It’s actually quite simple. I always thought it was difficult and you’d have to learn from a code sheet, but I found an app which teaches you and you actually just recognise the sounds like you’d recognise any other sound. You generally don’t even need to decode it- you just get used to what a letter sounds like. I’ve been learning since Saturday and can already key my name out.
Had to learn it as a kid to get my ham license, now apparently its not part of the exam process for the license. I’d fit right in today because ill be damned if I can remember any of it.
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There’s a site called “morsle” which has a daily test (like Wordle, and all the other daily games that are going around) where it starts out playing you a 5 letter word in Morse code and you can replay it a bunch of times and every time you do it slows down the sound a bit, starting at 40 words per minute. It’s amazing how quickly you can learn to discern one sound from another. I only found it a day or so ago but I am finding it’s coming quite quickly to me. It feels almost like remembering a short musical riff or drum beat. It’s intriguing.
Thank you! That’s so much fun!
You’re welcome! I’m stoked that you’re enjoying it. I was having fun but I like spreadsheets so… I usually temper my expectations when making a recommendation.
Hope you get where you want to be with it quickly :)
Morse Toad is another learning app that’s fun because it gameifys it a bit. It’s a little limiting as you can’t adjust the code speed, but still a fun entry-level learning tool.
If anyone is wondering what real world use you could get out of learning the code, look into CW (continuous wave) ham radio activity as a hobby. It requires a license that isn’t too difficult to get and there are some pretty low cost options for getting into the hobby if you only plan on using morse code rather than voice transmission.
Continuous wave is what got me interested!
I was playing this game with my friend called Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, where basically a bunch of us have to solve a bunch of mini puzzles in time. One of us has to convey what the puzzle is, while the rest of the team has to decipher and solve the puzzle without looking at the screen. One of them is straight up just decoding morse code from a blinking light. I felt the need to learn morse code then but we’ve stopped playing the game.
I only ever knew “SOS”. Learned it in Cub Scouts.
Apparently SOS isn’t actually the distress call. •••—••• just means a distress call, SOS is how people remember it. The difference between the distress call and SOS is that SOS would have a short pause to denote the beginning of s new letter, the distress call wouldn’t.
I learned it from old kitchen and bathroom cleaner commercials.
•••• −−− •−− •−−−−• ••• −•−− −−− ••− •−• •−• • •− −•• •• −• −−• −•−• −−− −− •• −• −−• •− •−•• −−− −• −−• ••−−••
HO(W?)('?)S (Y?)OUR READIN(G?) COMIN(G?) A(L?)ON(G?)(??)
I filled in what I didn’t know in the brackets. Yikes, that’s scary. I’ve only been learning since Saturday!
Well, what’s the app called?
Thanks! It looks like a great starting point. I’ve always been a fan of encodings (binary, NATO alphabet, pig latin) I’m excited to finally learn this one!
one year for global game jam i made “morse code hero” which is exactly what you’d think, but i also added a “chaos” slider to shake the camera at an adjustable intensity every time you tapped the screen. it had a text to morse converter to build out your own levels but had famous morse code transmissions already built in.
I’ve already started to make a telegraph system in Minecraft on my singleplayer world 🤣
What would you do with a telegraph system in single player?
As much as you’d do in multiplayer - that you have a chatbox.
I’m thinking of installing computercraft eventually and having them talk to each other using the telegraph system
