Hi!

It definitely is good practice. If you can keep your head in gear and let
the copy in your head run a word or two ahead of your writing, you'll even
use braille contractions correctly, which for most, means better efficiency
for reading back. That's my experience anyway. 

I could never achieve better than around 10 wpm with a slate, but it's all
good fun.

73,
Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Jim Shaffer
Sent: Monday, 16 November 2015 3:40 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Copying CW in Braille

It occurs to me that copying cw in braille is both a good way to practice
your cw and braille skills.  Try it with a Perkins, and then with a slate
and stylus.
--
Jim, ke5al
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Duke, K5XU
Sent: Sunday, November 15, 2015 5:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Copying CW in Braille

The summer that I learned CW, I had just finished my first year of typing
class at my school for the blind. The code records I used had the text for
each lesson in the back of the instruction manual. I would copy the code on
my brother's portable typewriter, take the sheet to my mother, and she would
grade it as tough as any school teacher would have done. If I didn't score
well above the minimum number of correct characters for the lesson, she
would insist that I wait a few minutes, then run that lesson again. By the
end of that summer, I was copying 13 WPM solid on the typewriter, and
listening to QSOs in my head on my receiver. I soon noticed that copying in
my head was much faster, so I would type the CW only long enough to keep my
writing speed up for the Novice, and later the General tests.

In 1985, 15 years after passing my General at the FCC office in Mobile,
Alabama, I took my extra during the first volunteer exam session that was
held in Meridian, Mississippi. The Extra Class code test was still
20 WPM, although by then it was a "fill in the blank" type test. I could
copy a pretty solid 30 WPM in my head, but about a week before the test, I
began using my Perkins to copy the code practice from W1AW in order to
practice writing it on paper for the test. The first time I did that, I had
to back up to the 10 WPM practice run in order to get more than a few
letters on the paper. It took me 4 or 5 sessions to get my speed up to 20
WPM that way. I'm sure I would have experienced a decrease in speed if I had
used the typewriter rather than the Brailler, I suspect that decrease would
not have been quite as drastic.

--
Mike Duke, K5XU 


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