Need some help with morse code

[valvur]

If someone could help me translate this, I'd be really grateful. I was able to make out that the first letter should be "M", but I'm really confused about the second one (1 long + 5 shorts?). This is the first time I tried doing morse code and I've pretty much given up.

https://clyp.it/nxfcvnwm

 

[jwt873]

That;s not really Morse code. Just a bunch of taps and the spacing is horrible.. But the taps do correspond to letters. I guess it could be like how they sent CW in the old days by tapping on jail cell bars The problem with taps is that there is no way to tell the difference between a dot and a dash.. The letter O is three dashes, the letter S is three dots.

Assuming they are all dots... I got: E E E 5 I I S S E E E 5 H I S E E 5 S S E H

 

[KC4RAF]

Agree with jwt873 above. The best I could decipher is gibberish. lol

 

[paulears]

In the movies people bash out morse code on radiators. In real Morse - the difference between dots and dashes is time, not volume. So T and E sound the same in a tap. A and I again sound the same as taps.

Complete gibberish. It's also so slow that it's signal lamp speed. Dashes are usually 3 times the length of a dot. The gap between words is then a tad longer.

 

[wyShack]

When I tried it said the link was bad. Most 'tap' codes use a matrix (like 5X5) and put the alphabet in the matrix. letters are then 2 'groups' of taps corresponding to row/column (or the reverse ). the method was used a lot in the 'old' days just because taps cannot be different duration.

As I could not access the file, I did not take a 'crack' at decoding.

 

[RFBOSS]

I can't access the link.

Just some general information.


Remember that the sound made by a land telegraph station is just a series of clicks and clacks. A dash (short sound) is made up of the sound of the of the pole piece (sounder) being pulled in and the end of the element (short sound) is made up of the sound of the sound of pole piece (sounder) being released.

The time between the sound made when the pole piece (sounder) is pulled in and when it is released determines the element (dot or dash/short or long).

Back in the beginning there were no tones, just a series of clicks (the pole piece being pulled in) and clacks (the pole piece being released).

So there were short and long parts (time between the click and clack) to each element (part of a character).

Instead of the length of a tone, which what most people think of when thinking of Morse code, it is the length of the silence between the click and the clack.

 

[paulears]

Sort of - the click had a kind of 'fizz' so a T would be a click-fizz, silence while an e was click (no fizz) silence, and lots of those old machines cut paper too. Morse cannot operate otherwise - Morse would never have invented a system where E and T were the same. Imagine Casey Jones ancient movies without Morse.

 

[ramal121]

Everybody got this wrong except wyShack who was on the right track. This is not international morse code but instead american morse code.

In what appears to dashes in american are really separate clicks closely spaced together. There is an intra-character pause that will form the letter with other clicks and of course a much longer pause between letters to form a word.

So it is just a single click sound and timing is everything. You really had to have a well disciplined fist or wear the lid badge.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Morse_code

Maybe the OP can re-link the audio and try again?

 

[paulears]

Can I ask if the US sounders are like the ones we used (still use) on the railways where key down generates a clunk, and then a different sound when the armature releases and returns - which is how you know when the dot and dashes end. While I happily concur with the spacing differences on the US version of International Morse (and the different letter versions), the critical component is the ability to know when the character components end, and that isn't the spacing or gap, it's how long the key is down. Without that information it doesn't work reliably. Many people do use the Morse slang to do numbers with lots of conjoined dahs - like zero, just send a long tone instead. A friend tells me the fizz I mentioned is actually just key down armature vibration where another set of contacts works a bit like a buzzer.

 

[RFBOSS]

Yes, it is the time interval between the click and the clack (silence when key is down) that determines the individual element(s) of a letters, numbers or punctuation.

This is what determines the beginning and end of the element, long or short.

This applies no matter what form the code takes.

One has to be able to differentiate the beginning and ending of the elements that make up the characters.

Here is an example of how it sounds. Notice the letter "L" because it is easy to hear the timing of the element (one dash). You can tell it is a single dash (long element) because of the click to start the element and clack to end the element and the time (silence) in between.

The short elements or dashes can be identified by the shorter time between the clicks and clacks.

 

[RFBOSS]

Here is another example of the "sound". It is not dependent on the form of the code. It is still long and short character elements.

 

[paulears]

RFBOSS - that's a good link, perfectly readable apart from the different characters - the two different clunks do work, and are quite like our UK railway signalling sound. Funny how with the two different sounds, my brain could treat it like a tone? Like it! As for the movie stuff with prisoners clanging on radiators, that just doesnt work.

 

[RFBOSS]

Yes, exactly.

In the earliest devices used for telegraphy, the characters were "put down on paper" by various electromechanical devices. There were some other, some what less practical devices that indicated each letter as it was received.

Some were pen and ink, some were an electrical discharge through a chemically treated paper and so on.

The operators soon became able to "copy" the code by ear and the rest is as they say history.