Posted: 11/18/2009 10:20:15 AM EDT
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Someone in GD mentioned the show Jericho, and I started watching it a couple days ago. Soon after a nuclear explosion, a citizen gets on a ham radio and hears a message in morse code. Although this is fiction, it got me thinking.....would it be a good idea to learn morse code? In a large scale catastrophe, is it likely that morse code would be utilized....and those of use who do not know it would be out of luck? Does anyone here know it? Is it hard to learn? Or maybe I've been watching to many movies.... |
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We got our tech license just before they dropped the requirement, here is a trainer, I used the previous version so I can't coment on this one.
http://www.g4fon.net/CW%20Trainer.htm |
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Quoted:
When radio signals are weak, morse is often easier to understand than voice. Besides weak, if a channel has a lot of chatter sometimes it will punch through. When I was a boy, it was the hey day of the CB base station and those guys back then paid very little attention to the rules. My best pal and I worked all summer to buy these neat base station very low power walkie talkies, basically a low power channel 14 device that could only listen to the other channels, but it did have a key. There were so many people on CBs in those days and the base units so over powered with amps, they'd ignore the 14 walkie talkie channel and stake it out as their own not letting anyone break in for a message especially a couple kids on walkie talkies. We got so frustrated, we'd try to break and if they wouldn't, we'd revert to using keys. We knew they heard us sometimes but didn't know if they did all the time, but they damn sure heard that key. We'd send morse to each other. Tj |
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As others have said, Morse gets through on weak signals way way better than voice, but it helps to have someone
on the other end who knows it as well. I had to learn it to get my ham ticket 20 years ago, but I can't say it's all that useful as a "just in case" thing to know. Unless you use it a lot you'll forget it quickly. |
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Quoted:
As others have said, Morse gets through on weak signals way way better than voice, but it helps to have someone on the other end who knows it as well. I had to learn it to get my ham ticket 20 years ago, but I can't say it's all that useful as a "just in case" thing to know. Unless you use it a lot you'll forget it quickly. Nah, it's still there, you just need to brush up on it a bit. It would come back to you pretty quickly. Learned it nearly 30 years ago to get my novice at 5 wpm, then upgraded to general at 13 wpm ... I can still send like crazy, the receive is a bit rusty, but once in a while I will catch something and know what was sent. If I spend more than a couple days working/listening, the receive speed picks back up |
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I know morse code.
IMO you cannot learn it casually and then expect/hope to be able to read it years later. Ditto for having it written down and then trying to reference it when you hear it. Even relatively slow speed code will be too fast for you to multi-task between listening, thinking/referencing and writing. That said - it has fallen out of general use. There is interpretive software available that would allow you to have it automatically translates (assuming S/N ratio isn't too bad). |
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I only just started and can already tell this is going to be difficult. It's not that I don't know which letters are being sent, but my hand is just not writing them down fast enough so I end up missing letters. This is definitely gonna take some practice. I had a good insturctor he said write it down, if you miss a letter mark a space and (wheel of fortune it out later). |
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Quoted:
I only just started and can already tell this is going to be difficult. It's not that I don't know which letters are being sent, but my hand is just not writing them down fast enough so I end up missing letters. This is definitely gonna take some practice. Trying to learn all 26 letters and 10 numbers at the same time is overwhelming. For this reason, many folks start out by learning just a half dozen characters at a time, and then practice receiving and writing down messages that only contain those characters. (You can get free computer software that will send Morse code from any text you type in). After you can receive and write down those 6 characters without errors, you add another half dozen to the mix, and repeat. Typically, you retain more if you keep your learning/practice sessions to less than half an hour apiece - Spending much more time on it tends to be counterproductive. Do several sessions spread out through the day, and it'll soon all fall into place. |
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Back in the day, doing inverse pairs was all the rage. A and N, E and T, I and M.
It's really not that difficult if you stay with it. Like anything else, it is a learned skill and requires practice. A half hour a day will do wonders. Also better to do fast characters with long spacing. After you are able to copy well, you can increase speed by just shortening the spaces. The CW signal takes up much less bandwith than an SSB signal and you will be able to communicate with less power and with much weaker overall signals. You might also want to check into the "ham radio" forum here. |
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Quoted:
I know morse code. IMO you cannot learn it casually and then expect/hope to be able to read it years later. Ditto for having it written down and then trying to reference it when you hear it. Even relatively slow speed code will be too fast for you to multi-task between listening, thinking/referencing and writing. That said - it has fallen out of general use. There is interpretive software available that would allow you to have it automatically translates (assuming S/N ratio isn't too bad). Let me ditto this post. I knew Morse Code fluently as a kid and was pretty darn fast too, That fast part came from using it A LOT. Without using it often after that, I can now only retain a few of the key letters. IMHO, Its like learning a new language. If you want to retain it, you need to practice it. Tj |