last point of my opinion, and i apologize if i come across as a hater,but im not.
Friend of mine is a no code ham. he learned the basics of the code and uses a decoder to decode the cw. he sends about 20 wpm with his paddle ,which doesnt make sense because he cant copy past 6 wpm with his ears. i proved this with on air copy. doing about 8 to 10 wpm. he said he couldnt copy it even though he sends really fast. he doesnt try to decode the cw in his head since the decoder is doing it for him. I told him if you can send 20wpm you should be able to receive faster than 8. no way. i had 3 other hams verify this. WEIRD,BUT TRUE.He stated"why learn to copy faster when i have my decoder. he uses software to do this on his computer.Im not knocking him,but i did explain the reasonings of not using one.happy he is trying cw and using it,but the decoder gives him a false sense of accomplishment. he has been using this setup for several years and still cant copy faster than about 6 wpm. WEIRD ISNT IT. My friend is an engineer for 30 years, very very smart, but has been ruined by his decoder. HI HI.3 of us have been working with him with various,various methods, and we even paid for his classes,etc just to be friendly. he went,but the instructor stated "ive never seen anyone who can send 20wpm and not copy by ear at least over 6 wpm. He refuses to try to fill his head with the decode but can send 20 wpm with his paddle. foud out some of his secret. he uses precanned groups of statements. qth,radio,rst,etc. He goes thro the motions and then after his decoder decodes the other hams info he clicks the statements he wants sent next,it also includes the 73,etc. .very canned,very brief, using decoder and software on computer.? is he running cw? yes,but with an analog radio and no goodies attached to it,like a decoder,he is dead in the water without it.Ive praised him over and over for trying CW,but He stated "i can make 1000s of cw contacts and basically not even know CW"The computer and decoder will do it all for me.His words,not mine.Also his paddle is basically for looks. he uses computer control to do the sending 99% of the time.
please inform the other end u are using one if you cant decode the signals when adjacent qrn,qrm,qsb affects it or you are in a pileup.This leads to abrupt endings of qsos. or qsos that really seem robot operated.I ran into this when doing ft8. Someone calling cq forever and not responding to others who respond to their CQ.
just my own opinion of it.
73
David
ac9xh
