LESSONS IN MORSE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 70, 25 October 1940, Page 16

LESSONS IN MORSE

(7) Two More Common Faults

iA The following is a draft of Morse signalling lesson No. 7, which was broadcast from Stations 2YC, 1ZM and 3YL, at 10 p.m., on October 21, 22 and 23. HE talk which preceded the receiving practice deal with two further common faults in sending. These are the faulty formation of letters and the lack of proper spacing between letters, Dealing with the incorrect formation of letters first, the instructor s‘ated that those ravst commouly mis-sent were " L," " 2 ag ony and " KK." After illustrating the correct formation of the letter "L," the manner in which it was often incorrectly signalled, was shown and the result of the incorrect formation was the transmission of the letters "AI" for "L." Similarly, "C" badly spaced became "NN," and "Y" became "TW." It was pointed out that many other letters are split in this manner and the fault was one which frequently led to errors, In nearly all cases, the pause or split in the formation of the letter was made when a dot fcllowed a dash. The cause of this pause was due to the fact that it was necessary to bring the wrist to the upward position to send the dot, If a slow

motion picture were made of the wrist action of a good Morse sender, said the instructor, it would be noticed that each character of every letter was made with the wrist descending. Taking the letter "L" as an example, there is a sharp movement of the wrist to form the dot, after which the wrist returns to its original position; then follows a downward movement to form the dash, which is held by the fingers as the wrist recovers to make the necessary two sharp movements to complete the letter. More often than not, split letters occur as a result of the dash not being held with the fingers. The other fault is the lack of spacing between letters. As an instance the word "And" was taken. The omission of the proper spacing between the letters which make up this word often results in the signalling of "PD." Further examples: the word "Troops" is often sent as "Coops," and the word "True" as "CF." Many further instances could be illistrated. The fault is due to an endeavour to obtain speed. Speed should not be tried for in this manner; it will come of its own accord. The: remainder of the lesson: was taken up with receiving practice, jumbled letters, figures and -plain language being transmitted.