by Vince (VE6LK)
Have you ever thought about your journey into learning CW? Many of us learned the “wrong” way, whatever that means. But along the way we’ve gained some smarts about how learning worked -for us- and from that you probably have at least one tip to share with others.
Accordingly, I’ve got one quick question to ask y’all:
If you could tell new CW learners your single best tip to learn CW, what would it be? Please post your response in the comments.
Oh, and the top photo shows my first paddle keys. Yes, I did do my CW exam using the one on the left, much to the chagrin of my examiner. 20 years later he still ribs me about it.
72 and dit dit,
…Vince
First introduced to the magic of radio by a family member in 1969, Vince has been active in the hobby since 2002. He is an Accredited examiner in Canada and the USA, operates on almost all of the modes, and is continually working on making his CW proficiency suck less. He participates in public service events around Western Canada and is active on the air while glamping, mobile, at home or doing a POTA activation. You can hear him on the Ham Radio Workbench podcast, follow him on Mastodon @[email protected], on Twitter @VE6LK, and view the projects and articles on his website.
Get on the air! Once you know letters, numbers, question mark, and can recognize your call sign, start hunting POTA or SOTA. it will help you improve more quickly, and it will reward you for your efforts.
As Glenn Norman, W4YES, of CWInnovations frequently says, “You don’t get good to get on the air. You get on the air to get good.”
Eric,
What a great quote from Glenn “You don’t get good to get on the air. You get on the air to get good.”
I’ll print this out and hang it on my wall.
Thanks for sharing this 🙂
73,
.Vince
Persistence is key.
In my own CW journey, I’ve found that there are times I questioned if I was actually progressing forward in the art. The CW “doldrums” hit almost everyone at some point.
I’ve found, though, that being persistent about listening to and practicing CW will pay off. Just keep moving forward at your own pace–even if it’s a slow pace–believe in yourself and your skills will improve in time even when you feel like they aren’t!
Great post & question, Vince!
Thomas (K4SWL)
Don’t strive for perfect copy when learning. 80% is good enough, then move to the next characters/speed etc
I second what a lot of others are saying. Get on the air. Good CW ops will slow down for you. My recommendation is never “look” at code, only listen and send and try not to count the dits and dahs. Treat CW as a language. Most of all, have fun.
copy n paste: what K3ES wrote
72s de k8zfj
The best advice has been said here already…get on the air!!! Make the decision to swim, learn the characters and numbers, look at the average first round QSO (many vids in YouTube), and get on the air. I liked to look for someone calling CQ, that way after listening and getting the call right, I could look that op up on QRZ to get some intel in case I missed a few letters with their information. Stick to the script, say 73, and find another. I had to just get on the air, and yes, I’d miss a lot at first, but you get better fast. Now, go fire up the rig and start looking for that CQ, I hope it’s me!
72,
Trevor
N0YMA
I first learned Morse Code in U.S. Navy Radioman school back in 1970. The instructor stressed forgetting about dots and dashes and to only think about the sound patterns for each character. When we were first shown the Morse alphabet, the letter A was shown as DI-DAH, B was DAH-DI-DI-DIT, and so forth.
The other tip was to learn to copy slightly behind what was being sent.
72, Craig WB3GCK
Exactly! Sounds are crucial.
It’s been almost 50 years since I first learned Morse…but the best advice I can give is to learn the characters sent at a relatively fast speed (15-18 wpm) but spaced for 5-7 wpm. Also…for refreshing your ability to copy – start with a code sample that’s sent at a higher speed than you normally copy, and work *down* to your normal working speed. My ‘natural’ speed is around or just short of 20 wpm, so I start offline refresher practice at 25. That works for me, your mileage may vary.
WB9QLR (first licensed 1975)
Find an Elmer who is also a CW nut.
And when you get “good,” don’t forget to be that Elmer to the next guy or gal who is trying to crack the code.
Yes, I first learned the wrong way — using a visual method that I read about in Boy’s Life magazine.
I still think the best practice source is W1AW code practice transmissions. The great thing about those is that on alternate days the sessions run from slow to fast, and then fast to slow. On “slow” days you can start copying at a comfortable speed and then continue to listen as the speed increases. At the higher speeds you’ll copy less and less, but you’ll still be able to get a letter here and there. Then, on “fast” days, start well above a comfortable speed, getting any letters you can manage to copy. As the speed decreases you’ll be able to copy more and more. This really stretches your “mental muscles” and increases your confidence.
I recommend combining W1AW practice with the best CW advice I ever received, thanks to WB8RXN (SK): “Throw away your pencil.” Yes, quit copying on paper! Force yourself to copy in your head. Stop hearing dashes and dots, then stop hearing letters, and start hearing words. Dah didididit dit isn’t “t” “h” “e”, it’s “the”. After a while you might even start “copying ahead” — recognizing common words even before the complete word is sent. (Although this can trip you up when it turns out that the word being sent isn’t the one you were anticipating!)
Lots of good comments so far! Many have said to “just” learn the characters and then get on the air… but how do you learn the characters? With computers and resources on the Internet, learning is so much easier today than when I first started in the 1970s.
I strongly recommend the CW teaching programs through the CW Ops Club (their CW Academy) and the Long Island CW Club. Both offer strong curricula to get you on the air and coaching to go with it. Don’t overlook Internet resources like Kurt Zoglmann’s morsecode,ninja web page — it has training for beginners all the way up to those wanting to send at high speed (QRQ). There are many more programs and apps, too.
I second Mark, WB9QLR’s suggestion on learning characters at high speeds — 15-20 words per minute — but “slowing down” by increasing the spacing between characters and words. I wish I had known that when I first learned code at 5 wpm (Novice test), then relearned it at 13 wpm (General test) and again at 20 wpm (Extra test). Learn how the characters sound at high speed once and you are set!
As that shoe company would say … “just do it!”
73,
Nat, N4EL
I used an app called Morse Zap. Worked well, and was readily available when I had a free moment.
Step 1: learn the individual letters. I used lcwo.net. As you type each letter after hearing the sound, THINK that letter and say it aloud, to avoid training yourself to hear the cw and reflexively typing it without recognizing it mentally, which is a problem I had.
Step 2: Shift from hearing and typing to just head copy. I use the Morse ninja recordings, they are great.
Step 3: accept that CW is not about perfect sending and perfect copy. On the air it’s more like trying to converse in a crowded club with very loud music where you only hear some of what’s said and interpolate what you didn’t get. If you miss something don’t try to figure it out, let it go and concentrate on what’s coming.
Step 4: as soon as you can send with fair accuracy and recognize your call sign start listening to hunters chasing POTA activators. As soon as you can recognize TU, UR, RST, 73, &c get on the air no matter how slow you are nor how many mistakes you make.
If you are worried about mistakes or failing to copy something just spend a few minutes *listening* to a POTA activation and note how often you hear “?” and “……”. No one cares if you have to be try several times to send something or they need t o repeat something. Relax. No one is judging you and everyone is thrilled you are trying and delighted when you succeed.
Paul, thank you – these are all great and your last item listed is *so very true*. The CW community is forgiving of errors.
73,
.Vince
Farnsworth, practice, practice and get on air as soon as you can; maintain practice.
Bonus, liken the key and code to an instrument and music; musicians need to practice, no matter how well they perform!
We’ve all had to learn, most of us re-learn and we’ve all made mistakes a d will continue to do so!
Richard MM0RGM
I too feel my journey to ‘learn’ CW was all wrong… primarily because I continue to struggle. After reading several of the comments, it’s clear, everyone struggles with it.
My own learning modalities, are primarily auditory, then visual.
With CW, that flew out the window!
I do appreciate the question though, and the various comments are helpful.
But I’m afraid like my diet, CW will always be a struggle. A struggle I have to conquer… I really love it though. It’s fun, and my inner geek finds comfort in its practice.
TU 4 ? 72 de W7UDT
I like to listen to the activations on this website. Thomas hears both fast and slow sending. I try to get the call when it is received. That and participating in on the air activities such as POTA, SKCC, FISTS and NAQCC will help your code speed.
I would advise the students to first learn the numbers in a wek and then the grouped letters, first the similar ones and then the others. In no case do not count the points or lines. At high speed they can no longer count. The signs must be understood as the hum of a bee, like sume musical notes. Growth in learning the Morse alphabet- YO8CDQ
Dan – W9SAU
Consistency. Stick with it. Especially during those times when you feel like “I’ll never get it!” It is work, but it is fun work, with a goal of copying and understanding what sounds like total audio gibberish, when first starting out.
Stay committed to learning, but unless you sign up for a disciplined CW Ops-type course, do not put a time limit on learning the Code in a specific amount of time. This is unnecessary pressure. After 6 months of learning , I worked up the courage for an occasional terrifying and exhilarating on-air exchange. The Operators were so accommodating and patient through my stumbling and fumbling, that I gained increasing confidence in my abilities, and felt comfortable with Code about 18 months from when I first started learning. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. You’ll get there when you get there.
It doesn’t stop there. Code becomes second nature, but not routine. Each and every CW QSO continues to be a thrill for me, and I still practice every day.
Stick with it andHave Fun!
I love these questions and seeing how others have approached CW. Thanks to Vince and Thomas! So many great suggestions so far, I can only repeat what others have suggested. I passed the code requirement for my ticket in 2003, and did not pick it up again until 2021. Being retired, I wanted a challenge. I used LCWO initially to re-learn the characters and relied on advice to avoid thinking of dots and dashes and concentrate on the melody! After spending a lot of time learning the basics (again) I got on the air and fumbled a lot but learned a lot. Jumped into POTA and a some hunting and then a few activations. I joined CWops and can highly recommend them. I now have joined Long Island CW, found my level and am really enjoying it. They have many levels for every speed!
* Make it fun and by that find several online cw training sites/ and programs that challenge you.
*For recognizing call signs, K5FJ CW Trainer is great for learning callsigns, Morsle,(Daily Morse Code Challenge is fun). Morse.mdp.im is also great for building speed.
Hope to catch you on the air!!!
The “Farnsworth Method” consists of sending characters forming words, also at high Speed and vary the spacing so you have time to interpret what you heard.
Today In Fake Radio History
On this date, in 1921 Philo T. Farnsworth, of the CW “Farnsworth Method” also created the technology for transmitting and receiving color television.
That’s a good one. Having lived in southeast Idaho I’m very familiar with Philo T. Farnsworth, but I had no idea who invented the Farnsworth Method and had to look it up. We visited the Farnsworth TV and Pioneer Museum in Rigby, ID many years ago. Someone had donated a bunch of old electronics to the museum that they didn’t want and had no use for, so we volunteered to haul it off for them and see if any of the local hams wanted it. It amounted to a full pickup truck load! For the most part no one was interested, so most of it went into a dumpster, although I still have a few pieces (I think). The one thing that I was happy to salvage was a dead Eimac 4-1000 tube. I mounted it on a walnut base and have it on display in my shack.
Never get irritated or “try”. Try to detach from the outcome, and know that it will take 1-2 years to get good at CW. That may sound unappealing, but many small wins along the way will keep you going. The learning process is actually a big part of the fun of CW.
This is sage advice for so many things! Thank you for sharing.
73,
..Vince
Just be persistent
Try to relax and copy what you can. Unless you’re in a QSO, just leave the pen on the desk and copy in your head. Try changing the tone of what you’re hearing especially if you’re older.
Have fun. Remember, we all started someplace.
NJ6F – Rich
* Don’t relearn the code at different speeds and waste time! Start at the 25WPM (rate) for each character.
* Pick up on slight variations of E, I, S, H, 5 for instance also A & N along with U, V & 4
* Save the audio CW of a paragraph of transmission off radio and replay it getting comfortable with it and finding out what you are hanging up on. Then try recording another W1AW practice session at 25WPM and repeat. Avoid any rates that are not in the range of 25WPM. If you have a CW reader, set it up properly with good S/N and copy in your head as it is showing you immediate feedback off W1AW session at 25WPM. Listen to some good CW from someone who has a good keyer, not some sloppy CW that has an accent off some manual key. I use the MFJ contest keyer and it will clean up spacing etc., & the Bencher Iambic keyer. Hope that helps & it worked for me since 1967.
I used Code Quick. It uses sound recognition with a series of flash cards. It is a very effective method.
Never memorize a dot-dash chart! I learned that way from a Boy Scout First Class manual, and it crippled me for years. I may still be wounded by it. I have created a Morse Code chart consisting entirely of dits and dahs. Send an email to and I’ll send it to you.
73,
Bruce Prior N7RR
You’ll never be as good, fast or clean as you want to be.
Just have fun with it!!!
Join the Long Island CW Club.
– Chris N8PEM
I learned code from records (1967). Get on the air.
That said, experienced CW operators should occasionally slow down and spend some time in the novice bands.
While the phrase “get on the air” is encouraging, it is also part of the goal/result of learning CW. It certainly wasn’t going to be the first thing I tried. You have to know it to get on the air first…even if your copy is really slow. I was not interested in getting on the air and torturing anyone, no matter how accommodating they claimed to be…I wanted to get the crawling out of the way and hit the ground walking when I got on the air for it. I’m sure there are plenty who feel/felt the same way.
The good news is knowing is progressive. After you know it, and you get on the air, you will improve very quickly. I still feel like a beginner with several thousand QSOs now and I still feel like I’m improving.
I started with LCWO website like a couple others mentioned. I probably stuck with that a little too long, got bored, and took some time off. At that point I bought a straight key so I felt like I had some skin in the game. I also joined the SKCC before I knew anything, thinking “that’s going to be embarrassing a year from now if I’m in this CW club and I don’t know any.” After I knew the letters and numbers I DOWNLOADED the ARRL W1AW practice files from their website. They’re at different speeds. I started with the slowest and that was too slow and moved into I think 10 or 13 or 15WPM, I can’t remember, until I was not copying very well.
Then I spent 15 minutes a day, or 30 if I was really enjoying it, copying the practice files. They are a little predictable after while, but that’s ok. Some days I felt like I had no idea what I was listening to. Some days I’d burn out really quickly. But the main thing was just spending the time doing it.
Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t use paper, or your keyboard to type down what you hear. It’s ok to do that. You’re learning. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re forming a bad habit. You may be setting yourself up for a learning hump later on, but you will be prepared for it. Learning to copy and write is important and I guarantee you it will help you if you’re having trouble copying someone’s fist during an on the air contact. You’re not going to be head copying whole words right away. Words like DE, ES, 73, GL, GA, OM, GE, TU, TNX, etc will start to pop out and eventually others like common names, states. Don’t make it harder on yourself, this is already hard to learn. Don’t box yourself into someone else’s prescribed learning plan; you’re probably not in school anymore, there’s no grade here, no deadline, and you’re entirely under your own initiative. It’s either QSL or no.
I’m sure if I had to do it again, I would probably know better when to make adjustments, or try something different. I’m an independent learner and CW is really something you’re going to learn at your own pace just like how we all learned how to speak and read. I never knew any hams my entire life until I was a ham. I have no elmer. I want no elmer. I am my elmer. That doesn’t mean I don’t want advice or help and isn’t meant to sound like no one should have elmers. Had I been exposed to all of this as a kid, an elmer probably would have been excellent.
Probably from the time I started LCWO to whenever I made my first QSO was probably a year. One day I felt ready. I listened to someone call CQ. I called them. It happened. I was nervous and couldn’t think straight and immediately felt like I wasn’t ready and this will happen to you too. I also felt really proud. Actually, several of the first few hundred felt that way. It felt like I had forgotten CW, straining to understand. It felt easy sending it. I just did the best I could and it became more comfortable the more I did it.
Searching for SKCC contacts was very useful because it’s usually not blazing fast, you have plenty of time, and you get a contact where the exchange is RST – QTH – NAME – SKCC number. Think about it, that’s really a good bit of information. I can’t say enough nice things about the SKCC and how helpful that was/is. There are lots of ops participating in that. POTA was good too and you’re usually just getting RST – STATE. Contests were instrumental in making me comfortable too, you could listen to the same station running a frequency making contacts until you got down whatever exchange they were sending, even if it was really fast. Didn’t make a difference what contest it was. One of the hardest things to learn was tuning stations right. My rig doesn’t have a built in filter, CW is pretty wide. I have a passive audio filter that helped as a crutch and as I made more contacts, I relied less on that. One of the things that would really make me uncomfortable was an adjacent station that I could hear that would just show up during a contact. I feel a heck of a lot more comfortable about that now though.
The main thing is learn at your own pace, keep turning up the speed until you struggle to copy on your practice files. You’re going to have more trouble copying the other op than sending. Once you’re copying feels ok then…get on the air and find out how much you don’t know, and make mistakes. You will make mistakes. I have and no one has given me a hard time for it yet. You’re going to get out of it how much you put into it. There’s no substitute for time spent practicing. Don’t get hung up on this method or that method, or this program or this website. Try different things, get what you can from them, and move onto the next thing. It doesn’t matter what it is because by the time you’re on the air, you won’t be using any of it anymore. Once you’re on the air, be prepared, don’t be too proud to have a pen and paper or a text editor open on your computer and start typing out what you’re hearing. Do what you need to do to make it work. That doesn’t make it any less of a contact. In the mean time, just keep plugging away, you’ll get discouraged and have setbacks. Just keep working through them. This is not easy, but it will be rewarding. Think about how awesome the end result is and all the conditions that must be met for a contact to even be possible. Think about how incredible that is.
On top of the great comments given above: speak CW to yourself. Read anything aloud in CW, being it a road sign, car number plates, advertisements, any inscription you can find. “TURN LEFT” must become “Dah di-di-dah di-da-dit da-dit di-da-di-dit dit di-di-da-dit dah”. Your brain will shortly get the trick, and it will present you the CW sound of anything you read. This exercise also helps a lot improving your RX skills, as confirmed by many CW Academy students I have advised. And, did anybody mention “get-on-the-air-as-soon-as-possible-and-as-much-as-possible”? No swimmer learns to swim in a bath tub…
HPE CU SN ON AIR
72/73 de Enzo M0KTZ
Enzo,
I like that “No swimmer learns to swim in a bath tub…”
I think I’ll print that out and hang it on my wall.
73,
.Vince
After you know the letters, numbers and symbols and you know how to distinguish them, go out and hit that key as if it were the last time you would do it… and excellent question… (KP4PTT)
What helped to learn morse was I came across some phrases that mimic the sound of morse characters
Q sounds like Pay day today
X sounds like Slide Kelly Slide.
F Did he find it.
I made up others myself and it worked.
The letter L sounds like “The light is lit.”
Do you have any more you can share???
73, NS3P
If you hope to be able to copy code at any appreciable speed I would suggest you shy away from using these kind of memory tricks. You need to learn the sound of the letters to where they are automatic and instant. By the time you get “A lamp is lite” or Did pop pop it” out of your head you will have missed the next 6 letters. I have spent way too much time trying to erase these mental crutches from my mind. It would have been much faster to just put in the effort to learn the code correctly too begin with.
Absolutely! Think of it in terms of overhead and background processes. Copying in your head involves hearing a letter and recognizing a letter. As you get faster you don’t consciously recognize letters, you just recognize words. This is the “secret” to gaining speed. When you copy on paper you hear a letter, recognize the letter, then command your hand to write the letter, then see the letter on the page. All this commanding and moving and seeing is just unnecessary overhead that slows down your mental computer. Now imagine that instead of hearing a letter you hear and count dots and dashes! That’s what these “memory aids” are causing you to do. Imagine how slow that is. Dot dash dot dot, OK, what is that? Oh, yeah, that’s “a lamp is lit”. Brain starts processing… lamp… lit… Oh, that’s an “L”. As Dale says, by that time the rest of the word is gone, and you’re frantically trying to figure out what you missed, and so the next word is gone too…
Don’t hear didahdidit and think “L”, hear didahdidit didit dahdahdit didididit dah and think “light”!
The wrong way is all the gimmicks, devices, funky memory tips etc. the right way to learn Morse Code is to go with a proven course of study such as CW Ops or LICW. And the key to success is a commitment to doing the work. If you put in a hour a day religiously you will surprised at what you can accomplish. The second and equally important element to success is to simply get on the air.
The only most important keyword is : Rythem.
eg: A, ↘■↘↗↘■■■,you may read it and use you hand to play rythem at the same time.
After some time, you can do it faster, and faster. then you can listen and send the cw by any kits. because you have the Rythem.
Variety
POTA, CW Contests, Ragchews, Traffic Nets …
I listen more than I operate, and I am working on headcopy. Listen, Listen. I listen in the car. CW mobile only FT-891 with ATAS. Listen to Morse Ninja. Join LICW.
I have been doing CW for 20 years. I started with Traffic Nets and that was before POTA. Copying/Sending Radiograms. Not much headcopy as you HAD to fill out the Radiogram forms. And call by phone and deliver them. I ran GTN The Georgia Training Net. I actually started it as it was dead many years. Taught many Ops how to do slow CW and the nets. Did this for over 10 years.
BTW – GTN meets daily at 9 PM Eastern Time on 3.549 MHz. It is a SLOW CW Net. Easy as POTA to check in and out. Just listen and send what the prior station sent. Mistakes are always welcome.
I joined LICW and this has been amazing. So what is your goal? Me, headcopy at 20-25 WPM.
Get on the air. My last ragchew was 1 1/2 hours at about 15-18WPM. I love long ragchews. Nothing beats On The Air.
72 Bill KG4FXG
I personally think motivation in the early weeks and months is the most important secret to success. I know I failed several times. There are many greats tools out there.
As I posted on QRPer.com previously CW Academy is an amazing place to learn. You will meet new friends in the same situation, you will share in the learning process and have good fun along the way, and what do you know, when you’re having fun it no longer seems like a chore! All of a sudden you are using CW!
I truly rewarding journey which I’m still very much in the middle of.
Good luck to all the new learners.
73
Steve
Practice listening only EVERY day for about 1/2 hour. You are learning a language.
Vince – you know you asked a “loaded” question 🙂
As a student of CW since the Boy Scouts (very long time ago), and trying different methods, and making almost every possible error, I would encourage new students to take a formal class. This could be through their club or LICW or CW Academy. The classes offer proven methods for learning. Plus, in a group setting, you can make some new radio friendships that last a long time. 73 de K4RLC Bob
Bob – aren’t most questions loaded when we ask a group? 🙂 Thanks for your input.
73,
.Vince
I learned CW using a straight key, while training as a Canadian Army radio operator in ‘74-‘75.
You have to put the work in. Most people now use Farnsworth and other proven methods. If you get discouraged by not improving fast enough, you may quit or not practice enough. Push through those times and, as they say, enjoy the journey.
I imagined that I was not as good as most; however, I joined the intermediate CWops class and discovered I am an equal in the class. Very much fun to be had with other like individuals. GL!
Army with transmissions and CW as (forced) skill. Code Q and code Z.
A couple of year later I continue to apreciate this ways of communication and Covid forced me to pass my HamRadio license.
Mentoring and motivation are the keys.
73 – Js ON7RED
Dont count the dits and dahs. Listen to the sound as a whole! This helped me immensely with copying fast cw
My best advice for learning morse code and operating CW is: find your tribe. Find that on-air activity and its community that most attracts you and jump in. All the little bit of advice on how to learn posted here already are great, but if you don’t have a strong motivation for WHY you want to learn then you’re going to have a tough go of it.
Set small steady goals. CW is a two part process… sending and copying. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed and set small obtainable goals to keep you on a path of progress.
CW advice: Don’t compare your level of CW competency to anyone else. We all learn at different rates, styles, and times of life. Your path is going to be your path, so blaze a trail!
One hour per day is enough to learn at your rythm.
Some methods are available, choose your.
First 50 qso’s are little stress, after you’ll get maitrise speed
After 1000 qso’s you’ll be hearing CW in the Toaster and washing machine. 🙂
I am quite new to CW, and have done lots of POTA hunting, but never a POTA activation (that’s my goal).
When I call CQ, which has only been a handful of times, it is so good to be reminded that no matter how rough it gets:
* Remember that the person at the other end **wants** this to succeed and are not judging you
* Even if you mess up royally, nobody is going to die
My current metric for tracking my abilities is the proportion of my QSOs that have a follow-up apology email…..
Despite it all, its enjoyable, though I cringe when I think what the receiver is getting sometime
Ralph,
That’s the attitude one needs! You will learn for sure!
You are absolutely right about the other guy. Everyone wants you to succeed!
George
KG8DA
How about listening to the operating parts of our host Thomas SOTA POTA Activations? You will hear different speeds, differing cadences and even different skill levels all of which is what you will run into in the real world of CW. Sounds like a great way to practice to me.
I think the most important factor in learning CW is using it. There are great programs and apps for smart phones. They’re good, but I’d recommend that one find at least one CW mentor and get on the air a.s.a.p.. Even if you just exchange call signs, at first, it will stimulate your learning and motivate to boot.
George
KG8DA
Concentrate your learning on copying (receiving) CW.
If anyone shows you a picture of dots and dashes . . . AVERT YOUR EYES IMMEDIATELY and close the book. Learning dot patterns is not a shortcut, it’s a tar-pit. Resolve to learn the code slowly by ear.
Anything (or anyone) worth loving is worth learning slowly.
VE7KHI – Kevin