Learn Morse Code the Easy Way?

[DaveParry]

Is it true that you don't need to learn morse code for anything official any more? It doesn't appear that it is needed for the Yachtmaster exam, and it certainly isn't needed for the VHF licence. Have I missed any other reason to learn it?

Only reason for asking is that I was mulling over the inside cover of a text book with it printed out and thought of an easyish way to learn it. Everyone's brain is different and maybe it only works for me, but if no-one is interested in learning it any more then I needn't bother writing it out to explain my madness to anyone.

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[Anthony]

I believe it is still required for the ham radio license, which a number of liveaboards tend to use.

As someone looking at getting a ham license, I would appreciate you posting a copy of it.

Thanks

Anthony

<hr width=100% size=1>The difference between men and boys, is just the price of their toys...

 

[MainlySteam]

Following the amendment to the international regulations at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2003 I think you find that UK no longer has a morse requirement for full access to the HF amateur bands.

Many countries are now the same, including here in NZ.

It is a very popular means of communication on the amateur bands though and hopefully will remain so.

John

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[AlexL]

It would also be useful for my flying as all the VOR beacons have morse Identifiers - as I am a morse code ignoramus I have all the local VOR's identifiers printed on my Flight Log knee board.
Morse is one of those things I would like to know, but as I have little need to know it I really can't find the time to learn it.

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[insider]

go on tell us your method, you have have got us all wondering now,

<hr width=100% size=1>Logical progression is fault finding tool in every tool box.
Regards,
Insider

 

[MainlySteam]

As you all seem to been keen to get started (/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif "like hell" did I hear you say?) you might like to try these software morse tutors while DaveParry is still getting out of bed.

http://www.qsl.net/g4fon/. Look for Koch CW Trainer.

_ _ . .._ _.. . _ .. .._ _._. _._

John

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[Bodach na mara]

Funny, I was just thinking of posting a query to see if anyone knew of an easy way to learn it as I have got interested in flight simulator and as another poster says, all the beacons are identified bu morse. I can remember a bit of a method which starts with e i s h (the dot letters) and t m o (the dash ones) but I am still 19 letters short of an alphabet.

<hr width=100% size=1>Ken Johnson

 

[Gunfleet]

Nearly right. As always these rules are made to trip you up! In GB you don't need a morse cert to get a full licence, but the only way you can get a full licence now is to get a foundation, then an intermediate licence... and you can't get the foundation without passing a 'morse appreciation test'. Of course this is of such a low standard that even I passed it, but it still exists. I agree though, that CW is necessary because so many hams use it and it's a pity to miss out on this area

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[MainlySteam]

You may find that changed for you last month. Just did a double check on the RSGB's site (look under Licencing News) and says

As of 1 July , we are aware of the following countries that have dropped the Morse code test as a requirement to obtain an HF amateur radio licence:
UK, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Ireland, Singapore, Luxembourg, Papua New Guinea, Denmark, Hong Kong, Australia, Sweden, France, Finland and New Zealand.

Then goes on to mention transitional arrangements for the CEPT licences since not all CEPT countries have enacted the no morse requirement yet (NZ is a CEPT licence country).

{Edit}: refer to <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www1.mrc.royalmail.co.uk/RADIOLIC.NSF/vwwUserDefinedMenus/5?OpenDocument>http://www1.mrc.royalmail.co.uk/RADIOLIC.NSF/vwwUserDefinedMenus/5?OpenDocument</A>. A and B licences are now the same and the Foundation licence remains the Foundation Licence. Morse not required for HF licences. If all that means the same as it does in other countries making the same changes, no morse is required for any HF licence. Perhaps there is some winkle in the UK approach?

John

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by MainlySteam on 20/08/2004 10:40 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Gunfleet]

There certainly is a wrinkle John - further down the same faq it says

Q. As an RSGB Registered Foundation Licence Instructor, is the Morse Assessment still a part of the course?
A. Yes, students will still need to undertake a Morse Assessment in order to complete all aspects of the practical assessments.

But of course as I said, Morse appreciation and a Morse test are different things. It's so easy you'd laugh!

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[MainlySteam]

So it does /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif. Intriguing. What do you have to do - I assume from what you say it is simpler than a 5 wpm send/receive test.

{Edit} I found it <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.rsgb.org/foundation/questionsandanswers.htm>http://www.rsgb.org/foundation/questionsandanswers.htm</A> - I see what you mean by the simple bit.

John

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by MainlySteam on 20/08/2004 10:58 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Gunfleet]

From memory - it was a couple of years ago - there is a send and receive but there is no time limit and you are allowed to write it down as dots and dashes and figure out what it means from a morse alphabet after. A long way short of 5 wpm!

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[DaveParry]

Okay, I am now out of bed. As you might imagine I'm not tuning in every minute of the day to read the posts. Mind you, looking at the frequency some of you lot post it looks as if you have a full time job on here! Nice work if you can get it.

Anyway, my thoughts:

What started me off was noting that people who buy these PDA thingies which claim to recognise your handwriting such as the Palm Pilot etc., actually have to learn a whole new alphabet - called graffiti. Each letter has to be written a specific way on the screen for the device to recognise them properly. Of all the people I know with one, no-one has ever complained at having to learn the graffiti alphabet - and yet imagine the fuss if they were all told they had to learn Morse instead.

I imagine the secret lies in the fact that the letters are not too dissimilar to the way we are used to writing them, and also lots of people find it easy to remember visual things (a very 'right brain' activity).

So I just wrote down all the letters of the alphabet using only the dots and dashes that make up that letter in Morse. Surprisingly, quite a lot of them have very obvious parallels.

I tried it out, and found I could recall them all when my wife tested me after only an hour or so of thinking about it. I realise the limitation is that it makes it easy to turn letters into Morse, but isn't quite as good the other way round. But then there always has to be a catch.

As I only have this scribbled on a piece of paper at this stage, I thought I would post this thread to see if there was enough interest to persuade me to put together something in electronic form. Now a few of you have shown interest, I'd better get cracking.

I'm not exactly expecting this to make my millions, but I'd prefer to share it with people one-to-one, rather than publlishing it for all and sundry at this stage. I will happily send it to anyone who expresses an interest here and you can be my 'Beta Testers' as they call them in the software industry. After we have fine tuned it, we'll decide if its a load of rubbish or something to take further based on your feedback.

So please PM me if you'd like a copy as soon as I've finished it. I'm up to L so far after a couple of hours' work. (It's taking longer to put into PowerPoint than it did to create and learn the whole b****y thing!). I promise to get something to you in the next day or so.

If anyone reading is an expert in Intellectual Property Law I'd be interested in any advice on how to protect such an idea if it flies.

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[Piers]

Morse Code, Navaids and Colregs etc

Ever noticed how much morse is used?

e.g., Isolated danger mark has two circles on its top - two dots is letter "I" - Isolated danger.

And if a circle is a dot, try a diamond as a dash.

Can you think of any others?

<hr width=100% size=1>Piers du Pré
http://www.dupre.co.uk

 

[MainlySteam]

My turn to be getting out of bed (am around the other side of the world) and have to concede that was a little late this morning it being Saturday /forums/images/icons/smile.gif.

Regarding the Intellectual Property Law I suspect one would have a great deal of difficulty gaining protection for a method, it just being a development of knowledge, but perhaps not for the tools and documents produced to perform it. So if the method is closely reliant upon the tools and documentation produced in order for it to work then protection of the method follows as a natural consequence as others cannot use it without copying your tools or documentation. Probably very difficult to do.

For example, if one invented a drug as a treatment for cancer that exploited a new and novel way of attacking the cancer, I doubt whether one could protect the new and novel method the drug exploited to attack the cancer but one could obviously protect the drug itself. If it was impossible to produce another drug to expoilt the same method, then the method is protected as a consequence - if you see what I mean.

I only sometimes work on the fringes and indirectly with intellectual property protection, so stand to be corrected, but that is how I believe that it would be.

John

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[DaveParry]

I've had a very useful PM which points out that the sort of thing I am doing was developed by the ATC 40 years ago! Anyway, as I can't find anything on the Internet about it, I'll carry on putting together the document which explains what I have done, even if it is reinventing something that has been done before.

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[DaveParry]

The Finished Article!!!

At last I finished putting it together, and to avoid having to e-mail to anyone interested, I have uploaded it to a web page so anyone can go and have a look. Here is the address:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/parrygregory/slide0001.htm

(Sorry, don't know how to get html in here to make it into a link)

I'd appreciate anyone sending me some feedback on what they think, including suggestions for making some of the letters more memorable. Thanks for bearing with me while I have kept you all hanging on.

Dave

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[Birdseye]

Re: The Finished Article!!!

I think I must have been one of the very last UK amateurs to learn the 12wpm morse test because it was dropped 2 weeks after I passed my exam. Infuriating.

To anyone wanting to learn it, there are only 2 bits of advice. The first is to learn it in the medium you are going to use ie learn the sounds for ham radio, not the dots and dashes on paper. The second is to learn the individual letters at a speed above 12wpm but with long gaps in between letters. The reason is you have to learn to recognise the rhythm rather than to try and identify from dots and dashes. If you do the latter, then you have a great hump top get over at about 10wpm.

There are lots of free software downloads to help you learn eg SuperMorse.

Quite why anyone would want to learn it is beyond me

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<hr width=100% size=1>this post is a personal opinion, and you should not base your actions on it.

 

[DaveParry]

Re: The Finished Article!!!

Good Yuck?

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[Benbow]

Re: Morse Code, Navaids and Colregs etc

This is true, there are lots of examples where morse helps make sense of such things, its almost as if it has been done deliberately. D means manoevering with difficulty, morse D is fog signal for vessels 'manoevering with difficulty' - including sailing boats.

M means my vessel is stopped, morse M is the fog signal for a vessel not making way.

Morse S is the sound signal for I am engaging aStern propulsion.

H flag means pilot on board, morse H is fog signal for pilot vessel.

Racons use morse.

I would say lots of good reasons to know morse.


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