YAMA: Yet Another Morse App

Welcome to YAMA! Whether you are looking for routine practice, some head copy, or want to test your copying limits against a simulated ionospheric storm, YAMA is built to help you.

YAMA has some standard, input processing for example: discarding non-morseable characters, space compression, character case agnostic, as well as, some non-traditional ones: ProSign support, selected character filtering, expansion of contractions, and dynamic wave shaping for QRQ, European and Esparanto support, auto-speed ramp up, and more. Changes to speed/tone and audio impairments can be made during play. YAMA uses a Terminal User Interface (TUI), navigation and selection will be by key combinations, mostly the Control Key and one letter, a few Function keys are supported as alternatives. Help is an exception which uses the standard F1 key.

Getting Started: Entering Text

Before YAMA can play anything, it needs some text! You have two easy ways to do this:

1. Type or Paste: Simply click into the main Text Input box and type or paste your practice text directly. (Cursor keys, Backspace, and Delete are supported for editing).
2. Load a File: Press Ctrl-F (hold the Control Key and simultaneously press 'f') to open the File Selector and browse for any standard .txt file on your computer.

Dynamic Menus & Navigation

YAMA is operated entirely via keyboard shortcuts. Keep an eye on the top menu bar—it is dynamic. YAMA will only show you the shortcuts that make sense for what you are currently doing. For example, you cannot open the Options menu while audio is actively playing, therefore there will not be an Options label, and Ctrl-O will be ignored. The Wave export label will only appear when you actually have text loaded to export.

The method to enter or change an option depends on the field type. Navigate using TAB or BACKTAB. For single-character fields, press Enter or Space to toggle. For drop-downs, use the cursor keys and hit Enter. For multi-digit options (like tones/speeds) or text boxes, use Backspace to clear, type the new value, and hit Enter or TAB.

If you ever get stuck in a menu, just press ESC to safely close it without saving.

Key	Menu Name	Purpose
Ctrl-F, F3	File	Open a .txt file for playback.
Ctrl-P	Play/Pause	Start or pause the current loaded input text.
Ctrl-S	Stop	Halt playback immediately (cannot be resumed).
Ctrl-W	Wave	Export current text to .wav file(s).
Ctrl-E	Erase	Clear the current text input (screen clear).
Ctrl-T	Timing	Speed, Tone, and IWR settings.
Ctrl-O	Options	Parser, messaging, and text processing options.
Ctrl-A	Audio	Audio impacting impairments (QRN, QSB, Drift, etc.).
Ctrl-D	Data-Stats	View statistics and IWR counts. Use when play stops; new input clears data.
Ctrl-B	About	App info and License.
F1	Help	View this help screen.
Ctrl-Q	Quit	Exit YAMA.
ESC	Close	Cancel/Close menus without saving.
Spacebar	Hide/Unhide	Toggle text visibility during audio playback.

Supported Characters & Punctuation

YAMA naturally supports standard letters A-Z and numbers 0-9.

• Basic punctuation: . , ? /
• Extended punctuation (Enable in Options): : ; " @ ' ( ) $ ! \

ProSigns & Equivalents

Supported ProSigns: <AR> <AS> <BT> <KA> <SK> <VA> <VE> <SN> <BK> <HH> <DU> <SOS> <CH>.

If "Play ProSigns" is disabled in Options, bracketed ProSigns will be ignored. However, the standard keyboard equivalents + (<AR>), = (<BT>), and - (<DU>) will still play unless added to the Skip List. (Note: <BK> is sounded as "B K". Any other use of '<' or '>' is ignored.)

Options Screen (Ctrl-O) - Settings

Setting	Description
Play ProSigns	Toggles support for bracketed ProSigns. Does NOT affect -, +, or =.
Extended Punctuation	Toggles support for extended punctuation marks.
European & Esparanto Chars.	Toggles support for 12 additional chars.
Use Skip	Enables the Skip List filtering during playback.
Skip List	Define specific characters or ProSigns to silently ignore (e.g. XY7<BT>=).
Start Delay	Adds a countdown timer (in seconds) before playback begins.
Repeat Limit	Caps consecutive repeating characters to prevent runaway sequences. Default 3.
Random Order	Shuffles the playback order of the entire document's words.
Random Words	Scrambles the letters within individual words. Mutually exclusive with IWR.
Word Builder	Plays words progressively (e.g., T, TH, THE). Mutually exclusive with IWR.
Use Start Msg	Toggles injecting a custom message at the beginning of the text.
Start Msg Text	The specific text to play at the start (e.g., VVV <KA>).
Use End Msg	Toggles injecting a custom message at the end of the text.
End Msg Text	The specific text to play at the end (e.g., <AR>).

The Skip List & Contractions

You can define specific characters or ProSigns to silently skip during playback.

Important Apostrophe Rule: If you add the apostrophe (') to your skip list, YAMA will automatically expand 17 common English contractions before removing the remaining apostrophes (e.g., "DON'T" safely becomes "DO NOT").

Audio Screen (Ctrl-A) - Impairments

You can make changes to the currently playing audio with the Timing or Audio screens.

Setting	Description
Static (QRN)	Injects constant background hiss and random lightning crashes.
Fading (QSB)	Simulates a slow ionospheric roll, dipping and recovering volume.
Tone Drift	Simulates an unstable oscillator, bending the pitch up and down.
Speed Drift	Simulates a tired operator by slowly expanding/contracting the timing.
Key Clicks	Injects a harsh electrical spark at the start and end of elements.

WAV File Export (Ctrl-W)

YAMA exports 16-bit Mono audio. The wave screen lets you select a target directory for the created files; if the path does not exist, it will create it. The approximate play time and file size are shown. You can limit the number of output files (useful for large books), or cap the file size to roughly 10MB to make them easy to email to your phone. The wav file name makes reference to the source, as well as the timing mode and speed.

IWR - Instant Word Recognition

This head-copy feature matches words in your input and overrides your chosen timing mode to play the matched word at an increased speed with standard timing. To use this, you must have an active yamaIWR.txt file.

• A sample file is placed in your OS configuration directory (e.g., $HOME\AppData\Roaming\YAMA for Windows).
• You can edit this safely via the "Edit IWR" button in the Timing menu (Ctrl-T).
• List one word per line. A # at the start of a line ignores it.
• Add an asterisk (*) to match a word even if it is followed by punctuation (e.g., qsl* matches qsl., qsl?).

Note: If you enable Word Builder while IWR is active, the final built word will play once more at your IWR speed.

System Files

• yama_config.json: Manages saved settings. Please use the UI menus rather than hand-editing this.
• yamaIWR.txt: Your active dictionary for Instant Word Recognition.
• yama_help.html: This documentation page.
• YAMA Directory: Found at $HOME/AppData/Roaming/YAMA (Windows) or $HOME/.config/YAMA (Linux). If you ever uninstall YAMA, simply delete this directory.