CW Academy participation

I kicked off the new year by fulfilling a New Year’s resolution: to finally master Morse code! After some hesitation, I finally signed up as a student at the CW Academy.

History

I started learning ‘the code’ in 2010 with lcwo.net. Quickly I found out I don’t have the right talent for learning the code. But that’s not a problem, as long as you are persistent. You will get there in the end. But the road was hard. I practiced, practiced and practiced. But after a few weeks of everyday practicing and seeing little to non progress, I got so demotivated I stopped for a while. Until I gathered enough courage to continue and then start again. This went on for too many years. Every now and then I participated in CW-contest by using a decoder like FLdigi. It always felt a bit like cheating and of course it is.
More annoying: I wasn’t able to call CQ in contests (and normal) because I was not able to copy fast or multiple calls. So I was limited to Search & Pounce.

CW Ops/Academy

At the end of 2025 I concluded: I really need a good push now to master the Code finally. So I signed up for CW Academy. First I only created an account. I received several emails stating that you weren’t supposed to just create an account, but that you also had to register for a semester. I actually didn’t dare, because then I really HAD to.
Finally I signed up for the first semester of 2026! I was approached by Vincent PE2V, the advisor for this semester and the ball started rolling.

Illuminating insights

After the first lesson It became clear to me what I had it done wrong all these years practicing on my own. CW Academy did a wonderful job giving great instructions on how to use all kind of tools like lcwo.net and others (https://morsle.fun/ , https://morsewalker.com/) and files to listen to, to create a really effective mix of training to become more efficient. I started practicing enthusiastically.
After a few days it started to get hard again. Hitting speed ceilings, getting demotivated because sometimes all the speed went away. But then the lessons are gold! Hearing the other students struggle with exactly the same problems and having two advisors who keep saying: just go on, go on! Everything will come in the end! The more time you invest, the more you will get out of it. For me that works.

Development

When I started the course my average speed was 18 words per minute (wpm) and I was unable to copy anything else then a call-sign (which I need to hear about 6 times to copy it). At CW Academy Intermediate level you start with character speed of 25 wpm. But the effective speed is 10 wpm. At the start it feels a bit weird to have such a fast character speed but due to the lower effective speed you get used to it quickly. Then you gradually move up in effective speed from 10 to 13 to 15 etc. After 6 lessons I’m at 18/25 which feels incredible fast already. The goal is to be able to copy and send at 25/25wpm at the end of the semester. At the moment, that still seems impossible. But we’re practicing hard and keeping our hopes up!