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Think in a day to day situation first thing to learn would be ground to air hand / body signals Used them once to indicate medical help needed then a"think it safe to land here" signal for the air ambulance in the woods

i got to the large grass car park with a few mates we cleared it and kept it as secure as we could so he could land safely (even then there is always one clever person who just has to drive in and park up fortunately by then a pc had turned up as it was getting heated)


(pilot got out and thanked me as most people wave to them as they are been friendly OR needing help, But my clear signals let him know that we needed help and were not been "friendly" ) a normal wave means "all is well" and where i thought it was safe to land

Captain Darling wrote:Morse is used in Latin American countries and heavily used in sub Saharan Africa and the Pacific islands. Its easy to learn and systems to handle it are cheap and easy to establish and run.

Verbal Morse (ie people saying dit and dah) in particular is utilised due to regional/tribal accents and pidgin languages.

what is the average for learning it do you think, the average time i mean and how to get the speed up.

The time taken to learn code varies from person to person and how much time they spend on learning it. short sessions are the recommended method of about 20 to 30 minutes a session. Some people never learn it, some are very fast. practice practice practice is the key. the more you practice the better you become. Do not try sending until you can read around 12 words a minute.

Hamradioop wrote:The time taken to learn code varies from person to person and how much time they spend on learning it. short sessions are the recommended method of about 20 to 30 minutes a session. Some people never learn it, some are very fast. practice practice practice is the key. the more you practice the better you become. Do not try sending until you can read around 12 words a minute.

Some seem to have a mental block with it, not many I think but a good friend of mine who was also a communciator in the Navy was 'classified' unofficially morse blind. As you say, practice, practice, practice.

As with anything you want to get good at instinctively, near constant exposure. Navy communications technicians I've worked with did 3, 2hr lessons a week for 14 weeks on top of the regular training program we were on.

Captain Darling wrote:As with anything you want to get good at instinctively, near constant exposure. Navy communications technicians I've worked with did 3, 2hr lessons a week for 14 weeks on top of the regular training program we were on.

CT's weren't 'proper' communicators, I'm not dissing them in any way, its just that they don't tend to communicate as such. The one's I've worked with were more linguists, I didn't know they still did morse (I know historically they did, I know a couple of guys who went across to specialise in the morse side). As I'm sure you're aware they don't exactly listen out on our circuits. I've worked with the RAF equivalent too.

Looking back, I'm not sure a 2 hour lesson would be that productive, 2 hour lessons of it would turn most people off, you'd definitely want a beer or two after it.

Is this your area too then Cap'n ????

The met office was using Morse code certainly in 1981 to communicate between the UK and Malta for thunderstom bearings. in the med.

The only method of comms that will get through the toughtest of conditions.
Learning morse is one thing but being able to RX it more than 5wpm is another.... Average speed of 'live' on air morse should be around 12wpm. Learning to this level with punctuation and numbers mixed in and your talking months of full time practice even years.

QUAID wrote:The only method of comms that will get through the toughtest of conditions.
Learning morse is one thing but being able to RX it more than 5wpm is another.... Average speed of 'live' on air morse should be around 12wpm. Learning to this level with punctuation and numbers mixed in and your talking months of full time practice even years.

Morse speed is very prone to 'skill fade' without practice, its not something you tend to dabble with, you either do it or don't. I can't remember if I passed out at 20 or 22 WPM but the first time I used it I was down to about 14's 6 months later. I started picking up again and it was a 2 week exercise so by the end of it I was back up to 18's (the highest that we were allowed to TX/RX officially I think) but dropped off again until the next time I was regularly using it. We were supposed to keep up to speed with weekly training but it got more or less ignored. All ancient history now, I was still using flashing light a couple of years ago and while I was supposed to be at 10 WPM I'd say I was at 6/8 WPM with any kind of consistency. Visual is a LOT slower than audible though.

I really enjoyed it at the time and I hope others do too, whether just for fun or as a Ham. Personally I see it as a curiosity now but one I'm happy to be one I'm familiar with.

I learned with a couple of apps. Now around 8-10 wpm. It's kind of fun to work with the apps, and nice to have this information. Who knows if it will ever come in handy.