So it’s been about 8 weeks and 16 classes later and I’m pleased to say that I graduated!

The graduation certificate from CW Academy (Level 1)
The graduation certificate from CW Academy (Level 1)

I do want to sit down and think over the experience a bit more, but right now – the last class just ended – it’s a license to learn. It was very successful as a bootstrapping class. The class took me from essentially zero words per minute to being able to have a handle on all characters at 20wpm. I can’t yet listen and string those letters into full words at that speed, but I do feel like there’s a clear route. I’m fluent enough that I can bootstrap – I’m just on the edge of feeling comfortable going on the air. That feels like a huge win!

There are also some fun things I want to try around sending and receiving Morse via computer. I’m fascinated by the idea of sending digital data acoustically and I think Morse could be a fun route in that it’s a (the?) digital format that’s mutually human-computer intelligible. These ideas wouldn’t have occurred to me without studying Morse code.