[Fists] A simple way to determine your PARIS speed

[Andrew Roos]

Hi David

The timing relationships you point out means there is a simple way to
accurately determine your PARIS word speed if you are using a keyer and the
various elements are correctly weighted.

One dash (3 units) plus in inter-character space (1 unit) totals 4 units. A
speed of 1 w.p.m. is 50 units per minute, or 0.833 units per second. At that
rate, the time taken to send a dash and inter-word speace (4 units) would be
4 / 0.833 = 4.80 seconds. Now if you were sending at 2 words per minute,
each unit woul dtake half the time, so in 4.8 seconds you could send 2
dashes plus their inter-character spaces. At 15 w.p.m. you could send 15
dashes (plus their spaces), and at 20 w.p.m. you could send 20, all in 4.8
seconds.

So to determine speed in words per minute when using an electronic keyer,
simply hold the "dash" key down and count how many dashes there are in 4.8
seconds. (Remember to allow for the inter-character space after the final
"dash" - in otherwords, if your 4.8 second period starts with a "dash" then
it should end with a "space".) That is your PARIS speed in words per minute.

NB that this is only accurate with a correctly weighted keyer. If the
weighting of dashes to dots is not 3:1 or if inter-element spaces are not
the same length as a dot then it will not give an accurate result.

73,
Andrew ZS1AN

> -----Original Message-----
> From: fists-admin@mailman.qth.net [mailto:fists-admin@mailman.qth.net]On
> Behalf Of Cheryl W. Ring
> Sent: 23 September 2003 07:49
> To: fists@mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Fists] Morse Code Timing (LONG)
>
>
> The basic element of Morse code is the dot, all other code elements are
> defined in relationship to the length of the dot.
>
> A DASH is equal to THREE dots  in length -- but it is NOT equal to the
> length of three dots sent as an S because there are "interelement spaces"
> inbetween the dots.  They are equal to the length of one dot.
>
> Dot                                = The element on which
> everything else is
> based = 1 unit
> Dash                             = 3 dots in length.
> Inter-element space:   1 dot length.  (The space between the dots
> or dashes
> in a character).
> inter-character space:  3 dot lengths
> Word space:                 7 dot lengths.
>
> The word "PARIS" was chosen for the international standard for timing
> English (and most other) languages.
> This word has 50 elements - or it is equal to 50 "dots" in length.
>
> Here is how it is timed:
>
> The figure 1 represents a dot, the figure 3 represents a dash, the figure
> (1) indicates an inter-element space, the figure (3) represents a
> character-space, and the figure (7) represents a word-space.
>
> P
> 1 (1) 3 (1) 3 (1) 1              11
> Inter-character space (3)         3
>
> A
> 1 (1) 3                           5
> Inter-character space (3)         3
>
> R
> 1(1)3(1)1                         7
> Inter-character space (3)         3
>
> I
> 1(1)1                             3
> Inter-character space (3)         3
>
> S
> 1(1)1(1)1                         5
> Word space (7)                    7
>
> Total "units" EQUALS             50
>
> NOTICE that the final WORD space lengthens the "normal" inter-character
> space to 2-1/3 times its length.  You will hear MANY people just using the
> short 3 unit long inter-character space.  They should learn to "at least"
> double it - so that you can know where the word breaks are.
>
> Many operators (I do) prefer to double the word space at speeds above 30
> wpm.  I personally find it very much easier to copy speeds above
> 50 wpm with
> double word space.  It was common in commercial radiotelegraphy to double
> word space at speeds above 25 wpm.
>
> CIPHER groups are timed by the "word" CODEX or CODEZ (they both have the
> same value.)
>
> C
> 3(1)1(1)3(1)1                    11
> Inter-character space (3)         3
>
> O
> 3(1)3(1)3                        11
> Inter-character space (3)         3
>
> D
> 3(1)1(1)1                         7
> Inter-character space (3)         3 38
>
> E
> 1(1)                              2
> Inter-character space (3)         3 43
>
> X
> 3(1)1(1)1(1)3                    11
> Word space (7)                    7
>
>
> Total UNIT COUNT =                61
>
>
>
> Total "units" EQUALS             50
>
>
> This means that for a given speed at which PARIS produces a
> certain Word Per
> Minute (WPM) the code speed for Code Groups will only be 50/61 of that
> speed - or 83%
>
> If we are sending 20 wpm of English, and then start sending code groups of
> random letters, we will be sending at 16.39 wpm.
>
> 73
>
> David Ring,  N1EA
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