ARRL Code Practice Files (publ. 2025-01-10)

I have continued to use WebSDR the last few weeks, but I discovered that, in practice, mostly all I do is stay tuned into W1AW on 14.0475 MHz any copy the practice code that they are transmitting. With a little research, I found out that these code files are all uploaded to this page, as simple links to MP3 files — no JavaScript required.

=> ARRL code practice files

This is great, as it means I don't need to use WebSDR. At least, not for the most part. Listening to QST articles translated into Morse code is not the same as listening to normal CW operators, I'm sure. But most of those people transmit code too fast for me right now, anyway.

I can copy 7.5 WPM with something like 80% accuracy, I'd guess. I'm better at 5 WPM, for sure, but copying 5 WPM gets boring pretty fast. I haven't mastered punctuation yet but am slowly picking it up.

It is still too cold out to utilize my mobile setup, so I don't think I'll be doing any transmitting for a few months yet. The problem is that if I leave the SUV engine on, this creates tons of noise on the receiver (and the transmitter...?). But if I turn the engine off, I loose comfortable cab temperatures within about three minutes.

Caleb mentioned practicing CW over Mumble, so that might be a possibility, but I am not familiar with Mumble and haven't looked into it yet.

Copyright

This work © 2025 by Christopher Howard is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.

=> CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed