aldo

Morse trainer with four teaching methods, including Koch

• Version recorded: 0.7.8
• Categories: cw, morse-training
• Upstream: https://www.nongnu.org/aldo/

What it does

Teaches Morse four ways: Koch, which introduces two characters at full speed and adds one at a time; blocks, which sends fixed-length groups; callsign practice; and a QSO simulator that sends realistic exchanges. Everything is generated, so the material never repeats.

Why you would want it

Koch is the method with the best evidence behind it and the one most beginners never meet, because the obvious approach — learn the alphabet slowly, then speed up — produces a plateau that is very hard to leave. Aldo is the shortest route to doing it properly on Linux.

Before it will work

A sound device. It generates its own audio and needs no radio.

How it installs

• apt: aldo

Known problems

The Koch mode's defaults start at 20 wpm character speed, which is correct and feels impossible on the first evening. Resist lowering it; lower the effective speed instead. Progress is stored per user, so running it under sudo starts you over in root's home directory.

Keeping it current

• probe: apt policy
• strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

Savannah project page at the URL above.

Source: catalog/packages/aldo.yaml