Posted on 04/01/2012 2:18:11 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
The QWERTY keyboard was invented in 1874 and yet it is still used today, largely unchanged. What’s more, the keyboard doesn’t come close to the speed and effectiveness of a simple technology used on ships over a centry ago… morse code.
Today, April 1st, Google is introducing a new input method designed by the great-great grandson of Samuel F. B. Morse: Gmail Tap for Android and iOS. Gmail Tap takes the keyboard from 26 keys to just two. Every letter of the alphabet is represented by a simple pattern of dots and dashes, and once you know them you can type without even looking at your screen. This makes it ideal for situations where you need to discreetly send emails, such as when you’re on a date or in a meeting with your boss. Watch the video to learn more:
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
That’s true, 35 wpm is pretty fast although by no means the fastest. But just to use it as a reference point for Morse, conversational speech in English runs at 100-120 words per minute. So a person can communicate in Morse about 1/4 to 1/3 the speed of normal speech. An average computer user types 25-40 wpm and professional typists run 50 to 80 wpm.
So your 100 wpm is pretty high, but Morse is a viable alternative unless absolute speech-speed communication is essential.
“microwaves bounced off the moon”
I have witnessed my friend K5JL doing just that.
Good one for April fools but not foolish when Ham operators are among the few that can GET THROUGH.
Once back in the seventies when I was a two way radio tech we were setting levels in a phone line controlled remote repeater. Anyway I could not get the handset to work that I was communcating with the techs on the other end. I could hear them but they could not hear me.
There happened to be a tone oscillator in the repeater and the tech on the other end was a ham so I improvised and we finished the job with me using an alligator clip to tap out code.
I remember “SOS” from my Boy Scout days, in the l-50s/e-60s.
***-—*** ***-—***
-** -— -— -*** -*— —**— -** -— -— -*** -*— —**— -** -— -— -— **—**
di/dot or 1/0 is all binary
That’s slick.
Remember solid state Morse “keyers” with qwerty keyboards, that did the brass pounding for you?
At the time (1960’s) they were for those who couldn’t handle a Vibroplex.
BTW, look up if you haven’t already `rotary gap’ transmitters of the pre-1920’s. I learned everything about the Marconi wireless device on the Titanic as a result.
“di/dot or 1/0 is all binary”
Yep, when you think about it our internet communcations are using something very much like morse code.
I find that incredibly hard to believe. For starters, an “O” is three long dashes. By the time you are done with those, a good texter could type a word while the morse operator has produced one letter.
—Actually - not true -when it is a thumb-sized keyboard! There was a competition between two ham operators and someone texting... the Hams won!—
OK, now that I look closer, I realize we’re not talking about a typewriter. We’re talking strictly handheld deives. I hate touch screens, so yeah, I suspect morse could be faster. For starters, there is only one button to push. You don’t have to keep checking.
*
Morse Code is relatively efficient, the most common letters have the shortest codes. But Morse differs from modern binary communications in that dit and daaah have different length (take more energy per signal). Modern codes use just as much energy to transmit a “1” as a “0”. Still, Morse Code (misnomer) still uses “dit” more frequently than “daaah” for just that reason, “E” (”.”) is shorter than “T”, (”-”).
You bet bob!
Oh man!! Thanks for posting the Morse Code. I went through the Army’s Radio Morse Code School in Ft. Ord 43 years ago. I got to where I could send and receive 27 words per minute. After AIT I never tapped another letter.
I was trying to read the previous posts in Morse code and I couldn’t believe that it was all Greek to me.
During AIT we were hammered with trying to learn Morse code and it got to the point that I was even dreaming in Morse code. I guess that was the good old days?
I was a Morse Intercept Operator for many years. Even though it’s been quite a few years since I plied my trade, but I’m sure I can still copy 30GPM, and that’s using a pencil or a mill. All I ever did was receive; never sent a dit or a dah in my life.
35 WPM is moderate speed for a CW operator. It seems “fast” for those who still hear individual letters of Morse code. For those who always complained about needing to learn Morse code at all to get their ham license, it seems absurdly fast.
But for those who *like* CW (ham slang for Morse code), 35 WPM is a nice, middle-of-the road conversational speed.
Somewhere between 35 to 40 WPM, if a CW op pushes himself hard enough, his brain quits hearing letters and starts hearing entire words. After that, you’re able to hear CW at speeds over 40 WPM pretty quickly. At my fastest, I was able to copy 48 WPM. What limited my ability to go faster was that I was a piss-poor typist at that age.
After I reached this point of “hearing whole words,” it actually became difficult for me to listen to slow CW - say, under 18 WPM, again. My attention would wander while I was waiting for the next letter... next thing I knew, I’d missed letters here and there.
Since then, I’ve become a touch typist, but I’ve not been back on the air working CW as I used to, so I don’t know how fast I could really go.
Here’s a writeup on Teddy McElroy and his blazing CW record(s):
http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/mcelroy.html
NB this typing speed — 150 WPM. That’s hauling right along.
The fastest guys I used to hear on 40 CW in the 70’s and 80’s were motoring along in the 55 WPM range. Most of them were still using “bugs” (Semi-automatic keys) and a few guys were starting to use iambic keyers (electronic boxes to make the dots/dashes).
I find DVORAK is much easier than QWERTY.
I remember as kid, riding in silence in the rear of our blue Ford Country Squire station wagon while driving along San Diego Bay with my mom and dad. Was watching the flickering of a Aldis lamp (signal lamp) from a naval ship at dockside. My mom wondered out loud what a ship might be flashing at dockside. My Dad, started out in the Navy as a ship’s radio operator, replied without hesitation, “They want to know when their supplies are coming.”
Dad could type over a hundred words a minute (on a manual typewriter) and said while in port would bet secretaries that he could type the alphabet backwards faster than they could type in forwards...he always won.
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