it's tough to learn, but for anyone (ham license or not) wanting to learn the code, then go to this free site: (link)..scroll down to lesson one..

www.hamwhisperer.com

I had to learn that in A school while in the Navy. All I remember is ...---...!

We learned Morse Code in the transition from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. I send a note to a classmate in the 5th grade, in Morse Code. The teacher intercepted it, wanted to read it aloud in class. She wasn't expecting dots and dashes, made her quite unhappy with us.

^^^^^^
Yea, I remember learning that for Boy Scouts, too.

I found this really helpful.

i'm going to try and learn this morse code,thanks for sharing it ontmark.

I remember hearing it on a lot of radio channels on my all-band radio when I was a kid in the 60's. I assumed it was marine messages, but not knowing Morse Code I had no way of knowing.

I should have had my Dad listen. He was a radio operator on B24's in WWII and knew it well.

I used to be able to run 20 wpm but not anymore. Pretty confident I could get it back up there if I wanted to. _._

what i never understood is -- what if you 'miss' one or two dots or dashes...

it would throw off the whole message as you are 'out of synch', right ??

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quote:

Originally posted by Krazeehorse:
I used to be able to run 20 wpm but not anymore. Pretty confident I could get it back up there if I wanted to. _._

Yes, it would not take you too long, and then up to 25-30 wpm where most ops run at. At least this is what I have seen over the years regarding former high speed morse code operators.

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
what i never understood is -- what if you 'miss' one or two dots or dashes...

it would throw off the whole message as you are 'out of synch', right ??

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Depends. You can can fill in in a lot of instances - based on words. I did it when I took my 5 wpm test years ago.

Not much different than when people misspell words.

I studied and took the code test the weekend before the code requirement expired. At a local ham fest there was a lineup to get in.

Took my two try’s to get it.

I sound like to learn it again - definitely is an art we are rapidly losing.

What really aggravated me in the service was talking to one of our morse code intercept operators while he was intercepting code. He could do both at the same time.

Had it back in the scouts, I was surprised I was pretty good at. Not sure now if I had to learn it.

We're going to need it to beat the aliens in Independence Day.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
I studied and took the code test the weekend before the code requirement expired. At a local ham fest there was a lineup to get in.

...

You had to go to an FCC field office to be tested by an FCC examiner back when I was licensed. I went to an office in New York City which I believe was on Christopher Street.

The examiner was wearing a short-sleeved white shirt with a pocket protector full of pens and a black tie. Despite the fact that CW was my favorite mode and the FCC examiner was very encouraging, I remember it being a rather intimidating experience.

Talk about coincidences, I have a fondness for good keys and just received the one pictured below. It's handmade and sadly, despite great packaging, the skirt portion of the navy knob was damaged in transit so I'll have to get that sorted. It uses neodymium magnets rather than a spring and has a great action even without the skirt. Now I just need to get a replacement up for the 15m antenna which was wiped out in a storm.

Great Morse Code scene in The Current War (2017). From the mouths of babes ...

JAllens wife sent me his code keyer - I have it on my desk but its not connected to anything yet

quote:

Originally posted by p.d.:
I had to learn that in A school while in the Navy. All I remember is ...---...!

Morse Code was my job in the USAF and I too learned it in Tech (A) school. Did you learn at Ft. Hauchuca?

Bainbridge, Maryland. When I got to the fleet I found out the only place we still used it was Hong Kong. And when we got to Hong Kong, RM1 Oden grabbed the key. He enjoyed it and was darn good at it.