[CW] KY8D Morse Code Page

[David J. J. Ring, Jr.]

https://starling.us/free/morse/

KY8D’s Morse Code Page
Learning anything at all is far less fatiguing when you can break up 
each day’s study into a number of short, intense stints. Hard to do when 
it ties you to a computer. Here’s my solution: sets of 10- to 12-minute 
*.mp3 files for loading into a portable player. Hundreds of hours worth, 
with each file’s content unique. Those plus the software which I used to 
make them, written in Perl. All free, no strings attached.

Morse Code Audio Files    ↑   → 
Here are jumble-word sets with punctuation. The naming sequence works 
like this. Download buttons with fraction bars are Farnsworth sets. 
Ranges to left of the slash is the Farnsworth speed, right of the slash 
is the character speed. So a lable of 05-10/25 means 25 wpm characters 
initially spaced at 5 wpm but converging on 10 wpm by the end of that 
set.

Download: Archives of sequential *.mp3 files

  Koch Intro    First CW for beginners.
  04-08/20     08-12/20     12-16/20     16-20/20    20 wpm Farnsworth 
drills.
  05-10/25     10-15/25     15-20/25     20-25/25    25 wpm Farnsworth 
drills.
  06-12/30     12-18/30     18-24/30     24-30/30    30 wpm Farnsworth 
drills.
  06-12     12-18     18-24     24-30     30-36    Regular speed drills
  10-30/16-30    Farnsworth punctuation drills.

Below are yet more archives of MP3 files. These are plain text, stories 
downloaded from Project Gutenberg. Not such good practice as jumble-word 
sets, since Q, J and X occur but seldom. They are, however, a whole lot 
more fun.

Download: More *.zip archives of *.mp3 files.

  13-20/15-20    “The Tree of Life” by C. L. Moore
  10-18    “Death of a Spaceman” by Walter M. Miller Jr.
  12-20    “Sjambak” by Jack Vance
  15-23    “The World That Couldn’t Be” by Clifford D. Simak
  18-28    “The Dunwich Horror” by H. P. Lovecraft
  20-31    “Voodoo Planet” by Andre Norton
  22-34    “Omnilingual” by H. Beam Piper
  13-30    “The Ultimate Weapon” by John W. Campbell
  20-25    “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs

All *.mp3 files in the archives above were created by feeding ASCII text 
into an audio file generator program called gus_morse.pl, which I wrote 
initially in 2006 and have improved somewhat for 2015. ASCII files for 
the word-jumble sets derive from a second companion program, 
gus_jumbled_words.pl, written in 2015. ASCII text for the punctuation 
drills was hand-coded. So then, if the above-listed practice drills do 
not quite suit your fancy, below are the tools to fashion new ones 
however you like. I wrote them for me and you get them free. Please 
report any issues that you may have.

Morse Code File Generator     ←   ↑   ↓   → 
Most other Morse code generator programs available on the Internet run 
on Java and play through the MIDI device of a sound card. Mine is 
different. It runs on Perl and works by reading instructions and/or 
plain text in from a *.txt file. On Linux and Windows both it can 
generate *.wav files, which all MP3 players know how to play. On Linux 
alone it can be triggered to auto-call other built-in transcoders to 
change those *.wav files on the fly into either *.mp3 or *.ogg formats. 
On Windows you have to perform such transcoding externally. Here is an 
external link on different ways to do that:   wiki  .

Download:

  Perl     POD     Script & Doc

On Unix/Linux/BSD/OS X    ↑   → 
Download the source script and rename it from *.txt to *.pl. Also 
remember to adjust the path in the shebang line. I have it set for 
Ubuntu Linux. Your’s might be different. You very likely already have 
Perl, but in addition need to acquire these two extra modules for Perl: 
Audio::Wav and Time:HiRes. Get those in the usuall way from CPAN, 
pkgsrc, or wherever. Read the POD to learn all the features.

On Windows     ←   ↑ 
First, here’s the easy-peasy way, a ZIP archive of two stand-alone 
32-bit *.exe files: gus_jumble_words.exe and gus_morse.exe, which are 
simplified, one-click versions that ask questions rather than take their 
arguments on the command line. Generates *.wav files only. To get *.mp3, 
batch convert them in whichever music manager you prefer. Alternately, 
if you can script code in Perl, then just do the same as for Linux.

Download:

  ZIP    Win7 Binaries

Practice Text Generator     ←   ↑   → 
Here is a Perl script to generate *.txt files for Morse code practice 
programs. Use it with my own audio file generator script above, or with 
any other. It creates a file of jumbled words taken at random from lists 
of more than 85,000. The word lists derive from an on-line dictionary 
for the word game Scrabble. Words containing high-score letters: Z, J, 
Q, and so forth. Lists for only that half of the whole alphabet. The 
not-so-rare letters turn up regardless. So then, more balanced practice.

And since Morse code is not just letters alone, the program stirs these 
into the mix: punctuation (1:5), number groups (1:7), reverse-spelled 
words (1:11), and random gobbledegook (1:19) to keep you alert. Those 
ratios are the default. You can override them with switches. Feed the 
resulting *.txt file into my gus_morse.pl script with an embedded, 
top-line instruction of...

*wpm=25**farn=13**lang=en**incr=0.0**decr=0.09**codec=mp3**about=0**max=10* 

...and you’ll get about one hundred 10-minute *.wav or *.mp3 files of 
25-wpm characters with 13-wpm spacing to start and slowly increasing to 
about 22-wpm spacing. Takes quite a while for so many. If your PC is 
slow, leave it run overnight. Then put the whole lot into your MP3 
player, turn off shuffle and listen to them sequentialy.

Note that the word-jumble algorithm is random. Re-run it again to 
generate a new file of mostly different words, jumbled differently. 
Don’t be surprised at any word which might turn up. Sailor-words are 
legal in Scrabble, so it would appear. Likewise the names of 
seldom-mentioned body parts. Only one of those words (and its 
derivatives) did I bother editing out from those lists.

Download:

  Perl     POD     1     2     3     4     5    Script, Doc & Sample 
Results 1-5

RAM disk     ←   ↑   → 
It is often more convenient (and very much faster) to work inside a 
virtual drive (aka RAM disk) when composing audio files. On my current 
Ubuntu Linux box I create a RAM disk at boot by adding this line to my 
/etc/fstab file.

tmpfs /media/ramdisk tmpfs rw,size=2048M 0 0

On my one-time NetBSD Unix box, I had used to do the same by having this 
line in my /etc/rc.local file.

mount_mfs -s 900m swap /ram

You can also do it for Windows, but there will be some hoops to jump 
through. Really, it ought to be built in. Time for Microsoft to catch up 
with the Amiga 2000, circa 1985 on that particular score. Here is a link 
to a well-recommended free utility which I use at work sometimes:   html  

For Mac OS X too there are ramdisk solutions. I cannot vouch for them, 
having never yet owned a Mac. For whatever it may be worth, here is a 
link:   html  

MP3 Players     ←   ↑   → 
I have two MP3 players, a cheapo and a nice one. I tailor my audio files 
to work on both. My cheapo is a Sandisk Sansa Sport/Clip player, a tiny 
thing with an itsy bitsy screen. For that I keep the file names short 
and also set the genre tag to ‘Audiobook’ per the Sandisk website 
instruction (even though it isn’t a proper ID3 tag). I likewise set the 
album tag. That is so the Sansa will group them. Hopefully that is also 
good enough for other players.

My better player is Cowon iAudio 10. For audiobooks to work on that I 
don’t have to do anything special. I mention it however because of a 
most useful feature. The Cowon lets me vary the playback speed while at 
the same time compensating for tone. Thus I can reduce or speed up a 
particular CW audio file while still retaining the 750 or 800 Hz that 
I’m used to hearing. So if it’s unavoidable to skip a day in my CW 
speed-gain practice, or if I’m tired or for whatever excuse, I don’t 
have to back up to an earlier file. I can keep going from where I left 
off. Handy when it’s a story downloaded from the Gutenberg project or 
cut-and-paste copied from out of an ebook. In fact, that feature is 
excellent too for listening to a regular narrated audiobook under 
conditions of noise or when my attention needs to be focused mainly 
elsewhere. Like when driving. Just thought I’d mention in case you were 
shopping.

One thing the Cowon does not have (and the reason why I bought the 
Sansa) is an external hardware button for pasusing playback. Instead you 
have to activate and cue the menu. Very annoying when I need to pause in 
a hurry, like when restaurant wait staff has come to take my order.

Other CW Study Aids     ←   ↑   → 
If my system doesn’t suit your taste, click on the call signs listed 
below. Maybe one of theirs you’ll like better.

Visit:   DJ1YFK     DL2KCD     K7QO     AC4FS     AA9PW     G4FON     
K5TR     AH0A     M0TRN     W5BRB     W0UCE     SMRCC     SKCC  

Study Tips     ←   ↑   → 
Write it down. Write all of it down all of the time. Making hard copy is 
Morse code’s original purpose. Western Union telegraphers did not just 
listen and then speak the gist of what it was they thought they had 
heard. No one would pay for such sloppy service. They wrote everything 
down. Back when I was still in the navy I went to school in Charleston 
SC where they taught me how to build mines. My barracks roommates for a 
while were a pair of radiomen going to code school. From the very 
beginning they were tought to make hard copy of all they heard. This 
they were trained to do on typewriters, the point being that you can 
still type even at the highest of speeds. So then, hard copy. That is 
the goal.

On a related note, know also this. When on the radio someone asks, ‘Do 
you copy?’, what that properly means is, ‘Are you making a record?’ 
Which is to say, writing it down, typing it out, or engaging the 
printer. When they are wanting only to ask if you can make out what 
they’re sending, then is when they ask instead, ‘Do you read?’ It never 
fails to annoy me when Hollywood gets that dead wrong. Even worse is 
when they say, ‘Over and out’, which is exceedingly rude. Saying ‘out’ 
means, ‘I now leave the air.’ Which is to say that that I now go away, I 
no longer listen, usually because of turning my radio off. Whereas 
‘over’ means ‘It is now your turn to talk.’ We must keep our meanings 
precise: read/copy mean two different things, as do over/out.

Sorry for that little diversion. I just needed to vent for a moment. 
Ahem... So then, hard copy. It’s faster and you make fewer mistakes. And 
such few misakes as you make will matter less, because you won’t 
stumble. How that works is like for typists. Old time secretaries typed 
90 wpm by training their fingers to respond directly to what was seen 
with the eyes. They didn’t think too very hard about what they typed 
because that just gets in the way. Better was just to let the text flow 
from sensory input to tactile output. Best is to detach one’s awareness 
of future and past and float lightly upon the current of now. A 
meditative state, if you will. If the mind is busy analyzing, trying to 
keep up with the instant of now, then it is certain to stumble upon each 
and every surprise. So then, do not decypher words letter-by-letter. 
Don’t be trying to read a word until after that word is done. Don’t read 
it until after the following space. Then at the soonest. Better yet, 
read from two or three words behind. Meanwhile let your subconcious 
route signals from ear down to fingers. If you learn to just let it flow 
from ears straight to paper, this without thinking, then any little 
mistake that you do make won’t give you that instant of panic. Avoiding 
the panic prevents a stumble. Panic over a single letter cause those 
stumbles which cost the whole of a word. Loss of a word gives an even 
bigger panic, tripping the listener up so badly as to lose the next word 
also. It’s a chain reaction that way. So then, don’t listen to the word 
now. Read it instead after it’s written. Likewise only write a letter 
after hearing all of it. Write it smoothly, not fast and jerky. Write it 
while you are hearing the letter to follow. In short, be a follower of 
what you’re hearing. Write the letter you’ve heard while you are hearing 
the next. Read only whole words after they’re already written. Do it 
like how you follow a person, from a distance, not stepping right on 
their heels.

Learn signals by the sound of their rhythm. This you can’t do at 5 wpm, 
nor yet even at 10 wpm. Space them apart as slow as you like, but hear 
each separate signal sent at a fast speed. Hear them so fast you don’t 
have time to count dits and dahs. Hear them like little snatches of 
music. Let your subconcsious attend the distinction, each by its rhythm. 
Then train your fingers to write it all down, but to write smoothly. 
Don’t write in haste. There’s no need to finish the letter you’ve just 
heard before the next letter begins. Learn to follow behind whatever you 
hear. Write it down one letter behind so that you’re not trying to 
guess. Read what you’ve written two or even three words behind

Learn them in groups a few at a time. Don’t add another until the ones 
already learned sound like letters and not combinations of dits and 
dahs. Move on like that. There are programs other than mine to help you 
with that. Mine is mainly to help you build speed. Or to regain speed 
you once had but since have lost. However you learn, though, get in the 
habit to write it all down. Let your subconscious route the signals from 
ear straight to fingers. If ever you build your speed up to 30 wpm and 
higher, then maybe you can’t write so fast. A typist could keep up, 
though, I’m certain, since that is what the navy required. Time enough 
then, to just relax and maybe listen only by ear. But since you’re here, 
reading this now, chances are good you’re not there yet.