Morse Code

One of the skills I have wanted to learn is that of Morse code. When I was younger, I had one of those inexpensive Archer walkie talkie sets that were popular in the 1970's. It had the Morse code alphabet on the front along with a button for sending it. I never had the patience to sit down and learn this new language of dits and dahs but I thought it would be a lot of fun.

Later as a teenager I wondered how cool it would be to know the code so I could communicate with classmates in the middle of school. Once again, none of us ever had the patience to sit down and learn the language of dits and dahs.

Now that I am a licensed ham radio operator, I am intrigued by the idea of learning Morse code. One of its advantages is that it allows you to communicate over very long distances using a minimal amount of power. It also doesn't require such a complicated radio or antenna.

There are a number of software programs to help you learn Morse code. One that I am working with is for Linux and is called Morse. All it takes is about 16 hours of practice over the course of a few weeks, according to some. My problem now is finding the 16 hours.

Foreign Languages

Yesterday I watched a World War II movie on Hulu. During the course of the action, several US soldiers took refuge in a French farmhouse. The woman is there all alone with her daughter and thankful to have the Allied protection. Naturally she only speaks French and tries to communicate with the guys that only speak English. It was fun for me to watch because I speak both languages fluently. It didn't occur to me that there weren't any subtitles until after I was done with the film. I imagine that it must be a different experience for those that only speak English.

Right now I am in the process of learning Morse code (and have been for quite a while). While it isn't a different language, it fells like it sometimes. I am using a program called "Morse" to help me. As I sit and listen to the dits and the dahs, it makes me wonder what is being said in the movies that have bits of Morse code. I understand that most of the time, the code is nothing at all. However every once and a while, it is real and there is a message hidden in there. The original movie about the Titanic called, "A Night to Remember" used the actual code sent from the fateful ship. If you understand Morse, I'll bet that would add to the experience.

Going back to the WWII movie I saw last night, there was also something else worthy of note. One of the German soldiers was my roommate when I lived in Strasbourg, France. He was able to help me learn French and so I had to laugh when I saw him in the German uniform. It is a good thing he didn't have a speaking part as I'm sure it would have come out with a French accent.

New Software Installation

On November 24th I will be taking the test to get my Ham radio license. While it is no longer required, I thought it would be fun to learn a little Morse code. I figure there have to be some software programs out there to help teach it. Then when I see someone use Morse code in a movie, I will be able to understand what they are saying. Perhaps it will match up with what the message is supposed to be or be an encoded message like, "these actors are morons."

I have three different types of computers that I use: Linux, Windows, and Mac. My Windows machine is at another desk in my office and I really don't use it much. Unfortunately most of the searches for Morse code tutorials turned up software for Windows machines. So I refined my search to look for tutorials on Linux. There were a bunch of them.

Normally you install software on the Red Had flavors of Linux using a program called "yum." If you want to install the QT user interface framework library, you simply run the following command:

yum install qt

The computer automatically finds the software on the Internet and automatically installs it. If you already have QT installed, it says, "it is already installed and is the latest version." You don't have to download anything nor do you have to answer very many questions related to the installation.

You'll notice that I used the word "Normally." Not all software for Linux is so easily installed. A lot of people write software for Linux but not everybody packages up their software so neatly. None of the Morse code tutorials were and that made my life a bit more difficult.

I downloaded the first tutorial. It was a bz2 tar file. What is a "bz2 tar file?" It is just a bunch of files packages into a single "tar" file and then compressed using the "bz2" algorithm. It is similar to a .ZIP file. I uncompressed and broke the files out so I could see what was included. There were some instructions on how to do the installation. I followed them only to get an error. It seems I was missing some important files. So I tried "yum" but it couldn't find them either. It was time to throw this tutorial away and try another one.

I downloaded the second tutorial. It had similar issues to the first one. There were a whole page of tutorials and so I had no problem throwing it away and moving down the list. The third tutorial said I just needed to run the program and didn't need to install anything. It lied. Once again I was missing some important file or library and it wouldn't run.

I was beginning to think that Windows may be the platform of choice for Morse code tutorials when I found a program called "morse." I downloaded it and was happy to see it run. I immediately figured out how to recognize the letters G, Z, and U. Once you master those, it adds one letter at a time until you have them all memorized.

Last night I could agree with Windows users thinking that Linux is just too difficult to use. It is rare that software doesn't install smoothly on Windows or Mac computers. Hopefully Linux developers will take note and make it easier to install their software.