A thought for u'all;   
      
    DS> 1) When I asked one local ham (long since a    
    DS> Silent Key) what his secret   
    DS> was to learning CW, he said "I learned all the dirty words first". I   
    DS> laughed, and admitted "Well, you can't say them    
    DS> on the air, but if it   
    DS> helps, more power to you". The next week, I heard    
    DS> a club teaching a CW   
    DS> class over the year, via Echolink. The first 4 letters they taught   
    DS> formed the "S expletive", and I thought "I'll be    
    DS> damned!!". But, when   
    DS> you looked at the dot and dash pattern, it made PERFECT SENSE.   
      
   When I learned CW in the 1950-1951 era before I became a ham, I started it   
   from 78RPM records sent to me by my Uncle Billy who was whopped out of the   
   Emerson creation by other mobsters.  Uncle Billy was also part of the creation   
   of WERC radio in Erie, Pennsylvania.  Aha!  Now you know why the WERC call   
   letters were there - Emerson Radio Corporation!  Anyway, I still have those   
   original records in my 'things'.   Anyway, as my entire family is hugely   
   musical in DNA and whatever, I really wanted to be a FAST Morse Code guy.     
   Driving my first car ever, a 1929 Model A Ford, I noticed that as I passed the   
   street signs in College Station back then, they were short enough to be just   
   so many letters and ...   AHA!  When I was going slowly in town I tried to   
   convert the street names to MORSE CODE!  It worked!  Then as the first couple   
   of years went by I had to go even a hundred miles to Houston,Texas to go   
   dancing in that with sixty average Texas Aggie students for every girl even in   
   all the dance halls around here, the faster I drove that Model A Ford, that   
   faster I had to make up the Morse Code!   
      
   Well, I hot rod modified the old upsweep carb on that Model A as well as make   
   it race worthy even to about 75 miles an hour going down the original State   
   Highway 6 to Houston from College Station.  And yes, I found I could convert   
   even the street signs and advertisement signs I passed eventually to full   
   complete Morse Code at WAY UP speeds!  I eventually got to where I could copy   
   it at just up to 100WPM.  But I never could send it with a Morse Code key at   
   much better then 40 or so WPM.  So at that point with Machine Language Code   
   and a keyboard I could send it at about 60WPM at best.  Though from text files   
   that I could send the code through the original Machine Language Code I used   
   for my ham shack stuff I could move it up to the 100WPM or so range.   
      
   Point made.  If you want to really learn Morse Code then multi-task your   
   driving to diddling it in your mouth as you pass the signs in the roadway! If   
   you think that texting while driving is a mess, however, it might be worse for   
   whatever you might interfere with.  Who nose?  As the Owl!   
      
      
   Mike Luther as W5WQN and N117 at 1:117/100   
      
      
      
      
      
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    * Origin: BV HUB CLL(979)696-3600 (1:117/100)