What is Morse code
Generally speaking, morse code is a method that is commonly used in telecommunication and is intended to foreground and encode text characters nearly standardized sequences of two utterly different signal durations, called dashes and dots or dahs and dits. Morse code is named right after Samuel Morse, who was a famous inventor of the telegraph.
There are variations of morse code, namely the International morse codes, American morse codes, and continental (Gerke) morse codes. In order to increase the efficiency of the encoding system, Morse code was created so that the length of per code symbol is around inverse to the frequency of character occurrence that it resembles in the text of the English language.
Thus the most frequent and joint letter in English turns out to be the letter "E," which has the shortest code, namely a single dot. Since the Morse code elements are typically specified by proportion instead of the specific time durations, the morse code is mainly transmitted at the highest rate that its receiver can decode. The Morse code transmission speed rate is specified in various groups each minute, widely known as words through the minute.
Morse code is generally transmitted by on-off keying of an information-carrying medium, for examples, such as visible light, electric current, sound waves, and radio waves. The wave or wind is present within the dash or dot period and absences the time while among dashes and dots. Morse code may be memorized, signaling in a form to be utterly perceptible to the human senses, like visible light and sound waves, that are usually directly interpreted by persons trained in the particular skill. Due to multiple non-English natural languages used other than the 26 Roman letters, Morse code alphabets have been commonly developed for those specific languages.
What is the American Morse Code
American Morse Code, which also referred to as "Railroad Morse" code — is the latter-day name for the initial version of the Morse Code developed and improved in the middle of the 1840s, via Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse for their electric telegraph. The "American" version of code qualifier was added since, after most parts of the world quickly adopted "International Morse Code," and the companies that followed the standard usage process of the original Morse Code were mainly situated throughout the United States. The American Morse code is now nearly extinct — since it is most often seen in American Civil War reenactments and American railroad museums. The virtually used "Morse Code" generally represents the International Morse (ITU), which supplanted the American Morse code.
American Morse Code was initially used on the telegraph line of the Baltimore-Washington. It was a telegraph line constructed among Baltimore, Maryland, and the old Supreme Court chamber right in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., United States. On May 24, 1844, the first public message was sent by Morse in Washington to Alfred Vail right at the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) "outer depot" (It is now known as the B&O Railroad Museum) in Baltimore. The message conveyed the following phrase: "What hath God wrought."
It is known that the first telegraph message is a Bible verse from Numbers 23:23, selected especially for Morse code by Annie Ellsworth, who was the daughter of the Governor of Connecticut. Vail's initial paper tape in Baltimore is on display in the Congress Library in Washington, D.C.
In the late 1890s, radio communication, known initially as a "wireless telegraphy," was founded and initially used Morse Code transmissions. Most radio operators commonly used the version of the morse code that they were most familiar with — it was the American Morse Code in the United States, while in Europe, Continental Morse code was popular.
In the original implementation, the American Morse Code specification consists of the following details, such as:
— A short mark or a dot like this (▄▄▄▄);
— A longer dash or mark (▄▄▄▄▄);
— An intra-character gap (Note: it is a standard gap among the dashes and dots in character);
— A short gap right between the letters;
— A medium gap among words;
— A long gap between the sentences;
— A long intra-character gap (It is a considerably longer internal gap mainly used in C, O, R, Y, Z, and &);
— So-called "long dash" (▄▄▄▄▄▄▄, and the letter L);
— An even longer dash depicted like this (▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄, and the numeral 0).
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the USA morse code?
It is considered that the American Morse code is less suitable for use on cables due to its high density of dots. However, this same characteristic, along with the shorter dash, mainly leads to the benefit of a faster sending rate and a more compressed code. The same operator might send at least 20 percent faster along with American Morse code than with the International Morse code (ITU).
The greater complexity of the American Morse code is that it was far easier for operators to make some errors. The American Morse code has various lengths of spaces and dashes and inadvertently transmitting the wrong ones. The other timing errors via novice operators are commonly referred to as a hog-Morse.
Over time, with the deactivation and gradual disappearance of landline telegraphy and the end of commercial radio that used Morse Code, the American Morse code has nearly become extinct. Throughout the United States, amateur radio operators' ranks used to involve multiple retired and active commercial landline telegraph operators, who wanted to use American Morsecode for their amateur radio transmissions. So the C.W. (which means "continuous wave") amateur bands commonly used to have a mixture of both American and the Internationa Morse codes. However, even the United States' amateur use the International Morse code (ITU) almost exclusively.