Thanks, next episode then:
Because of the two tier licensing regime that had been introduced in the mid 1960's, there were quite a few class B licensees that wanted to progress to the HF bands. This required the licensee to attain a recognised proficiency in the sending and receiving of Morse Code, (reasoning above). The requirement was to be able to copy plain text and numbers at a minimum of 12 words per minute. It was one of the firsts requests from the members and one that could be organised quite easily.
I have already mentioned Joe Tyas (G3NSG) George 3, Nan, Sugar, George as he used to sign having learnt his code in the military and before the advent of the ITU phonetic alphabet that was now in more common use. Golf 3 November, Siera, Golf. A minor matter either would be accepted and recognised on the bands. The other volunteer for tutor was John York (G3KJY) who had also learnt his code in the RAF but made the leap to the later nomenclature, Golf 3 Kilo, Juliet, Yankee. We had two tutors and it was set up to have weekly training sessions for whoever wanted to gain the proficiency. An Admiralty pattern British Navy (NATO) key was provided I think by Les who had picked one up at a rally. John knocked a simple practice oscillator up using a 555 timer chip, shoved it in a box with a speaker and the following week the classes commenced.
John and Joe ran alternate weeks but would both give extra instruction if they were down at the club shack and anyone asked. I tipped up for the first session as did about 3 more. Word spread that the club was offering Morse classes and that led to a surge in the membership. The RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain) provided, (and still do) on air Morse practice sessions both of random groups, numbers and plain text but it is only for receiving, there is no option to develop your own skills with the key under supervision. That was the beauty of having two professional operators. Both taught the way they had been taught and it was the main recognised method at the time and relied on learning the alphabet and the numbers 0 to 9 at a relatively slow speed, 5wpm. The initial problem for a learner is that you need time to write it down. As proficiency increased with each cohort the speed would be increased this continued until you could recognise all the characters at about 8wpm. You then moved on to random 5 figure letter groups, five digit number groups were chucked in for good measure. The key was passed around at each session for each candidate to demonstrate their "fist" When everyone could send and receive the random groups at the current speed plain text was introduced and practised until everyone had it off pat.
Everyone can send faster than they can receive especially if sending from pre written text. This is because reading is an unconscious act all yo have to do is change it to the rhythm you know what the next letter or word is, half the job is done. Receiving is a different kettle entirely as you never know what character you are going to get next so it takes longer to decipher.
One of the pitfalls that you can fall into is anticipation of words and if you get it wrong it can throw your concentration and you miss the next couple of words. Consider the word "the" that can indeed be just that or it could be "then", "there" or even "their" or "themselves". Morse is a rhythm of individual characters linked by specific time periods, each of the individual characters themselves are timed in their execution. Here are the rules, we used dit's and dah's rather than dots and dashes.
Here are the timings. Three dit's are equal to one dah, each letter of a word is spaced by one dah, words are spaced by seven dit's. All the letters of the alphabet are from one to four characters long, each numerical digit is five characters in length. Numbers are the easiest to learn as they are all a logical straight progression of characters. 1 = dit, dah,dah,dah,dah - 2 = dit, dit, dah, dah, dah - 3 = dit, dit , dit, dah, dah - this pattern continues up to five which is five dits then it reverses, 6 = dah, dit, dit, dit, dit - 7 = dah, dah, dit, dit, dit same progression up to 0 which is five dahs. Notice that the zero comes after the nine and not before the one.
Morse Code Timing
On the site above if you go onto the "translator" tab you can input plain text which it will display Morse code. Switch your speakers on and you can play it back to see what it sounds like.
Joe used a trick to stop you anticipating, he would often space an extra dit after the e in "the" not enough to be recognised as a letter space, then add the extra letters on the end. That was enough to trip you up and make you miss the next word. All operators develop their own "fist" with minor timing foibles etc. Experienced operators can recognise an individual from this much like you could recognise someone by dialect or how they made certain pronunciations.
Takes a bit of getting your head round written down as the Morse language is just a rhythm. This is also what makes it a very powerful method of communication. You can tap it out on a key, beat it on a drum or pipe, signal it with a flashlight. The limiting factor as your speed increases is that you cant write fast enough to copy it to paper. You can type it of course which is how commercial operators used to copy, but that is another skill on top of what is going on in your head deciphering the rhythm. Fully proficient operators hear the rhythm directly as language much like being fluent in a foreign tongue. I never reached that stage but got comfortably to about 15wpm.