A Morse Of A Different Color

Only recently have I really taken a good look at Morse code and decided that it could use some improvements to speed delivery and maintain a concise pattern besides.

PRESS CTRL = (EQUALS) TO INCREASE THE PAGE SIZE AND CTRL 0 (ZERO) TO RESET THE PAGE SIZE THIS PAGE VIEWS BEST IN FIREFOX   Morse Code      Want to read this in a different language ? Change the TO field to your own country and click the TRANSLATE button after going HERE A MORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR   © June 2017 Written by David Wicker Please do not reprint without permission * * * This writing is rated: EVERYONE It has only been of recent that I was examining Morse code when I realized that if you follow the letters sequentially, they really don't make any mathematical sense. I had always believed that Morse code was written in binary, with DOT being zero and DASH being one - but now I see I am mistaken. There is some other reason for the unusual pattern it follows. See for yourself: As you can see, the first letter is not just a dot nor the next a dash, but a combination of the two. No, you won't find the letter that represents a single dot until you get to letter T. Does this make any sense ? Not to me. So, I thought about it, and while I could write a program to represent a new format of Morse code, why not write a better one ? If we are still using Morse code today, surely it must be mechanized. So why not add a 3rd symbol to the dot and the dash ? A stagger. A stagger is a quick two-presses, faster than two dots and certainly a faster delay than the separation of letters. If this is not possible, can you reverse polarity on an electric signal used for Morse transmission ? Then you could really have 2-more. Negative dot and negative dash. But for now, let's focus on just one addition, the stagger, and see a chart to represent characters that can be sent with it. Here is a program I wrote to show what characters choices are possible with just 3 different kinds of "presses" instead of the usual 4 used today. As you can see it follows a perfect binary pattern where a single dot is the SPACE, dash the period, and stagger the special mark, in this case, exclamation point. After that you have your letters. Two dots for "A," a dot and a dash for "B" and a dot and a stagger for "C" - and so on. Using this method gives you 39-unique distinctions, in this case, space, period, exclamation mark, the letters A-Z and the digits 0-9. Here is the source I wrote to generate this: '    _____________________________________ '   //                                  // '  //   DOUBLE MORSE CODE GENERATOR    // ' //   WRITTEN BY DAVID W - 06/14/17  // '//__________________________________// Strict Graphics 800,600 SetScale 4,4 Local i,j,k,m,a$,n,c$ Global font:TImage=LoadAnimImage("sys/morse.png",8,8,0,96,0) Global char$=" .!ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890" Global trh=1,trv=16 For i=0 To 3   For j=0 To 3     For k=0 To 3       If (i>0 And j>0 And k>0) Or (i=0 And j>0 And k>0) Or (i=0 And j=0 And k>0)         a$=""         If i>0 Then a$:+Chr$(95+i) Else a$:+"z"         If j>0 Then a$:+Chr$(95+j) Else a$:+"z"         If k>0 Then a$:+Chr$(95+k)         n:+1         c$=char$[n-1..n]         trx a$+"z"+c$       EndIf     Next   Next Next Flip WaitChar ' >> TRANSMIT GRAPHIC FONT TO SCREEN Function trx(t$) Local i   For i=0 To Len(t$)-1     DrawImage font,(trh+i)*32,trv,t$[i]-32   Next   trv:+32   If trv>=576     trv=16     trh:+9   EndIf EndFunction' TRX Looking at the code you can see that you cannot just go through a binary set or you would never have the shortcut signals where there are 2 or less characters for a shortcut. Also you would have repeated patterns. Where blank would count twice for the same signal. So it is important to have this inquiry in the code: (i>0 And j>0 And k>0) Or (i=0 And j>0 And k>0) Or (i=0 And j=0 And k>0) for your comparison, to ensure there is at least one valid character in the Morse set. What are your ideas on the existing Morse code ? Do you know why letter T is favored for A for brevity ? Do you think a new"press" like stagger could be added and used today ? Or do you think is it possible to reverse the polarity on the electrical signal so a click up is possible as well as down ? Return back HOME   You are Earth Visitor #

Reviews

[dw817]

Hi Relic. The problem with my method is ultimately it would slow down transmission (and recall) by a factor of 2. So - I don't know if you would be saving much time or data by adding the stagger, that is, where it is recognizable from standard Morse. It was just an observation of the current coding method.

It was just an observation. There are actually several ways to communicate outside of this without audio or words.

Look up Semaphores as well as they also don't seem to follow a standard pattern after letter "I"

http://bit.ly/2yB0xib

[Relic]

Did you ever present this idea to anyone? It's pretty interesting, though I think the old timers may be set in their ways. :)

[Relic]

The letters on your writing get cut off on the right side of the page. :(

[dw817]

Oh, sorry 'bout that. You can try a different browser like Firefox or use the CTRL key with a combination of "-" to shrink text, "+" to enlarge it, and "0" to return it back to scale.

Please let me know if this helps, Relic.

[Relic]

Hey, it worked. I used the CTRL and the dash. Thanks. I'll try reading this when I have time.

[dw817]

Very good. Enjoi !