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.

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