Morse Code III

Morse Code was designed for use on telegraphs, and it later saw use in radio communications before

AM radios could carry voice. Until 1999 it was a required mode of communication for ocean vessels, even though it was rarely used (the theory apparently was that some older craft might not have converted to more modern communications gear). Ability to send and receive Morse Code is still a requirement for U.S. citizens who want a radio amateur license.

Morse Code is named after Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, who is credited with its

modern form. It consists of a sequence of short and long pulses or tones (dots and dashes) separated byshort periods of silence. A person generates Morse Code by making and breaking an electrical connection on a “key,” and the person on the other end of the line listens to the sequence of dots and dashes and converts them to letters, spaces, and punctuation.

Since Morse Code is designed to be heard, not seen, the chart of the English letters in my previous note

is only marginally useful. You cannot learn Morse Code from looking at the dots and dashes on paper; you have to hear them. If you want to listen to it on text of your choice, try

•

http://wasp-wwii.org/wasp/sound/morse1.html

which has a generator written in Java that runs in your Web browser, or

•

http://www.soton.ac.uk/%7Escp93ch/refer/morseform.html

which can give you an audio file to play