That's because you are trying to "count beeps"

There are really only 2 ways to learn Morse code:
1)The Farnsworth method. For all intents, they send each character at some chosen speen (most tapes use 20wpm) and they space the letters to make it be 5wpm. It's how I learned the code. My big problem was then getting on the air with the guys going faster, and having not practiced in a few years....

2)The Koch method. Very Very similar - pick a character speed, and a spacing, but it's more often done at 30wpm chars, with 20wpm spacing. But we start with 1 character - normally A, and you listen to A a couple of hundred times. Then we add N - and we listen to that say, 50 times, and then we start mixing A and N, and we do it over and over and over, until you can get a string of like 75 random As and Ns 90% right - you write it down, or type it in as you go. Then you add a third character, repeat until you are getting strings of those 90% right, then add a 4th, and a 5th, until you have all 27 character, the 10 number, plus the punctuation and "prowords" correct

What the goal for either method is that you hear the "sound" off a character - in fact, the real goal is that you stop hearing characters, but for most things you hear "words", so that say my call sign goes from being -.- --. ..--- ...- and for all intents becomes -.- --. ..--- ...- but with even 'less" than that full space - so what you hear, without thought is "kg2v"

The interesting part is - you don't worry about sending - which is good/bad. I know a major part of what I had problems with was sending - I could not get my fingers to do what my brain was telling them to do. Now my code is bad enough, but I can finally get my fingers to do if I "pre-think", but a good set of paddles helped (almost no one uses a 'straight key' any more, except for the challange). My wife bought me a set of fairly inexpensive Kent Paddles, and they blow away the benchers I have - in fact, I should put the benchers on the club table next hamfest. Heck, I got to try a set of begnalli paddles - sweet, but they should be at that kind of $$$$ (and yeah, that's the right number of digits before the decimal point)

edit: forgot to add:
http://www.g4fon.net/ for THE Koch trainer software - free

I’m not knocking anyone who wants to learn Morse code, but what real value is it today? Even the Coast Guard dropped it.

For sailors, Most whistle/manuevering signals are morse code. Knowing Morse Code greatly assists one in learning these signals and their place in the overall scheme of things.

All commercial boats have a light connected to the whistle switch. Knowing Morse Code via visual means allows the mariner to "see" the whistle signal at night, thus knowing what he needs to do to avoid collision.

Many pilothouses now have air conditioners and their windows and doors are closed, making whistle signals hard to hear but easy to see at night.

OK other then those that work with ships, what use is it?



I’m not trying to be negative or talking someone out of learning it. I’m trying to have someone talk me into learning it for a practical reason.

I stand corrected. I didn´t use the programs for a while so I must have confused that.
The actual program is "DJLs Morsen". Here is the author´s homepage, the download page and the direct download link. The program is in German but it´s pretty simple. If you have problems with the GUI feel free to ask.
The download is free.
The terms of use basically say it´s free for noncommercial use, commercial use requires explicit permission from the author. It is not allowed to publish the program in the internet. The download page must be linked at least. The software may not be altered.

I hope that helps.

Please read the ENTIRE thread. You'll find some answers already written.

I'm not going to try to talk you into anything. Oh wait, how about I hold your lunch money? :-)

In the big world of signalling using emf, morse code is the only way to communicate using pure manual xmit keying. In other words, if all you could do was switch a transmitter on and off, you could communicate to the outside world via morse code. This could be nothing more than two wires across a coil with a battery connected to it. This means if the mic fails on a radio, but you can still key it (either with the PTT switch or by tapping the wires themselves together), you can still get your signal out there. It also means if you can hear a signal on the monitor frequency and someone is keying back to you, you will be able to tell if they heard you or not.

This is why a 5 watt CW morse xmitter on HF frequencies can be heard around the world, and people can converse using it, where voice, teletype, baudot, or any other signalling system would be in the grass and unusable. I can pick out a morse code signal and communicate at 6 Db sinad, where voice communications are practically impossible.

That's one reason to learn morse code, and I think it is a big one.

http://www.qsl.net/n9bor/n0hff.htm

Free book download on how to most effectively learn and use Morse.