View Full Version : Good Reason to learn Morse Code
KD0BQM
11-07-2007, 04:14 AM
If you do not know Morse code, don't even bother to go here:
http://www.americanwoodsign.com/dit%20dah%20small.jpg
If you want a printable full-size copy, go here (1.6mb):
http://www.americanwoodsign.com/dit%20dah%20large.jpg
KDØBQM
Interesting. But the point has been made many times that Morse Code is a SOUND LANGUAGE and NOT a sight language! I don't know how many years ago that ad appeared in CQ magazine, but it is pretty obviously quite old!
I said "interesting", because the lesson about the difference between a sound and a sight language has NOT been learned, all these many years later!
Well, I can pretty easily copy 25-30 wpm in my head, but I struggled to read what those printed dots and dashes were trying to tell me, and gave up somewhere on the third line !
73, Jim
W0BKR
11-07-2007, 12:19 PM
Really depends on the individual. When I started to learn code, sure, it was slower WPM then now. But from using it, listening to it, the speed is easily 30-35 WPM on average. It cane be learned, that is, if you take the time.
The Navy (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Seaman_send_Morse_code_signals.jpg/465px-Seaman_send_Morse_code_signals.jpg) used Morse as a visual language quite extensively, but you need to train your brain to see it vs hear it.
Icom has been publishing some ads in CW in the middle of contest results.
N8CPA
11-07-2007, 05:57 PM
Quote[/b] (K3VR @ Nov. 07 2007,09:35)]The Navy (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Seaman_send_Morse_code_signals.jpg/465px-Seaman_send_Morse_code_signals.jpg) used Morse as a visual language quite extensively, but you need to train your brain to see it vs hear it.
It's fun to read the flashes of the lamps in WWII ship footage. You don't always get a whole group, but you can assume that what you get is encoded.
And when you consider that the alphabet is a graphic representation of meaningful human sounds, it moves Morse out to another tier of understanding. It is an auditory presentation of visual signals corresponding to spoken sounds.
n2cfj
11-07-2007, 06:24 PM
About a year before he passed away, my father was reading an ad in QST containing printed code. #He was having difficulty decifering it despite the fact that 20-30 wpm was his comfort zone. #He handed it to me for help and I whistled it to him and he copied it right away.
Back when I was a boy scout, morse or semaphore proficiency was a requrement for First Class. As the youngest in my class, all my classmates were ahead of me in rank, (admission to scouts was based on age not on grade as it is now). Any scout over First Class could test and sign off on any requirement first Class and below. I took my morse test by passing notes written in morse in English class.
WA9SVD
11-08-2007, 03:11 AM
Quote[/b] (AG3Y @ Nov. 06 2007,22:08)]Interesting. But the point has been made many times that Morse Code is a SOUND LANGUAGE and NOT a sight language! I don't know how many years ago that ad appeared in CQ magazine, but it is pretty obviously quite old!
I said "interesting", because the lesson about the difference between a sound and a sight language has NOT been learned, all these many years later!
Well, I can pretty easily copy 25-30 wpm in my head, but I struggled to read what those printed dots and dashes were trying to tell me, and gave up somewhere on the third line !
73, Jim
Interesting comment.
BUT... Morse Code was ORIGINALLY a "sight" code; the original invention was not just the sequence of dots and dashes, (sound EQUIVALENT is dit's and dah's) but a device that marked the code on a paper tape, to be decoded later. it was at a demonstration that the Register (the device to mark the paper tape) failed to operate, and an assistant told Sam that he could decode "by ear."
But the use of Morse Code by sight has a LONG history. For example, tt was used for non-radio communications between U.S. Naval vessels in convoys during both World Wars.
Samuel Morse's code was intended to be read by sight of a paper tape.
It wasn't until 20 years later that the Register was obsoleted, and copy then occurred on the telegraph sounder. And that was copying the clacks of the sounder - no tone involve ever in telegraph, other than modifying the click/clack sound by using a resonator to make it louder and more directional, along with the Prince Albert can wedged in behind the sounder to give it a different sound.
Likely every Boy Scout in the 30s, 40s, 50, 60s, and 70s learned to copy code by flashlight to get one of the merit badges or levels.
Yes, for RADIO communications it is a sound language.
Oh, and on international telegraph cables for the first 30-40 years, it was all copied by sight. Wiggily little lines on a paper tape made by a siphon recorder. Later, they went directly to machine copy. They never copied Morse by ear on undersea telegraph cable systems. (submarine telegraphy)
N4PRT
11-08-2007, 02:20 PM
Where the dickens are the other old farts making notes about the content of the ad? Who remembers Rider Tech Facts, and how that upstart Howard Sams took lead of the pack with Photo Facts?
The early sams included many of the shortwave receivers of the time--even a few amateur class ones. There were several communications equipment series as well.