MORSE RESOURCES

Learning, practising and gaining proficiency in Morse is probably easier now than it has ever been.  We've come a long way from having to find a competent Elmer, or aquiring a set of Morse practice records (78rpm?) and, later still, coming by a Morse tutor from Datong or similar.  There are now many, many excellent applications for the PC running Windows or Linux variants and for Mac OS, apps for iPhones and iPods plus other resources on web sites.  Not to mention hypnotic and NLP learning aids!

Well-known - maybe even best known - is the G4FON Koch Morse Trainer, an application that can be downloaded free from www.g4fon.net and installed on Windows.  (Although there is no port available, it runs well in Wine on Linux.)  It is genuinely a complete scratch course in Morse and may well be the only learning aid required to learn to receive CW off air.  Another offering of the same calibre is Just Learn Morse Code available at http://www.justlearnmorsecode.com/  A free download (Although a donation is suggested...) the program installs under Windows versions from 98 and ME throght to Vista and 7.  It will also perform just as well in Wine for Linux users.

Both of these are worth a look before you decide!

Practice is another issue and, good as it is for learning the code, copy from G4FON can become a bit tedious.  It's possible to use text files to create sessions but sometimes it's nice to just have something to listen to without fuss.  (Especially if you're a bit lazy!)

www.morseresource.com could be the answer!  I came across the site when I began downloading the daily "Quote of the Day" from iTunes.  Morse Resource provide the daily audio at speeds from five to 30 words a minute, supporting practice and speed-building.  Also on the site are Morse generators, Morse code podcasts and many other Morse-related links.

There are many other resources available and some of them are listed in the sidebar of this page.