I am fortunate to have many fellow amateurs encouraging me in my quest to learn code. Many have offered to meet me on air and have a qso but I feel I am far from that. I have one elmer that offered to trade mp3 recordings with me so that I could practice decoding his and he could critique my sending skills. Every new ham should be so lucky as to have elmers who help explain whatever new mode that is being tried. We should all be willing to help in this way.
But, back to me. I am frustrated. Part of me says to give up. In my head I hear, "You will never get it." I am struggling. I received an mp3 a week or so ago and it was way too fast for my skill level. So, like a great Elmer, Brian sent me another. This time I heard the first part pretty clear. W9BRI de KB9BVN. That much was easy because I use my friend's call signs in my sending practice often. After that I continuously hit rewind to try and decode each word. Even more discouraging is the speed he sent it seems, at least in my mind, to be about 5 wpm. And I am struggling!
Tell me to send a letter and I can do it no problem. To ask me to decode a letter I struggle. I do not understand. Am I counting? Am I anticipating the word? I don't know, all I can tell you is that I am not hearing the sound even on letters I have worked on for quite some time. The struggle is real.
73
