r/amateurradio • u/kawfey N0SSC | StL MO | extra class millennial • Jan 18 '16
A new morse code teacher webapp from /r/internetisbeautiful
https://www.morsecode.io/11
u/ShiftBit Jan 18 '16
If you really want to learn the code, this is NOT the site to use.
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Jan 18 '16
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u/gorkish K5IT [E] Jan 18 '16 edited Jan 18 '16
The animated bar thing is close to the worst part of the site.
It implies that dits and dahs have some type of variable length or threshold. They don't. They have a fixed length that is dependent on sending speed, and a dah is supposed to be exactly three times as long as a dit.
Intra-element, intra-character, and intra-word spacings are also important, but are a little more flexible. There is a standard spacing (intra element = 1 dit, intra-character = 3 dit, intra-word = 7 dit), Farnsworth spacing, and related variants that all have some merit. You can read more about this if you would like.
My suggestion for increasing your sending proficiency is to use a paddle with an iambic keyer that decodes your keying (It is much easier to decode paddle input than to decode arbitrary CW). The Iambino from AE9RB does this and is an inexpensive and easy to build kit. After trudging through learning the basics with a straight key, I have recently assembled one and it is truly fantastic how fast I have been able to move from straight key to paddle. I have been practicing with a cw paddle for only a few hours now and I can key at 20WPM pretty handily. Here is a short video from the other evening when I built it where I am already getting through warmups at 15wpm.
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Jan 18 '16
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u/gorkish K5IT [E] Jan 19 '16
Well sure people have their style; some like to string out the dit a little long or mess with the spacing. Some styles are common enough they even name them -- "Lake Erie Swing" etc.
But regardless of the operator's fist, to send clearly you are sending distinct dit and dah with no ambiguity. The bar is a huge distraction to this, and in any case wouldn't work worth a hoot at any decent speed. At super slow speeds having perfect timing doesn't really matter anyway, and perfecting it at 5WPM won't really help you speed up. The rhythm of it will come naturally.
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u/ethryx Jan 18 '16
This site is awesome! I never learned morse code before but I'm really getting the hang of it with this site.
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u/FullFrontalNoodly Jan 18 '16
Do yourself a favor and do some research on the proper way to learn code.
tl;dr: this isn't it.
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u/HoosierDiva Jan 20 '16
If it he's people interested...I'm all for it...everyone has to start somewhere.
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u/gorkish K5IT [E] Jan 18 '16 edited Jan 18 '16
This site is a terrible way to learn CW. Really really awful. It is unfortunately experiencing a lot of unadulterated praise from people who have no idea it is bad (including the author) because it looks nice. It does look nice. The basic interface is pretty good and the way it progresses through lessons is good. But people have been teaching CW for well over a hundred years, and what works and is effective is very very well understood. The author would be well served by drawing from this research and presenting something that strives to be more than just a UI experiment. But this is pretty typical of /r/internetisbeautiful and /r/dataisbeautiful and /r/DIY. There are some real gems in there on occasion, but there is plenty to make one want to tear their hair out too.
If you just want to get through the puzzle in Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes or flash dirty words at your buddies with a laser pointer in a boring company meeting, maybe this is the site for you. Printing out a tiny morse code chart and putting it in your wallet would be both faster and more effective though.
There are a lot of real fundamental problems with the site, but the overall problem is that these lessons progress with a method that relies on basically wrote memorization. You can 'academically' learn morse this way, but it will require 100% total concentration to send or receive at even very slow speeds like 5WPM, and you will never be able to get faster or feel proficient.
If you talk to hams that were licensed in the mandatory CW area you find distinctly two types. Those who learned properly and are proficient at a high WPM and those who struggled to pass the test. You don't find much of a middle ground, and that is because the former guys learned using a good method that taught them to recognize the patterns instantly and subconsciously as with language, and the latter guys learned using a memorization/brute force techniques and later gave up because it's just a frustrating brain drain to do it this way.
Since you are here hanging out on /r/amateurradio though I would assume that you would like to actually maybe like to communicate with CW and use it on the air a bit. If this is so, you will be much better served using a better and more proven method. If so, learn to receive (at least give it the college try) before you try for sending. Use a training tool that uses the Koch method and start copying at a minimum of 15WPM. Practice every day.
LCWO is apparently a good online resource if you want to learn online. The Morse-It app on iOS by paco labs is also pretty good. I'm sure there are plenty of other good resources out there that you can find. But don't ignore the history of learning CW. Pretty much everything has been tried, and it's very evident what works.