cw(7) - f39

1CW(7)                  Miscellaneous Information Manual                  CW(7)
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NAME

6       CW - the international Morse code
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DESCRIPTION

9       CW  is an abbreviation for "continuous wave", the commonly used techni‐
10       cal term for Morse code communication.  A  basic  knowledge  or  under‐
11       standing  of  Morse code is a requirement for Radio Amateurs and Marine
12       Radio Operators in many parts of the world.
13
14   MORSE CODE TIMINGS
15       In Morse code, a dot or dash is referred to as an element.   The  basic
16       timing  unit  is the dot period.  This is the time taken to send a dot,
17       not including any space before or after the dot.  The  lengths  of  all
18       other elements are then derived from this basic unit, using the follow‐
19       ing rules:
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21              The duration of a dash is three dots.
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23              The time between each element (dot or dash) is one dot length.
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25              The space between characters is three dot lengths.
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27              The space between words is seven dot lengths.
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29       The following formula calculates the dot period  in  microseconds  from
30       the Morse code speed in words per minute:
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32              dot period = ( 1200000 / speed )
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34       This formula arises from the use of the word PARIS as a 'standard' word
35       for calibrating Morse code speed.  PARIS is 50 units long when sent  in
36       Morse  code.  Analysis of English plain-text indicates that the average
37       word is 50 units, including spaces.
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39   MORSE CODE CHARACTERS
40       The following list shows the IS0 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters that  have
41       commonly understood representations in Morse code:
42
43              ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"$()+-./:;=?_@ and space
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45       In  addition,  following  ISO 8859-1 and ISO 8859-2 accented characters
46       are also part of the generally accepted international Morse code:
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48              ÜÄÇÖÉÈÀÑŞ (S with cedilla), Ž (Z with caron/hacek),
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50       Finally, libcw adds the following ASCII  characters  as  extensions  to
51       single character procedural signals:
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53              <>!&^~
54
55   MORSE CODE CHARACTER TABLES
56       The  following  table  shows  the  Morse  code  equivalents for the ISO
57       8859-1, accented ISO 8859-1, and accented ISO 8859-2 characters  above.
58       The  ASCII  portion  of this table is taken from the ARRL Handbook, and
59       the accented extensions from various other sources:
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61       Ch   Code      Ch   Code
62       ───────────────────────────
63       A    .-        B    -...
64       C    -.-.      D    -..
65       E    .         F    ..-.
66
67       G    --.       H    ....
68       I    ..        J    .---
69       K    -.-       L    .-..
70       M    --        N    -.
71       O    ---       P    .--.
72       Q    --.-      R    .-.
73       S    ...       T    -
74       U    ..-       V    ...-
75       W    .--       X    -..-
76       Y    -.--      Z    --..
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78       0    -----     1    .----
79       2    ..---     3    ...--
80       4    ....-     5    .....
81       6    -....     7    --...
82       8    ---..     9    ----.
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84       "    .-..-.    '    .----.
85       $    ...-..-   (    -.--.
86       )    -.--.-    +    .-.-.
87       ,    --..--    -    -....-
88       .    .-.-.-    /    -..-.
89       :    ---...    ;    -.-.-.
90       =    -...-     ?    ..--..
91       _    ..--.-
92
93       Ch              Code    Ch                  Code
94       ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
95       Ü               ..--    Ä                   .-.-
96       Ç               -.-..   Ö                   ---.
97       É               ..-..   À                   .-..-
98       À               .--.-   Ñ                   --.--
99       Ş (S+cedilla)   ----    Ž (Z+caron/hacek)   --..-
100
101       In addition to the above standard characters, the following  characters
102       are  conventionally used for punctuation and procedural signals as fol‐
103       lows:
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105       Ch   Code      Ch   Code
106       ───────────────────────────
107       "    .-..-.    '    .----.
108       $    ...-..-   (    -.--.
109       )    -.--.-    +    .-.-.
110       ,    --..--    -    -....-
111       .    .-.-.-    /    -..-.
112       :    ---...    ;    -.-.-.
113       =    -...-     ?    ..--..
114       _    ..--.-    @    .--.-.
115
116       and the following are non-conventional extensions implemented by libcw:
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118       Ch   Code     Ch   Code
119       ───────────────────────────
120       <    ...-.-   >    -...-.-
121       !    ...-.    &    .-...
122       ^    -.-.-    ~    .-.-..
123
124       An alternative view of punctuation and procedural signals is as  combi‐
125       nation Morse characters:
126
127       Ch   Prosig      Ch   Prosig
128       ─────────────────────────────
129       "    [AF]        '    [WG]
130       $    [SX]        (    [KN]
131       )    [KK]        +    [AR]
132
133       ,    [MIM]       -    [DU]
134       .    [AAA]       /    [DN]
135       :    [OS]        ;    [KR]
136       =    [BT]        ?    [IMI]
137       _    [IQ]        @    [AC]
138       <    [VA],[SK]   >    [BK]
139       !    [SN]        &    [AS]
140       ^    [KA]        ~    [AL]
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NOTES

143       Despite  the  fact  that  this  manual page constantly and consistently
144       refers to Morse code elements as dots and dashes, DO NOT think in these
145       terms  when trying to learn Morse code.  Always think of them as 'dit's
146       and 'dah's.
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NAME

DESCRIPTION

NOTES

SEE ALSO