CW Rust Remover

Background

CW Rust Remover was developed to help with a very real problem. At one time I was working CW regularly and could copy pretty well at 18 to 20 words per minute. Then I, like many of us, took an extended break from ham radio — off the air from 2006 until mid 2025. I could still remember all the Morse characters, but my copy speed was woefully rusty.

As I tried various Morse code tutorial web tools and downloaded code practice files from ARRL, I found it frustrating. The jump from 7.5 to 10 WPM was hard. At 7.5 I was wishing it was faster; at 10 I was quickly falling behind and losing the thread entirely. I started thinking, “Surely there has to be a way to gradually increase speed from 8 to 10 or 12 WPM.” I found ways to create practice files at fixed speeds — but managing individual files was annoying. I decided to make the tool I needed.

Rather than yet another Morse code tutorial or drill tool — and there are plenty of good ones — this is intended for a specific thing: to help remove the accumulated rust of years of Morse code copy neglect.

Farnsworth? What’s that?

Farnsworth timing sends Morse characters at a higher speed while increasing the spacing between them. For example, you might send characters at 20 or 25 WPM, but space them for an effective speed of only 10 WPM. This helps the brain learn (or relearn) character recognition without developing the “counting dits and dahs” habit.

It also makes it easier to handle increases in effective speed as you get better and faster at recognizing characters.

What’s wrong with the many other Morse code practice resources?

Nothing! Many of them are great for learning Morse code. They are not always ideal for brushing up your copy speed, or simply increasing it.

ARRL code practice and similar tools are fine, but they generally use fixed speeds at discrete steps. Going from 7.5 to 10 WPM and from 10 to 13 WPM can feel like a big jump.

The idea here is to start at a comfortable speed and gradually ramp up over a period of time — specifically intended to knock the rust off your Morse-copying brain cells, hence the name.

Tips for Use

• When listening, resist the temptation to look at the text.
• If you miss a character, or even several, keep going! Don’t get hung up on a word. Just skip it.
• Except for callsigns, it’s perfectly OK to write down words you “get” from context.
• Write it if you need to, type it if you prefer, or just head copy. There’s no rule about how to do it.
• The text file will include a marker like [9] or [12] when speed changes occur. Prosigns like AR, SK, and so on are also denoted with square brackets.
• Time is your friend. Don’t try to go from 8 to 15 WPM in one shot. It’s fine to create a 30 minute file with one or two WPM total increase.
• Consistency is key. Practice every day. Block off whatever time you have and do it without distractions.
• If you want some extended, relaxing copy practice, the practice text library includes text pulled from the fine works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and other authors.