Morse Code?

Morse code is a communication method for transmitting letters and numbers as a series on/off signals. The signals can be communicated with sound, light or characters.

Morse code uses two characters, a short and a long often referred to as “dots” and “dashes” or “dits” and “dahs”.

Every character in the alphabet has a unique sequence of dots and dashes in morse code. Morse code sequences are followed by a short silence to denote the end of the character sequence.

The shortest unit in morse code is the dot character. The dash character is the same duration as three dot characters. The space between morse code sequence characters is the same duration as a dot character. The space between letters is the same duration as three dot characters. The space between words is the same duration as seven dot characters.

Morse code speed is measured in words per minute. Since characters have varying lengths when represented in morse code, a standard word length was chosen to measure words per minute. Two benchmark words are “PARIS” or “CODEX”. Each of these words has a length equal to 50 dot characters.

Various fields that use morse code have devised abbreviations for common messages known as prosigns and QCodes.

For example, “...-.” represents the characters ‘S’ and ‘N’. When these codes are played together without a space between them, they have another meaning, in this case the prosign meaning: “Understood”.

QCodes all start with the letter Q and are used in amateur radio, aeronautics, radiotelegraphy and maritime. For example, “--.-.-....-” represents that characters ‘Q’, ‘R’ and ‘V’. When coded together they have another meaning: “Are you ready?”.