Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Morse Code Migrating To The Net

Posted by timothy on from the greedy-meme dept.

Rosco P. Coltrane writes "With Morse code slowly disappearing off the air, there seems to be a growing number of people who carry out conversations in Morse over the internet. Several Windows and Linux clients using VoIP or special protocols, such as EchoLink, EchoLinux, MorseMail, CW Communicator or CWirc exist for Morse lovers worldwide to pound brass and make contact with one another. Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?"

9 of 361 comments (clear)

  1. Morseall by bradams · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Morseall is a morse code input server for Linux using the mouse buttons. Morse is being used to help the disabled use computers . A great way to learn morse code is to work on the computer using morse code instead of the keyboard for a few hours.

    --
    I like to build things and wire stuff together.
    1. Re:Morseall by timeOday · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Apparently morse code at 20 wpm is not out of reach. At that rate, I don't know of a better input system for tiny computers like the fossil wristwatch pda. And you could enter the text without staring down at the watch.

  2. Great use for morse code by pesc · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I happen to know morse code but I rarely find a use for it anymore.

    What I would really like to have is an option to my mobile phone that converts incoming SMS messages to morse code, beeping them out! With that feature I would not have to actually pick up the phone to read my SMS messages. Maybe this would be possible to program on the newer Java-enabled phones?

    (The standard "ring tone" on my Nokia for a SMS message is ... -- ... (SMS in morse). My feature is just one step beyond what the Nokia handset already provides! ;-) )

    --

    )9TSS
  3. As another diehard fan... by freeio · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Quite so. As an old guy, I learned Morse long ago, and use it to this day, but only on the radio. It is fun to be able to send and receive it (in my head - I do not bother writing it down) as fast as I can type, or even faster. I can listen in and follow along with the conversation, without having to take my eyes off of my work.

    On the other hand, the most efficient communication I have ever been involved in involved using a sound board on my PC, hooking it up to the audio in/out of the radio transceiver, and using the computer to generate PSK31 encoded signals.

    Hansi Reiser has written linux software for doing this: http://www.qsl.net/dl9rdz/#psk

    73,

    W4TI

    --
    Soli Deo Gloria
  4. It's called a bug. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A high-speed key, with weights on the back to allow the thing to send a string of dots or dashes just by holding the paddle one way or the other. Once you could send code using a key, using a bug was easily learned, and was necessary for speeds approaching 20 words per minute. The advantage of using code over voice was simplicity, no modulator needed, just break entire carrier on and off to send your message over short wave to the receiver, who then hetrodyned your signal locally in the receiver circuitry using an adjustable knob to produce an audible note. I was K5HLW in the 1950's, and used this form of communication in the 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands for a few years.

    At the time, we had no idea that PC's such as we use today would be invented, even though we were the techies of the day. Could this happen again? Sure. Give it a few years, and everyone will be using something now unimagined.

  5. Receive message by secret via vibration! by Fu+Ling-Yu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    One other use, which I have been investigating as a personal project, is using the vibrating phone feature so you can get message without anyone else knowing. I did not look at morse code initially as a solution as it too slow, but if you can get phone to vibrate in way in which you can work out the message, you could receive message in secret..

    --
    -- Dr. Fu Ling-Yu, Internal Technology Consult; Tongji University, People Republic of China.
  6. Danger Hiptop SMS by leighklotz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've been working on an app for my Danger hiptop to play incoming SMS and email subjects/senders in code...

  7. Open Source Morse Code Beeper for Windows by haroldhunt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A friend of mine had an idea to write a program that beeps in morse code while you type in Windows applications. I was so intrigued with the idea that I had to try it, and wound up finishing it :)

    Morse Code Beeper

    Both the source code and compiled binaries can be downloaded from the above site. Enjoy.

    Harold

  8. Re:What's the point? by starbuck5250 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I see little value in Morse on the net, but it is incredible for getting a weak RF signal through noise. On 2.4 GHz (the Wi-Fi band!) I can carry on a conversation with 100mW over 100 miles, no problem.

    In the future, when the RF spectrum is even nastier than it is today, I suspect CW or some variant like JT44 will be the best way to have a reliable link, even between machines.

    73 de KC2HIZ FN32at