1CW(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual CW(7)
2
6 CW - the international Morse code
7
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 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:
20 The duration of a dash is three dots.
22 The time between each element (dot or dash) is one dot length.
24 The space between characters is three dot lengths.
26 The space between words is seven dot lengths.
28 The following formula calculates the dot period in microseconds from
30 the Morse code speed in words per minute:
31 dot period = ( 1200000 / speed )
33 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.
38 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 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"$()+-./:;=?_@ and space
44 In addition, following ISO 8859-1 and ISO 8859-2 accented characters
46 are also part of the generally accepted international Morse code:
47 ÜÄÇÖÉČŔŃŞŽ
49 Finally, cwlib adds the following ASCII characters as extensions to
51 single character procedural signals:
52 <>!&^~
54 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:
60 Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code
62 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
63 A .- B -... C -.-. D -..
64 E . F ..-. G --. H ....
65 I .. J .--- K -.- L .-..
66 M -- N -. O --- P .--.
68 Q --.- R .-. S ... T -
69 U ..- V ...- W .-- X -..-
70 Y -.-- Z --..
71 0 ----- 1 .---- 2 ..--- 3 ...--
73 4 ....- 5 ..... 6 -.... 7 --...
74 8 ---.. 9 ----.
75 " .-..-. ' .----. $ ...-..- ( -.--.
77 ) -.--.- + .-.-. , --..-- - -....-
78 . .-.-.- / -..-. : ---... ; -.-.-.
79 = -...- ? ..--.. _ ..--.-
80 Ü ..-- Ä .-.- Ç -.-.. Ö ---.
82 É ..-.. Č .-..- Ŕ .--.- Ń --.--
83 Ş ---- Ž --..-
84 In addition to the above standard characters, the following characters
86 are conventionally used for punctuation and procedural signals as fol‐
87 lows:
88 Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code
90 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────
91 " .-..-. ' .----. $ ...-..- ( -.--.
92 ) -.--.- + .-.-. , --..-- - -....-
93 . .-.-.- / -..-. : ---... ; -.-.-.
94 = -...- ? ..--.. _ ..--.- @ .--.-.
95 and the following are non-conventional extensions implemented by cwlib:
97 Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code
99 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
100 < ...-.- > -...-.- ! ...-. & .-...
101 ^ -.-.- ~ .-.-..
102 An alternative view of punctuation and procedural signals is as combi‐
104 nation Morse characters:
105 Ch Prosig Ch Prosig Ch Prosig Ch Prosig
107 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
108 " [AF] ' [WG] $ [SX] ( [KN]
109 ) [KK] + [AR] , [MIM] - [DU]
110 . [AAA] / [DN] : [OS] ; [KR]
111 = [BT] ? [IMI] _ [IQ] @ [AC]
112 < [VA],[SK] > [BK] ! [SN] & [AS]
113 ^ [KA] ~ [AL]
114
116 Despite the fact that this manual page constantly and consistently
117 refers to Morse code elements as dots and dashes, DO NOT think in these
118 terms when trying to learn Morse code. Always think of them as 'dit's
119 and 'dah's.
120
122 Man pages for cwlib(3,LOCAL), cw(1,LOCAL), cwgen(1,LOCAL),
123 cwcp(1,LOCAL), and xcwcp(1,LOCAL).
124G0FRD CW Tutor Package CW(7)