MORSE CODE TRAINER AND
SIMULATOR WRITTEN IN PYTHON
(2013-2016)

KLIK HIER VOOR DE NEDERLANDSE VERSIE


Screenshot of the program to learn and simulate Morse code.

Why Morse code?
Which fool does still use Morse code? Nowadays we have much better means of communication. The answer is simple: "Back to simplicity with its exciting challenges!" That simple Morse code is much more challenging and exciting than digital communication modes. And Morse code gives a great performance with very simple means!
Back to pure simplicity ! Let your body do the work! No computer as needed for a digital mode, but your ears, brains and hands to decode and code the Morse code. With Morse code you have to work yourself! Listening to that wonderful orchestra of all these interesting ether sounds and then to try to pick only that specific signal and decode it just by ear! It gives you a triumphant feeling when it works! Morse code has nothing to do with technology, but is a physical challenge! What a difference with a digital mode! Then we are looking very passive to a display and we do read what the decoder has decoded.


Many variations. A simple QRP transceiver for portable use
during hikes or a professional key for in the shack!

Your body at work! Therefore, your wireless connection will suddenly become much more challenging and more active! Portable outdoors, but also indoors chatting comfortably with a squeeze keyer! You can compare a Morse code connection with a Whats App chat, but unfortunately without pictures. You can not expect anything from such a simple system! Perhaps that you have noticed it already, we are not talking about technology! Or perhaps just a little, a very simple and therefore very robust and small Morse code transceiver has to be made. We do not need a computer, our brain can do the decoding even much better than a computer! And it is a very simple and solid system! Very active, primitive holidays with your backpack in the woods? Then a simple but solid Morse code transceiver is the best choice to make wireless connections!


Digitale mode. The computer does all the work werk and we are
looking very passive to a display to read what the decoder has decoded.

A great flexible, simple, reliable and efficient system!
Morse code is enormously flexible. There are no high demands for the frequency stability. Is the timing not accurate, do we have to reduce the transmit speed due to a bad connection, tjooping signals or does the frequency vary, the brain seamlessly adapts itself perfectly! No computer needed! The interface with the transmitter is your hand operating the keyer, your ears are the interface with the receiver and your brain does the encoding and decoding! And Morse code is very efficient! Due to the pauses between the dots and dashes, the transmitter transmits only 50% of the time. And our brain uses no batteries at all, a computer does!
What a great flexible, simple, reliable and efficient system! But we engineers do not like to use it, we do not like physical challenges. And that is a big problem ... as for using the Morse code, we have to train our body intensively! Learning Morse code takes much time and a lot of perseverance! So we technicians do quickly prefer a digital mode.


Simple Morse code transceiver with a
Morse key that you can clamp on your leg.

How are we going to learn Morse code?
Learning the Morse code is a funny and challenging activity and a hobby that has nothing to do with technology. It is not easy. You have to enjoy it, really want to learn it and you need a lot of practice. In the beginning I was sure that I would never be able to send 12 WPM because it was impossible to move my arm so fast. But after much exercise that succeeded!
Every day, 2 to 3 times a half-hour exercise. Sending fifteen minutes with the Morse key and record also fifteen minutes. Record your transmitted signal with a recording device (nowadays a PC of course), listen to it so now and then and try to decode it. For the transmissions, the random five letter codes that the exercise program can generate are very useful. For the recording and watching of your signal, two Python programs have been added. "AudioWAV-v01.py" to record your signal and "WAVviewer-v01.py" to check the timing of your recorded signal. Often you will have weeks without any progress. Just continue, you will see that you are becoming more and more skilled in decoding Morse code.
I had the advantage to practice with another amateur. Five times a day, 20 minutes, 10 minutes transmission and 10 minutes decoding the messages that the other did transmit. Within three months we were on 12 WPM speed.


Start with only letters. These kind of random
text can be made with the exercise program
Later you will practice with all the characters

For the decoding of the Morse code, it is important that you learn to recognize the characters as a kind of music. So do not convert them into dots and dashes, but directly hear that a .- is an A. You must learn to recognize characters as melodies. And after a while you will even recognize whole words at once without decoding individual characters.
A quick method to learn to recognize the characters as music is the Farnsworth method. In this method, the character is transmitted with a relatively high speed (eg, 12 WPM) and the spaces between characters and words are made much larger. This is possible with the exercise program with the Timing. With the exercise program you can create texts consisting of five randomly chosen characters and convert then to audio files that can be played with a music player. Start with the characters with 1 and 2 dots and dashes and extend it further and further.
If you are more experienced, you can also convert text into Morse code with the exercise program. I do copy parts of the daily news or other interesting stories. And then you can also add interferences, noise and fading. Here below are a few examples. I can play the WAV files perfectly on my smartphone with the Google music player. Because we only use low frequencies up to 1500 Hz, the sample rate of the WAV files can be kept low, 4800 samples / sec. As a result, the WAV files are reasonably small and the pitch of the noise is limited to a SSB bandwidth.

EXAMPLES:

Morse and noise
Morse and fading
Morse and interferers


Small Morse code transceiver, simple
and cheap but very reliable!

Explanation of the Morse code training program.
Why I made this program? There are much better ones on the internet. But why does someone make a painting while all the museums have many much nicer ones? Because it is nice to make your own version, even if nobody else will ever use it... Below is a brief guide.

Save Setting and Recall Setting
As you can see on the screen, you can program all kinds of settings of the Morse and interferers. To avoid that you have to set them every time again, you can save and recall these settings.

Make Text
Herewith you can make training text as you see on the previous pictures. You can choose between letters, numbers, special characters or all characters. And you can select how many dots and dashes you want. So you can start with the characters with 1 and 2 dots and dashes and expand it. Save the text and make then a WAV file.

Sample Rate and Make WAV
The default sample rate of 4800 can be changed and text can be converted into a WAV file with the Morse code. Play it later on your smartphone (with Google music player for example) or your PC. Before you make a WAV file, you must first load the text with the button Load Text. Because we only use low frequencies up to 1500 Hz, a low sampling rate of 4800 samples is sufficient and are the WAV files reasonably small and the pitch of the noise is reduced to a SSB bandwidth.

Load Text
Before you make a WAV file, you have to load the textfile (*.txt) with this button.

Timing
You can set the Morse speed. A value of 0.1 second is equal to a Morse speed of 12 WPM. You kan also make the pauses between characters longer with the PAUSE multiplier.

Morse Modes
Press the button and you will see another mode on the screen. Mode 1 is the mode we normally use. The others are for simulation of modes used for QRSS Morse, a mode with very low power signal and slow speed. You can try if you can learn to decode mode 2 by ear. In this mode, the dash is replaced by a dot with a different tone height.

Morse Signal
The tone frequency and strength in % of the Morse signal can be set. You can also set a tone for the spaces. Of course we do not use it for our Morse code exercises, then we set the level to 0%. But for simulating QRSS Morse, a mode with very low power signal and slow speed, we do need a tone for the space. Usually the difference in pitch is less than 5 Hz. QRSS is decoded with a special computer program.

Fading
Fading can be activated. You can choose a fading frequency, slow or faster fading.

Noise and Interferers
Noise and interfering signals similar to Morse code can be added. Please note that the sum of the levels of all signals (Morse, noise and all interferers) is not more than 100%.

Signal Level
The level of the complete signal can be controlled. Not really necessary, might sometimes be useful.


When you are quite experienced,
you will use a squeeze keyer.
You can transmit very relaxed with it
with a much higher speed during many hours.

How further?
When you have become quite experienced, you will begin to use a squeeze keyer. It has two paddles. You can transmit very relaxed with it with a higher speed. Your thumb for the dashes, your index finger for the dots.

Unfortunately there are no coastal stations anymore that transmit news and weather reports in Morse code. But with the exercise program you can convert text from internet in Morse code and add noise and Morse code-like signals. It is as if you are listening at your shortwave receiver.

With my homemade 2 meter transceiver, I made the first contacts in Morse code! I had the first FM voice QSO only a month later. Great those always changing conditions. And even during bad conditions you could make QSO's across large distances with Morse code!


Portable during cold weather in a harsh winter landscape?
Then Morse code is the most reliable communication!

SOFTWARE

Before you are using this program, you have to install Python. That is very simple. But read first something about Python by clicking the following link:

WHAT IS PYTHON AND HOW DO YOU INSTALL PYTHON

As the source code of Python is written in ASCII, it is very simple to modify the program to you own requirements. Think for example about the size of the screen, the colors etc.

Required Python version:

Required external modules (site-packages for the correct Python version!):
Download here the Python program by clicking the link here below:

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