Overview
I was personally drawn to amateur radio by my fascination with communicating long distance using Morse code. By the time I finally got my General license the requirement for Morse code had been removed. My fascination with Morse code continued and I sought out ways to teach myself. I learned about the Koch and Farnsworth methods and ran across a really nice desktop program by G4FON (http://www.g4fon.net/CW%20Trainer.htm). It’s a Windows program he wrote to help get his Morse code skills back in shape. It’s a good tool that I used for a while to train. The only downside to G4FON’s trainer is that I had to sit at my computer to use it. I longed for something mobile. When I started developing on the iOS platform I knew I had found a mobile platform that would support a Morse code training app. Morse Elmer is the first version of this trainer. I’m using Morse Elmer myself to continue my quest towards learning Morse code.
I was personally drawn to amateur radio by my fascination with communicating long distance using Morse code. By the time I finally got my General license the requirement for Morse code had been removed. My fascination with Morse code continued and I sought out ways to teach myself. I learned about the Koch and Farnsworth methods and ran across a really nice desktop program by G4FON (http://www.g4fon.net/CW%20Trainer.htm). It’s a Windows program he wrote to help get his Morse code skills back in shape. It’s a good tool that I used for a while to train. The only downside to G4FON’s trainer is that I had to sit at my computer to use it. I longed for something mobile. When I started developing on the iOS platform I knew I had found a mobile platform that would support a Morse code training app. Morse Elmer is the first version of this trainer. I’m using Morse Elmer myself to continue my quest towards learning Morse code.
Configuration
There are six configurable aspects to your training in Morse Elmer. There are four aspects to your training sessions you can configure: Target Speed, Farnsworth Spacing, Duration and Frequency. There are two aspect to your training set you can configure: which of the five available sets to use and the size of your training set.
The first setting in your Training Session is used to set your “Target Speed” in Words Per Minute (WPM). This is the rate the dits and dahs are sent within the individual characters. You set this to the speed at which you want to learn.
The next setting is used to adjust your Farnsworth spacing, if any. The Farnsworth spacing varies from “off” to your current Target Speed. If you’re having trouble identifying characters before the next ones start you can use this to exaggerate the spacing between characters until you’re more comfortable with your training set.
The duration setting adjusts the length of your training session. Morse Elmer supports training sessions as short as one minute. For the best results you should use sessions that are five minutes in length.
The last setting in the Training Session section adjusts the frequency of the audio you hear during training. iOS devices have a frequency response from 20 - 20,000 Hz. Morse Elmer defaults to 440 Hz, generally associated with the A note about middle C.
The first setting in the Training Set section allows you to choose which training set to use. Morse Elmer currently supports five different training Sets.
The Default Set consists of 43 assorted alphabetic, numeric, punctuation and prosign characters. The Default Set is a good starting place to learn most of the characters you’re going to initially need.
The remaining sets focus on a particular subgroups of the Default Set. The Letters Set is composed of the 26 letters in the alphabet. The Numbers Set is composed of the numbers 0 through 9. The Prosigns set consists of 11 special prosigns or procedural signals. Prosigns are a form of transmission control characters. Although they are written like two or three ordinary alphabetic characters, the actual morse code is sent without inserting the normal intercharacter spaces. The last set is composed of 18 different punctuation symbols. There are no ITU standards for &, $, _ and !. Morse Elmer includes the KW digraph for the exclamation point instead of the older MN digraph which originally arose from American landline telegraphy code. The dollar sign is represented by the SX diagraph from the Phillips Code, a collection of abbreviations used on land line telegraphy. The ampersand is given the same prosign as wait. Morse Elmer includes the most recent addition to the official Morse character set, the @. The at sign is represented by the AC digraph and was added on May 24, 2004, the 160th anniversary of the first Morse telegraph transmission. It’s also the first addition since World War I.
The last setting in the Training Set Section is where you specify the size of your training set.
Morse Elmer controls the order of the characters in your training set. You just set the size. Initially you start with a training set size of two characters. Once your training proficiency for those two characters reaches 90%, you add another character. To add or remove characters from your training set, you use the corresponding “+” and “-” buttons. You can use the speaker button to hear what the last character in the training set sounds like. The character will be generated at the Target Speed. This is a good way to introduce yourself to a new character before you start training.
How to Train
Morse Elmer is configured to start a training session as soon as you install it. Morse Elmer defaults to an initial Target Speed of five words per minute for one minute training sessions. If this doesn’t suit your needs you can choose a different configuration on the Settings tab.
When you are ready to start training, have a pad of paper and pencil ready and select the Train tab.
The Train tab will show your current settings with a “Start” button in the middle of the screen. Tap the “Start” button to begin your training session.
During your training session, Morse Elmer will generate random word-length groups of characters drawn from your current training set. As Morse Elmer generates the Morse code, you copy what you think was sent onto your pad of paper. Once the training session is complete, switch to the Results tab to check how well you did.
Compare what you copied during the training session to what Morse Elmer sent as shown on the Results tab. Enter the number of characters you correctly copied and tap “Submit”.
Morse Elmer keeps track of your training progress on the the next tab, the Progress tab.
This tab shows a graph reflecting your accuracy for each training session. In the upper right corner is an “Edit” button that takes you to a screen allowing you to delete a submission you may have entered incorrectly.
Once you achieve an accuracy of 90% on your training set, go back to the Settings tab and add another character and start training again.
In no time you’ll have mastered so many characters that you can enhance your training by listening to the regularly scheduled code practice transmissions broadcast by W1AW.
73, KI4OWG
