Mark Conrad wrote:

Hmm, I suspect I did not get across my exact meaning,
my fault, sorry about that.

I _meant_ a device that will change the _incoming_
morse code dots and dashes to an artificial voice.


No, I got that. My AEA MM3 could do that, and so could my Pk-232. I still
have the MM3, I traded the PK-232 to someone who had better use for it
when I moved here in 1996.

In other words, change this code at 60 wpm:

_ _ . . . . . . _ _ _ _ _ _ _


...into this artificial voice from an audio speaker:

"Best Wishes, Old Man"


...such that a ham newbie who did not even know the
morse code would be able to listen to a CW signal
rattling along at 60 wpm and have that signal
converted to speech that he could understand.

In theory it is possible, given a loud clean
CW signal.

I would hate to be the guy to design such a device,
it would not be a trivial project.

Actually it is quite trivial. There is lots of digital decoding software
for the PC out there and morse code is one of the simplest forms of
digital encoding. Since probably 99% of all high speed code is machine
generated, either by computer or keyer, it's uniform enough to be
easily decoded.

There is basicly 3 levels of code out there, the slow hand code which ranges
from really well done to almost impossible to copy sloppy, the mid range
keyer code and bug code where the individual characters are perfectly spaced,
but the spacing between them varies as the operater has to think between
them and the computer sent buffered code, where all of the thinking is
done before the send button is pushed, so it all comes out perfectly timed
and spaced.

The last two really are trivial to decode compared to any digital mode,
and the first ranges from easy to almost impossible.

A few years ago, it was theorized that one of the highest scoring stations
in a CW contest was exactly what you asked about. A ham who could barely
copy code using a decoding and sending program. It extracted the
callsign from the received code and replied with a signal report of 599
in perfectly sent perfectly spaced machine generated code.

A web search on "morse code decoding programs" found plenty, and
this is probably the cheapest device on the market:

http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Produc...ductid=MFJ-461

73,

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation.
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.