Subj : Re: Storage
To : Holger Granholm
From : Mike Luther
Date : Wed Jun 25 2014 07:38 am
I've mentioned this before but I'll do it again.
HG> You start with learning single letters, then progress to recognise some
HG> common "words" like RST, QTH and name. After that phase you begin to
HG> "store" the operators name and qth in your head and continue from there
HG> to recognize several words at a time and finally you arrive at the stage
HG> where you copy first whole sentences and finally entire paragraphs.
HG> I admit that I have lost at least the paragraph copying because of not
HG> having trained that in a long time but it will come back with training.
Getting faster and faster at it, at least for me when I got my first ham
license as WN5WQN in 1952, was VERY easy after I got my first driver's license
here in College Station, Texas in 1953 and started driving my first auto, a
1929 Model A Ford Victoria I bought for $60 when I was 12 years old.
Our whole family is hugely musically oriented. I'd learned Morse Code from
78RPM records mu Uncle Billy sent me from Erie, Pennsylvania from his record
store there that was part of Emerson Radio and Warren Radio which he was part
of the foundation for that. Then the largest competitor to Allied Electronics.
Getting stuck in traffic in my Model A Ford, I'd sing songs to my self to feel
better around the traffic jams on Welborn Road next to the railroad lines that
went through the middle of Texas A&M College. That road, at that time was also
Highway 6 between Houston and Dallas! Then it hit me!
Trains went slowly to keep from smushing as many Texas Aggies as possible and I
was REAL familiar with railroading even at six and seven years old. It hit me.
The steam loco whistle dah dah dit dah for crossing a road from the engineer
was the letter "Q" and dit dit was to start forward was the letter "I" and dit
dit dit was the letter "S". That sucked the whole relationship of a moving
whatever into Morse Code! Then another deal hit me as I was stuck wait for a
train jammed crisscross. I was lookng at the traffic sign for the street that
crossed over the twin rail lines to right in the middle of Aggieland. I
'converted' the letters to Morse Code and echoed it from my mouth, like the
whistle on the train!
POOF! I started converting all the traffic street sign letters to Morse Code
as I drove along to practice going Morse Code faster and faster! Then I began
doing that for all kinds of signs while I was driving! My Dad was FURIOUS when
he discovered I actually could get my Model A Ford to go 75MPH with it's 21
inch wheels! And after several months of this trick I was was WAY over 25 or
30 WPM at what I could do on CW. I had gptten my first Bug key as well. Then
with my even at that time fun with relay control and so on, I started going
faster and faster with just 'text' from the relay control stuff on my
oscillator, listening to it with my S38 receiver.
Later on, I could use a keyboard to get to 50-60 WPM on the air, but also with
my complete computer controlled entire station operations I had designed in
machine language and assembly language, I actually could copy in my head around
90-100WPM or so.
All brought about by diddling with my tongue in Morse Code from street signs
and billboards while driving my Model A Ford Victoria at over 70MPH even going
down Texas Highway 6 back and forth to Houston, in parallel with the Southern
Pacific Railroad tracks. And even diddling with the numbers at names on the
freight cars and engines from the trains that were going by me, even at that
time close to 90-100 MPH. A heck of a lot faster than me!
Mike Luther W5WQN from N117/100 and me as NC117 here.
