[CW] The Mother Tongue of Morse Code

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Readers might be interested in this: Lake Edward Trump, AL7N is a skilled
wire and radio telegrapher, and has been employed in both fields. I know
him from Nome Alaska Radio / WKR, the Society of Wireless Pioneers and the
Morse Telegraph Club.


From: *Lake Trump* <AL7N>
Date: Tue, Mar 1, 2022, 9:42 PM
Subject: Landline American Morse
To: fons.vandenberghen <fons.vandenberghen>

Fons:

Mr David Ring forwarded your request to me.  Perhaps my response will be of
assistance to you.

I am 79 YOA, having learned American Morse through  self teaching, and also
through my association with veteran Railroad Morse Telegraphers (many hired
in the 1920's and 1930's) while employed as a Railroad Telecommuncations
Engineer on the D&RGW Railroad in Colorado and Utah circa 1965-1973.

At that time, there were still working Morse telegraph wires on many
railroads in the USA, and operators who knew how to use them.  Fortunately,
many of these men and women noted my interest in the craft and were of huge
assistance in my learning how to "work the wire".

American Morse used with telegraph sounders is a "sound" language, and must
be learned by *sound*,  and not from a visual "dot-dash" printed aspect.

One must learn and commit to memory, the unique *sound* the sounder makes
for *each *individual Morse character, numeral, and punctuation symbol in
the American Morse Code.

A telegraph sounder when properly adjusted, makes a "click-clack" sound for
each stroke of the sounder lever.   The "click" sound is due to the
downstroke of the sounder lever hitting the bottom or downstop of the
sounder "bridge" as the telegraph circuit is energized (closed).
The "clack" sound is due to the subsequent striking of the sounder lever
against the upstop of the sounder bridge as the circuit is de energized
(opened).
The mechanical design of the sounder bridge is purposely asymetrical to
produce this difference in sound.

Thus, a "dot" (short element)  sounds like "click-clack".  A "dash" (long
element)  sounds like
"click-----clack"   In other words, a slightly longer interval between the
downstroke and the upstroke
of the sounder lever striking the up and down stops.

As an example,  the letter "A" is produced by the telegraph key opening and
closing the circuit rapidly to form the "dot" and a bit less rapidly to
form the "dash" .  This is analogous to the "DIDAH" sound in the Radio
Morse tone code for the letter "A".

One must learn the *unique* sound of each character and with practice, a
mental construction of the letter, numeral or punctuation character is
formed .   The learning process is enhanced if the "character" speed of
each character is learned at a fairly fast rate.  At first, more space is
inserted between complete characters as they are sent, and later this
interval is shortened so that the characters can come more rapidly .

Once all the letters , numerals and punctuations are learned and committed
to memory, combinations of
same can begin to form short words, such as 'AND", "THE", and so on.
More practice will enable the mind to associate more and more letter
combinations together to form longer words.

In the end, what happens, finally, is the receiving operator just hears the
"words" as they are sent, and does
not consciously hear the "click-clacking" of the sounder.  He or she just
"hears" what the distant operator is "saying" as plainly as if they were
being spoken directly to in regular words.
if written copy is to be made, what the distant operator sends is just
written down, or typed on a typewriter. Morse IS a "language".

This learning process can take some time.

In my own personal case, it took a number of months, even years,  of
listening to working telegraph wires
to begin to decipher the individual words being sent....
I practiced regular sending,  duplicating as closely as possible "correct"
formation of all the characters, and included sending with the Morse key
from written text when I could for sending practice.

Receiving "off the wire" did not come to me easily nor for quite some time
, but when it did, I was amazed to find that I could actually "hear" what
the distant operator was "saying" and did not have to consciously
"decode" the clatter of the sounder...It was and is just like a "voice"
speaking to me.

I well remember the day this happened:
I was sitting in the telegraph office of the railroad depot in a town
called SALIDA, Colorado, talking with the telegraph operator and waiting to
catch a freight train back to Denver to go home after some field work I had
been there in the area to do. I often used my Company "Pass" to do this, as
there was not always a convenient passenger train I could ride to or from
where I needed to go on the job.

The telegraph wire came to life,  The operator at Buena Vista,  up the line
about 30 miles north came on and called Salida.: "S"  "S" "BV".  After the
Salida operator answered:  "I" " I" " S"   , I heard, distinctly, these
words come from the sounder:
"WHAT TIME DID RCW LEAVE SALIDA?"

The Buena Vista operator was trying to find out from the Salida operator
what time the Trainmaster
named R.C. Williams ("RCW") had left Salida to go north toward Buena Vista
in his truck.
This particular Trainmaster liked to go out along the line and hide in the
bushes, waiting to observe train crews break some operating rule or other
so he could discipline them.
The operator at Buena Vista was trying to find this information out so he
could pass a warning to southbound trains about the snooping going on.
At that time, few RR supervisory personnel could "read" the Morse wires, so
the operators used them freely amongst themselves on any Division as a sort
of "private and  secure" communicating system...It worked well.

Anyway, that was the first time I ever could "read" what was coming over a
Morse wire.  It just "happened" to start making sense all of a sudden.  I
have been able to "read" most any working Morse wire at speed ever since.

I cannot explain what happened, or why, it just did.  I have also heard of
similar experiences from other telegraph operators over the years.

So.... There you have my story.

I hope it will help you understand the learning and use of the American
Morse landline code a little at least.

If you have more questions, please feel free to ask.

73
Ed Trump
Fairbanks, Alaska
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