Training Morse Code

Who, When, Why, and How

 What is Morse Code?
Most people are familiar with the general
concept of Morse Code
 It is a method of communicating that is
composed of two “symbols”
Dit – spelled “*”
Dah – Spelled “-”
 But just what are these symbols?
 What is Morse Code?
Tom King, from the University of
Wisconsin – Eau Claire refers to Morse as
a “language”
 Languages are “words, methods of combining
them used and understood by a community.
 Morse does not properly fit this definition,
since the words used are the same as in the
enclosing language
 What is Morse Code?
Morse may be thought of as an alphabet
 Alphabets are sets signs or symbols used as
equivalents for letters
 Morse symbols are used to spell letters in
order to form words in the English language.
 Language Representation
Written languages are a trade-off between
the amount of information conveyed in a
single symbol and the number of symbols
that must be used.
 Language Representation
Information theory says that information is
derived from the amount of uncertainty in
a situation.
 When there are many options, there is a great
deal of uncertainty in the situation, and each
symbol contains more information.
 When there are only a few options, each
symbol conveys less information, because
there is less uncertainty
 Language Representation
Using this model, Chinese pictograms
contain a great deal of information,
because there are so many of them
 An educated Mandarin must know around
7000 symbols
 Language Representation
European alphabets contain between 20
and 30 symbols
 each symbol conveys a moderate amount of
information
 Language Representation
Morse Code contains only two symbols
 Each symbol conveys very little information.
 Language Representation
The number of symbols required to convey
a concept varies inversely with the
information carried by each symbol
 In Mandarin, many concepts can be
expressed in a single symbol, resulting in a
compact language
 In English, the average word length is around
5 symbols
 In Morse, the average word is around 15
symbols long
 Language Representation
The number of symbols
must be balanced
against the difficulty of
creating a single
symbol
 In Mandarin, symbols
are sometimes very
complex, and changes
in strokes can change
the meaning
 Language Representation
In English, each symbol is easier to make,
but more must be used
 Language Representation
In Morse, each symbol is very easy to use,
but more must be used to convey
information.
 Originally, the Morse symbols were designed
for easy transmission with primitive
communications technology
 For computers, it is the easy of creating
symbols that makes Morse a desirable
method of generating text.
 Language Representation
In addition to being the Morse alphabet
being easy to produce, the Words of the
Morse language (letters in English) have
spellings that are based on how frequently
they are used.
 Language Representation
When Morse originally created his code,
he recognized that some letters (e & t for
example) are used much more often that
others (Q and Z for example)
 Language Representation
He assigned the shortest codes to the
most frequently used letters, so that
overall productivity goes up.
 Language Representation
For example, Dickens’ “American Notes”
contains 352,406 letters
 In un-optimized code, this would result in
1,111,434 symbols to generate in Morse
 In actual Morse, the novel could be written
with 893,266 symbols, for a savings of about
20%!
 Language Representation
Several features of Morse would make this
task even easier that it seems:
 For two-switch Morse, multiple symbols (a
row of dits or dahs) can be generated with a
single switch activation
 Who Should Use Morse?
Within the access hierarchy, anyone who
can access a physical keyboard with
fluency will find it faster or easier than
Morse
 This includes
Expanded Keyboards
Standard keyboards
Minikeyboards
 Who Should Use Morse?
With modern technology, in an
environment that supports it, speech input
will generally be faster, but not easier than
Morse
 The client must have consistent speech and
good breath support
 The client must have good cognition (better
than that required for Morse)
 The client be in an environment where
constant talking will not distract others
 Who Should Use Morse?
A person who has difficulty with new
learning may find Morse difficult to
remember, and should use an input
method with fewer cognitive demands
 On-screen keyboards draw on old learning,
when available
 On-screen keyboards show all options at
once, so may be easier for many people than
Morse
 Who Should Use Morse?
The person with only a single motor site,
and without the ability to performed times
movements will not be able to use Morse
 Who Should Use Morse?
So, who is left?
 Clients with limited ROM and/or limited fine
motor control
 Clients with ability to learn new concepts
 Clients with “good” thinking skills
Able to read at 3rd grade level
Note: This may be a conservative standard!
 Who Should Use Morse?
Conventional thinking about Morse Code
considers it only for language applications
 Morse can also be used in leisure and EADL
applications
 Even the client who cannot learn Morse with
the fluency to write can learn enough Morse
for some leisure and environmental control
applications.
 This is a valid application, even if some other
tool must be used for writing!
 Why use Morse?
It’s fast!
 Typical users using sip & puff switches may
reach typing speeds of 20 to 25 words per
minute
 Compare this with typical on-screen keyboard
speeds of 15 to 20 wpm!
 Why use Morse?
It is transparent
 Nearly all input methods for people with
disabilities require a degree of attention
This can be termed “cognitive overhead”
It is mental power that is not available to the task
at hand.
 Proficient users of Morse Code say that “they”
do not know the code. They just think words,
and they appear on the screen.
This is similar to the process of touch typing,
where your fingers know the keys.
 Why use Morse?
Morse code can be come completely
automatic
 This means that there is virtually no cognitive
overhead once it is learned.
 Isn’t Morse Hard to Learn?
Learning Morse Code is like learning to
touch type, as opposed to “hunt and peck”
techniques like on-screen keyboards
 There is a certain amount of work that goes
into learning to touch type
 When you first start learning, it seems very
difficult, and slower than hunt-and-peck typing
 You have to learn a lot before you even start!
 Isn’t Morse Hard to Learn?
Once you have learned to touch type,
almost no-one goes back to hunt-and-peck
typing
 This is because it is actually easier (once
learned)
 It is faster
 It is more efficient
 Isn’t Morse Hard to Learn?
Like Touch Typing, learning Morse Code is
an investment in the client’s future.
 Once the time and energy is invested, it will
be paid back many times over, for the rest of
the client’s life!
 How hard is Morse?
Many clinicians in school system practice
will say that they would not consider
teaching Morse to a young child because it
is too difficult.
They would allow the child to use a less
efficient method until fourth or fifth grade,
then consider changing to Morse
 How hard is Morse?
In the first four or five years, the child has
learned to become frustrated at the
difficulty of writing!
 How hard is Morse?
But, consider:
 Developmentally, children first learn to
“scribble”
 Next they learn to produce horizontal lines
 Next, they learn to scribble vertical lines
 Next they learn crosses
 Finally, they learn diagonals.
 How hard is Morse?
Now, consider the process in teaching a
child to generate the character “A”
 First, the child must make a diagonal stroke
 Next, the child must make a matching
diagonal stroke, touching at the top!
 Finally, the child must make a horizontal
stroke, starting at one diagonal, ending at the
other.
 How hard is Morse?
Compare this to the process for making an
“A” using Morse code, with two switches
 First, the child presses and releases one
switch
 Next the child presses and releases the
second switch
 How hard is Morse?
Yet, we feel that the first is a reasonable
activity for the child in kindergarten, and
the second is too hard!
 How hard is Morse?
There are, of course, some differences:
 In written language, the movement pattern
“looks” like the letter to be produced.
This supports eye-hand coordination
 In Morse, the movement pattern doesn’t
resemble the desired outcome.
This is similar to the issues of keyboarding, where
the movement patterns are not like the letters
produced.
But, again, we start children keyboarding in the
first grade, and think Morse is too hard!
 How hard is Morse?
I suggest that Morse should be started, for
the child with significant disabilities, at the
same age that typically developing
children are learning to make letters with a
pencil!
 This avoids learned helplessness
 It also allows the child the maximum
opportunities to participate in the curriculum.
 Morse and Timing
The standard Morse definition for single
switch Morse code is that:
 A dit is the basic unit of measure, and each
sender may have a different dit length
 A “dah” is three dits long. That is, to produce
a “dah”, the switch must be held down three
times as long as for a dit.
 The space between parts of a letter is one dit
 The space between letters is 1 dah
 The space between words is 7 dits
 Morse and Timing
Note that this is for radio Morse, which
doesn’t have characters for spaces
In computer Morse, the space for end of
letter is five dits (generally), and words are
separated by space characters
 Morse and Timing
For two switch Morse, dits and dahs can
be the same length of switch closure,
since there is no ambiguity about which
switch was pressed.
But, for both one and two switch Morse,
the sender must be able to produce switch
closures at a repeatable rate.
 Morse and Timing
If the client cannot produce switch
closures with repeatable timing, then one
and two-switch Morse are not options
For this client, you can use three switch
Morse, which removes the need for timing!
 Morse and Sound
Virtually all Morse code products for
computer access generate tones when a
switch is closed.
 Morse and Sound
This tone, called a “side tone,” is vital to
the learning of Morse
 Morse and Sound
In some settings, where the noise may be a
distraction, some might be tempted to turn it off.
 Don’t do it!
 If the environment won’t tolerate the sound of the
side-tone, provide the user with earphones so that the
sound doesn’t distract others, but is available to the
sender.
The sound is essential because the user learns
code as sound patterns, or tunes.
 Without the tunes, code is much harder to learn.
Computer Morse Vs. Radio Morse
In 1980, Al Ross, at the University of
Washington created a communication
system using Morse Code
This code was later included in the
Adaptive Firmware Card, for the Apple II
computer
Computer Morse Vs. Radio Morse
When code was being used for
communication via electronic devices,
some additions were necessary
 Standard Morse includes the letters, numbers,
period, end of work, and end of message
codes
 For computers, you need some additional
codes, for punctuation, shift keys, and such
Computer Morse Vs. Radio Morse
To add then necessary codes, Al used the
unassigned codes, and arbitrarily gave
them meanings
 There was no effort to optimize these codes,
because the relative frequency of “%” versus
“&” is generally unimportant
Computer Morse Vs. Radio Morse
Each subsequent developer of a Morse
product used the same technique (random
assignment) to extend standard Morse
As a result, each Morse product has
slightly different codes for the extension
characters
Computer Morse Vs. Radio Morse
To help manage this chaos, Morse 2000
Outreach published a “standard computer
Morse” definition in the hopes that future
developers would use the standard, and
order could be imposed
Computer Morse Vs. Radio Morse
For now, it is vital that clients be trained on
the version of Morse that will be used in
the classroom
 Note: some products allow Morse to be
defined, so that different standards can be
trained on the same product, within limits
 Sending Vs. Receiving
Most of the information available about
Morse training comes from ham radio
operators
 In order to have an advanced ham license,
the operator must be able to send Morse in
excess of 13 wpm.
 Sending Vs. Receiving
Much of this information also focuses on
“receiving” Morse, rather than sending it
 Recognition of Morse is nearly as important
for computer access as it is for Ham radio
operators.
 Sending Vs. Receiving
Morse Code is not “perceived” as
individual elements by experienced users,
it is perceived as tunes.
 This is important for the process of learning
as well as the process of sending
 Sending Vs. Receiving
A person who is trying to learn Morse code
should practice tune recognition as well as
switch operation.
This “tune recognition” will become
important when we discuss training
techniques
 Tunes, when played at different speeds, may
not be recognizable as the same.
Character Speed Vs Word Speed
When we talk about Morse training, we
usually talk about the “words per minute”
being typed
Character Speed Vs Word Speed
There are actually two rates that must be
considered in Morse training
 Rate at which an individual character is
generated
 Rate at which a string of characters is
generated
Each of these rates is important, but in
different ways
 The Farnsworth Method
The Farnsworth method was developed to
teach Morse to radio operators, but
applies equally well (perhaps better) for
computer users.
In this method, the characters are learned
at a rate that matches the ultimate sending
goal (arbitrarily set at 18 WPM), with
extended spacing between letters
 The Farnsworth Method
This is used because of what we know
about “tune recognition”
 At different speeds, tunes may not be
recognized as the same
 When a tune is learned at a slow speed, it is
very difficult to speed it up
 So, it’s better to learn the “tunes” at the rate at
which they will be used.
 The Farnsworth Method
The Farnsworth Method was developed
for able-bodied radio operators. How can
we adapt it for clients with limited motor
skills?
 Adapted Farnsworth
Step one – Can the client use two
switches reliably?
 This must be assessed carefully.
 Are there two functional motor sites that do
not interfer with other activities?
 Must be able to activate in isolation
 Must be able to activate repeatedly
 Must be able to activate over long periods of
time
 Adapted Farnsworth
Can the client activate these motor sites at
a consistent rate?
 You might need to evaluate this using a
metronome or other ticker
 For some clients, activating the site may
produce motor overflow that is of variable
duration
 Connect the switch to a beeper, then have the
client keep time with the metronome
 Adapted Farnsworth
After the sites are tested in isolation, try
them together
 Again, with a metronome, have the client
activate one switch on “tick” and the second
on “tock”
 Adapted Farnsworth
If the client cannot keep time with the
metronome at any speed, you will need to
consider three switch Morse
 Try to find a third switch site that can be used
separately from the previous two, then skip
ahead
 Adapted Farnsworth
Establish a switch rate
 Once the client can keep time with the
metronome, accelerate the rate slowly
 Try to find the highest rate at which the client
is able to keep time with the metronome
 This will be the target rate for sending Morse
code
 Note that we have not even looked at code
yet!
 Adapted Farnsworth
To convert ticks to words per minute:
 The “standard word” for Morse Code is “Paris”
This word is standard because it has the average
number of letters per word, and the average
number of Morse elements per word.
 “Paris” is 50 ticks long
 Divide the “beats per minute” that the client
can match with the metronome and divide by
50 to find the target words per minute
 Adapted Farnsworth
Use this rate, from the beginning, as the
“character send rate.”
 The character send rate determines the timing
of elements within a single character, and is
separate from the timing between characters
in a word
 Adapted Farnsworth
Depending on the Morse product, you will
need to adjust the “valid switch delay”
setting to this target rate
Once this rate is established, the client will
use the spacing for all Morse training,
even from the very beginning
 Learning the Codes
The general pattern for learning Morse
code, as used by radio operators, is to
learn the letters that are related
There are two different approaches that
are commonly used
 Visual
 Auditory
 Learning Code Visually
The key concept here is that codes are
represented by images that help to
remember the codes
Several systems exist
We’ll look at two
 Stoney Creek Morse Code
Code Image Cue
ONE DOT: O--- Think of the dot
(letter E) | in the upper left
|--- hand corner of
the E.
|
|---
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

TWO DOTS: /-----\ /-----\ Think of two

(letter I) | O | | O | human eyes
\-----/ \-----/ (hence, the
letter I). the
pupils are the
dots.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

THREE DOTS: /--O--- Three dots

(letter S) | running down
\--O--\ the middle of the
letter help you
|
remember the
---O--/ letter S.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

FOUR DOTS: O O The four dots in

(letter H) |---| the four corners
O O of the letter help
you remember
the letter H.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

ONE DASH: XXXXXXXXX The heavy bar

(letter T) | across the top
| of the letter T
helps you
|
associate the
| one dash with
it.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

TWO DASHES: X\ /X The two heavy

(letter M) X \ / X bars on the
X \ / X sides help you
remember the
X \/ X
two dashes for
X X the letter M.
X X
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

THREE /--------\ The three bars

DASHES: XXXXXXXXXX for the letter O
(letter O) |X X| form a triangle
within the O
| X X |
itself.
| X X |
\---XX---/
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

ONE DOT, ONE O The dot and dash

DASH: / \ that represent the
(letter A) / \ letter A make it
easy to remember
XXXXXXX
when displayed
/ \ this way.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

TWO DOTS, O O Two dots at the

ONE DASH: | | ends, a heavy
(letter U) | | bar across the
middle.
XXXXXX
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

THREE DOTS, O O It looks similar to the

ONE DASH: \/ U, but has three
(letter V) \ / dots on the letter
and a bar
O
underneath it.
XXXXXXX
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH-DOT- XX Kind of a "caveman

DASH-DOT: style" writing C using
XX
just straight lines (like it
(letter C) XX were being carved into
O something). Make sure
they also remember the
XX
dots after the lines.
XX
XX
O
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH-DASH- The easiest way to

DOT-DASH: remember this is
(letter Q) through the phrase
"PAY DAY TO DAY",
where the "-ay" words
(the longer words) are
dashes, and the "TO"
(the shorter word) is the
dot.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH-DOT: |XX | /-----\ Use the word

| XX | | O |
(letter N) "NO", with the
| XX | | |
dash in the N
| XX| \-----/
and the dot in
the middle of
the O.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue
/----- XXXXXXX XXXXXXX |----\
DASH- | | | | | | \ Use the word
DASH- | --\
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| O |
| /
GOOD, with
DOT: the dashes on
\----/ \-----/ \-----/ |----/
(letter G) top of the O's
and the dot in
the middle of
the D, to
represent G.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DOT- /---\______/---\ The dots are

DASH-DOT: / O XXXXXX O \ the wheels and
(letter R) the dash is the
Remember body.
this picture of
a
ROADSTER:
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DOT- ___________ Think of a

DASH- ___| | picture of a
DOT-DOT: | O XXXXXX O O | truck GOING
(letter L) LEFT
Remember, it is
GOING LEFT.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DOT-DOT- ___________ The same truck

DASH-DOT: | |___ that was going
(letter F) | O O XXXXXX O | left before is
NOW GOING
FORWARD.
Remember, this
one's GOING
FORWARD.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DOT- XXXXXX|-------\ Think of a two-

| \
DASH- handled
DASH: XXXXXX|---------O WHEELBARRO
(letter W) W (this isn't too
good of a
picture of it, but
I'm sure you
can
improvise....)
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DOT- XXXXXX|-------\ This is a THREE-

DASH- XXXXXX| \ HANDLED
WHEELBARROW,
DASH- XXXXXX|---------O
and represents "J"
DASH: because this was
(letter J) made by a JERK who
didn't know what he
was doing!
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH- X------O A picture of the

DOT-DOT- letter B, with the
X |
dash being the
DOT: X /| straight line at the
(letter B) X----O left, and each of
the dots being at
X \| the right end of the
X | letter.
X------O
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH- X-----O The same idea

DOT-DOT: X \ as the B above,
(letter D) X | only with two
dots instead of
X |
the three.
X /
X-----O
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH- XXX XXX Think of this as

XXX XXX
DOT-DOT- the picture of
XXX----XXX
DASH: | | the face of an
(letter X) | O O | OX. The two
\ / horns are the
\_~~_/ dashes, and his
~~ two eyes are
the dots.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH- XXX XXX The letter Y is

XXX XXX composed entirely of
DOT-
XXX XXX the dots and dashes.
DASH- O Think of it as building
DASH: X up the letter Y from the
(letter Y) X bottom to the top. You
X start with the first dash,
X then add the dot, then
finally add the other two
dashes.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH- ------|------ This of this as the

/| | |\
SKALE (not scale) of
DOT-DASH: / | | | \ Justice. The
(letter K) / | | | \ misspelling will help it
/ | | | \ stick in your mind.
XXXXXX | XXXXXX The first dash is the
| plate on the left side,
the dot on the base at
O
the bottom, and the
second dash the plate
on the right side.
 Stoney Creek Morse
Code Image Cue

DASH- XXXXXXXX XX All the dots and dashes put

XX together Crudely represent
DASH-DOT- the letter Z. Also, think of
XX
DOT: XX
Zorro taking his sword out
and slashing the letter in the
(letter Z) XX O O dirt on the ground. He starts
at the top, does the second
dash, and decides to get
fancy with the two dots.
 Mulitmedia Morse
Multimedia Morse Trainer is a tool
developed by the Darci Institute, which
may be downloaded from
http://www.darci.org
Like Stoney Creek Morse, it relies on
visual imagery to help the learner
remember codes
 Weakness of Visual Code
It is sometimes argued that learning code
visually ultimately slows down the learner
 To produce a letter, the user must
visualize the image
Decode the image
Translate the image to auditory
Produce the auditory signal
 Weakness of Visual Code
By learning the codes as auditory patterns,
the initial steps are skipped
It is for this reason that most Ham
operators learn code first auditorially, and
many never bother to learn a visual
representation, other than dit and dah!
 Strength of visual code
The learner can begin typing immediately,
and picks up speed over time
Infrequent letters can be cued as needed
via a chart, or from memory
Human visual pattern recognition is
generally pretty good
 Auditory Learning of Code
In auditory learning, the focus is on audio
patterns
 For single switch Morse, these are short and
long tones
 For two switch Morse, these are high and low
tones
Note, for almost all Morse input products, the high
tone is “dit.”
However, this is not required.
 Auditory Learning of Code
Should learn Morse characters at a rate
that matches the expected send rate.
Traditionally, auditory Morse has been
produced by audio tapes
 This process allows learning Radio Morse in a
“real” environment
 Doesn’t allow adjustment of the character
rate!
 Auditory Learning of Code
Can use computer programs to generate
practice Morse
 Most computer programs allow adjustment of
character rate as well as word rate
 Does it really matter?
In practice, once a person reaches
fluency, the difference between auditory
and visual code probably doesn’t matter.
 Experienced users have managed to learn
visually and auditorially.
 Both methods produce good users.