Getting Comfortable With The Basics

How is your CW Journey going?

Progress – or Lack of – by Dale W7HLO May

How is your CW Journey going? Do you wish you could progress faster? Ever wonder why some folks seem to grasp it faster than others. LICW provides a multitude of wonderful tools to help you master CW. There are a large number of dedicated volunteer instructors, a core group of folks who are constantly evaluating and improving the curriculum, many others who provide the infrastructure such as scheduling, Zoom rooms, etc. Yet despite all this, some folks still seem to struggle. What could be missing?

Well it turns out that the two biggest elements to mastering CW must be provided not by LICW, but rather by the student. Without them your progress will be slow to non-existent. These two elements are Commitment and On The Air time. Becoming proficient at CW is like anything else, you get out of it what you put into it. If you lack the commitment to practicing, your skills will be slow growing.

As for On The Air time you have probably heard the phrase “You don’t wait until you are good to get on the air, you get on the air to get good”. But what exactly is the benefit of getting on the air, especially if one is just starting out. Obviously getting on the air helps you become more proficient at sending and at recognizing the characters. But that isn’t the whole story. One can practice sending without getting on the air and one can get better at recognizing characters by using the computer tools, Morse Ninja, listening to ARRL files, etc. So, what added benefit could one possibly derive from getting on the air.

This is simply my opinion so take it with a grain of salt. However know that I spent an inordinate amount of time in the slow lane before the light bulb went off. So here is what I think is the true added value that OTA offers:

  • It teaches you that it is okay to mess up
  • It is okay to not copy everything, or for that matter anything
  • It is okay to have a meltdown while trying to send
  • It teaches you to forget about perfection, relax and just have fun
  • You learn that nobody but yourself are passing judgement
  • And you learn that CW operators, as a whole, are patient, kind, thoughtful, and understanding

So given the tremendous potential benefits of getting on the air, why the poor turnout? For over a year now LICW has had an ongoing LICW Challenge program to make it easy to find fellow LICW members to have a QSO with. There is a great logging tool to make it easy to document your efforts, the Challenge exchange is very short and simple, and if the above list of benefits isn’t enough, LICW also offers periodic rewards to those who participate in the Challenge.

Given the tremendous benefit from getting on the air, coupled with the LICW Challenge making it easy, it is truly sad to see someone calling “CQ LICW CQ LICW” for 20-30 minutes and not getting a single reply. The more I think about this there seems to be three reasons for the poor turnout:

  1. You are afraid to get on the air
  2. You aren’t truly committed to mastering CW
  3. You were not aware of the LICW Challenge

If you feel that #1 is your most likely reason for not getting on the air, please realize that the only solution to EVER get past the fear is, as Nike says, Just Do It.

If you lack the commitment necessary to master CW then your progress is simply going to be slow regardless of what tools you employ or classes you attend.

And if you fall into the last category then please ask questions about the LICW Challenge, go to https://licwchallenge.org to learn more about it, and by all means join the LICW Discord server and monitor the LICW Challenge channel. If you see someone post in that channel that they are calling CQ on XXX frequency, turn on your radio and listen for their call.

I am probably biased but of the opinion that the LICW Challenge may well be the most valuable tool offered by LICW yet the most underutilized. If you are truly interested in mastering CW and committed to the journey, please consider participating in the LICW Challenge.   73

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