Article on learning Morse code and flying

Excellent article, Peter!

Learning code was more of a "thing" in ground school in the 1960s when I learned to fly. I still remember most of it, though for the life of me I can never remember 'F', 'G', 'J', 'W', 'Z' or the numbers.

This reminds me of the journal written by my wife's uncle, who joined the Navy in 1940. It read in part,

Upon returning to Pearl, I was transferred back to the radio shack. I taught myself how to read code, finally got up to twenty-five words per minute, which meant I could go on the skeds, which are the messages coming in from radio stations. We copied Radio Honolulu, Radio San Francisco and Radio Washington (all US Navy stations), which was the method used to relay the word to all ships and stations.

[...]

At 3:32 AM "LZT" December 8th, Manila time, the message came across on the sked channel, which was manned by Taylor, 3rd Class Radioman. I was the supervisor. Taylor was having a hard time copying the plain language, so I attempted to find a place to plug in my earphones, so I could help him. Both of us were quite nervous, but copied it down. The message was Pearl Harbor and Army Air Force locations are being attacked by the Japanese. Govern yourselves accordingly and put War Plans Nr 367 into effect. I flew down to the Captain's cabin, then the Exec's, then Officer of the Day.​
 
Thanks for the article. I sent it to my wife who makes artwork using code—mostly Morse Code and Tap Code. She knows all of the letters and numbers but has never tried listening to transmissions. She bought the app you mentioned so I thought I’d give it a try too. This is one of her pieces drying after applying a chemical to age it.

There are three wool blocks used in the piece–lightest is for spacers, tan is for dashes, and brown is for dots.
The quote is based on a Henning Mankell quote, “Who is left to connect me to my earlier life?

WhoIsLeft.jpeg
It’s hard to see but there are missing safety pins that spell out “Loss” in tap code.
 
Great article, Peter. I learned the code when I was twelve years old studying for my novice class ham license. Two evenings a week I took two bus rides and walked across the Acosta Bridge over the St. John's river in Jacksonville, FL, to attend a Morse Code class with half a dozen other kids my age and attained the 5 words per minute proficiency needed to pass the code test and get my license. I still get on the HF ham bands regularly and prefer code (now a casual 20 wpm) to voice or digital modes.

CW is A1. ;)
 
I’m sitting here wondering when the Farnsworth method got renamed the Koch method. :)

Fun article. I’ve mentioned my near bust on my Private because my examiner many moons ago was a stickler for tune and identify and it was an FAA hot button item that year. Only by asking why he was reaching for the pink slip and demonstrating that I knew Morse cold, did he reach for the white one.

Never did find out why he never said anything until he was sitting at the typewriter. Haha. It was a different time.

I got a chuckle out of your note that you initially tried to learn it visually. Never works. It’s an auditory language. Forcing the eyeballs to be involved introduces a double translation in your head. It’s been shown not to even help with reinforcement, it just makes the learning process harder.

Hear it, write or type it. Only way to go. Connect ears directly to hands. After a while you start hearing whole words at higher speeds. And the slow code of aviation makes you feel like you’re listening to someone struggling to speak suuuuuuuper slooooooowly. :)
 
I initially learn code long enough to pass the 1st Class Boy Scout requirement. Using a WWII surplus blinker light at Scout Camp. Never used it again until about 25 years later when I started in amateur radio and learned it for the Technician class license. Nailed the code test, in spite of the noise level in the room where I took the test. Upped the speed to 13 wpm in 1992 to upgrade to Advanced. (skipped Novice and General along the way). 20 wpm was not going to happen for Extra, I'm an SSB operator and couldn't see the pain for an extra 75 kHz of sideband spectrum. When the rules change was announced I took the Extra written again (passed it without studying in 1992), took the CSCE and waited for the rules change to take effect. Once it did I took the CSCE to the next exam session, paid the fee and walked out with my Extra ticket. Haven't worked CW in years.

BTW, my original CFI and I were both Extras and it didn't help me with talking on the airplane radio one bit. That was 19 years ago and I think they're still laughing in the tower. :D
 
denverpilot said:
I’m sitting here wondering when the Farnsworth method got renamed the Koch method. :)
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Thanks for the kind remark. I think Farnsworth and Koch are different. Farnsworth the individual letters are at full speed but the inter-letter spacing is longer.

Of course the research suggests it doesn’t really matter so long as you are listening, not trying the crazy translation.
 
denverpilot said:
I got a chuckle out of your note that you initially tried to learn it visually. Never works. It’s an auditory language. Forcing the eyeballs to be involved introduces a double translation in your head. It’s been shown not to even help with reinforcement, it just makes the learning process harder.
Click to expand...
Interesting. In the merchant marine we had to learn it visually. The visual flashing light test was one of the many tests we had to pass to get our licenses. I actually never had to do it by sound. It was definitely a pain.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Interesting. In the merchant marine we had to learn it visually. The visual flashing light test was one of the many tests we had to pass to get our licenses. I actually never had to do it by sound. It was definitely a pain.
Click to expand...

Visually with flashes though, right. Not a dots and dashes chart. That’s the bad way.
 
denverpilot said:
Visually with flashes though, right. Not a dots and dashes chart. That’s the bad way.
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Oh, yeah. We started out writing down the dots/dashes for each letter/number and moved on to copying it down from a light box. Never used a chart.
 
Stan Cooper said:
Great article, Peter. I learned the code when I was twelve years old studying for my novice class ham license. Two evenings a week I took two bus rides and walked across the Acosta Bridge over the St. John's river in Jacksonville, FL, to attend a Morse Code class with half a dozen other kids my age and attained the 5 words per minute proficiency needed to pass the code test and get my license. I still get on the HF ham bands regularly and prefer code (now a casual 20 wpm) to voice or digital modes.

CW is A1. ;)
Click to expand...
Yep, me too! My parents were both hams so it was inevitable that I would try it out. My novice year was a lot of fun, but I lost interest soon afterward and never went on to take the General class exam, though my code was up to about 15 wpm back then. Like any "language" you learn as a child, I never forgot the code, though I can only copy around 10 wpm these days.

I never had a DPE or even a CFI question why I never referred to the key on the chart to ID navaids, though.
 
65 years ago we learned morse code in scouting . Dad bought 2 surplus field transmitters for the Troop to learn on. Later I had the 2 hooked up between a neighbors house and ours. We used bell wire strung between our bed rooms. Great memories . I got to be the code sender for one older boys Eagle Scout Badge code reading requirement.
Years later in Basic training @ Fort Ord we did induction testing . I could read and copy Morse code. It helped , I'm sure to qualify for OCS school .(which I turned down)
Neighbor on the other side was a ham operater , His transmitter would blow my crystal radio no mater what frequency I was on. I would lay in bed at night listening to his code going out.
One of our Church members was the telegrapher for Great Northern RR at our local depot. He also delivered Telegrams around the small town . I used to hang out at depot listening to him send and receive .
Different times for sure .
We never had telephones at the farm till the mid 50's the late 40's brought electricity to the farm but we had moved to town by then for schooling . Both done by co-op as Bell and Montana power said it was not financially feasible to service the rural areas.

Now we have fiber optic here to farm . Fast service compaired to the old copper wire. Have let satilite TV go and just use Netflix ,Amz prime , other on line TV service providers,
 
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