some excellent advice and thanks.
The copying in my head part will come a little slower, but i am striving to
copy everything in my head instead of having to have a note taking device or
computer or brailler near by to write things down on.
Especially when mobile or during field day excersizes, the ability to write
the code down isn't always easy or convenient.
I also am going into it remembering that 5 or 7 or even ten words a minute
is really a very small number of words considering the speed most people
talk or even type.
The affiliation of the sounds of cw letters with the actual letters is the
hardest part so far...i have perhaps 4 or 5 letters that i can identify
immediately upon hearing without having to think of the patern of dots and
dashes that make them up.
Also working on identifying common letter combinations and their sound in cw
such as TH, S H and words that start with a, and many of the common 3 letter
words.
I have also noticed that there are allot of short cuts or alterations in
spelling that take place in CW much like how many people write when using
text messaging software such as MSN or AIM...shortened words or words
spelled out the way they sound instead of the way they are actually spelled.
Really the only way one can find out what these are is to talk to a long
time cw user or to listen to  QSO's on the air and figure out the
universally understood shortcuts.

73
Colin, V A6BKX
----- Original Message -----
From: "Howard Kaufman" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 5:46 AM
Subject: Re: cw versus txt messaging


> Advice is free and worth the price.
> 1.  DON'T WRITE THE CODE DOWN!!!!
> copy in your head, it's more fun and your speed will rise faster.  Try
> writing or speaking to be sure you can pass the test, but copy code in
your
> head.  Listen and practice transmiting, at least a half hour a day.  The
> transmiting part is easy, if you can copy.
> To save your wrist and arm, position your key so that your wrist and arm
> can rest on the desk.
> Keep pushing up your speed, so that slowing down to 5 wpm to write won'tt
> be a problem.  It's more fun to operate at higher speeds to.
> Last of all, keep using CW after you pass the test.  You get farther with
> less power and poorer antennas by far than you do on phone.
>