Why I'm Learning Morse Code
burakkanber.com
Why I'm Learning Morse Code
1–10 of 74 posts
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#2If you think Morse code is cool, and it is, what is say is cooler, in my very humble and probably worthless opinion is this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu,The Inca, over 500 years ago, encoded information in binary format using knots on a rope. Think about that. Cool, I think. What do you think?
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#3If you think Morse code is cool, and it is, what is say is cooler, in my very humble and probably worthless opinion is this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu,The Inca, over 500 years ago, encoded information in binary format using knots on a rope. Think about that. Cool, I think. What do you think?
Working link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quipu
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#4If any of you are already fluent in Morse, I'd love to hear from you! Were you able to hear full words or phrases "natively"? Did you ever have the experience of being able to identify the person on the other end merely by accent?
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#5>> This brings me to my fascination with Morse code. Granted, learning Morse code today may be a futile exercise. After all, I don’t know a single person who speaks it!
From what I understand, ham radio operators still use morse code, although they phased out the requirement to be proficient in Morse code somewhat recently. So I don't think it is completely futile to learn.
"Demonstrating a proficiency in Morse code was for many years a requirement to obtain an amateur license to transmit on frequencies below 30 MHz. Following changes in international regulations in 2003, countries are no longer required to demand proficiency.The United States Federal Communications Commission, for example, phased out this requirement for all license classes on February 23, 2007."
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio
Ham radio operators also perform duties in emergency situations, including disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.
"More than a thousand ham operators from all over the U.S. converged on the Gulf Coast in an effort to provide emergency communications assistance. Subsequent Congressional hearings highlighted the Amateur Radio response as one of the few examples of what went right in the disaster relief effort."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio_emergency_communi...
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#6It's too bad we don't teach this as part of language development at the primary school level. As someone who's tried to teach programming to lay persons, I can't help but think that having first-hand practical knowledge of how language can be encoded in a kind-of-binary (quinary, according to Wikipedia) system would be an extremely useful abstract concept to have in mind.
It's certainly more useful than learning cursive.
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#7I spent nine years as a naval communicator and am fluent in morse. It's been a few years so I would definitely need a bit of practice to get back up to 12 words a minute on a flashing light.
I can speak three languages and morse was similar to learn. From the first day of training they gave us sheet of paper with the alphabet and the morse translation and told us to memorize a couple of letters. Then they sent us outside to spend hours staring at a flashing lightbulb.
When you recognize a letter your writer (someone with a clipboard standing facing you and away from the light) would write it down, and when you didn't recognize the letter you said "MISS".
The first day was spent saying "MISS... MISS... MISS..." It was extremely frustrating, the same way being immersed in a new language can be. It felt useless... as if I would never get it. Every day we'd spend the morning staring at the light, and little by little we started to get more letters.
Once we mastered it (100%) they would turn up the speed and we'd be back to where we started... "MISS... MISS... ECHO... MIKE... MISS... MISSS..." until we perfected that speed and were moved up again.
It took about three months of daily practice to get up to the military's standard.
I catch myself years later spelling out words in morse in my head.
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#8I spent nine years as a naval communicator and am fluent in morse. It's been a few years so I would definitely need a bit of practice to get back up to 12 words a minute on a flashing light. I can speak three languages and morse was similar to learn. From the first day of training they gave us sheet of paper with the alphabet and the morse translation and told us to memorize a couple of letters. Then they sent us out…
I love anecdotes like this. Were you taught Morse purely visually, with the flashing bulb? Do you find it easier to watch a bulb or to listen to a tone?
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#9>> This brings me to my fascination with Morse code. Granted, learning Morse code today may be a futile exercise. After all, I don’t know a single person who speaks it! From what I understand, ham radio operators still use morse code, although they phased out the requirement to be proficient in Morse code somewhat recently. So I don't think it is completely futile to learn. "Demonstrating a proficiency in Morse code…
You're 100% correct. There is definitely an amateur radio community out there, and many of them are fluent in Morse. I guess I was just trying to say that nobody in my "natural" social circles knows Morse. But if I start hanging out with the right types of people, I'm sure I could communicate in dahs and dits all day!
Re: Why I'm Learning Morse Code
#10when i used to walk an hour to work (and another back), i considered using morse as an interface to a portable computer (for editing and playback of text). it's easy to hear and understand, even when there's considerable ambient noise, and data entry would only require a single button (plus perhaps a rocker switch or similar to scan through existing data).
at the time i had no real idea how to implement it. now i think i could do something with an arduino or similar. but thankfully i now work from home...