New radio

[k3mp]

Its easy to send and receive CW when driving...when you get good with CW, just ask some of the old timers, your subconsious takes over and you can keep going down the road...its a thrill....one time I was asked how fast I was going, I sent back driving speed or sending speed...then I told the OM it was both the same, 25 MPH and 25 wpm....blew his mind...but that comes with many years of practice, most of us that can do this were former radiomen in the service...I also listen to the broadcast radio and talk to my wife when driving and sending cw and keep both conversations going..as I said for me its a Navy thing...learned to multitask many years ago in radio on the ship...

[w7wv]

Yes I knew an old timer that could send CW around 35 or better and still handle shifting his Fiat too but I don't want to try it.
But I am not an expert at CW either. I was an op in the Army trained to 15 GPM (groups that is) of encrypted random text.
Yes there was no fill in the missing words or letters on those tests.
Never used CW enough plain text to learn it high speed.
Even as a Novice in the 1970s most of my copy was written down and around 10-12 WPM.
I still play with CW once in awhile today.

[Radio]

I stink at CW. Barely passed the 13 wpm test to get my advanced class. Never touched a key since, even though as a tech I made a fair number of exhausting slow speed CW contacts, still have that first QSL card from that first contact. The old guy had his wife take his picture and made a post card of the print so I could have a QSL. He was so patient, listening to my lousy fist and sending back real slow. Perhaps this skill is related to reading music and/or doing math, both of which I also stink at.

I was never a novice or a general. Went straight to tech and then advanced in a few months. Kept the advanced call when I got the extra (5 wpm code credit!) because "they don't make them like that anymore."

[w7wv]

Yes even today due to the encrypted text we copied in the Army I write in all down when I do work a rare CW contact.
It's fun, but it's just not a ragchew mode to me and I suppose that's because it was never second nature to me.
I did take that dreaded 5 WPM test for the license twice. Once in the 1970s for the Novice and once again when I got licensed again as a Tech+ a few years ago when I got back on the air again.
Yes I could have shown the old Novice ticket but come on, 5 WPM? It took me all of a day to get my speed up to 7 or better just listening to the practice broadcasts from the ARRL.
My other problem with CW is other ops fists. Some have no sense of rhythm and are really bad at it even though they use it all the time. I also have a slight hearing problem that does not help matters and it's getting worse of course with age, but then again so is the rest of my body.
We are going to go full time to try and see this country completely and enjoy it before we can't do it anymore!
Like they say, it's hell to get older.