Learning Morse Code

With a knowledge of Morse, and a few Q-codes and telegrapher's abbreviations, you can communicate with hams anywhere in the world, regardless of whether you know their language, or they yours!

Virtually anyone can learn Morse code if they do it the right way. The main thing to remember is that each character has to be learned by the way it sounds, not as a group of dots and dashes printed on a page.  

There are a number of Morse courses on the market, and the best ones start you at the very beginning.  First, you learn the sounds of the simplest letters like E (dit) I (di-dit) S (di-di-dit) and H (di-di-di-dit.) See, you've already learned four letters! Later, you progress to more complex letters like F (di-di-dah-dit) and finally to numbers and abbreviations. Finally, they string them all together to make words.  

The more you practice, the faster you learn, so it helps to be creative with your practice habits. Some people listen to Morse tapes while they're driving. A few actually listen to them on a walkman while they're doing other things. One of the best tricks though, is to pick out a word or group of words on a sign you see on the street, and sound them out in Morse. You quickly learn to do this in your head, after a few strange looks from your fellow pedestrians!

The hardest thing you have to learn is patience, but you'll get there faster than you think, if you just keep at it.