Morse code has been used for communication for centuries. The system of dots and dashes was used in emergency situations and still has its use today. This article is intended for everyone who wants to learn it and is interested in its history.
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Morse code today
If you thought that Morse code is a thing of the past today, you are mistaken. Amateur radio enthusiasts still use it today. Even in America, until 2007, everyone who wanted to obtain an amateur radio license had to know it. It is still just as useful in emergency situations among soldiers and sailors.
If you would like to use Morse code yourself, all it takes is a bit of determination and a desire to learn the meaning of the basic signals.
Become a communication expert
These codes can save your life if you find yourself in danger, without any possibility of communication. Probably everyone knows the abbreviation used in such situations. Three dots, three dashes and three dots again SOS. If you needed to use this signal, make a small pause between the characters so that potential receivers know it is a call for help.
You can transmit Morse code using a whistle, a flashlight, a signal mirror, or a radio.
5 basic steps to learning the basics of coding
1. Learn the meaning of the basic signals
As we have already mentioned, Morse code consists of two signal units, a dot and a dash/line. First, you need to make sure you know what the individual characters look like, and whether you can distinguish them in text as well. Simply put, a dot is a classic dot „.“ and a dash is a horizontal line „-“.
2. Listen to the alphabet
The best method of learning Morse code is listening to and reading specific codes. It is a longer process, but it is the most effective one. Try following the previous step to see if you can distinguish the individual characters. You can do this, for example, here.
3. Dichotomous search tree
This tree should help you decipher the codes. You need to start where it says „start“. Every time you hear a beep (dit), move down and to the right. When you hear a long sound (dah), move down and to the left.
4. Practice, practice, practice
You can train using translators, in two ways: by entering a code or a word in Slovak. There is also an excellent tool from Google for practicing Morse code. You can also download it to your phone, so you can train anytime and anywhere.
5. Use aids
If you have trouble remembering individual codes, here is another aid.
- Some letters are, on the contrary, opposites (for example, A is the opposite of N).
- The letters T and E have codes that are one symbol long.
- The letters A, I, M and N consist of 2-symbol codes.
- The letters D, G, K, O, R, S, U, W consist of 3-symbol codes.
- The letters B, C, F, H, J, L, P, Q, V, X, Y, Z consist of codes that have four characters
The origin of Morse code
Morse code as a communication system was developed by Samuel F. B. Morse, who started working on his electric telegraph as early as 1832 and developed the first practical system in 1844. His technology, however, was not patented until five years later.
Samuel Morse was a trained American painter who traveled around Europe for further education in this field. In 1832, during his journey back to America, he met on board the ship a physicist called Jackson. During the voyage, he entertained the passengers and crew with his amusing toys involving electricity and electromagnets. Morse was fascinated by the magnetic force of electricity.
Even though he worked as a professor of painting at a university in New York, he still had in mind the idea of building a telegraph. The goal was to enable faster communication between distant places. He was probably led to this idea also by the announcement of his wife's death in 1825, which he received too late and thus missed her funeral.
In the end, he succeeded in building the telegraph in 1832. As for the language of transmission, the Morse code, Morse had a somewhat different idea. His original idea was for it to work on the principle of signals, to which a numberbelonged, and at the same time a word assigned to this number in a dictionary, e.g. the word England had the number 252 assigned in Morse's dictionary.
Subsequently, the receiver of the transmission had to use the dictionary to translate the numbers into words. This turned out to be too complicated and time-consuming a process. The code therefore needed to be extended to letters and punctuation.
Short notches indicated „dots“ and longer ones „dashes“
The original system of this telegraph consisted of a device at the end of the receiver that produced a strip of paper with indentations on it. Short notches indicated „dots“ and longer ones were „dashes“. Later, once they had ironed out the errors and come up with new tricks, they got rid of the paper tape and deciphered the codes by ear. An important user was a boy named Andrew Carnegie, who worked as a telegraph operator. He stood out from the others in that he was able to learn to decipher Morse code by ear.
„What Hath God Wrought“
It was the year 1844, when Morse appeared before Congress. Here he wanted to demonstrate his discovery, his device, to the board. The first public message he delivered to the people, and at the same time the first message to travel a great distance, was from Washington DC to Baltimore. This happened on May 24, 1844. The meaning of the coded Morse message was: „What Hath God Wrought“.
It was an amazing advancement, because for the first time in the history of mankind, it was shown that communication over great distances was possible. As we know, until then, conversations between people were conducted face to face or they used drums, smoke signals, or written words for that purpose.
The advances that Morse code achieved
In 1844, which is 10 years after the opening of the first telegraph line, there passed across the country more than 23,000 miles of telegraphic lines. The development of the American West relied precisely on the combination of the telegraph and Morse code. It was first used by railroad companies. They used it to secure communication between their stations and significantly shortened the time needed to receive information.
Later, in 1890, radio communication was invented. There, Morse code took on the task of transmitting messages at sea. As radio frequencies grew longer, the codes became more and more of an international means of communication. Eventually, the need arose for an international standard code. Therefore, in 1912, the international Morse code was adopted. Despite these advances, many telegraph companies and railroads continued to use the old railroad alphabet.
The aforementioned „dots“ and „dashes“ became extremely important in maritime transport and aviation. Until the 1990s, all pilots had to know how to communicate using Morse code.
