Raising your Morse speed: when to go faster, and by how much
Raise your Morse speed when copying at your current speed has become comfortable, not when it is merely possible, and raise it by a small step: one or two words per minute at a time. If you use Farnsworth spacing, close the extra gaps first and raise the character speed only once the two speeds meet. Between steps, a few minutes of practice above your speed make your normal speed feel easier.
That is the whole plan. The rest of this post is about judging “comfortable”, choosing the step and keeping your sending in line with your copying.
Which speed are you raising?
If you learned with Farnsworth spacing, you have two dials. The character speed decides how each letter sounds. The overall speed, set by the length of the gaps between characters and words, decides how much time you get to recognize each letter before the next one arrives.
They train different things. Raising the overall speed shortens your thinking time, which is what pushes recognition from “I can work it out” to “I just know it”. Raising the character speed changes the sound of every letter, so your ear has to get used to a new tempo. Do them one at a time, and do the overall speed first.
If you learned with standard spacing, you have one number, and the advice on step size below applies to it directly.
When to step up
Speed is not a schedule. Go faster when your copy tells you to, and look for these signs:
- You copy about 90 percent or better. That is the Koch method’s rule for adding a new character, and it makes a sensible pass mark for speed too.
- Letters land before the gap ends. You recognize a character and then find yourself waiting for the next one.
- You can copy for a whole session without tensing. No held breath, no jaw clenched over the hard letters.
And these signs say stay where you are:
- One miss costs you the next two letters. You are still working letters out, and the time you spend on one eats into the next.
- The same few characters keep failing. Fix them at your current speed first. A faster speed only hides them for a while.
- Your good days and bad days are far apart. Wait until the bad days are acceptable too.
Test with material you cannot guess. Plain English lets you fill in letters from context, which flatters your copy. Random letter groups show what you actually hear. How to measure your Morse code speed sets out a fair test.
How much to raise it
Small steps. One or two WPM of overall speed is enough to feel, and small enough that your copy dips rather than collapses. If a step leaves you copying far less than you did, go back halfway and try the full step later.
If you use Farnsworth spacing, close the gaps before you touch the character speed. A plan for someone who starts at characters of 18 WPM and an overall speed of 8 WPM might look like this:
| Step | Character speed | Overall speed | What changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | 18 WPM | 8 WPM | Long gaps, full-speed letters |
| 1 | 18 WPM | 10 WPM | Gaps shrink |
| 2 | 18 WPM | 12 WPM | Gaps shrink |
| 3 | 18 WPM | 14 WPM | Gaps shrink |
| 4 | 18 WPM | 16 WPM | Gaps nearly normal |
| 5 | 18 WPM | 18 WPM | Standard spacing |
| 6 | 20 WPM | 18 WPM | Faster letters, a little extra space |
| 7 | 20 WPM | 20 WPM | Standard spacing again |
Notice step 6. Once you reach standard spacing, a good way to keep climbing is to let the character speed lead by a couple of WPM: raise it, keep a little extra space while your ear adjusts to the quicker letters, then close that space again.
Expect the last step before standard spacing to feel bigger than its number. When the extra gaps disappear, so does the last bit of thinking time, and every letter has to be recognized in the 3 units that belong to it. Give that step more time than the others.
Short sessions above your speed
After a few minutes of something faster, your comfortable speed can feel roomier. You can use that on purpose.
Near the end of a session, listen for three to five minutes at a speed 3 to 5 WPM above your comfortable one. You will not copy everything, and you should not try to write it all down. Catch what you can: single letters, short words, the odd figure. Then drop back to your normal speed for a final few minutes.
Two rules keep this useful:
- Keep it short. Long sessions far above your speed teach you to panic, not to copy.
- End on success. Finish at a speed you copy well, so the last thing you practiced was getting it right.
A brief burst above speed is training. Staying above speed for a whole session is just struggling.
Raising your sending speed
Your sending speed is a separate skill and needs its own steps. Send only as fast as you can send evenly. A hurried hand tends to squeeze the gaps between letters, and a clean, steady 15 WPM is much easier to copy than a ragged 20.
Raise it the same way: a WPM or two at a time, once your sending at the current speed is clean. Record yourself and listen back the next day; if letters are running together, or your dahs are getting short, you went up too soon.
Keep your sending at or below your copying speed. On the air, the other operator can only judge your copying speed by your sending, so sending faster than you can copy invites a reply you cannot read. The Q code QRS asks the other station to send more slowly, and QRQ asks them to send faster.
On a straight key you form every dit and dah with your hand, which asks more of it as the speed rises; with paddles and a keyer, the dits and dahs are timed for you. Straight key vs paddles: which should you start with? compares the two.
When the steps stop working
Sooner or later a step will not settle, however often you practice it. That is a plateau, and it usually has a cause you can find: a counting habit, a handful of weak characters, practice that is always the same, or simply too long at too high a speed. Stuck at the same Morse speed? How to break a plateau goes through the diagnosis.
If you practice on a Mac, Dot & Dash fits this plan: its speed runs from 5 to 40 WPM with Farnsworth spacing set separately, its Practice drills on Characters, Groups of five, Words, Callsigns and Sentences run at whatever speed and spacing you set, so you can take each step there, and Progress shows your current speed in WPM.
Questions
How often should I raise my Morse speed?
When copy at your current step is comfortable, not on a fixed schedule. Progress in Morse is uneven, and a step that settles in days one month can take weeks the next.
Should I raise character speed or Farnsworth spacing first?
Spacing first. Shrink the extra gaps until your overall speed meets your character speed, then raise the character speed by a WPM or two.
Does practicing above my speed help?
In short bursts, yes. A few minutes a little above your comfortable speed makes it feel easier afterwards, as long as you finish the session back at a speed you copy well.
Can I send faster than I copy?
You can, but it is unwise on the air, because the other operator can only judge your copying speed by your sending and may reply just as fast. Keep your sending at or below the speed you can copy comfortably.