Morse code tapping help please!?

Question

I'm confused on how the dashes are supposed to sound like when i tap them. Do I just pause for 3 dots or tap them out like 3 fast dots? And the pausing between letters and words. Like if I do the letter A then is it like dot/dash 2,3 or dot/dotdotdot. Do you move to the next letter after 7 dots? then what if I say "a": dot/dash 2,3 1,2,3 next letter and someone else thinks im moving on to the next word or something. It's very hard to explain so it would be appreciated if someone can record a tapping morse code with the dash at the end of a letter.

Answer 1

Morse code is an alphabetic code of long and short sounds, originally transmitted by telegraph. Each letter in the alphabet has a corresponding sound or series of sounds unique to it. The long sounds are referred to as dashes, while the short sounds are dots. Varying lengths of silence denote spaces between letters or words.

To make a dot on a telegraph, the telegraph key or switch was depressed and allowed to rapidly spring back. To make a dash the key was held down longer before allowing it to rebound. Thus messages were sent by tapping the key in a rhythm of coded letters. Messages were received via a radio transceiver, sounding like dots and dahses of static.

Basic Morse elements - dit, dah, letter space, and the word space
Morse uses patterns of on/off based on a single time unit - the dit space.
A dit - please, not a dot! - takes two dit space intervals,
and a dahhhhh (I drag it out to show that it lasts longer than a dit) takes
four dit spaces. The dit has a key down time of one dit space, and the
dah has a key down time of three dit spaces - three times as long as a dit.
When you add the single dit space of key up at the end of a dit and a dah,
you find that a dit takes two dit spaces, and the dah takes four.

Answer 2

Hope you can find a good answer on this--it might be too long after the telegraph to find someone who knows. One of your problems might be that Morse code should have two different sounds for dots and dashes--trying to tap them with your feet, a dash might sound like dot-space. Using a (music) keyboard or flashlight might give you better results, because the dashes would actually last longer than the dots, rather than being mistaken for a change in rythem.

About fifteen years ago, I talked to someone who used to be a telegraph operator, and he made it sound like you would learn to type what you hear. So you would hear dit-da and type an 'A'. Also, this happened very fast, so the pauses between letters are very quick. I don't think there is a pause between words--you figure that out after you have figured out the letters in the message.

Answer 3

Morse Code Tapping

Answer 4

Explaining this to you without proper training, would be like trying to explain to a blind man what the color red looks like.

My training was in the military and I am not sure where you could get training as a civilian.

Morris code is still in use in emergency conditions because of the long range that is provided by continuous wave ( CW ) transmission, as opposed to amplitude modulation ( AM ) or frequency modulation ( FM ).

There is a big difference between military morris code and a telegraph operator. Military code uses a continuous wave, know as CW, and when you do a dot or dit, you just tap it, sounds like dit, when you do a dash, you hold the key down just a little longer and the sound is like diiii, which we would call a dash or dah.

A telegraph operator works on the spacing between clicks.

When you do the letter A ( dot dash) slight pause
Next word Dog (dash dot dot) (dash dash dash) (dash dash dot), slight pause and so on. When you learn the code, you pronounce it dit and dah instead of dot and dash. It is easier and faster to say.

You develop a rhythm and after you know the code, you learn to recognize a word at a time. When you get fast enough, you learn to type a word behind. You listen to dog and are just now typing the letter A.

When you get good enough to work with a speed key, then you are getting good.

Good luck,

Darryl S.

Answer 5

I had a chance to listen to a replica of a telegraph sounder for a while. It made a click down and a similar clack up. It takes a bit of ear-training to listen to the clicks instead of the traditional CW tones, but you can down-up movement of the relay by the click-clack sounds.

If I were tapping out Morse code, I would do it in a similar fashion with a quick double-knuckle rap to represent a "dit" and a slower-spaced double-rap to represent a "dah". Do this while picturing the down-up movement of the telegraph sounder and it should make sense.

This method would be more difficult to tap out with a single instrument (like a hammer), but would avoid the confusion that you are describing.

Answer 6

It's already out there.