Everyday Ham Podcast: Amateur Radio Conversations

How to Learn CW in 2026: Two Paths to Morse Code Success

• Rory Locke (W8KNX), Jim Davis (N8JRD), & James Mills (K8JKU) • Season 2 • Episode 13

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Five watts, a tiny coil antenna on a travel tripod, and a camera-bag station that reaches across states—CW isn't a relic, it's a practical advantage. In this episode, we invited Terry W8TMB to walk us through how he learned Morse code without drowning in drills, why CW pairs perfectly with POTA and QRP, and what actually works when your sending is solid but your copy lags behind.

We compare two popular learning paths: CW Academy and Long Island CW Club. CW Academy offers a free, semester-style program with fixed class times and steady accountability—great if you thrive with structure. Long Island CW Club takes a different approach with flexible, year-round carousels, multiple time slots each week, and an emphasis on getting on the air early. Their $30/year (or $90 lifetime) membership includes about 170 classes per week, a powerful browser-based practice tool, and thoughtful accessibility options for autistic, visually impaired, and hearing-impaired hams.

From there we dig into practical tactics: stop counting dits and dahs—train your ear to recognize full characters. Use Farnsworth spacing to create breathing room. Drill random call signs to break predictability. Send back what you copy immediately to lock it in. Ditch the decoders and cheat sheets; they slow your ear. Code-talk license plates on road trips, work short daily sessions, and aim your practice at real exchanges like POTA and simple contests.

Terry's field kit shows what's possible: a CFT-1 five-band QRP rig, a 3D-printed coil antenna from Ham Radio Duo, and a 16Wh battery that lasted two hours with 75% remaining. As bands shift with the solar cycle, CW keeps you in the game.

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🎙️ Hosts: James K8JKU, Jim N8JRD, Rory W8KNX Guest: Terry W8TMB

Website: https://www.everydayham.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everydayhampodcast/

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The Everyday Ham Podcast is hosted by James Mills (K8JKU), Jim Davis (N8JRD), and Rory Locke (W8KNX) – three friends who dive into the world of amateur radio with a casual, lighthearted twist.

Follow us at: Website: https://www.everydayham.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everydayhampodcast/

SPEAKER_00:

All right, happy new year, everyone, and welcome to episode 13 of the Everyday Ham. We've made it to one more year, so we're kicking it off. I am James K8JKU, joined here by the co-host as always, Jim N8JRD, the voice of South Lion, and Rory W8KNX. Uh, we also have a special guest, Terry W8TMB, with us as well today. Uh quick reminder: if you're new here or a fan of the show, don't forget to check out everydayham.com. You'll find all our important links out there to our audio podcast, the YouTube channel where we post regularly, uh, as well as just general what's going on. Uh, we also have a young but thriving Discord channel. So please don't forget to subscribe there as well. Today we're gonna dive into the world of CW. So Morris Code. Terry's got a little bit of insight and how he learned some of the best practices that worked for him. And that's gonna be a topic for us that we want to pursue in 2026 for all three of us here. So Terry's gonna shirpa us into the world of CW. Uh, but first, Terry, why don't we let you introduce yourself and kind of talk about what's going on in your shack today?

SPEAKER_02:

Sure. So uh my name's Terry Bone. My call sign is W8TMB. I'm a COVID uh amateur radio operator, so I was licensed. I needed something to do up north in um Michigan, and so I uh got my tech license in 2021, my general in 23, and my extra in 24, and I was looking for something to do in 25, and that uh I kind of started CW end of 24-ish and in 25. Um I'm a retired Ford um IT manager and I've been heavily involved in POTA for probably the last couple years. Uh what's going on in the shack? The shack has moved down to Florida, so my parents live in Florida, and uh I'm visiting them. I got here yesterday, and I brought uh little CW field radio and the tiniest antenna and uh made some contacts today. I think I made seven contacts, uh, mostly around the states around Florida, but I did get out to I think the furthest was Maryland. And that's what I've been doing.

SPEAKER_00:

And maybe one important note, we actually met Terry through the Michigan POTA meetup, and Terry's been so kind to help volunteer his time there as well. And then he happened to move from northern Michigan down to the South Lion area. So now Terry's also part of the South Lion area amateur radio club. So we're we're very pleased to to get to know Terry more and more as this uh couple years here progress. Uh but Terry also, can you talk a little bit about the antenna? You were showing us earlier, and I know we're on camera, so we'll describe it, but it's uh pretty neatly.

SPEAKER_02:

I'll I'll pull it up here. Here um so uh there's a couple that do CW. They have got a YouTube channel. I can't remember their channel right off the hand right off uh top of my head. But they decided to build uh 3D print, a little coil uh that could sit on a uh tripod, small tripod that they recommend off Amazon and a collapsible width. All you need is one radio, they give you the wire uh with a banana plug and it's a BNC connection. Fully extended, it sits up about six feet tall, and uh that's what I was using today, and my radio is a five watt radio. It's uh Jim, you you you had the name right, just okay. They call it the Just OK. Just Okay Mini. Yep, the just okay mini.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's the ham radio duo, I believe, the YouTube channel. There you go. Yep. Is uh the folks, yep.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a nice looking antenna, though, especially it looks very portable and lightweight, perfect for uh portable operations.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that uh our good buddy there, KMRD, did a uh video on that antenna as well. So if you want a more deep dive, we'll send you over to the K8MRD channel, which I'm sure you already have bookmarked if you know who we are. Yes. Well, very cool, Terry. And it's always awesome to hear like just how far CW can go on just five watts. And I think we're gonna dig more into, of course, uh some of the advantages of uh maybe taking some time to learn CW this afternoon on the episode. But uh uh a really neat uh neat setup there and uh awesome to hear you out operating even down in Florida uh with a limited kit, right? Terry has a full shack at home in Canton, and uh uh he doesn't have that all with him right now, so he's making the best of it uh while he's on vacation down there in the warmer climate of Florida.

unknown:

Nice.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, my entire uh shack, sorry, my entire shack for Florida fits in this bag. And we weren't gonna check anything, uh no check-in baggage. Uh so we just stood carry-on and uh antenna and uh kit came with me.

SPEAKER_01:

Very cool. Yeah, the bag that Terry just showed us, if you're listening to us on the podcast, is about the size of a standard camera bag. I don't know if anybody has a camera anymore, but you kind of get the idea, you know. It's a fairly fairly compact rig. All right, what's going on in the in the NHJRD Shaq? Well, it's uh always interesting to see uh you know how things are going over here. Uh buying, selling gear, uh, my favorite uh pastime as far as that goes, but uh did spend more of December operating than buying, which is uh pretty impressive for me. Uh and so I spent most of my uh December, I was off for three weeks, which is unbelievable to say out loud, but it was really nice to have that time off to focus on um just getting a little bit more healthy and also uh having some time to focus on radio, and I did both of those things. And uh so I spent a lot of time on digital FT8 uh and learned a little bit more about that. Uh I will give some shout-outs to our uh club members, W8GLN Joe and uh Ed, W8EDE, uh both big digital operators. And I know we have other ops in the club, so if I didn't call your name, it's okay. Uh these two guys uh really, really kind of jiving off one another learning FT8, and uh they really helped me uh be more effective uh running digital uh in in December. Uh I got grid tracker installed, James helped me sync up so that I'm sending it directly to QRZ and my logbook. Uh and all that to be said, 10 meter was on fire all the all through December. Uh and so I just worked the hell out of my DXCC. And that is really what I focused on was grabbing as much DX as I could. Well, 10 meter was just working like a champion. I went from 71 or 72 DX uh CC entities up to 99 uh by the uh new year uh 2026. So I'm one away from the century club, but that's okay. Uh I I really did set the goal to try to have it have it done by 2026 because it's nice to set a goal like that, but I I I had pretty limited expectations that that it was really possible, especially with 28 or 30 to go. I think it's always it's it's challenging. DXTC is a challenging thing. It's not as it's not as hard with digital. And I understand if you're out there shouting at your screen, phone's harder, or CW is hard. Sure, it is. And absolutely I understand that. Uh, that's why there's endorsements for these things so that those folks that are doing it on phone get recognized for that. But I had a lot of fun and so made a bunch of headway on my DXCC. That was a big achievement for me. Uh, and then also QRZ announced their USA 250 award, and I got stoked about that immediately. It's only every once in a while that QRZ launches a new award, aside from their Christmas award. Of course, each year they do the uh the 12 days of QRZ and then give you 90 days to make it work, which by the way, I think is hilarious. Um, but I did chase the USA 250 and uh got that done in just under, I would say, well, a little over uh 72 hours, which I was pretty stoked about. So number six out of all of the awards, which was really cool too. Uh, it just takes 250 confirmed contacts. So you got all year to do it. Uh, and I think it's just a neat award. It's cool to see QRZ uh again uh becoming more of a uh digital logging platform. I think they've really fleshed that out, and I'm seeing more and more of my contacts coming through QRZ. So uh it was a big contest-y, kind of awards-y uh operating experience for me over December. I spent tons of time on the radio and I had a blast doing it. Uh I got lots of phone contacts, I got lots of digital contacts, uh, and uh I've enjoyed the hell out of uh that so that's what I was up to.

SPEAKER_00:

My ham alert was blowing up, and I was very also proud of you for getting number six because I know that was something you got in your mind that you wanted to get that day.

SPEAKER_03:

He wasn't stopping that night either. It was a uh it was Thursday night because he had Jim had to go back to work Friday for some unknown reason, and it was Thursday night, and I was uh I was about to pull the plug and and I'm sitting here seeing because you know Jim could shout across town and I could hear him. So I'm sitting seeing his call sign pop up on my my uh FT eight and I said, Well, are you gonna make it? And getting close there in the countdown, so I I I sat around and waited for waited for confirmation to happen till 1 30 in the morning. And I went to bed. I don't think I surfaced till till 10 o'clock the next day, but I think you got up for work like a good person. But I did. Congratulations on that. That's that's an excellent award. I I uh you know it's uh like like Jim said, we have a whole whole long time to work on that one. There's no hurry to do it. I'll have it done here in the next week myself, but uh it's it's a fun one for sure. I think a lot of people are using that as an excuse to get on the air. And I think that's the goal of some of these awards is to uh encourage people to to play radio. Definitely.

SPEAKER_01:

Rory, what's what's what's happening with you?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it's uh it's been I had a decent holiday break. It's been uh it was a nice couple of weeks. I still had to work a few days here and there, but uh still had plenty of time to play radio. I was able to get a bunch of POTA activations in, uh, of course, at our our friendly local park, Island Lake US uh 3315, and and a couple people nationwide have been curious. I've heard people asking, what's up with this US 3315? I keep saying four and five and six. I think there were what seven or eight of us that activated it the other day.

SPEAKER_01:

Seven on Sunday.

SPEAKER_03:

Terry is uh two times kilo at uh Island Lake at this point.

SPEAKER_01:

Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm uh I'm not too far behind. Uh Jim will be there soon, I think, as well. Uh working there.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh and I just show up when I can.

SPEAKER_03:

So it's it's not exactly local to you, so it's not not a not a short drive to this corner of the county.

SPEAKER_01:

But you know what the particularly local to Terry either. Let's give him some credit if he's up for it. That's true. That is true.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, but my wife loves to run the trails there, so I got an excuse. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

You do have an excuse.

SPEAKER_02:

All right, that's totally fine.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, my wife.

SPEAKER_03:

Island Lake has some excellent trails, and and I've I've spent some time on them myself in the past, and it's it's a nice park. But uh so spent the time doing POTUS, spent the time doing a lot of a lot of time in the shack. I also was playing hard in the 12 days of QRZ, which I enjoy being able to get 12 contacts on all the bands 160 through 440. So it takes a little bit of work to get some of those bands. 160, I don't have an antenna for, I have to use what I have and hope the tuner makes it happy. I still manage to get that one done. Um, I struggle on 15 for whatever reason. The tuner will get it done. And then there's not much activity on 220. I have to hope Jim wants to play radio across town and and uh meet me on 220 for a for a contact. But uh everything else I think I'm almost done with. So that that's a good one. I enjoy getting all the bands. But uh as everyone might recall, we went to a swap about a month ago and I managed to pick up a uh venture CW paddle, and I'd been looking for one for a while. The CW butt bug had not quite bitten me yet, but um it was on my mind, and and I'd been wanting to get back into CW. We're hearing a lot of, or not back into because I was never in it, but into it in general. Um, we've been hearing a lot of noise about CW and POTA and just the current generation of hams getting very interested in CW, and that's kind of what happened to me at this point. So um one of our one of our club member friends, Eric KDRS, mentioned the Morse Mania app he was working with some time ago. Um, I started there, and we'll we'll get into this more of this in in depth as we go through this here um on the episode. But that's where I started. That was the first thing, and I I found that to be very useful. But there were there were some gaps, especially on, and there still continue to be gaps on the receive on the listening side for me, so I needed something more. And uh Terry suggested uh Long Island CW Club, among other things, and I did join up with them and I'm getting started there. Very, very new to it, but it's a very comprehensive program. And I know Terry's gonna go through go through those tonight at some point and uh go through the pros and the cons and what his experiences were. Now I know everybody will have a little bit different experience when they go through it. Everybody learns differently. That's the key thing. If you anything I've read on CW or or listened to on learning CW, you have to remember just because somebody else is is learning quicker than you doesn't mean you're not going to get there. Um, for example, I'm sending exceptionally well already. I still can't hear the letters clearly. Um, I'll get there eventually, but uh that's you know, I've learned the letters enough to send them fairly well. Um, but uh to to hear them, I'm not there yet. So it just takes time. So welcome in, Terry. I know uh and and I think uh I didn't realize you were COVID ham. And I know James was as well, and we had some some others around town. I'm I guess that's one thing I'm thankful for COVID because we actually picked up a lot of people in the in the ham radio world during that time that are that are excellent, excellent friends to ham radio. So good evening, Terry. We'll we'll send it over to you. You can tell us your story of of when you got into CW, which direction you went, and kind of how it all came together for you. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Um so I think um the the person that inspired me to want to pick up a key and start learning CW is at the first Michigan um POTA meetup, uh I think it was Sleepy Howl that I went to. Um I was I got to camp next to a couple uh that were from New York and they would uh they would sit around the campfire uh talking to me and at the same time working a key and having a conversation and making contacts. And it just blew my mind that they were able to have two conversations going and and be making POTA contacts. And I was amazed. He also uh the husband also had a plethora of different keys and he was uh completely competent with straight keys, bugs, paddles, uh old military keys, and so it was it was uh fascinating to see all the different things you could use uh to um make Morse code and to communicate over the air. Um so I figured I should probably I did some of the things you guys are doing now with um you know getting apps and starting to kind of play and learn a little bit with what Morse code was. But I thought I would I did a little research and I thought I would take some time and get some training from people that were experienced on uh effective techniques for learning CW. And I started with uh there's a group called CW Ops and they run classes called CW Academy. And in 2023, I uh went ahead and joined up uh with a class. The one thing about their classes that's different than the other one I'll talk about is you need to schedule the class in advance. You have to, you know, kind of request to be part of a class. I think that's because they have limited sets of instructors, they try to keep the classes small. They run classes um in the winter, uh they're two month segments, uh sessions. So January, February is one session. Then they do another session in May and June, and so that's the summertime, and then they do another session in the fall, September and October. So I signed up for the fall. I think I figured that's when I'd have a little more time uh to be invested in it. It's uh two months of classes, so eight weeks, and you're taking two classes a week. Uh and you kind of have homework and practice that you have to do in between the classes, so it takes some time. Um the the classes are usually scheduled the same days each week, so um, and typically they'll do something like Monday and Thursday to give you some time between the classes to study either the letters you're learning or the concepts you're yearn learning and putting them to practice. Um so I just to give you a kind of a structure, they use Zoom. So you're listening over Zoom, just just kind of like this, and you're sending over Zoom. To send over Zoom in both uh groups I used, you have to set up Zoom a little differently because you know Zoom will have some noise cancellation, background noise. That kind of interferes with the keys. They want you to they're okay with you using a paddle, and that's kind of what they prefer. So when I started with CW Academy, I was using um an I Iambic paddle. Okay. Um and you need to have either a tone oscillator, a key or bring a radio, and so you'd be able to hear uh your dits and das over the radio and people can hear you sound. Um makes sense. Yep, and they want you to practice 60 minutes a day, that's kind of what they recommend. So pretty pretty healthy practice. Sure. They have four levels of classes. Beginner, you have no experience, you're coming in from scratch, and you're you're learning the the basics. Then they go to fundamental, and at that point they consider that you could operate, you understand the letters, and you can operate and uh listen and send at about uh I think they said six words a minute, so pretty slow. Okay, yeah, right? Yep. And their goal in fundamental the fundamental class is to build up your speed and your confidence and your efficiency and get you up to about ten words a minute. Okay. Then then you move to intermediate, and now they're trying to pull you from ten words a minute up to twenty words a minute. And this is where they want you to maybe start getting involved in contests, trying to make DX contacts, potentially POTA, and potentially even doing some rag chew, which I think that's a huge leap. I'm a long way to do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Sorry about that. So intermediate starts to put it into practical use, but they're expecting that there's going to be some speed disadvantage, and by putting it in that practical use, you're gonna start to feel that pressure a little bit to uh to pick that up, then is that Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. So you're you're trying to get on the air in different formats. Um and um the other the other one I talk about, they're trying they try to get you on the air very quickly. Okay. Uh this one, they you're kind of building up the skills until that third phase, and then they're expecting, all right, now you're ready to ready to go uh go go for it. Yep. Yep and then advanced. Uh I never got there with them. Uh that's they're that's when you're flying. Twenty plus words a minute. Uh you're s you're coming in with twenty plus words a minute, and they're trying to build you have the skills to potentially be doing thirty words a minute, which is crazy. Crazy fast.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you have an estimate right now, Terry? What uh for the for the audience? Like where do you feel you are words per minute wise uh as far as effective commune communication?

SPEAKER_02:

So I think um I'm kind of like Rory, I send right now very uh pretty decently at 16 words a minute.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

On a particular um protocol, so say PODA, where I kind of know the exchange. Or if I work a contest and I know that exchange, and you know you can you practice that, I can send I can send the I can hunt the PODA 16 words a minute, no problem at all. Now I'm I mentioned to you guys in Discord that I went out and did my first activation and I hadn't practiced being on the other side of the exchange. And boy, that's totally different. And where it's not, you know, I'm not sending my call sign, I'm sending their call sign back. I'm not just sending my state, I'm sending their state back. Uh and that that's where I could see my failings, right? Of being able to on the fly send a call sign that I just copy. And so that's where I have to work on. Okay. Yeah. So what happened was the C oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I was just gonna say, so yeah, that's so that's a little bit of like the CW Academy, and that was your experience kind of jumping in. That was the first thing that you did. And and just to kind of break this thing up a little bit, I will tell you guys, right? When we're talking CW, uh, you know, advantage-wise, obviously there are many many advantages, right? It uses less bandwidth for one, right, than a sideband conversation or an AM conversation on HF. But the big one, uh and if you're listening today and you're you're like, why are people doing CW? What can't they just get on the phone, right? Or why aren't they using FTA, right? If you're listening today and you're asking, why are we talking everyday ham? Why are you talking about CW? The big one is everybody is looking for that 10 or 20 dB advantage that CW gains them over phone, right? That's the big thing because you can run a less efficient antenna at way less power uh in a much smaller package, like Terry mentioned earlier.

SPEAKER_03:

You can almost always pick out a CW signal with very little, with them sending very little and you receiving with very little. It's very very reliable and and very easy to do. I think Terry's has his uh what he's traveling with there to Florida, his whole station and his camera box, his camera, what did Jim call it, camera bag? And I mean that's that's all you need.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and and from for me a little bit too, I I think that exactly nails it. I I like to hike and backpack as well and talk about portability. Terry showed the radio there, it's the size of what, a deck and a half of cards, a little bit larger than maybe two decks of cards.

SPEAKER_02:

Maybe maybe two decks, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And you know, you talk about backpacking with a sideban radio, it's not really happened. Even a G90 or other mobile radios, it'd still need the big battery pack to pack with it and stuff like that. But you're talking CW. I can pretty much go anywhere with a kit, as Teria shown, and be very happy. And we look at episode nine when we had uh Matt W7MDN and Tim N7 KOM, who really kind of sparked my interest in starting to try to learn CW. They were showing me the stuff and what they were able to do, and I was watching the YouTube videos, and man, that looked like a lot of fun too. Like just a different type of experience.

SPEAKER_01:

And so you folks that are listening can go ahead. Go ahead, Derek. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh just to give you a little more information and um to tell you how CW works well, uh, the signals. So um today my dad has hearing aids. We were all sitting outside where I am now. I was set up, I'm working on this, uh working from this table with this tiny little radio that puts out five watts or less, depending on the band. And this is the battery that's powering it. It's uh it's made by um another hand. It's called the ultralight QRP, it's 16 watt hours uh battery uh made by W0 A L Z, I think it is. And um I was on the air for two hours making contacts, and I used 25% of this little battery.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, so I could have a sideband operator, and that's a that's a dream, yeah. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01:

And and Terry's using the uh CFT1. Uh that's the uh five-bander that you're using. CFT1 is the portable transceiver, very tiny.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes. And uh to tell you how C how effective CW is. So my dad has hearing aids. We're sitting around here, we're chatting. I'm telling him we're talking about CW and if they're hearing the dits and das. And I said, uh there was a very light signal that came through, and I said, Dad, can you hear that? He goes, Oh yeah, I can hear that. And I know he could probably barely hear my voice. But he could hear those signals, you know, coming through his hearing.

SPEAKER_01:

I I think I guess when I think about it, right, uh the CW signal is differentiates itself from anything in the background by a significant margin because it's just that single tone that you're listening for at all times, right? And the length of that tone is really all that you need uh to help you put together the words that you're after. So yeah, just I I wanted to say like here here's a little bit about why uh why you might be interested in this before we keep going, Terry. So I I didn't mean to interject. So Terry, Terry went down the CW Academy route, and that's a cost-free uh experience, as I understand it. Is that right? That's a that you no cost to join if you want to. Is that correct, Terry?

SPEAKER_02:

Boy, it's been a while, but I think you're right. And uh the other one I think has uh a little bit of a cost. That's what I was gonna do.

SPEAKER_01:

Browsing their website, yeah, their no cost.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

unknown:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So CW Academy is a free option, uh more regimented. It sounds like it it follows a more traditional, perhaps learning uh uh approach, I would say, um, in that they're really working you through essentially a sort of textbook way of learning CW. And uh if it's not the way that you learn, uh you may have some success, you may have no success, or you may have a ton of success. It really just depends on how your how your head works around it. So sure. Let's talk about the other way uh that you found to be more effective, perhaps.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and um to follow on with your flexibility, that uh uh um comment that actually ended up being the reason why I couldn't complete uh what I wanted to complete with CW Academy. Um unfortunately the um instructor had to change our dates of our uh the days of the week of the classes, and uh it just didn't work out for me. So I think I went through about three weeks and I was excited about it and I was getting into it, but then I couldn't participate beyond it. Yep. So that um so uh I waited about another year, I think in 24. Um I started researching other classes, and I think I talked to a few people and they recommended uh taking a look at uh Long Island uh CW Club. And when I researched them, it was really apparent that flexibility was at the you know was a core principle. So they run their classes completely different in terms of um how you can join and and jump in because they do things in what they call carousel. So let's so their beginners carousel one is going non-stop throughout the year, right? And when I joined CW uh Long Island CW, they could have been in what they would consider week three if you started. But I can just jump in because I'm just learning that first week or any week in beginner carousel one, I'm learning the three letters that everybody else is. Ah, okay, yep. And and the also the other big advantage is they have I think it's somewhere up around 170 classes a week that as part of their you'll when you guys get into it, you'll get into their Discord um servers and they list all the week's classes. So when you start Beginner Carousel 1, you can see maybe five to seven times a week uh a week classes at different days, different times, morning, afternoon, night, different instructors, and now you just take the class that fits your schedule. And you don't you're not limited to one, right? If I take a class uh that week and I didn't quite get it, I'm not you know, I'm I need it reinforcement, I can take another class two days later that's being it's the same class taught by a different instructor, and they may teach it a little bit differently and give you different tips. And I found that to be a huge advantage. The different instructors was really great because they all have little different techniques, they listen to you a little differently, they have you focus on some things that maybe the other instructor didn't, they give you ways to practice that are different than the other instructors, yeah. And you can kind of pick the pieces that work for you uh from all these different uh bits of advice and you know use them in your everyday practice.

SPEAKER_01:

I think of it like in you know, back when you were going to school, right? High school, college, you you found a favorite instructor, one that just for whatever reason, the way they showed you to do a thing, uh it always stuck with you. And those were the the instructors that you sought out. If they did uh a 101 and a 201 class, you'd take them both because you knew that one was gonna work for you, right? So I love that flexibility, and I will say it's mind-blowing how many uh sessions Long Island CW has on their calendar. I'm looking at just a week worth of them. Uh, and you could get up at nine o'clock in the morning and do it, or you could wait till two in the afternoon. It doesn't matter. Whenever you're ready to go, it looks like they have uh an option for you.

SPEAKER_00:

So really that's what's the what's the cost of Long Island CW?

SPEAKER_03:

I believe it's$30 a year and$90 for lifetime.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh wow. Yeah, and I I did l$90 because I haven't had to renew, and I've got I got back in there today and I was still active. And I so what what I did was I went through the first three beginner carousels. Beginner carousel one, you're kind of focusing on the for uh first most popular or use used characters, uh 18 of them. Um beginner carousel two, you're you're you're now completing the 26 characters, you're learning some of the pro signs, you know, like uh back to you, BK. You're learning, you know, those things that you might be going to use in exchanges. Um and the and then and you're learning the numbers, which are you really useful for call signs. And then um and then beginner carousel one or three, that's when you you're focused they focus on you getting on the air as fast as possible, start hunting PODA, start doing things. Nice um and they they teach you the all the different protocols and all the different exchanges so that you'll go out and do either PODA or um the straight key century club, uh they've got uh their own exchange. And even Long Is uh Long Island CW has a contest that they have their own exchange and they run the contest quarterly that um it's a contest where you try and make as many contacts as you can with other LICW members and um that you get certificates, but the whole goal is to get out there and use it. And what I did is I went through one, two, and three of the beginner carousels. And what I found was or what I thought, and I think it was true, is I I was good at sending, I was better at sending, and I need to focus on copying. Okay. And I think everybody's gonna experience this at some point. You can copy an individual letter. You can copy small word because you start to have context of a word, like uh it's you send me T H A, I probably know that the next letter is gonna be a T or an F, right?

SPEAKER_03:

It's that instance recognition that you're working towards. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

But when you get in a call sign that's completely kind of random, it could be a one by two or uh you know three by three, uh numbers in different spots, foreign uh prefixes, things like that. That's where what I was finding is I could get through the first two letters, probably the number, and then my mind would scramble and I'd be lost.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I I'm I'm pretty much that's that's kind of where I'm at with it, with my with my copy for sure. It it I get I I need to the focus is limited for me in general in life. So to focus on letters coming past me fast, it's it's uh it's something I'm gonna have to learn. But I'm I you know as I practice through it and and have been working on it, it's it's improved. So I know I'll get there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And so uh just a couple couple other things about them that's different. They want you to use a straight key, that's their preference. And they have a feeling, they have a re they've done research that they feel that you creating the dits and do's and creating the timing and the spacing and not letting a paddle do that work for you, okay, uh reinforces your learning, uh, your ability to copy. And I don't know if that's true because uh unfortunately with CWS, I started with a paddle. I did use the straight key, but I was already pretty confident with the paddle, so I wanted to get back to that uh than using the straight key. The other thing they have, which they use in their classes, is a really good web application uh for uh they call it the Morse practice page. And their instructors use it when they teach the class. Um they and then they recommend you use it when you practice, and it's very, very good. You know, you you can practice uh letters you're working on, you can practice words, you can practice call signs, you can change all the speed. Uh because there's the there's the speed of words per minute, but there's also something called Farnsworth uh speed, which changes the time, the delays between sending the letters. It gives you a little more time to think, you know, as the letters are coming at you.

SPEAKER_03:

Right. The little character itself is set at speed, but the the distance that the time between the letter is increased or decreased, which makes your overall speed either faster or slower. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So it looks like the horse practice page is actually something that you can access no matter who you are. It looks like it's a free thing that is available online. And so I'll have to take a look at this. I did not know it was here.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep. So this is this just real quickly my experience with the two weeks or so that I've been dealing with Long Island CW Club. Um, a couple things stood out at first. They're they're very interested in making sure you understand their philosophy of teaching. And they have a few YouTube videos out there that are that are public-facing. So if you want to understand what their what their philosophy is, is how it's going to work before you even join. That's all out there on YouTube for you to look at. And they go into great detail about some of the things Terry was just talking about, such as using a straight key, um, such as practice time, different different techniques. Uh, one thing I do want to shout them out on is I as I tend to do and have done in the past for things on on this podcast, um, they have a very large focus on accessibility for for amateur radio operators with disabilities. They're they're pilot programming, a program for autistic ham radio operators to learn CW. They also uh are 100% screen reader capable with their website, including including that Morse training app is 100% screen reader capable. And that's a big deal to them because they know so many, there's a large population of ham radio operators that are that are visually impaired. Um one thing I didn't expect that they do, they're also putting together programs for for people who are um hearing impaired. They have a a haptic CW device that you can use to feel the Morse code and learn it that way. So they're they're they're being very cognizant of working across the various various disabilities that they might come across to be able to make the training accessible to everybody.

SPEAKER_01:

I want to I want to shout out somebody here too, since we're in that kind of mode right now. And and thank you, Terry, for some insights, not only on CW Academy, which might work for some folks, uh, but Long Island CW Club, which I have heard other folks say out loud uh that they had way more success with Long Island CW Club. Uh Ed, W4EMB, actually emailed the pod uh a couple of months ago and said, hey, when you guys are ready to get serious about Morse code, I want to talk to you guys. And so Ed, if you're uh listening uh to the pod still, uh thanks for that email. Uh we are uh getting more interested in this whole thing. And he was on the same page. He said Long Island CW Club is the best way for to learn CW. Uh and uh he recommends it highly on his channel. You could go check him out on YouTube as well. You know how to find all that type of thing. So I just wanted to say hello and and thanks to Ed for uh reaching out and indicating his interest in in our ability here at the Everyday Ham to learn a little bit more about radio in the way of CW. James, uh on and off, what uh you you you had a question there and then uh and then you popped away.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, I'm back. Sorry guys, I'm having a little bit of audio issue today. Uh but what was the question, Jim? Oh, I was just saying you I think you had a question for Terry. Oh, I actually Terry answered it, and I'm sorry, guys. Uh I was wondering what equipment uh to sign up for the CW Academy or the Long Island, what was needed uh to kind of join. Because I know sometimes the barrier started. Yeah, yeah. Sometimes the barrier is the hardware because that usually has a little bit more additional cost. Uh I'm just curious maybe what you started with in terms of a key and do you remember what the average cost was?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh so you're asking me about that? Yes. Yeah. I um I used uh some of the CW Morse keys. They're kind of inexpensive. Um but I I also I think everybody that gets into uh Morse code ends up with a ton of different keys. Oh yeah, yeah. So yep, I got a I went to the high end with a Bagali straight key.

SPEAKER_01:

I was gonna joke and say you bought your bigali right out of the gate, Terry. Don't lie. Terry didn't start with a Bigali.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh but it wasn't that long to tell you the truth. Nice. Um, but I uh Greg WB8 IZM, um my buddy up in Holton Lake, uh recommended venture, and I did buy a new venture and love it. I think it's a great key. I bought a backup uh off of eBay. Um so but so here's uh here's one thing. If you don't have a key, it's okay. You can actually join Long Island CW, and there were plenty of people in the classes, and that the difference with Long Island CW, a class could be about 20 students because it's Zoom. Um and you know they're just gonna teach to the large crowd. But when uh they ask you, maybe can you send a uh a letter back or a word back so we can listen? If you don't have a key, they recommend you code talk. So you do, you know, da da, da da da. And um as long as you're doing it in the spacing and the timing, and you know, until you get your key or until you get your oscillator or your radio, you can learn by just code talking. I was telling people one way I really practiced was I travel a lot and as I drive down the road and I'm looking at license plates, my wife doesn't know, but in my mind I'm uh code talking the license plates or I see a a sign on the side of the road and I code talk the the words on the sign. And I thought that's how that really helped.

SPEAKER_01:

That's brilliant too because right a license plate is very random as far as what numbers you might see. I know that you see similar ones but it right you're not you're not expecting those numbers and so you have to come up with that new string each time uh they pop up in front of you, right? And that I think is what you really have to break that mental expectation that you're always going to be able to guess the next letter and actually just hear it. And so that's cool.

SPEAKER_03:

It's it's all the CW mindset and I think all the programs kind of talk about that you kind of have to put yourself in that that forced training kind of mindset to where you're doing just that. And I caught myself when I was driving this this afternoon back from I went to the grocery shop on my lunch break and I was I was uh they said something on the radio and then I in my head I I spelled it out in in uh in in Morse in CW so it's it's something you have to do. I like the I like the idea of of license plates. People behind gym would have to spell the word poodle that's a that's a good that's a good one for you know you know you get a good you get a good P in you get a good P in there you know it's it's not that uh not bad.

SPEAKER_01:

There you go.

SPEAKER_03:

That was impressive by the way good good on Rory he's I can send I can't hear that's he's he knows a lot more than he hears it even before I I think a lot of us have so I've been listening I you know I the whole time I've been a ham operator which you know twenty uh twenty something years now I think I just renewed actually but that's a whole different story because I don't know why it was time to renew something weird happened somewhere along the way but um you know you there's a lot of repeaters in the Metro Detroit area that identify CW so I I've always tried to be able to hear that there's other repeaters that identify with their courtesy tone in CW based on which receive site you get into so I've always wanted to be able to decode that. So I've always had the interest in CW but to actually uh to apply it is new.

SPEAKER_01:

I yeah when I was again you know if I'm a person that's listening to the Everyday Hamp podcast and I'm like I'm not really there yet I don't I don't really have any interest in CW I'm trying to tanalize you with reasons why you might so like I I was I went down that path this afternoon I was like why why do I want to learn CW right and I've seen put people post this on like the amateur radio Reddit like what's the point of CW right convince me that I should learn it right and there's a lot of folks that you do have to be in the right mindset. You have to be ready to want and learn it. But I do think that it's it's ingrained in so many of the things that we do as hams, right? Like Rory said repeater IDs. You're if if you're interested in that you can you can hear those things instead of them just being obscure ditz and does uh that slide right past your brain right uh the K that happens at the end of our uh N8SL repeater right I I didn't know it was a K. And Rory's like yeah that's a K. I was like oh that makes sense. Yeah got got it right and and so you know I was kind of going down that path and and other things came up right the beacons uh that you use will identify themselves with CW so you know which beacon you're you're listening to or hearing uh those types of things and and and this the simplicity of creating a transmitter like like that's why they're small is because a CW transmitter is a ways way more simple circuit to build uh and you can actually kit bang uh something like that uh for nine or ten bucks right you can go on and get a little uh low power CW kit solder it up yourself uh and you can go out in the field and actually make some CW contact so it is really cool just how versatile CW can be uh and well if the uh uh world ends you might need CW anyway right uh low power you can you can you can hunt for red October right tap the side of the sub and maybe a more practical thing too we we are approaching the so like we're going out of the solar maximum we're we're on that downward slope a little bit yeah so if you want to be prepared for more DX contacts learning CW now is maybe a good time to add it to your tool bag of tricks.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah and I think um like most hands you get to certain points where you maybe you've worked all states and maybe you're doing DXCC but you haven't worked all states in all the different bands. So as you start to focus there you're you're picking out new bands. Well you haven't worked all states in every mode that you could be working on. So I think that's that's actually where I started looking at it was well I I I started POTA with FTA. I was an FTA guy from the beginning. I then I started doing single sideban and saw how effective that was and how fast it could be super and then I then I said well guy I need to do the last one too I need to start doing CW. That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a certain level of completionism for all of us as hams, right? I think we all are always chasing that next thing I I do have to chuckle right you see guys that say oh I'm getting out of the hobby because I've done all the things and then you go look and they've they've been on the phone right that's all they've done right so I don't believe you it's okay you can get out of the hobby whenever you want to and I we'll see you when you come back because I'm sure you'll be back. But there are many things uh that you can learn in in ham radio CW is just one of them uh when you're ready try the Long Island CW Club and we are not sponsored by the Long Island CW Club but if they if they listen to this we would be happy to uh have them come on and talk a little bit with us yeah and I think well I think there is something to be said about CW Academy as well.

SPEAKER_00:

So one of my learning styles we talk about you said find the professor that you know jives to your learning style very effectively if I look at even my learning style for example I sort of like having the structured approach of here's my class time I need to get on there I'm accountable to do that and that that actually jives better with how I've learned traditionally than sort of well I need to you know log onto an app and I'm gonna self-practice 60 minutes a day because I'm not gonna do it. I'm just gonna go right past it. Okay. So having that little it's time to join the meeting pop up on my calendar is actually a pretty beneficial tool. So I think Terry's lesson there I think really is one of the key takeaways is try something. The the class schedule happened to change for him and he went to Long Island but he has experience with both and and maybe one platform worked better for him than the other one. I don't think there's any harm in finding or trying both and maybe the Morse Mania app is just fine with you all around. Maybe you can learn to send and uh send and receive through there. So know your learning style the HR professional in me here will say you should know your learning style and what works well for you and there's no shame in that just do what works.

SPEAKER_01:

If you're banging on your car car stereo right now and saying guys there's a way better way to learn it put it down in the comments if you're listening. Yeah write us an email we would love to hear from you. You know what other ways are you guys finding this to be effective as far as learning? Because I do think CW will be one of the biggest challenges for me um from it when it comes to to radio.

SPEAKER_02:

So uh go ahead Terry uh I wanted to so having gone through both I think I could have been successful with either one. It's just one one didn't work with my schedule. And I do um I do think uh James is right that with the flexibility of Long Island CW you need to bring discipline to that approach. Because it's up to you to keep uh up with the carousels, keep up with the classes and you can easily drop out. It might be good for your for your schedule because you can jump back in whenever you're ready. You know like I took a big break to work on copying and to work on getting better at not getting lost in in um my CW copying and I I've improved with practice and with some tools and now I think I am ready to start getting back into the intermediate classes that will reinforce all that. From 16 to 20 or 25 yeah um but so I've also learned things that didn't work for me and um I'll give you a few of those and I I did mention it in some of the Discord. Try to avoid using a cheat sheet. That's so first thing everybody gets is yeah yeah everybody puts that you know in front of them the dits and dahs the a the letters the A through z and the numbers and so try to avoid yeah there you go. I've got I've got many of those uh to try and avoid using that. Also try to avoid getting attached to a decoder and that's hard that's going to be hard to do because every radio can do it fairly well. There's phone apps that can do it kinda well and you'll you'll end up using that as a crutch and it'll prevent you from really learning uh and copying it yourself. The the thing that I still struggle with is uh counting dits and da's in my head instead of hearing a letter as a whole sound right so as a K you know uh da da da da um or something a little more complex like uh F you da da da da d I'll s and I I start counting those in my head and replaying them well now I'm s now I'm screwed. That's exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_03:

That's I'll start thinking about what did I hear and and you know what was it when I'm trying to copy and that's that is what what trips me up on my in my copy. Yeah I've got to go back to what it goes back to what they all tell you you you really have to get to that instant recognition. You know when you hear a character what you know what is that it's it's not it's not da-da-da, it's a that's K, you know, and that's that's um where you have to get immediately.

SPEAKER_04:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

I've heard to think of it as like musical notes learning music. Each word is its own note so to speak and that if you can learn the the music and the sound that goes with it you stop counting and you're just kind of with the flow of it. Which I'm sure is someone that is not musically inclined by the way where my sister was someone that's very musically inclined you know I I struggle with that concept personally but I've heard just kind of let it let it go let it breathe and just wait for the whole thing to come and just flow.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. But the other the other thing is you you I think a lot of us in the hobby are kind of perfectionists. I I'm looking at three I think some worse than others and yeah and the challenge is to not the not stop and count but let it go and keep keep listening and keep um topping the words that follow. If you miss one don't worry about it let it you know just keep moving.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah that's the one thing Long Island pushes is is you have to focus on your forward momentum. You you have to just keep going. And that is true. I was working with their their practice uh website last night even and I allowed myself to get caught up on on what the hell what what the what a letter was and I got pissed and I I I suddenly missed five groups of letters and I'm like that's exactly what you don't do. Yep. So but you you have to keep that forward forward momentum for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a there's a bit of confidence building there right like I think that uh as you kind of build your confidence and you know that if you miss a letter or two it's not the end of the world you keep on going right there there is that level you as you get that more comfortable with those the sound right I think that there's that confidence that builds as well. I uh naturally as with all things that you learn. And uh I think that i I I was going to ask Terry do you do you speak multiple languages uh by chance or no? I took Spanish in uh college so yeah I wasn't sure if you were like fluent in in multiple languages because I what I would like to ask is and if you're out there and you know multiple languages but also know CW, do you liken it to knowing another language or is it something totally different to you in your head? And that's what I I would love to know somebody that is really fluent with CW but is also a you know a multilingual individual do they think of CW as a a language or do they think of it more like James likened it to a music I did read one thing to what James was talking about was was about musically inclined people do tend to learn CW more rapidly.

SPEAKER_03:

That is that is one thing I have read. I've not read anything on the multi multilingual type thing but I wouldn't be surprised because you know usually when people learn one or two languages fluently other than their their native language they tend to have a little more open mind to it and somehow things just flow a little easier.

SPEAKER_00:

So I wouldn't be surprised to hear that either well those people are smart people right multiple they generally are they yeah I I think the the the simple lesson though is anyone can do it. Just find what works for you and just keep practicing.

SPEAKER_02:

So I was I after I did beginner carousels um I started focusing on copying and just listening and writing things down and then looking at so I use a little tool uh it's a little Raspberry Pi tool called um uh Morse code tutor and it can do all these things it can send you letters you can copy them um it can send you words it can send you call signs it can do all those things and then it you can also send those back and you have to send them back with um it with timing and if you missed the timing it'll say oh you you you uh got that one wrong. What I found originally when I took my break and I started focusing on my copy was I was improving but I don't think I started making um advancements until I got to the point where not only did I copy kind of head copy but then I sent back immediately. Okay. Because I think the sending back immediately reinforces the letters you know um so letters that I had problems with copying uh consistently as I sent them back I I definitely feel like I've gotten better that way.

SPEAKER_03:

So I'll I'll compare to my experience with the Morse Mania app. I I started with just copying and I I went through all the all the levels there and then I went back and I did I said I realized how to get to the sending so I started doing a a challenge with the the copy and then do the same challenge sending and when I did those back to back similar to what you're talking about is when I I started to to get the letters more ingrained in my the characters in my brain. So very similar experience there when I started running both the receive and then the send kind of side by side.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah very cool. And I think uh naturally we uh through the classes you kind of focus on one and leave the other later and then eventually you start to weave them in but I think if you the sooner you get into using them both the sooner you'll move forward faster.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep that was my experience yeah when you as soon as you said that it it it jogged my mind that that's kind of what I was doing my first couple weeks playing with Morse Mania for sure. Very cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Well this is kind of a deep cut as far as uh ham radio things are concerned as and the Everyday Ham podcast goes. So thank you Terry for jumping in and being our expert this evening it is awesome to hear uh from somebody that just kind of got it freshly uh learned and is starting to feel confident with it starting to use it on the air um so thank you for taking some time out of your evening to come and see us uh on the uh the show we'll certainly have you back in the future you could tell us how far you've gone with it uh but I want to send it over uh to Rory to to shout out a few of our folks uh that have listened because they're I'm glad I'm glad if they made it this far that's why we usually do this at the beginning because people usually usually fall off so first this is a test.

SPEAKER_03:

The uh the Hillbilly Hams amateur radio club specifically Sean AA4ET and Shannon K I4 L Y I managed to work them out at Island Lake they were doing PODA I was doing PODA and uh they mentioned that they're listeners of the show so thanks for listening and thanks for working me on PODA and they actually record their their PODA activations and look load them up onto YouTube so I was able to hear myself working them when I when I found it so that was cool. And also a couple shout outs to a couple of our active discord fellows we have Rodney of course our uh 85 tx our our good morning cup of coffee rodney I enjoy seeing seeing those those every morning and and he's been he's been hitting the grind hard I think he had some some time off of work and he's back to work doing doing he's winding it down though he's gonna be retired. And uh and and uh Caleb KF Zero UPB a couple people that have been good in the conversations on Discord it's been yeah it's been fun it's a small group but it's a fun group and uh I think we we do have some good conversations and pass some different ideas and open-minded you know ideas too there's been a couple times where someone has has differed with someone else's opinion and it and it was a good conversation and we've all learned from it in an excellent way very respectfully there is no concern. So we I've enjoyed seeing these people join from from all over into the Discord. Like I said it's not the most active discord group in the world but you know it's it's a fun one and we're glad to have everybody there that joins.

SPEAKER_01:

It could be active more active if you join us how about that there's your plug for this afternoon.

SPEAKER_03:

One call out as well to uh go ahead James uh Kilo Oscar for Foxtrot X-ray uh Ethan the Fox who also Ethan the Fox I've worked him many times yeah and uh also gave a shout out as well so thank you there uh if you are a listener and also good to be thank you for being an active POTA activator as well so we appreciate I did see Ethan on on Facebook Ethan was taking a first time POTA guy out I don't know the other guy's call sign but they were talking about that on Facebook about being concerned but he said he was going out to Ethan and I going out with Ethan and I left a left a comment saying if you're going out with him to the park you're gonna be in good hands because he's a good good POTA operator for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

So well thank you everybody for joining us on this episode the 13th and brand new year number 13 ham that's right we uh appreciate all you folks listening uh we will be back with more fun stuff uh as the year progresses we have lots of uh plans and we will be at hamcation looking forward to that that is just next month so we'll be down there at Hamcation right after we do our next episode it'll be our turn to be in Florida like Terry is now thanks for being there yeah thanks Terry appreciate it hey it was a lot of fun on you guys 73s guys good luck in the contest as Rory likes to say yeah 7 3 and good luck in the contest you can't steal Rory's exit there either Jim all right find find business fine business fine business all right 73s all right 7 3

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James Mills (K8JKU)

Co-host
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Jim Davis (N8JRD)

Co-host
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Rory Locke (W8KNX)

Co-host