Learning/Improving your CW with CWops & CW Academy

Daimon Tilley G4USI recounts his experience of improving his CW under the tutelage of CWops.

Daimon Tilley G4USI

Regular readers will recall that although I got my Class A callsign back in the early 1980s, it wasn’t until nearly two years ago that I had actually ever had a CW QSO! This article is aimed at those who want to learn the Morse code for the first time, or to take their existing Morse skills onto the next level. It describes only one of many methods, but I was so pleased with the results from the method I chose that I felt it was worth sharing with readers.

Having made the decision to return to the mode, I was both surprised and pleased that I could still remember all the letters and numbers after more than 35 years.

Of course, it is one thing to remember them, but another thing entirely to put that into (effective) practice, so with the support of a local friend and along with a couple of members of the Taunton club, I embarked on re-learning CW. We had some practice sessions on-air, but mainly (due to our proximity and conditions) on Skype.

I soon became reasonably comfortable with an approximate 12 wpm (again!) and set off on my first proper forays into regular CW. My confidence began to grow and my speed picked up to about 15 wpm and stalled. I needed to get to the next level, but how to go about it?

I began to search around on the internet and look at various tutor apps for my mobile phone and other methods, when, almost by chance, I stumbled across the website of CWops, an organisation formed in 2010 and with over 2,500 members (I am member 2496). To be a member you have to be capable of sending and receiving at no less than 25 wpm, and be sponsored by three other members. When I first read that, it sounded a bit exclusive and I was very nearly put off. I am glad I wasn’t and would encourage you to read on, as there is no need to be intimidated by that, whatever your ability at the moment.

The organisation is designed to be inclusive for all people in all countries, whether your preference is ragchewing, contesting or chasing DX. A key feature of the club is weekly on-air activities, called CWTs. These activities are like a contest for members and non-members alike, with a simple exchange of name and either location or membership number. The events run for just one hour three times a day (to suit different time zones) and run on the nonWARC bands. I have found them to be quite busy and a great way of building confidence and speed of copy.

CW Academy

But most importantly, for me at the time, in 2012 the organisation formed a section called CW Academy.

The CWops CW Academy is designed for you, and for everyone! It has been created to cater for complete beginners, for people who want to improve, re-gain proficiency or for those just looking for the next challenge.

The best part of all, is that you can benefit from completely free, highly structured and effective training. So how does it work?

CW Academy courses are held over eight weeks, three times a year. In each of the eight weeks, you have prescribed daily online tasks, and twice a week, on a Monday and Thursday evening, you meet online via Zoom or Skype with your CW Advisor and the rest of the delegates on your course, to talk about progress against the tasks and issues plus further practice with each other.

In each of the eight-week blocks, four separate courses are run. There are courses for complete beginners, those with basic proficiency, intermediate courses for those operating at about 10 wpm and advanced courses for those at 15 wpm currently.

Full details of the objectives for each course are available on the website.

When you have decided to sign-up, there is no need to agonise about which level is the right one to join at. Having made the decision, you can listen to a number of short (one minute) CW audio clips online. Your ability to copy them, or otherwise, helps place you in a suggested class level.

Signing Up

I signed-up and took the test, and was somewhat surprised when it was subsequently recommended that I join the advanced class – I took a pretty big gulp! I did think about downgrading to intermediate, but decided to trust the process. This advanced class was designed to get you confident at 25 wpm, increase your on-air skills and your contesting skills up to above 30 wpm, along with achieving the level required for joining CWops.

I know it sounds intimidating, and it felt it to start with, but persistence paid off, ably assisted by the patience of your advisor and the resources provided to learn from.

Structure and Resources

I think the programme worked for me for two main reasons – structure and resources.

In relation to structure, the eight weeks are divided into two online sessions with your advisor and classmates. In between these sessions, six days of the week have one or more tasks to perform on your own. This structure, along with checking from your advisor, keeps you motivated and on track. The structure is both a blessing, and at times a bane. By committing to the structure, you are giving yourself the best chance of success, but at times, it can feel quite overwhelming – some days I spent well over an hour on the tasks. The issue, for me, was that I was spending so much time on the listening tasks, that I had reduced opportunities to actually get on air and practice in live QSOs. After a while I noticed that sending speed was not keeping pace with my listening speed, and I had to devote extra time to this.

The resources provided to support you are excellent. There are some software programs to download that simulate contest reception and operating, which really sharpen up your speed on callsign and number copy. Additionally, there are a large number of online audio files provided. These contain short stories, QSO practice files, and mini-contest practice files. In each category there are 16 ‘chapters’ corresponding to the 16 advisor sessions you have in each of the eight weeks. Within each category and chapter, the same audio file is provided in a

wide range of speeds, and the course guide tells you which speed to use for which practice session. In addition to this you are encouraged to get involved in the CWTs, the mini contests, to sharpen up your speed and skills.

One of the most effective techniques used, in my view, was getting you to listen to short stories by ‘head copying’ (nothing other than brief notes) at speeds far in excess of your capability and just trying to grab as many words as you can. You then listen again at a slower speed to fill in the gaps. This really helped me.

On my course, there were half a dozen or so students, mostly from the UK but with a Russian colleague too, a main CW Advisor and an Assistant Advisor. We would spend our hour together twice a week discussing the preceding tasks and our progress, along with a number of exercises between us. These included taking it in turns to send sections of text, taking part in QSOs, and a ‘round-robin’ memory game, where we would ‘go shopping’ and each buy an item. The next member then had to recount all of the items brought by others before them, and add a new one. Those of you with kids might recall this game!

In Summary

In summary, this is not a light-hearted undertaking and you should not under-estimate the amount of effort required to train daily for eight weeks, often for an hour or more. At times, it felt a little overwhelming and close to becoming a chore. However, I am pleased to say that I stuck at it and began to reap the rewards. I no longer write down CW word for word in order to copy it, doing it in my head instead (essential at faster speeds) and can comfortably converse at 25 wpm. In addition, if I am working contest stations, I can usually copy callsigns, reports and serial numbers at up to 35 wpm – a vast improvement on where I started.

Is it hard work? Yes it is, but isn’t anything that is worthwhile? If you are prepared to work hard for eight weeks solid, then no matter what level of CW you have now, I promise you that you will have improved significantly by the end of the course. The programme clearly works for a lot of people, as most people on my course had come up through every preceding stage.

With band conditions as they are, CW is a great conversational tool that will add another tool to your armoury. Why not give it a go yourself?

More information can be found at: www.cwops.org