sceiv

If you've ever learned a foreign language
you know how slow it is when you
have 10 translate word by won:I, looking
up the meaning In your memory. Ifs terribly
slow and frustrating. both to talk
and 10liSten. But eoce you start knowing
What the WOfds mean and Itlink in the
language, then iI's easy. Well, it's me
same with the code.
The system I recommend as the easiest
way to jearn the code is to bave a
tape (or a ~erl and listen to it at
the speed you want to be able to copy.
Start righl out at 13 per Of even 20 per.
You wanl to train your brain to automalicaly
translate a certain sound pattem into
characters lor you . Four dils at 13
words per minu le doesn't sound any­
Ihing at all like lour ots at five worcls per
minute. So you turn on tile jape and listen
for an E , • , a single dil. Every lime
one goes by, write it down. Atter a couple
01minutes tile E's will jump right out
at you. So start listening for I's. You'll 00­
tee that you start writing the rs. and that
you're still wriling lIle E's as tlley go by.
You're on your way.
Many people who start oul at 13 per
are able 10 copy solid witllin a couple
days. I've Ilad many hams tell me at
hamlests thai they maslered 20 wpm In
one single day! It's the changog of the
sound patlems as you slowfy speed up
that makes learning the oode by !he Ie lime find­
Ing the parts, they cost ridiculously, debugging
will drive you crazier, the unit
has zero resale value and your friends
will nol respect you for having to make
do with such a piece of junk.
How Abot'- New Techn olog ies?
Yep, h .re's where experimenters
come Into play . . . or would, nwe were
developing any new technologies. The
pioneers have to Invent and buikl Alas,
pioneers lend to be youngsters and
we've gone 10 a 101 of trouble to keep
them out of me hobby fOf the last 29
years. Outside of our new no-code immigrants.
who've just started arrtving, we
have almost no youngsters.
Speaking of our no-coders, I'm net
surprised' at the arrogance they're meeting
at many ham clubs. AmeriCa has
Ott:I-tim8rs mourn lor the old days
wt'l!'Il we hams built our own equipment.
Have we reatly gone sot\, Of is ttIis just
the natural oroer of ttW1gs?
Well, with everything using ICs and
tranSistors, we can't build lIle way we been welcoming mnigrants this way (Nused
to, right? Balooey! I dotbI that re- er since the second colony arrived 350
ally has I'l'lUCh to 00 with it. I suspect if years ago and was snubbed by Ihe flrst
has more to do wiUllhe growth and ma"
as IoWty oowcomers. We sneered at the
uratco of new technologieS.
IriSh when they ran out of potatoes and
When a ne.... teChnology is starfing came over. Shanty Irish. We sneered al
there isn't any commercial equipment, the Italians. We made fun of the Dirty
so lIle pioneers have to build everything Ulvaks (that's What we called 'em), and
themselves out of whatever parts are so on.
available, be they tubes or ICs. Then, as Of course after about three genera,
Interest grows, a few entrepreneurs start lions most of 'em became Americans
producing equipment. As soon as the and the melbng pol woriled. A lew have
equipment becomes available commer- kept lighting tile system, calling themdally
that's the end of the pioneers. selves Irish-Americans, Ifallan-Amerl-
In the 1920s we built ou r own re- cans, Polish-Americans, African-Americevers
and transmitters. Then came the cans. Hmmm, I wonder why we don't
SW3 receiver from National Radio and have Euro-Americans or Togo-Amerialmosl
immediately all receiver building cans, Ma ybe me African-Americans
stopped. By the time I came along in don't kno w where their familieS came
1936 and visiled every active ham in from, but it obviously muSl have been
Brooldyn (NY), I was only able to lind some place in Africa. Things win inl&--
one who'd \::luil tvs own receiver, Every-
one else was using receivers euut by
Hallicrafters, National , Hammarlund,
RCA, Browning Labs and so on.
WfI sliD had to build OU'" own trallSfT'lll-
!ers sinee there were none made com-
martially until after WWII. Yes, I know
about the National 600, but thai was so
expensive I can't honestly count It.
Lordyl II used 'rnorca rscn CHT tra nsformers
and cost around $ 10,000 in
today' s ccaerenes . . . for a soc-wan
grate a lot better when we have more
people actually thinking 01 themselves
as Ameticans.
Hmmm, Omar Sharif is from Egypt.
Does that make him an Alro-American?
Are white illYTligrants from Soutl1 Africa
also Afro-Americans?
Well, never mind ... it was Just a
thOUght. I get off on tangents Dke tnet
Whe n things don 't ma ke sense, And
treezing newcomers out 01 ou r ham
clubs sure doesn't make sense. This fa-
AM rig.
natical worShip 01 a mode of communl-
I lucked Into one in 1947 and used it cations whiCh is 50 years out of date
for years on 75m. Then I used the power oontinues to amaze me. Twenty words a
supplies and modulator for my 2m kilo- minute in a 20,000 word a minute cuiwalt
rig on Mt. Monadnock. I put a solid lure isn't rational.
signal into Norfolk, 600 miles away . , , WhiCh would you rather read In 73,
even When th e ba nd wa s closed. aboul anoliler antenna or digital audio
Thefe's nothing like 2,000 watts of audiO and digital signal processing? Hey, we
on a 1,000 wan carrier on the highest might have to actually try to think, so
mounlain In Southern New Hampshire to IeYs skip that digital aapola. RighI? iii
73 Amateur Radio Today . June, 1992 n