Learn to copy by ear: pick your speed and what to practice, then check yourself.
Straight key, bug, sideswiper, paddles and keyers: how each works and who it suits.
CW is on-off keying: the transmitter is either sending a tone or it is not. That simplicity is why it works when nothing else will. A CW signal occupies a fraction of the bandwidth of a voice signal, so the receiver can use a very narrow filter, and a narrow filter hears through noise that would bury SSB.
No US license class has required Morse code since 2007, which means nobody sending CW today is doing it because they were made to. It remains one of the most active parts of the bands, and the community around it is famously welcoming to slow operators — send at the speed you can copy and people will slow down to match you.
Learning it is a listening skill, not a lookup skill. The usual advice is to learn sounds rather than dots and dashes on paper, start at a character speed of around 20 WPM with long gaps between characters, and never slow the characters down — only the spacing.
At a Glance
- Category
- CW
- Bandwidth
- About 100–150 Hz
- Speed
- 5–40 words per minute
- What you need
- A straight key, a paddle with an electronic keyer, or a bug
- Where to listen
- The bottom 20–50 kHz of every HF band