Beginners CW group; John M1CDL, Carol 2E0GRR and Andrew G8BYB

CW has always been an important mode in Amateur Radio that is often seen as very difficult to master. At our Club in Spalding (SDARS) we recently decided to start a beginners CW session to introduce operators to the joys of the key and learn "the code".

We started using the Koch method and a wonderful computer programme by G4FON to learn the code itself, starting at a character speed of 20 wpm. Initially this was considered quite easy but as the number of letters built up a few doubts started to appear. I was on hand to bully and encourage the group to continue and, hopefully, make it seem like fun. 

Like the older Farnsworth method of learning CW, there seems to be a couple of "walls" to overcome in the learning process. At 10 and 18 characters the group started to wonder if they were taking on too much and would never get there. With a bit of encouragement from myself, pointing out how far they had come and how near they were to their goal, they all persisted and have now mastered all of the code along with a number of prosigns and we are currently tackling "rubber stamp" and basic qso's.

Because the group learned the code using the Koch method, their ears were tuned to hearing individual morse characters at a reasonable speed. We are now working at reducing the thinking time and consequently the gap between those characters.

Now that we are actually using practical CW face to face during the Club meetings and also on-air on 2 meters with phone talk back, morse code has become fun for the group and I believe that they will continue and become highly competent operators.