I have used morse code with a key (ve3gqx) but have always wondered how
people sent and recieved code by tapping on pipes etc.
Can anyone explain how this is done? How does one distinguish between a dot
and a dash?

tnx
Wayne

I think you strike the pipe harder for a dash than for a dot. But the real
reason I jumped in was to tell a funny story. When I was in college 50
years ago I knew some of the local high-schoolers who were hams. One
of them eventually came back here as a college professor. He told me
how he and another of the kids were always getting in trouble at school
for talking to each other. So they were put into separate classrooms
with a wall between them. So they would carry on their conversation
by tapping out Morse code on the wall.
--

jhhaynes at earthlink dot net

slight pause after the dashes & using context


"Wayne Jones" wrote in message
.. .
I have used morse code with a key (ve3gqx) but have always wondered how
people sent and recieved code by tapping on pipes etc.
Can anyone explain how this is done? How does one distinguish between a
dot
and a dash?

tnx
Wayne

"Wayne Jones" wrote in message
.. .
I have used morse code with a key (ve3gqx) but have always wondered how
people sent and recieved code by tapping on pipes etc.
Can anyone explain how this is done? How does one distinguish between a
dot and a dash?

tnx
Wayne
a) They only do it in the movies. It's Hollywood and isn't real.
b) The original telegraph codes used sounders that clicked the code, it
wasn't the same code.

Brad.

Another way is

For a dot -- a sharp tap

For a dash - a prolonged scrape

I used to send morse to my buddy in company meetings with a tapping pencil
Folks were so busy yakking -- no one noticed --- Typical message was BS or
GEE

Navy pilots captured and held in POW camps in North Vietnam could
communicate with each other in code while in their cells by tapping on a
wall or the floor.

See URL:
http://shipmodeling.info/morse_code.htm

Thomas Edison proposed marriage by tapping “Will you marry me?” into Mina
Miller's hand. Mina tapped back “yes.”
See URL:
http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/c...=1234723&lid=1



--
CL -- I tap, therefore I am !






"Falky foo" wrote in message
m...
slight pause after the dashes & using context


"Wayne Jones" wrote in message
.. .
I have used morse code with a key (ve3gqx) but have always wondered how
people sent and recieved code by tapping on pipes etc.
Can anyone explain how this is done? How does one distinguish between a
dot
and a dash?

tnx
Wayne

"Brad" bradvk2qq at w6ir.com wrote in message
...

"Wayne Jones" wrote in message
.. .
I have used morse code with a key (ve3gqx) but have always wondered how
people sent and recieved code by tapping on pipes etc.
Can anyone explain how this is done? How does one distinguish between a
dot and a dash?

tnx
Wayne
a) They only do it in the movies. It's Hollywood and isn't real.
b) The original telegraph codes used sounders that clicked the code, it
wasn't the same code.

Brad.

Don't tell that to the POWs

Pilots captured and held in POW camps in North Vietnam could communicate
with each other in code while in their cells by tapping on a wall or the
floor.
See URL:
http://shipmodeling.info/morse_code.htm

POW Jeremiah A. Denton sent morse by blinking his eyes -- see URL:
http://dentonfoundation.org/Jeremiah%20Denton.htm




Morse can be sent over radio waves, by a light source, a mirror flashing the
rays of the sun, or tapping on a wall or the floor or any sound method such
as pipes (a good conduit of sound)

I can send code by tapping a pencil on a desk
dot = a sharp tap
dash = a prolonged scrape
Have done it many times in various situations like a company meeting

Or even by tapping code by feel --- tapping my finger on one's palm
such as Thomas Alva Edison did in proposing marriage to Mina Miller see URL:
http://www.ieee-virtual-museum.org/c...=1234723&lid=1



dah dit dit dit dah dit dah dah dit

C.L.

Here is a real life example of using morse code by beating on a sunken
submarine hull -- The USS Squalus in 1939

"Two ships arrived on the scene during the afternoon. Their propellers could
be heard clearly in the Squalus. One had an oscillator for generating
underwater sound, making possible Morse code transmissions. The Squalus
responded by laboriously beating out answers by hammering on the hull. One
blow was a dot and two a dash."

URL:
http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/blowba...s/sinking3.htm


--
CL -- I doubt, therefore I might be !






"Wayne Jones" wrote in message
.. .
I have used morse code with a key (ve3gqx) but have always wondered how
people sent and recieved code by tapping on pipes etc.
Can anyone explain how this is done? How does one distinguish between a
dot and a dash?

tnx
Wayne

Falky foo posted:

"slight pause after the dashes & using context"

Precisely, just as how the traditional telegraph clickers were used to
communicate.

I learned to read traditional Morse courtesy of the Pennsylvania
Railroad at the ripe old age of 6, well before I developed any level
of competence in reading the printed word. IIRC, it took only about 2
or 3 weeks of exposure before I could print every character being sent
though their telegraph line. (My grandad was retired from the PRR, but
on several days a week he would walk down to the BO shack, an
interlocking and route control station in Bordentown, NJ, to play
poker, while hauling me along.

It didn't take very long before one of the signalmen decided to turn me
from a liability into an asset by teaching me how to copy the language
of the 'clicker', which I dutifully did, printing every character that
came acoss the line very neatly on a pad of paper that the workers
there had provided for this purpose, so the card game could continue
without interruption.

Later, at around age 8, I could operate the BO interlocking all by
myself, setting up the switches and locks for the next oncoming train.
It was great fun, although I had little doubt that one of the card
players was watching over my shoulder the entire time.

IIRC, here's the consist of typical train orders that were received by
telegraph: "1215Z TRN1025 9PASS RT TRENTON JDR SK" and "1411Z TRN1140
XX 21FRT RT DIX RBD SK".

The first message indicates that it's a 9-car passenger train that is
to be routed on the mainline to Trenton, and the latter pertains to a
21-car freight that is to be routed to Fort Dix, NJ. The XX would alert
each location along the route that this train is carrying explosives or
hazardous materials that could present a threat to residents or
communities along the track route were an accident to occur. (The very
worst train classifications are the dreaded "XXX" (extreme explosives,
liquified toxic gas, etc.) and "XXN" (nuclear) designations, which
require local authorities to be contacted prior to the train's passage.


I would respond to each keying "ACK TRN1140 RT DIX JVC SK", then set up
the switch route for the train. (JVC was my grandad's line ident.) If
the train orders contained an XXX or XXN designation, it was time to
interrupt the card game!

The key to reading Morse Code is the timing of the characters, and
their very unique rhthms. Even today, more than 50 years later, I hear
that summary "SK" (end of transmission) as, click, click, click, clack,
click, clack". Similarly, "AR" (over to you) is "click, clack, click,
clack, click". Run either of these two common phrases across your
tongue quickly, and you'll remember that unique sound for the rest of
your life with absolutely no memorization required. Curiously, when you
hear dit-dit-dit-dah-dit-dah or dit-dit-dah-dit-dah, you'll also
automatically recognize what this very different type of sound mean as
well.

SK and kindest regards, Harry C.

It's all in the rythm.

A dot is a single tap. A dash is two closely separated taps.

Think of a telegraph clicker. A dot makes a click, a dash a clack.

Harry C.

Way back when, in HS math class, my ham friends and I would
communicate during class by tapping on our desk-tops. The
instructor never caught on.....just wondered why he had such
a nervous bunch of jerks in his class who couldn't stop
tapping.

Rick T.


Jim Haynes wrote:
I think you strike the pipe harder for a dash than for a dot. But the real
reason I jumped in was to tell a funny story. When I was in college 50
years ago I knew some of the local high-schoolers who were hams. One
of them eventually came back here as a college professor. He told me
how he and another of the kids were always getting in trouble at school
for talking to each other. So they were put into separate classrooms
with a wall between them. So they would carry on their conversation
by tapping out Morse code on the wall.