It's about 20 years since morse skills were a requirement for HF licenses. As with any changes to rules and regulations, this caused all sorts of ruckus towards the end of the last century and millenary. Geoff G4IGY SK said at the time of it's removal as a licence requirement that he thought this would boost the use of the CW mode. He thought that it becoming optional would make some people look on it as an interest rather than a painful necessity. Learning the code details should take about a fortnight. The time taken to develop fluency and speed takes longer and some people never achieve a workable skill level. With the code being a requirement, some chaps really struggled with it. G4IGY considered that the removal of urgency from the learning process could make things less fraught.

Using the mode in practice has a sound historical feel to it and most people who do use it become attached to its slight oddnesses. Regular communicants learn their QSOmates fists and there can develop a camaraderie additional to the standard amateur spirit.

Machine generated morse is useful for practice purposes but hand sent code is essential for development of band-worthy reading. There is always someone available for QSO practice. Ideally a number of senders should be listened to in order to develop a wide capability.

It is most important to realise that many telegraphists think that there is only one way to learn the skill. This is mistaken thinking. Everyone has their own way of learning things and it is easiest to learn from a teacher who adapts to ones own preferences. Sadly, we cannot always get what we want. (Mick Jagger was right.) One detail that is often stressed is that a learner should not do any sending until he has a reading speed of at least twelve words per minute. This has a measure of truth but needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, as is the case with most "musts".

G0TPS is one of the telegraphists available for code practice on HF or 2m CW.

vy 73 de John G0TPS.
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