Wall Street Journal CW Video - 140WPM CW OT OP

[W1UJR]

Wall Street Journal On-Line video of OT ham high speed CW guy, Chuck Adam K7QO.

Now 65, has been sending since he was 15, he can copy at 140 words per minute!
Interestingly, he sell classic books, all sent in CW.

Well worth the watch!

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid452319854?bctid=1232414666

[W3RSW]

Neat Video Bruce.  Thanks.
-most of the CW in the background sounded about 15 wpm.  Imagine copying 140!

[Ralph W3GL]

Seriously now, 140 WPM without electronic help... 

I don't think so...

Just my inflated two cents worth...

The background CW in that VidClip was 12 to 14 WPM, at the most.

[KB2WIG]

Wasnt McElroy's best around 75??   

http://www.artifaxbooks.com/mcelroy.htm

[Ed/KB1HYS]

Chuck is a FB fellow.  He makes CW training CD's and books.  Ask and he will copy your favorite novel in CW.
I have one of his CD's with a LOT of files on it (MP3 format). I burn them as Audio and play them in my car/truck to keep up the CW work.

I don't know about 140 wpm. but some OT's could copy 55-60wpm, they didn't hear letters, but whole words.

I'm lucky to keep up at 15wpm...  

[WA1GFZ]

Maybe someone made a mistake thinking CPM or was his name "Data"
At 140 WPM that is about 700 CPM or over 11 CPS
My all time best was 35 and I know a few guys who could blow past that.

[W1UJR]

I agree that 140 may be arguable, but Mac's record was surpassed long ago.
Interesting to see one of the founders of Eimac was a CW speed demon!
By the way, here is a link to Chuck's web page -->> http://www.k7qo.net/

From Bill Pierpont's excellent book "The Art and Skill of Radio Telegraphy" -->> http://www.qsl.net/n9bor/n0hff.htm
I found the following interesting:

Speed Contests
 
 Speed contests -- officially and unofficially -- have been held over almost the whole history of
telegraphy in America. Both the professionals and the amateurs have had a pride of
accomplishment, which begged competition to display and reward. Speed contests provided that.
 
After WWI speed contests among amateurs, but open to others also, began under the sponsorship
of the ARRL and also local hamfests and amateur clubs. Ted McElroy, who was not an amateur,
stood out as the world's speed champion for decades beginning in 1922. (In 1933 he lost out to
Joseph W. Chaplin, but regained the title again in 1935.) There were others who demonstrated
almost equal ability, and McElroy himself said on occasion that there were probably many others
who were as good or better than he. Several unofficial records have been established in this
country, and lately the European clubs have reported some astounding high-speed champions. 
 
As for the well known 1939 speed contest, where McElroy was credited with winning at a speed
of 75.2 wpm, McDonald wrote: "In the Asheville tournament, the speed was practically the same
for McElroy and myself. We both copied solid (press matter prepared by the FCC), but they sent
some stuff at 77 wpm and I didn't get a good start on it. McElroy made something that looked
like copy, but pretty ragged looking, so they gave him 75.2, I guess it was. If only first class copy
had been counted, it would have ended a tie. McElroy and I have had about the same telegraph
experience." 
 
At the present time the Europeans appear to have exceeded our recorded contest speeds. In the
1991 International Amateur Radio Union high speed telegraphic championship contest Oleg
Buzubov UA4FBP copied 530 figures (numbers) per minute with only one error: that is 106
wpm, 8.83 figures per second! Amazing! (See Morsum Magnificat 22-4) However, the duration
of these tests is stated to be one minute. This seems rather too short in itself or to be in any way
directly comparable with the contests run in America. It seems doubtful that these speeds could
be maintained for three to five minutes. 

Above that speed is the super expert who lives in that upper atmosphere where 60-wpm is
loafing, and some have been able to comprehend at 100-wpm to as high as 125-wpm (one of
these was the well-known Bill Eitel of the Eitel-McCullough Co., tube designers and
manufacturers). Some of these whizz-bangs tell us that they don't think there is any real upper
limit in speed at all. Like most of us at such speeds, probably none of them consciously hears
more than a buzz. (He wouldn't even think of trying to listen for the dits and dahs.) But all the
while the automatic section of his mind is active and well, reading it easily and telling him what
is being said. 

[WA1GFZ]

imagine training your mind to go that fast. Imagine your arm to fingers after a real old buzzard Alzona Bob QSO

[ka3zlr]

Nice Video Bruce....Thanks...

[K1JJ]

Wow.   140 wpm IS truly amazing.   I didn't think it was possible to go much above 80 wpm until reading this and thinking about it some.

It's something like learning a language. At first, hearing a new language is deliberate and slow, hearing syllables - but after a while the mind processes automatically to the point of hearing full words and then complete thoughts.

I'll bet if someone were to listen to high speed CW every day and continue to copy 5 wpm FASTER than they are comfortable with, the top speed IS almost unlimited. The top end is simply limited by the time and dedication the person has to devote.

I especially like his idea of listening to books in CW. I'll bet there is an adjustable CW speed on each discette.  I may order one.

The average talking speed is about 250 wpm, so 140 wpm is taking in quite a bit of info in a short time span.


I can still copy 45 wpm and have done 55 wpm 30 years ago. But I've always loved high speed CW from the days when I was 12 as a novice and got my first bug, then keyer.  They say the brain peaks in size and learning ability at age 13-15, so that probably helps anyone who starts young.

But 140 wpm is simply beyond belief and that person is truly hearing complete words and phrases.  Congrats to the old CW buzzards.



T 

[WQ9E]

I would be overjoyed to hit 55 WPM but it is nice to see what some people have achieved.  Remember all the talk of the "hump" at around 10 WPM where people had to recognize characters instead of counting dits and dahs?  I guess the next hump is hearing words instead of characters and then phrases instead of words.  For comparison I googled speaking wpm and apparently normal conversation is around 200 WPM or slightly less while powerpoint presentations (generally more detailed) average 100 WPM and books on tape are in between at 150 WPM.  So I guess if we "evolve" to the next level in CW we will be approaching normal conversation speeds.

Rodger WQ9E

[k4kyv]

The narrator of that video needs to be advised that it is Morse code, not Morris code.