CW(7)
NAME
CW - the international Morse code
DESCRIPTION
- CW is an abbreviation for "continuous wave", the commonly used technical term for Morse code communication. A basic knowledge or understanding of Morse code is a requirement for Radio Amateurs and Marine
Radio Operators in many parts of the world.
- MORSE CODE TIMINGS
- In Morse code, a dot or dash is referred to as an element. The basic
timing unit is the dot period. This is the time taken to send a dot,
not including any space before or after the dot. The lengths of all
other elements are then derived from this basic unit, using the following rules:
The duration of a dash is three dots.The time between each element (dot or dash) is one dot length.The space between characters is three dot lengths.The space between words is seven dot lengths. - The following formula calculates the dot period in microseconds from
the Morse code speed in words per minute:
dot period = ( 1200000 / speed ) - This formula arises from the use of the word PARIS as a 'standard' word for calibrating Morse code speed. PARIS is 50 units long when sent in Morse code. Analysis of English plain-text indicates that the average word is 50 units, including spaces.
- MORSE CODE CHARACTERS
- The following list shows the IS0 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters that have
commonly understood representations in Morse code:
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"$()+-./:;=?_@ and space - In addition, following ISO 8859-1 and ISO 8859-2 accented characters
are also part of the generally accepted international Morse code:
, S with cedilla and Z with dot above. - Finally, cwlib adds the following ASCII characters as extensions to
single character procedural signals:
<>!&^~ - MORSE CODE CHARACTER TABLES
- The following table shows the Morse code equivalents for the ISO 8859-1, accented ISO 8859-1, and accented ISO 8859-2 characters above. The ASCII portion of this table is taken from the ARRL Handbook, and the accented extensions from various other sources:
- Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code
-------------------------------------------------------A .- B -... C -.-. D -..
E . F ..-. G --. H ....
I .. J .--- K -.- L .-.. - M -- N -. O --- P .--.
Q --.- R .-. S ... T U ..- V ...- W .-- X -..Y -.-- Z --.. - 0 ----- 1 .---- 2 ..--- 3 ...-4 ....- 5 ..... 6 -.... 7 --...
8 ---.. 9 ----. - " .-..-. ' .----. $ ...-..- ( -.--.
) -.--.- + .-.-. , --..-- - -..... .-.-.- / -..-. : ---... ; -.-.-.
= -...- ? ..--.. _ ..--.
..-- .-.- -.-.. ---.
..-.. .-..- .--.- --.- - S with cedilla: ---- and Z with dot above: --..
- In addition to the above standard characters, the following characters are conventionally used for punctuation and procedural signals as follows:
- Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code Ch Code
-------------------------------------------------------" .-..-. ' .----. $ ...-..- ( -.--.
) -.--.- + .-.-. , --..-- - -..... .-.-.- / -..-. : ---... ; -.-.-.
= -...- ? ..--..