There are actually a number of cases for longer dashes. With a bug
or SK, for example, one can truly emphasize the "yes" by sending R
with a long dash in the center (di-daahhh-dit). I miss that kind of
personalizing of code. One can also send, rather than the mundane
dah-di-di-di-dah, something like dah - di - di - di -
daahhh, with ease while you're trying to figure what you're going to
say next. That element of code has been greatly removed with the
keyer. But the irrepressible element of the human soul does come
forth through other subtle elements with a keyer. I used a bug for
over 40 years, and now, after long getting used to a keyer, I'd never
go back -- and I'm sure the chap on the other end feels the same
way. The idiosyncratic element to sending with a bug, which almost
all bug users have to some extent, particularly the "bug lilt", can
make for code that is very difficult to copy.
And, by the way, for those who love their Bencher BY's and took
umbrage at my disparaging comments in my earlier posts, I will
express no sorrow at all, but wish them the very best. I envy them
the latitude they have for growth -- if they'll only take it. The
Bencher BY is kind of like the PC of the paddle world. It must be
good because everyone has it, but, in fact, almost everything else is
better.
best wishes,
dave belsley, w1euy
On Jun 16, 2006, at 6:15 PM, Fred Jensen wrote:
Well, actually there is one case. Zero is a long dash which I
can't send with my K1EL keyer or my K2.
<www.chss.montclair.edu/~pererat/percode.htm>
As a teen in the mid-50's, my friends and I learned American Morse
just so we could get on 80m at night with each other and confuse
others on the band.
Calling either the landline code or the Continental code "Morse" is
one of the better examples of "Life isn't fair." Sam F. B. Morse's
idea was to have a series of numbered messages and parts of
messages in a dictionary, from which you constructed what you
wished to send and then sent the numbers, and he spent the vast
majority of his time compiling that dictionary. Sam was fairly
full of himself, and when he didn't get enough attention, he would
fall ill, often in someone else's bed.
His assistant, Alfred Vail, realized that the clicking and clacking
of the paper tape inker could be used to decode the code and came
up with the alphabet. So, if life were fair, it would have been the
Vail code. Old Sam didn't really "invent" the telegraph either, but
that's another story.
Fred K6DGW
Auburn CA CM98lw
Joe-aa4nn wrote:
Varying lengths of dashes?
I surely don't remember that
when I practiced American Morse
circa 1952.
de Joe, aa4nn
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david a. belsley
professor of economics
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