AY Honors/Morse Code

Morse Code
Vocational
Skill Level 123
Approval authority South American Division	Year of Introduction 2012

• Overview
• Requirements
• Answer Key
• Lesson Plans

AY Honors/Morse Code/Overview

The most challenging requirement of this honor is probably this:

5. Send and receive by the International Morse Code, a word or a Bible verse at a minimum rate of one letter for every five seconds, using a key, flashlight, whistle, mirror or speaker (words of approximately five letters, minimum 20 words).

1. How is Morse code different from other codes?

2. What are the instruments used to communicate in Morse code?

3. In a timeline and in a report of at least 300 words, tell the story of the creation of Morse code. Who used it initially? What was the reason for its creation and its use?

4. Describe the transmission of the following signs:

a. Dot (.)

b. Dash (—)

c. Space ( )

d. SOS

e. End of the message

5. Send and receive by the International Morse Code, a word or a Bible verse at a minimum rate of one letter for every five seconds, using a key, flashlight, whistle, mirror or speaker (words of approximately five letters, minimum 20 words).

6. Make a creative picture to represent Morse code and its respective characters; it should include numbers, alphabet, and punctuation.

Edit Answer Key

1

How is Morse code different from other codes?

Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes, or dits and dahs. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of the inventors of the telegraph. The dit duration is the basic unit of time measurement in Morse code transmission. The duration of a dah is three times the duration of a dit. Each dit or dah within an encoded character is followed by a period of signal absence, called a space, equal to the dit duration. The letters of a word are separated by a space of duration equal to three dits, and words are separated by a space equal to seven dits.

Morse code is different from other codes in that it can be memorized and sent in several forms perceptible to the human senses, e.g. vía sound waves or visible light, such that it can be directly interpreted by persons trained in the skill. Morse code is usually transmitted by on-off keying of an information-carrying medium such as electric current, radio waves, visible light, or sound waves.

2

What are the instruments used to communicate in Morse code?

There are several instruments that can be used to communicate in Morse code.

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A telegraph key is a specialized electrical switch used by a trained operator to transmit text messages in Morse code in a telegraphy system. Keys are used in all forms of electrical telegraph systems, including landline (also called wire) telegraphy and radio (also called wireless) telegraphy. An operator uses the telegraph key to send electrical pulses (or in the case of modern CW, unmodulated radio waves) of two different lengths: short pulses, called dots or dits, and longer pulses, called dashes or dahs. These pulses encode the letters and other characters that spell out the message.

A simple and small mirror can also be used to transmit Morse code. By moving the mirror back and forth, and flashing with the use of a light source, like the sun.

Toggling a light source is a visual method of sending Morse code. This can be doing by using different instruments that give off artificial light, such as a flashlight.

3

In a timeline and in a report of at least 300 words, tell the story of the creation of Morse code. Who used it initially? What was the reason for its creation and its use?

4

Describe the transmission of the following signs:

4a

Dot (.)

4b

Dash (—)

4c

Space ( )

4d

SOS

4e

End of the message

5

Send and receive by the International Morse Code, a word or a Bible verse at a minimum rate of one letter for every five seconds, using a key, flashlight, whistle, mirror or speaker (words of approximately five letters, minimum 20 words).

There are several free online Morse Code Translators. A few are MorseTranslator.com, MorseDecoder.com, and International Morse Code Translator

6

Make a creative picture to represent Morse code and its respective characters; it should include numbers, alphabet, and punctuation.

References

• Wikipedia article on Morse Code

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See AY Honors/Model Lesson Plan if you need ideas for creating one.