Ham University - Morse Training and Testing
QST Review by Dan Miller November 2001
Actual Morse code lessons are accessed by clicking on “Lessons.� You must first put a Lesson Plan together. This is easily accomplished following the directions guided by Morris the Cat—an animated cat who assists by describing each function the mouse pointer indicates. My favorite method is the “Exercise� approach done by copying with the keyboard. What you type is shown in the lower panel. At the end of the exercise, you can compare what you typed with the sent message displayed in the upper panel. Variables that you can manually adjust include speed in words per minute, character speed, message length and word length. In addition to all this, Ham University offers a Morse game called PENTODE. The object is to build a large number of points in a short period of time. These points are received by connecting two or more tiles (the more the better), each containing the same character, as a diode (side by side), triode, tetrode or pentode. Personally, I found the game far less exciting than the speed exercise to copy Morse on the keyboard in the shortest possible time.
Conclusion
Ham University is an excellent tool for anyone wishing to use a computer to study for an Amateur Radio license, regardless of which level they wish to pursue. Of course, my recommendation is to use such a program in conjunction with a class. In the absence of such a class, Ham University provides everything you need to go from ground zero all the way to Amateur Extra…in the comfort of your own living room.
I’d be remiss in this review if I neglected to mention something else. Displayed at the top of each page of the instruction booklet is a flag of a foreign country. Next to the flag is the appropriate country name, accompanied by its latitude and longitude, CQ Zone number and call sign prefix. This is a very nice touch, adding to the educational and instructional factor of the Ham University program.