I wrote a text to morse code converter some time back if anyone is interested: https://text2morse.jimmyislive.dev
can you fix the quotes rejection?
Learning Morse code in the 21st century
11–20 of 37 posts
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#12You would think it would make sense for Morse to be the foundation for computer representation of text, being binary and all. But the real challenge is that Morse code does not use standard lengths for each character. It's, imo, one of the earliest technologies that shows the divergence between what is easy for humans vs what is easy for machines.
Morse code isn't binary, it's trinary.
You have 3 signals: dots, dashes, and spaces.
Here's the relevant extract from the wikipedia article on Morse Code:
> Each Morse code symbol is formed by a sequence of dots and dashes. The dot duration is the basic unit of time measurement in Morse code transmission. The duration of a dash is three times the duration of a dot. Each dot or dash within a character is followed by period of signal absence, called a space, equal to the dot duration. The letters of a word are separated by a space of duration equal to three dots, and the words are separated by a space equal to seven dots
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#13Maybe three years ago I dove into cheap SDR receivers for a few months, exploring different SDR devices, different frequency bands, different decoders, etc.
One really surprising thing was how little morse code was to be found. And when I did find it, the decoders (like fldigi) were unreliable in decoding. I'm not sure if it was because of their decoding algorithms or if the senders simply had too much variance in their timing.
The bit of traffic I did decode was simply exchanges of contact so each could log a new call sign in their books. I'm not sure what I was expecting to find: because the bits seemed to be "secret" due to my ignorance of morse code, my brain heuristically assumed information they hid must be important.
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#14Maybe three years ago I dove into cheap SDR receivers for a few months, exploring different SDR devices, different frequency bands, different decoders, etc. One really surprising thing was how little morse code was to be found. And when I did find it, the decoders (like fldigi) were unreliable in decoding. I'm not sure if it was because of their decoding algorithms or if the senders simply had too much variance in th…
A while ago I dove into ham radio a bit. I think what you saw was the 40m and 80m bands (HF band, very high range) which are used mainly for "competitions" (essentially exchanging callsigns).
I still find it intriguing because it's such a simple way of communicating. You can build the circuits yourself and with a license communicate with others over kilometers (with a good antenna sometimes thousands of kilometers). Think about it, without cell phone towers, satellites and all that commercial infrastructure it's really the only way to reach anyone.
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#15You would think it would make sense for Morse to be the foundation for computer representation of text, being binary and all. But the real challenge is that Morse code does not use standard lengths for each character. It's, imo, one of the earliest technologies that shows the divergence between what is easy for humans vs what is easy for machines.
Morse code isn't binary, it's trinary. You have 3 signals: dots, dashes, and spaces. Here's the relevant extract from the wikipedia article on Morse Code: > Each Morse code symbol is formed by a sequence of dots and dashes. The dot duration is the basic unit of time measurement in Morse code transmission. The duration of a dash is three times the duration of a dot. Each dot or dash within a character is followed by p…
You can represent it as both binary and ternary
R is: .-. (dit dah dit)
which could be 121 in ternary (0 being pause)
or 1011101 in binary, since one dah is three dits long
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#16I like to hunt Non Directional Beacons on the long wave band. Unfortunately I have read they are being decommissioned.
Are you sure? There are some beacons by the IARU [0] - across the world - that one after the other transmit their callsign. It can be used to test reception and it can be a challenge to receive a signal from 100s of kilometers away without a repeater.
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#17Maybe three years ago I dove into cheap SDR receivers for a few months, exploring different SDR devices, different frequency bands, different decoders, etc. One really surprising thing was how little morse code was to be found. And when I did find it, the decoders (like fldigi) were unreliable in decoding. I'm not sure if it was because of their decoding algorithms or if the senders simply had too much variance in th…
by the way here are the IARU bandplans [0] with the beacon frequencies if you need to find them again.
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#18Does anything have a recommendation of how to learn Morse today? maybe an app? the app the author recommends is only for iOS and I have Android
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#19I learned Morse code back in 1992 in order to pass the General class amateur radio license. Back then, the test was 13 words per minute. I practiced for a few months with cassette tapes and over the air copy. After I got up to about 18 WPM, I went and took the test. I almost choked, but was able to recover and pass the test. I haven't used Morse code since then.
There's been a bit of a resurgence with the lower solar cycle, for mobile radios such as the KX3/2 and FT-817 which top out at 15W, having a mode that concentrates most of its power in ~500Hz of bandwidth(vs ~3kHz for voice) is a huge advantage.
Aside from FT-8 and related digital modes it has an impressive ability to punch though when few other modes will.
Re: Learning Morse code in the 21st century
#20Does anything have a recommendation of how to learn Morse today? maybe an app? the app the author recommends is only for iOS and I have Android
Android has a Morse code keyboard option.