Learning Morse Code?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Osmium Steele

Do you still pound the keyboard while typing as hard as I do? Those teletype keys were like pounding nails.

No, I made a point of forgetting that part too.

Originally Posted by REECE

Twice I tried learning morse code, I could send ok but stuffed if I could receive, at any speed!!
Gave up in disgust!!

The navy has an interesting way of teaching things, or at least they did then. First up is typing class. They don't teach finger positions or anything like that. They sit you in the classroom in front of a typewriter and say "In front of you is a code book. You don't have to know the code, or learn it. You only need to copy it. Type what you see in front of you. You're going to be in this room eight hours a day until you can type 40 words per minute. If that takes all four years of your hitch, so be it, but you're not leaving this room except for breaks and lunch, until you can type 40 words per minute."

I never heard of anyone being in that room for more than a week, and you never saw more guys who could type 40 words per minute with two fingers.

Morse code was taught the same way. We learned a new letter every hour, and spent the whole hour practicing sending and receiving. When receiving we didn't learn to recognize the letters, so hearing Morse wasn't easy. Instead we learned to instinctively type the letter as it came through. We'd hear "di-dah" and not think "That's an 'A'", but just type 'A'.

It wen't pretty quickly, but I never stopped hating it.