35 WPM is moderate speed for a CW operator. It seems “fast” for those who still hear individual letters of Morse code. For those who always complained about needing to learn Morse code at all to get their ham license, it seems absurdly fast.
But for those who *like* CW (ham slang for Morse code), 35 WPM is a nice, middle-of-the road conversational speed.
Somewhere between 35 to 40 WPM, if a CW op pushes himself hard enough, his brain quits hearing letters and starts hearing entire words. After that, you’re able to hear CW at speeds over 40 WPM pretty quickly. At my fastest, I was able to copy 48 WPM. What limited my ability to go faster was that I was a piss-poor typist at that age.
After I reached this point of “hearing whole words,” it actually became difficult for me to listen to slow CW - say, under 18 WPM, again. My attention would wander while I was waiting for the next letter... next thing I knew, I’d missed letters here and there.
Since then, I’ve become a touch typist, but I’ve not been back on the air working CW as I used to, so I don’t know how fast I could really go.
Here’s a writeup on Teddy McElroy and his blazing CW record(s):
http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/mcelroy.html
NB this typing speed — 150 WPM. That’s hauling right along.
The fastest guys I used to hear on 40 CW in the 70’s and 80’s were motoring along in the 55 WPM range. Most of them were still using “bugs” (Semi-automatic keys) and a few guys were starting to use iambic keyers (electronic boxes to make the dots/dashes).
Very interesting. Thanks.
I believe you when you say you could hear whole words at higher speeds. That makes sense.
But keep in mind that if morse really does get used as input on a smart phone (where it would make the most sense) there’s not going to be any need to hear it at the other end. The phone will convert it to text immediately.
The only problem I see with it is that it’s a whole new layer that has to be learned. Unless for a reporter I don’t see why going to all the trouble to learn it. Thumb typing isn’t that slow. I’m doin it right now.
And then there’s voice, of course, though there are plenty of problems with voice. Anyway, good history you wrote there. Thanks.