As you climb past 20wpm the ability to write down everything you hear diminishes (unless you are a good typist or can do short hand!). Most of us have to switch to head reading and only making occasional notes.

But how do you copy CW in your head without writing it down?

People often talk about having a mental ticker tape…in truth, for me it’s like seeing a word appear under a spot light on a little stage…once I see/hear the whole word it gets moved off to the left and starts to fall into the shadows. After a couple of words I probably couldn’t tell you the exact things I just heard but I understand the path of the conversation.

I guess I’m using a hybrid of the ticker tape (stage & spotlight) visualisation and predictive text, hearing whole words where I’m proficient enough and spelling the words out where I’m not. Most sentences have a little ‘padding’ even in CW e.g. UR RST IS where just RST would do so it’s not normally vital to get every word. Although I’m visualising the letters on my mental ticker tape I’m mentally sounding out the phonemes of those letters until I either ‘see’ or ‘hear’ the word. So if I copy INDIA I don’t think of the name of the letter like EYE-EN-DEE-EYE-AY…I think of the sounds each letter makes and this normally lets me ‘hear’ the word in my mind.

When you first learn CW you’re taught the importance of not anticipating what is coming next as this can lead to mistakes but, I confess, with head reading I use context and common words to start imagining what word might be coming next (I’m a bad, bad, boy and you’ll see below that this approach can cause you to miss chunks of a word). This is just like predictive text on your mobile phone. So, if I hear a J I might start thinking of common J words like JUST, JUDGE, JANUARY…typically the context and any words before it result in >80% accuracy. So if I hear “I JU” I’ve shortened the list to JUST and JUDGE. If, on the other hand I hear “I HAVE A JU” I’m starting to think of JUMPER or JUICY. This predicting isn’t always correct so I need to keep listening to what is sent or, if I’m not concentrating 100%, to discard the missed word. The more letters I copy at the start of the word the more likely I am to be correct.

We know humans only hold 5 +/- 2 things in their short term memory buffer so for longer words I either chunk them up or ignore the middle and just use the start and end of the word to identify it. So if someone sends INCREDIBLE I might hear the INC and start my predictive list (INCLUDE, INCITE, INCAPABLE…) but I will now forget about those three individual letters and just store INC as a sound. In this case as soon as I have copied INCRED (the sound blocks INC and RED) I probably stop listening knowing this is likely INCREDIBLE/INCREDULOUS and I can just grab the last one or two characters to confirm or let context guide me. Why stop listening you ask…why not listen intently to the whole word? I can do other things in that second or two like start to look up the other station on QRZ, or fill in my log book or simply think about things I would like to say…it can also give me a little mental break. 

Similarly with longer words I frequently just get the start and finish. For instance if someone was mad enough to send ENCYCLOPAEDIA, I’ll probably get as far as ENCY before losing the feel of the word. It’s probably down to me trying to think about the sound that these letters would make together that grabs my focus so I miss a few letters. When my focus returns I may get as little as DIA at the end of the word but with the mental ‘sound’ of ENCY and knowing the word ends with DIA I’d guess encyclopaedia and be unlucky if this wasn’t right.

You can often tell if someone is going to send something unusual or important and there’s nothing wrong in writing that down if it’s important to you. As soon as I hear UR RST or OP HR or MY QTH sent, I pick up the pencil because I want to record the report or the Ops name or location. Similarly, if someone sends IVE JUST BOUGHT A I’m ready to note the object of the conversation because it’s going to be the one important word in the sentence and when it’s my turn to send, a little reminder of the key subjects is helpful. Head reading does not exclude jotting down notes for me.

By chunking up characters and ‘hearing’ phonetic sounds I can overcome some of the short term memory limitations. But what about the overall meaning of the ‘Over’…how do you make sense of a sentence?

That 5 +/- 2 things memory buffer is pretty accurate for random data but with context and meaning we can retain much more. Just like when we have spoken conversations you can discard the ‘filler words’…all you really need are the subject (nouns) and verbs to follow the meaning of a conversation so if your ‘ticker tape’ has a limited length, just hold on to the key words. I can rarely quote, verbatim, what I have just heard but I can relay the sentiment and that’s all you need to have a conversation. 

An interesting tool to play with to pull out the important stuff (without having to remember too much) is Seiuchy.

Alternatively, check out Morse Code Ninja for lots of practice material to build up your head reading skills.

Kurt has created MP3 files, YouTube videos and Podcast feeds for a whole range of practice audio files including things like the top 100 words and Q-codes which are invaluable for practicing head copy.

If you have a pencil in your hand there is a tendency to get carried away writing everything but, while learning to move from writing everything to head copy, simply write (without looking at the paper) while you visualise what you're hearing and, as soon as you are comfortable what the word is stop writing and don’t bother reading it. If you find you have a word that you are struggling to ‘visualise’ then write out all the received characters in full and glance down to see what it was. This is a great transition approach to build confidence in head copy.

Do you head copy? I’m guessing even if you answer ‘No’ that you can recognise some common words like CQ and 73s without listening to the individual characters. If you’re already head reading, what is your approach and do you have any tips for people just starting to learn the skill?

HNY and best of luck on your learning journey...

In 2021 a new body was formed to collectively draw together many of the smaller, national and regional CW groups. Known as the International CW Council (ICWC) its mission is a reflection of all the groups it draws together, namely to promote and aid in the retention and growth of International Morse Code as a mode of communication between amateur radio operators.

There are still a huge number of clubs and societies (such as @lidscw) worldwide, all doing their bit to encourage and support learning and using CW as a mode and as a language. Like all minority languages, we benefit from sharing the knowledge and skills to keep the object of our passion alive.

The ICWC will be promoting and publicising mentoring, outreach opportunities and the use of CW generally to Social Media, Hams and other external bodies and encourages inter-CW Club cooperation and joint activities.

One particularly nice feature is a consolidated view of all (known) CW based activities in a calendar, go and check it out and get it book marked to keep track of CW events that you can take part in.

I first came across this ‘Dummies Guide to CW’ in it’s native Spanish form on the authors website www.cw4u.org and from the sample pages I was really impressed…so impressed that I emailed David, EA7HYD in March 2018 to offer my support in producing an English language version. Fast forward to January 2020 and David has just published the English/American version and updated the Spanish version. Details on how you can get a copy below!

So what was it about this guide that caught my imagination? Well, it’s presented just like a normal Dummies Guide breaking everything down into small and easily digestible parts. The graphics, layout and cartoons make navigating the book easy and intuitive and it is simply an easier read than other CW training books I’ve seen.

The content is logically laid out and quickly dives into the important stuff…the how, what, why and when of learning CW. All of the important knowledge required by a fledgeling Fist is delivered in bite sized nuggets along with recommendations of how to self train using lots of different resources and leveraging the Koch and Farnsworth approaches.

David uses example QSOs heavily to highlight the order information is normally given in, to give examples of different types of QSO and to explain, in detail, step-by-step, all the parts of a QSO and a lot of variations that new Fists may encounter.

After focusing on learning to receive and the format and content of QSOs the guide goes on to the subject of sending, different keys and the approach to using them. The guide concludes with some more advanced knowledge like contesting and working split and wraps up with an interesting mix of history, reference material and other CW related guidance.

An initial English translation was made by Jesús Pacheco González and I provided my support translating and editing for free (I have no commercial interest in the guide). My reward was being able to add a section on SOTA to try and get more new Fists up on hill tops! In translating we stuck to American spellings as the USA probably has more new Fists per capita than anywhere else in the world but David also kept the language simple so that other, non-native English speakers can easily enjoy it too. There’s a European flavour to the use language and that’s how it should be given David is Spanish. 

In working on the translation I have re-read the book many times and it has made me smile every time with funny and really well observed advice which I wish I had known when I was learning.

If you are starting your learning journey, having a 2nd (3rd, 4th, 5th…) attempt at learning, stuck in your progression or simply struggling to get your new found skill on the air, you will find ‘How To Learn Morse Code And Make Radio Contacts’ essential and supportive reading and, I believe, worth every penny.

How To Learn Morse Code And Make Radio Contacts (Como Aprender Código Morse Y Realizar Contactos En Radio) by David, EA7HYD can be ordered from Amazon, price £14.50/$19.50/€16.70 (different countries may have slightly different exchange rates).

The author also provides a related website where you can download additional, supporting material including MP3s of the QSOs used in the book, a Facebook page and expect to see a YouTube channel develop over time..