For many hams, learning CW seems like a daunting task—something that’s only achievable through years upon years of practice and unwavering commitment. However, I can confidently say that learning CW is a very achievable goal. With a focused and systematic learning method, it definitely does not require years to master the basics. With some dedication, motivation, and clear goals, you could be on the air with CW in only a few months, making QSOs farther away with less power.
One of the most important aspects of the CW learning process is figuring out how you’d like to learn it, or how you think you can learn it most effectively. There are many options, including apps, YouTube videos, classes, and everything in between.
The most critical thing to note is that however you decide to learn, it should be auditory rather than visual (i.e., the learner should always be hearing the code rather than seeing it). Learning it visually is possible but not a good option because it creates longer-lasting delays in processing (“decoding”) because your brain has to associate a sound with an image.
Along the same lines, it’s also important that you don’t count dashes and dots. The characters should be learned as singular sounds so that when the speed increases to a point where dots and dashes can no longer be counted, everything is still decipherable.
Circling back to the methods of learning, the most predominantly used today are YouTube videos/podcasts, websites and online trainers, and classes, which continue to rise in popularity. All of these options are good because they focus on repetitively hearing the characters to learn them. Both the Long Island CW Club and CW Academy offer classes online, using Zoom or other platforms that let participants meet a few times per week for about an hour.
I learned CW during the pandemic because the Long Island CW Club had started new online classes for kids. I found it to be a very effective way to learn. There were about 30 of us in my class, and because of the pandemic, all the students had very open schedules. We met every day for about an hour. I was able to get on the air within a month of starting the classes and have enjoyed making CW QSOs ever since. We used websites as practice resources when we couldn’t have class—primarily lcwo.net—and some others for maintenance.
When seeking a class to attend, consider what Morse code method(s) the teacher or organization uses. There are a few different approaches that are commonly used when it comes to learning/teaching Morse code. These include the Farnsworth method, which has to do with the spacing between letters, and the Koch method, which involves the order in which the characters are learned. There are other methods as well. Do your research by asking operators who have already learned CW what worked well for them. This could be a good way to figure out which methods you may like to employ for your learning.
You should also consider how much time you realistically can and want to put toward learning CW. If you’ve already gotten an amateur radio license, you can compare the dedication needed to study for the licensing exam with the effort required to learn CW—with consistent effort, a little bit a day will eventually get you there. A mix of both motivation and consistency is needed to learn CW. Without consistency, it’s very hard to master Morse code.
Building off the theme of consistency, maintaining and improving your CW abilities after you’ve learned it are also important, depending on what you plan to use your skills for. By far the best way to improve your CW skills is to get on the air, especially in the beginning of your CW journey. Rag-chewing can really help your accuracy with CW, as well as your ability to hear full phrases and words.
Like any language, CW becomes more fun the more “fluent” you are, so it may take a considerable amount of time and effort to arrive at the point in which getting on the air is enjoyable rather than nerve wracking. In the first few years of my CW experience, I really didn’t enjoy it much. I didn’t start to love getting on the air in CW until much later after I had learned it. Once I started to practice and become more comfortable with CW, it became my favorite mode and the one I now use most often.
With that in mind, my last piece of advice is to make sure you enjoy the process of learning CW. It’s normal to get frustrated, especially in the early learning and plateau phases, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on learning or improving it.
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