Hi Debee,

I guess this information sharing is all about inspiring, encouraging, and
triggering the imagination!!!  

I really enjoyed your review, and I must put the G4FON software back on my
new radio PC.  It will be interesting to learn if any accessibility changes
will be made following your suggestions to G4FON.

Another program I must put on my new PC, and that you might be interested
in, is Morse Runner.  I haven't used it for a while, but it simulates a CW
contest, and was pretty accessible.  Imagine you are running a frequency,
using a contest logger, calling Cq, and stations call you with their
callsigns and exchange.  It's amazingly realistic, and you don't move on
unless you type in and send back the correct callsigns.  The stations move
away if you keep getting it wrong and some have more patience for you to get
it right!  You also type in their serial number, and you get a score at the
end of the session.  The settings can be adjusted for varying speeds and
numbers of simultaneous callers.  It might be a nice change from G4FON, once
you've got the characters under your belt!



Best wishes, Kelvin Marsh - M0AID

Working to improve accessibility for radio amateurs with disabilities

www.active-elements.org

For accessibility evaluations of amateur equipment and MP3 manuals


-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Deborah Armstrong
Sent: 11 June 2013 17:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Koch method, part 1 of 2

Zach,

 

Kelvin's walk-through is really great.

I also wrote a review for HandiHams, where I describe the screen layout in
detail. Note that I have no vision and used Kelvin's walk-through and a
variety of screen readers to master the software. and I've pasted the draft
in here:

Take another Stab AT CW

Are you one of those who waited to get your general or extra after the code
requirements were dropped? Or are you like me,an advanced who plateaued
somewhere around 15WPM and just couldn't seem to get beyond that speed?

Or perhaps you used to copy fairly fast, but now the skill is rusty.

Of course, many of us have no desire to learn CW and that's just fine. There
is a place in ham radio for a variety of avocations. 

But suppose being a high-speed CW OP appeals to you. Noticing all the noise
on the bands lately, I wanted to grab a pee-wee antenna and climb a mountain
to get away from it. But phone QRP is not as exciting as using code, and CW
is the only thing that's really going to punch through all that noise. Those
of us plagued with local antenna restrictions might view CW as a way to
enjoy operating under the radar.

Besides, I wanted to understand beacons or even a repeater ID without
struggling to copy the faster transmissions. And sometimes, hearing a strong
CW QSO on my shortwave, I was just so curious about what those two hams were
ragchewing about. And of course, I'd love to expertly operate those
accessible rigs with CW frequency and menu readouts! 

To master CW, we've been told that all we need to do is practice, and
surfing the web, we discover that multiple learning ideas and tutorial
software abounds. We can purchase or run free applications on most any
computer, including our smartphones. We can buy the pocket Morse code
trainer from MFJ, or use old-fashioned tapes. I even bought a set of old
Morse code training records for a buck at a swap meet.

I attempted to practice with many offerings, and was still stuck on my
plateau. As a blind ham, I felt kind of embarrassed, as many of my other
visually impaired friends took to code like a duck to water. I also found
much of the tutorial software inaccessible; I memorized the tapes and
records and even though I walked around silently repeating dits and dahs to
myself, as soon as the speed of others' code shot up, I was five or more
letters behind trying to copy.

Ray Goff, G4FON, and Dave Finley, N1IRZ had the same problem. Though
accomplished tinkerers and communicators, they too had despaired of learning
the code, despite attempts to practice using a variety of methods. When I
discovered how they'd succeeded, I knew I'd found my solution.

Many methods are based on having you build a look-up table in your head;
three dits is an S, 4 dits is an H. Farnsworth spacing gives you enough time
to rapidly search that table to copy each character, before the next is
sent.

Lugwig Koch, a German psychologist in the 1930s, felt that learning code
this way was all wrong. He suggested we learn CW at the high speed in which
we ultimately intend to copy so we never develop the limiting habit of
searching that mental look-up table. His Koch method trains your reflexes by
starting first with just two characters, and after you're able to copy them
with 90% accuracy, you then add a third character. Progressing at your own
pace,you can copy characters, digits and prosigns, whole words, and
eventually entire conversations in your head. And you learn this all at
rapid-fire speed!

The Koch method is rewarding because you are always copying fast code. It
motivates practice, because success is immediate. You work at a pace that is
individualized for just you, learning what you can, when you find the time.
The only real requirement is that the practice should be regular.

It doesn't take talent or a good ear, or any special ability except the
willingness to drill. Dave was so taken with the Koch method he wrote
several articles on, and single-handedly revived the technique. Back in the
1930s, Koch's research had been a curiosity as it was impractical to
implement. To achieve his successes of teaching volunteers in 12 hours to
copy all characters at high speeds, Koch needed human operators who could
repeatedly drill his subjects. Dave realized today computers can do that, so
he wrote "Morse Code: Breaking The Barrier" which was published by MFJ. In
this book, Dave explains how to configure Morse tutor software for the Koch
method. And of course, the MFJ-418, their pocket tutor can also be
configured for Koch.

But I find the MFJ-418 mostly inaccessible, because its layered menus are
difficult to memorize. When I asked on the blind-hams Internet list for
thoughts about accessible software, the clear recommendation was to use the
Koch trainer written by Ray, G4FON.

Ray's Windows software works with JAWS, NVDA, Window-Eyes, System Access and
SuperNova. I've tried it with them all. I also tried it under both Windows
XP and 64-bit Windows 7 and Ray claims it works all the way back to Windows
95. And because it's already set up for the Koch method, you don't need to
change the number of characters, or the order in which they are presented.
Best of all it's free.

The Koch trainer screen's layout keeps most options in view. There are only
two items on its menu bar, file and About. Under about, there's a single
help screen. Under file, you can choose to record the audio it sends in MP3;
you can exit help or call up a single dialog box for Setup. It's really not
necessary to fool with the setup at all.

Under the menu bar, there are clearly labeled icons, toolbar buttons for
Start, Stop, Setup and Finish. Setup takes you to the same configuration
dialog you could access from the File menu. Start and stop begin and halt a
training session. Finish exits the program. You can click directly on the
graphics or on their corresponding labels below them. You can use a screen
reader's graphics labeler to label the graphics too, though that's not
necessary, since clicking on the onscreen label also activates the button.

Though there is no keyboard access to these buttons, a helper program,
discussed below, will give you all the keyboard access you need. If you
hover over one of the toolbar icons with the mouse, its corresponding label
is also highlighted, making it very easy to use even for those who are not
computer whizzes.

The remainder of the screen is a grid filled with controls, which can be
clicked on or accept focus by repeatedly pressing TAB or SHIFT-Tab. These
are spin boxes, radio buttons or check boxes. They are not in any logical
tab order unfortunately, and I've emailed Ray suggesting that would be a
simple change to improve their ease of access. The spacebar toggles a check
box, arrows change the selected radio button or spin the value up or down in
a spin control. These are labeled in a way that a screen reader can
correctly identify, but will not be read automatically; you must use the
screen reader's keystroke to read the current control or object to determine
its current state. If you are an advanced user of a screen reader you can
also tell it to "re-class" the controls so it can better read them
interactively.

Mostly these settings can be left alone, but a few require some explanation.

I was initially frustrated that no obvious setting appeared for creating
pauses between characters. Working at the default 20 words per minute, I
couldn't keep up, even with just two characters. Searching forums, I found
sighted people complained they couldn't write that fast either. I realized
it wasn't a question of typing or writing fast, but reacting fast, which I
had made yet no effort to train myself to do. You can set "actual" and
"effective" code speed. By default, both were at 20 WPM, and I had to
experiment with each of them until I got it to send fast enough to be
challenging but slow enough I had time to react. Pauses occur when
"effective" is faster than "actual". Of course as I progress, I'll keep
increasing these values. Depending on your tolerance for frustration and
your proficiency, you'll definitely want to experiment with both these
settings. Sometimes when changing one, the other changes as well, so it
takes a bit of fiddling to get them to work for your current skill level.
And because your progress will be rapid, you'll find you have to keep
fiddling with them every few sessions. Admittedly, this is a bit quicker to
do with a mouse, but though cumbersome for a keyboard user, it's accessible
and easy to do.

The characters spin box selects the number of characters you'll be drilled
on. A beginner starts with 2, and after mastering them, moves on to 3, 4 and
then 5. Eventually, you spin that setting up to 40, which is the highest it
goes. The order in which new characters is presented can be changed in
Setup, but I figured Koch knew more than I, so I didn't touch that setting.

The "display delay" controls how long the program waits before presenting
the "answer" onscreen after sending a character. Because I am not copying
with focus staying in the Koch Trainer window, the delay doesn't really
matter, but if you want your screen reader to read, in real-time, the
characters as they appear onscreen, you can give the delay a try. In general
a screen reader will simply repeat the entire text as it's rewritten to the
screen, so I believe that keeping your focus in the Koch trainer window
while it is sending is more confusing than helpful. People who see the
screen should also experiment with whether they like watching the answers
appear, or would rather minimize the program while it's sending.

 

(continued in part 2)



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