I should have written in my response to Nelson that for the word THE it is sent as Dah Dit Dit Dit Dit Dit. When you hear the rythm of the word the space between the letters is very small, but detectable by an experienced operator…therefore the rhythm of the word…Johnl
In the training video Erol posted above, around 2:15, there is a demonstration of “SOS” which doesn’t seem to have a gap between letters. Isn’t there normally a short gap between letters?
My guess is that “SOS” is such a well known pattern that they don’t bother with the letter spacing. But with no letter spacing, “SOS” would be the same as “IJIE” or lots of other things.
Hi Simon…I went back and listened to the video…what you are hearing is the rhythm of SOS that I spoke of in my previous post where the letters all begin to blend together to form the word…if it had been sent at a much slower WPM speed you would then begin to hear the spacing between the letters. Then you could copy the individual letters. This is the type of copy people go through first before learning the rhythm of words at faster speeds. Google ARRL code practice and then find a 5 WPM code to listen to, then listen to 13 WPM, and also 25 WPM. You will hear how the letters and spaces are sent much faster seem to close together…then listen to 35 WPM and to the untrained ear everything will run together. Hope this helps. Johnl
1 Like
It’ genius! But you also have to learn which sign to which letter it attributes. Am I right?
Hi Demi… I’m not for sure who you are addressing your question to. If it is me please clarify as I’m not for sure what you are asking. JohnL
Hi again! As you said in your post for example the word is Bread: R = dash, E = dot, A = dot, D = dot. So the Morse code for B is dash, dot, dot, dot. Now where do I know that R is dash and not dot? I don’t know if you can understand me, maybe I’m not explaining properly, or I don’t understand something.
In this case, letters from the first half = dot, second half = dash, with the first letter of the word being the letter itself.
1 Like
When I met my sweetheart, (now my husband), he was studying code for the thirteen-words per minute code test. I had learned the code as a child, to recognize code letters on sight, from a WWII card from my father. My memory task became conversion of my visual memory into sound memory. Luckily, another alphabet I memorized as a child was finger alphabet. I was able to listen to the ARRL recorded lessons and use the fingerspelling alphabet of American Sign Language. I shaped my fist into each letter as the code letters and symbols and numbers ditted and daahed and by way of physical muscle memories, I routed my visual memories into auditory memory long enough to take and pass the five-words-per-minute test.
3 Likes
Mrs. S congratulations to you and your husband. The 13 WPM test was for a General Class along with passing the theory test too. The 5 WPM test was for the Novice class license along with answering some simple questions. The Novice license was good for one year and non renewable. I also used the ARRL to learn the requirements for code and theory and finally passed the highest license requirements for the Extra Class license. Ham Radio is about the only place you will people using Morse Code today…JohnL
1 Like
It took two tries, and I had not expected to pass the written on the first try; so I ended up with TECH+ instead of Novice. And, thank-you.
1 Like
The Tech license was a good deal. I got my Novice when I was 12 in the late 50’s and got on the air everyday to work on my code after school and weekends. I also used the ARRL license manuals and their code practice runs at night to help with my code…over the years I earned the General license 9 months later the Advanced and then the Amateur Extra licenses using the ARRL materials as well as a lot of operating through the years. My top receiving speed was around 25 WPM in my prime… Today the code requirement is practically non existent with only the Extra Class required to receive at 5 WPM…A lost art but many people still use it when the bands are open and during contests…A wonderful hobby to meet and talk with people all over the world…JohnL
1 Like
i made a memory palace for Morse, works flawlessly but it takes me a while(4,5 secs) to decode the sound.
2 Likes
Vertexion,
This looks cool, but doesn’t help with Morse Code much. The best way/fastest way is to learn the sounds. Nelson Dellis has a great method on one of his videos. The second way he teaches is better.
ex: D= Dog- did- It
dah dit dit
This graphic looks cool though.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Christian
1 Like
I think the method I came up with is slightly different than all the ones already mentioned so I’ll add it here.
Note that it is mostly in Italian, and I don’t know in what other languages it would be easy enough to reproduce.
I tried a few things first and they didn't work for me
Originally I visually broke up each letter into pieces which would remind me of its breakdown in dots and dashes (similarly to the image that Vertexion posted), but I would very quickly forget it.
Then I tried the T/R method and realized that it helps in producing Morse Code but not in decoding it quickly.
Then I tried the Dellis method but if I remembered the concept I might not remember the phrase, and when I remembered the phrase I couldn’t remember where the stress in pronunciation should go, which is the whole point for distinguishing dots and dashes. I figured it must have been because the stress in there seemed arbitrary to my ears.
So I just made up the following.
A dash is a stressed syllable and a dot is an unstressed syllable, following the normal pronunciation of a word.
So for example for the word banana its normal pronunciation is /bəˈnɑnə/ so its sequence of syllables is unstressed-stressed-unstressed, so it would translate to dot dash dot.
Here are the letters I have in English (if you’re unsure where the stress is, remember that there is always one and only one most stressed syllable in each word, and that will be its dash while all the others will be dots):
B: Businessmanship → /ˈbɪznəsˌmænʃɪp/ → stressed-unstressed-unstressed-unstressed → dash-dot-dot-dot → - . . .
J: Japan jabs jam → /dʒəˈpæn dʒæbs dʒæm/ → unstressed-stressed-stressed-stressed → dot-dash-dash-dash → . - - -
K: Kappa shirt → /ˈkæpə ʃɜrt/ → stressed-unstressed-stressed → dash-dot-dash → - . -
O: On off on → dash-dash-dash → - - -
X: Xenon expands → dash-dot-dot-dash → - . . -
Y: Yoga class now! → dash-dot-dash-dash → - . - -
Here are the letters I have in Italian:
A: Artu’ → . -
C: Carta canta → - . - .
D: Dalmata → - . .
F: Fioritura → . . - .
G: Gel giallo → - - .
L: Laconico → . - . .
M: Ma no! → - -
N: Noia → - .
P: Papa’ dorme → . - - .
Q: Quel quadro qua → - - . -
R: Radici → . - .
T: Tie’! → -
U: Unita’ → . . -
V: Velocita’ → . . . -
W: Weekend va’ → . - -
Z: Zar zoppica → - - . .
The following are the only letters that can’t have an encoding like the one described, because they don’t have dashes:
E: most common English letter so it was given the shortest representation → 1 dot → .
I: divides the plane in two (left, right)-> 2 dots → . .
S: has three spaces (inside the upper curve, inside the lower curve, outside) → 3 dots → . . .
H: has four spaces (left, right, middle up, middle down) → 4 dots → . . . .
I made this up last year and stored each thought together with its alphabet peg (so in my alphabet palace if I decide to focus on the Yeti then I will know that he is starting his yoga class). I haven’t reviewed it in many months and still remember it, which means it worked for me.
2 Likes
Thank you so much Simon for your contribution on learning Morse Code. Recently, one of my professions required me to take it and I have been learning through MemRise. Now with your help, I know I can do this!
1 Like
Very nice method…Genius!!! I will try it and put all those words into a palace then play with it when having a break at work! thanks for the sharing!!!
That’s a very useful ‘hack’ if you were going from letters to morse code. So going from U (Ugly) to dot-dot-dash is very useful. The only concern I have is going the other way round say from morse codes dots and dashes back into letters. So as an example, I find it difficult going from dash-dot-dot-dash to the letter X. Obviously as morse code is auditory, one would have to learn to decipher the combination of dot-dash sounds to translate them into letters and ultimately words from sound not sight. However if one were to be tested in written a format on the Morse Code, one could say your method definitely has its merits! It’s a novel approach that I haven’t encountered before.
That’s excellent!
Here’s one I came up with:
| A | C | ACT |
|---|---|---|
| B | ARO | BARON |
| C | ASE | CASE |
| D | AR | DARK |
| E | R | E.R. (Emergency room) |
| F | USE | FUSE |
| G | LO | GLOW |
| H | URR | HURRY |
| I | RE | IRE |
| J | OLI | JOLIE |
| K | ICK | KICK |
| L | EAR | LEAR |
| M | IS | MISTLETOE |
| N | A | NANNA |
| O | US | OUST |
| P | OUR | POUR |
| Q | UES | QUESTION |
| R | OC | ROCK |
| S | UE | SUE |
| T | I | TIN |
| U | RC | URCHIN |
| V | OUS | VOUS |
| W | EL | WELD |
| X | PERI | exPERIment |
| Y | IPP | YIPPY! |
| Z | IPU | ZIP-UP |
|Morse dot|O / R / E
|Morse dash|S / I / P
|dot dot|U
|dot dash|C
|dash dash|L
|dash dot|A
I realised a better way afterwards: rote learn N A M E I T. Then interpret an incoming Morse message as if it is N / A / M / E / I / T and assign a person:
N = Noel, A = Alan, M = Mark, E = Eric, I = Ian, T = Tom. If theere is a break then that means that the intended message is one of those letters. If there is a further N, A, M, E, I or T then turn it into a standard memorised verb. Eg. Ian’s verbs are Ignores / Escapes / Tells / Adds based on the next signal being I / E / T /A. The message always ends with the same final word. Eg. Ian Ignores Herring. Herring begins with H. The I signal followed immediately by an I signal means the overal signal is H (Herring). So my Morse alphabet should ideally use a Herring image for H. The following are some rushed sentences (hopefully no errors!):
Ian Ignores Herring.
Ian Escapes Spider
Ian Tells Uncle
Ian Adds Value
Ian Nudges Football
Noel Inflates Balloon
Noel Names Child
Noel Enjoys Drumming
Noel Tracks Kangaroo
Noel Admires Xylophone
Noel Muffles Yawn
Alan Makes Jam
Alan Injures Leg
Alan Nicks Purse
Alan Eats Rice
Tom Tugs Wig
Mark Examines Game
Mark Tastes Orange
Mark Invites Zoe
Mark Asks Question
Thank you Simon for the help in learning Morse Code.
I mostly use > Morse Translator it works fine as a translator but is there any quick way or trick to decode/understand Morse code by listing their sounds?