Morse code, often referred to as continuous wave (CW) in radio circles, has been gradually falling out of use for a long time now. At least in the United States, ham radio licensees don’t have to learn it anymore, and the US Coast Guard stopped using it even for emergencies in 1999. It does have few niche use cases, though, as it requires an extremely narrow bandwidth and a low amount of power to get a signal out and a human operator can usually distinguish it even if the signal is very close to the noise floor. So if you want to try and learn it, you might want to try something like this Morse trainer from [mircemk].
While learning CW can be quite tedious, as [mircemk] puts it, it’s actually fairly easy for a computer to understand and translate so not a lot of specialized equipment is needed. This build is based around the Arduino Nano which is more than up for the job. It can accept input from any audio source, allowing it to translate radio transmissions in real time, and can also be connected to a paddle or key to be used as a trainer for learning the code. It’s also able to count the words-per-minute rate of whatever it hears and display it on a small LCD at the front of the unit which also handles displaying the translations of the Morse code.
If you need a trainer that’s more compact for on-the-go CW, though, take a look at this wearable Morse code device based on the M5StickC Plus instead.
“Morse code, often referred to as continuous wave (CW) in radio circles, has been gradually falling out of use for a long time now. ”
That’s the situation, sadly. And it angers me almost daily. It’s like saying DB-9 to a DE-9 plug all day.
The correct term would be “telegraphy” or “morse telegraphy”.
Back in the 70s/80s/90s, that term was still being heard on air occasionally.
Unfortunately, hams have gotten so stubborn/lazy that they always say “CW” to anything morse code, even in a historic context (damped waves were not continues wave signals).
This may sound like nitpicking, sure, but it also is a matter of competence.
I do know of hams who don’t understand that CW, at its heart, refers to a sinusoidal carrier wave.
A very simple-minded ham I know of always calls it (CW) “Dauerstrich” (permanent dash).
He thinks of a microwave oven’s magnetron/klystron or something and how it’s being driven.
Even after repeatingly explaining to him what a carrier wave is, he fails to get to the point.
I hope you understand why this causes some frustration to me.
“On/off keying” would be closer to what hams mean, but that is hard to communicate I’m afraid (keyed carrier without modulation; A1A in German docs) .
Saying just “morse” or “code” would be more universal, maybe. It also includes modulated morse code (A2A in German docs).
It is a Continuous Wave when it’s being transmitted.
The C bit refers to the W not being modulated.
Hi, I think the Wikipedia articles explain it surprisingly well here.
“A damped wave was an early method of radio transmission produced by the first radio transmitters (spark gap transmitters) which consisted of a series of damped radio waves. Information was carried on this signal by telegraphy, turning the transmitter on and off (on-off keying) to send messages in Morse code. Damped waves were the first practical means of radio communication, used during the wireless telegraphy era which ended around 1920. In radio engineering it is now generally referred to as “Class B” emission. [..]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damped_wave_(radio_transmission)
“[..] By extension, the term continuous wave also refers to an early method of radio transmission in which a sinusoidal carrier wave is switched on and off. This is more precisely called interrupted continuous wave (ICW).[2] Information is carried in the varying duration of the on and off periods of the signal, for example by Morse code in early radio. In early wireless telegraphy radio transmission, CW waves were also known as “undamped waves”, to distinguish this method from damped wave signals produced by earlier spark gap type transmitters. [..]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_wave
I went back and forth a lot about even to reply to this but maybe it is helpful.
I’ll make it as polite as possible: I would approach this differently if you are at all interested in keeping the hobby alive. As a new ham of “only” about 10 years (I’m 40) I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole hobby is pretty useless honestly outside of some really fringe cases. But that’s ok it’s a hobby!!! It’s supposed to be a pleasant diversion. I also enjoy sailboats and in the words of a celestial navigator, “there are a lot better ways to cross an ocean than getting blown around in a sailboat”. If I were teaching someone to sail, I would not “encourage” them
by calling them simple minded for not knowing various nautical terms or mis-using said terms. I would hope to share the joy with them.
Anyway. Best.
“by calling them simple minded for not knowing various nautical terms or mis-using said terms. I would hope to share the joy with them.
Anyway. Best.”
Hi, I do mostly agree with you about the hobby and so on.
Well, that one person simply is that way, I’m afraid, and it’s not my fault that he is.
I tried my best to fix him, but he refuses to listen and unlearn old falsehoods. 🤷♂️
And what’s worse, he’s not alone, I’m afraid.
He’s also sort of a socket amateur, who’s not doing homebrew but buys everything.
Not sure if that’s the right English term, however.
I mean, as an analogy, let’s (not) imagine a licensed car driver that has no idea about either traffic rules nor the inner workings of his car.
That’s sad to witness, because I know of a few CB operators that have some skills and knowledge about radio.
Last time I was on air, a group of CBers was discussing buying parts to re-build a so-called “gain-master” antenna for 11m.
That’s a coaxial antenna that needs quite some precision in building.
Meanwhile, on local FM repeater, older hams were talking about eating, shortwave connections to Australia and were to buy something commercially.. Vy73s
“I’ll make it as polite as possible: I would approach this differently if you are at all interested in keeping the hobby alive. As a new ham of “only” about 10 years (I’m 40) I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole hobby is pretty useless honestly outside of some really fringe cases. But that’s ok it’s a hobby!!! It’s supposed to be a pleasant diversion. ”
I understand. That’s the difference between the two of us, I guess. 🤷♂️
I’m mostly a CBer, but I did grew up in a ham household, so these things do hit me harder. 😔
If had been raised with the positive ideals that ham radio stood for. It’s more than just a hobby to me, it’s a way if life.
That’s why it’s hard to watch both the old, but childish CW elitists on one side and the ignorant amateur radio “exploiters” on the other side who’re merely after utilizing ham radio frequencies for their needs, but don’t want to integrate into ham society.
And somewhere in-between are the newcomers who’re truly interested in ham radio, but not seldomly get turned down by the grunpy old men, who always know best; those with the experience/technical level from 50 years ago (without upgrade). .
But exactly the social part is what matters most, working with people.
On eye level, with mutual respect for each other, no matter the age or level of experience.
It’s about people that share similar interests or beliefs.
That’s also the paradox, I think:
Some (few) hams that I know of are rather non-social beings, all in all.
They’re neither tinkerers, nor very into social togetherness.
They lack social skills, so to say.
Or feel uncomfortable talking to people.
(Some of them even have no idea how to start a conversation on their own, but merely show up if others are already talking.
Then, not seldomly, they try to shift the current topic to something they’re more interested in.)
How does this goes along with the hobby? I don’t understand.
I mean, I can understand that some simply want to be left alone and
do hobby electronics, play with Arduinos or go outside and do geo caching,
hunt some weather probes etc.
That’s fine, hams can be introverts, too.
But if you don’t even enjoy the technical side, what’s left?
Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t understand some of them. 😥
Apropos Morse …
Long ago I stumbled over a micro-controller project that had extended Morse code to full 7 or 8 bits while keeping the existing parts unchanged and that was used between controllers.
Does someone remember this or other extensions of Morse code with a similar goal?
Even uppercase only, but with a complete set of space, punctuation and control chars would be enough. Listening to some micro-controllers exchanging data could be really funny then.
pls share if you find it, I’d be interested
ok , show me any program to decode REAL transmission morse code
Love the “Pow” label for power!
I recognized it as a mircemk* project just from the look of the enclosure!
* I fail to see the use of these [] around names. Is it functionality to tag articles?
It mainly annoys me.
“Morse code, often referred to as continuous wave (CW) in radio circles, has been gradually falling out of use for a long time now. At least in the United States, ham radio licensees don’t have to learn it anymore, and the US Coast Guard stopped using it even for emergencies in 1999.”
Could have fooled me. Listen to the CW portions of the ham bands. Morse code is alive and well.
Especially during Field Day. A lot of people in the Coast Guard and other branches of the military
still know Morse code. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/500_kHz
However, just because it isn’t monitored doesn’t mean the capability and knowledge isn’t there.
I’ve been a ham for 20+ years and have heard of the hobby “dying” the entire time.
Guess what, still here. While it’s true a lot of the younger folks today may not get into ham radio
the way boys did in the 1940’s and 50’s, and the older generation is dying off, ham radio, and Morse
telegraphy are still going strong. Here’s a few high speed Morse videos. Enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFHnQCSpxwU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRuRE-Bwk1U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPsgEdmlUf0
Morse telegraphy surely will be remembered and be continued to be used in the future.
It’s still useful and it’s also an art form.
Things like repeater ID (local FM repeater), fox hunt beacons (aka foxoring, directional finding) or propagation beacons come to mind.
It’s also useful for having a little chat on shortwave, of course.
As an SWL/CBer I sometimes enjoy reading correspondence between hams on my vintage computer.
What I don’t like so much are the contest people.
They don’t do telegraphy by heart, but to have as much contacts possible with as little as possible communication.
It’s just 73s, call DE call, 599 etc.
That’s so impersonal, so heartless, so mechanical.
It’s just collecting random contacts for the diploma, the people behind the key apparently don’t matter.
Not even names are being exchanged. It’s as with FT-8. But that’s another story.
In the late 70’s I wrote a morse code decoder in Assembly language on a Z80 motherboard.
The radio was a B40 for which I built a small board to interface the audio to the Z80.
The biggest challenge was adjusting to the speed of the sender. Then as well the tape cassette backup was the greatest nightmare. I still dream about crc errors.
Years later I found out that listening in on the Australian Navy was highly illegal.
Did get some entertaining content when they practised morse by sending parts of the ship log.
Never learned to send or read Morse.
Every Hackaday reader can easily and should get their amateur license. It’s braindead easy stuff to remember and cheap and you can do it on ZOOM. Technician class is basically “Don’t be a dick and don’t get hurt.” It’s an entirely new world that’s ripe for proper hardware and software development and hacking.
I only heard that as CW became a non-requirement in the USA for a license that paradoxically, but perhaps not at all surprisingly, more people became interested in it? Anyway, I’d have never got into the hobby recently if I needed to learn code. My grandfather, also a ham, tried to get me to learn it, but I just didn’t care enough. Sorry. I’m not sure I care now, and it would definitely be a lot harder for me to learn. But code has nothing to do with learning how to build stuff and RF and theoretical things. We geek out about lots of stuff on Hackaday, I’m honestly really surprised more people don’t have their amateur licenses. It’s a blast to build things, string it up in a tree and go “Holy cow this thing just kicked ass all the way to Japan!” It would be great because I alone can’t fix the horrible state of software in this hobby, or interfacing, or bad documentation in all but a few of the few open source programs. And there’s not a lot of open source either. And funny, the idea is that it’s supposed to be more or less an open source thing. I like the phrase “Socket Ham” because it definitely highlights the fact that you can buy your way into success. I went to Field Day yesterday and I was talking to a guy who was warning that you couldn’t buy good antenna rotators anymore, so it was probably best to avoid directional antennas from now on. So…stepper motor, some bike chain..an ESP32 I’m thinking.. Nice fella, all well meaning, friendly, but definitely would benefit from hanging out with some of the younger hardware peeps that the others in his hobby do such a good job of chasing off.
Get your “Technicians” license. It’s a whole new world.
“Get your “Technicians” license. It’s a whole new world.”
Yeah. Technician is indeed easy, or so I heard.
Just one page of paper with multiple choice questions.
Also, Technician class is only available to America and UK (?), I think.
All other foreign countries start with higher license classes, with exams requiring a certain minimum of skills and knowledge.
So if you’re happen to live in Europe, for example, you have to invest a little bit of time and learn.
The rules, the basics about radio waves and electricity, how to operate things, the abbreviations for the various countries etc.
But that’s not asked too much for, if you truely are interested in ham radio, I suppose.
Alternatively, you can try to pass the US exam at a ham radio festival, like the reoccurring Hamradio in Germany.
Guest members of ARRL then will take an exam, if I understand correctly.
All you need to participate is a valid postal address in the US, I think, so that the FCC can send you the license and other documents.
Speaking under correction, though.
“I only heard that as CW became a non-requirement in the USA for a license that paradoxically, but perhaps not at all surprisingly, more people became interested in it?”
Yes, that’s also my experience, I do agree with you. 🙂👍
The general interest in telegraphy has risen since it’s no longer being required to learn.
I just wished it would be used with excitement and admiration,
rather than people seing it as an efficient low-power mode (QRP).