Tag Archives: CW

CWOps Basic Course – Final Review

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I’ve been done with the CWOps Basic Course now for a couple of weeks and felt that it was time to post my thoughts on being a participant of the program and what I got out of it.

They offer multiple courses for different skill levels.

  • Beginner (Introduction to CW and learning the characters)
  • Basic (Build head copy skills and on-air QSOs)
  • Intermediate (Recognize words as sounds, increase head copy speed)
  • Advanced (Move rocks with your mind while wearing a Jedi master as a backpack)

Ok, I made that last description up, but you can see the progression from start to finish and Advanced is really about getting that speed up which includes contesting speeds of greater than 30wpm.

Already having spent quite a bit of time learning the characters, I started with the Basics course. This is very much a student driven course. That means that they have developed the program which lasts 8 weeks, and have setup practice routines for every day in-between. It is up to the student to drive their own practice and effort. Students then meet twice weekly as a group with a CWOps Advisor.

Classes are virtual and make use of both audio and video to ensure that everyone is able to interact as necessary. We practice using Farnsworth at 20+wpm and begin at 6wpm spacing, ramping up to 12-14 by the end.

Personally, having a group of like-minded individuals that were coming together at relatively similar skill levels to converse and grow together made a huge difference in my advancement in CW. This honestly surprised me as I tend to be more introverted by nature.

Our advisor was Christopher Barber – WX5CW – and I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. He is driven for his student’s success, passionate about CW and getting on-air, and a generally great guy. Always available to answer questions, as we progressed in the class he even took time out of his weekends to try and get on the air for practice between sessions.

All that while balancing work and family.

At the start of the program in late-August, I had done a couple of “QSOs” (I use quotes since they were embarrassingly bad on my part and sometimes incomplete).

Having just completed the course, I’ve racked up 30+ QSOs all across the US and have even done one POTA activation. I am operating at 13-14wpm, whereas I was previously stumbling through a QSO at 6-8wpm (if that).

Instead of abject terror when I send a CW, I am incredibly more comfortable copying what I hear and even asking for clarity when I cannot do so (instead of fearing a whole new onslaught of dits and dahs that I won’t understand).

They say that the “proof is in the pudding”:

How do you like that pudding? Each grid square is a CW QSO that I’ve done since the start of the class. None of my classmates are included above – all are random on-air QSOs with strangers.

Verdict

In the end, I cannot recommend CWOps courses highly enough. You will get out of it what you put in, but I believe that for any skill level they have a well thought out course and anyone looking to become more proficient in CW would benefit in some way.

Classes run three times each year, and you can sign up at their registration page.

I’m signing up for the Intermediate course if that tells you anything.

cwops basic – update

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I’m a few weeks into the CWOps Basic Course and, with some experience and time under my belt, felt it was time to post an update on how things are going.

First off, the course is not a traditional type of class. Students are expected (and rightly so I believe) to drive their own progress via daily practice routines that are laid out simply and in a highly consumable manner. (read: if I can follow it, you can too)

The focus starts on Instant Character Recognition (ICR), where in a half second or less your brain associates the character with the CW being received. This would be similar to someone holding up a card with a random letter or number on it and your brain instantly knowing which one it is visually. If you’re reading this, you’re already doing that with the alphabet and what you see on this screen.

There are tools and exercises along the way to train your brain to pick out the sounds quicker and quicker each week. More complex activities are then introduced as words and phrases are built out and expanded.

There are two sessions each week with an advisor, who provides guidance and inputs along the way. They assess each student’s progress at regular checkpoints, and will point out errors.

So how is it going?

Well, I am surprised (pleasantly so) how fast I am actually progressing. I started off my CW journey earlier this year doing a lot of repetitive learning of characters on my own, using apps like Morse Mania and listening to audio files developed by Morse Code Ninja (seriously give that guy a donation – his work is phenomenal). That gave me a solid foundation for the Basic Course that I’m in now. I’m seeing definite improvements in recognition of my problem characters that plagued me for weeks prior. I can follow QSOs more easily now, and my fear of getting on the air has lessened quite a bit. This at a little less than halfway through the course.

The group is fantastic. We all are progressing and struggling in different areas, but we take the time to work together via Discord video chats to push each other along.

I highly recommend this to anyone looking to learn or significantly improve their CW abilities. The coursework is well planned, the advisor has been amazing, and it is exactly what I needed.

cwops – starting with the basics

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This week I started the Basics Course from CWOps.

For anyone not familiar with them, they are a group that is dedicated to growing the knowledge of, and therefore use of CW.

For the course, we have an advisor and several of us learners who meet twice weekly and review our progress against their curriculum.

While I am just at the start of this journey, I cannot say enough good things about how this is organized and the time that is put in by those involved.

This week we ran through identifying our Instant Character Recognition weak points. It was instructive to see where I struggled, but it also confirmed my suspicions as well.

I’ll add more as I progress, but this is an amazing group and a beginning for me on getting from CW infancy to hopefully walking on my own.