Re: Signals-the TAPTAP for DASH


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Posted by Ed Kiser on June 21, 2004 at 04:26:21 from 205.188.116.8 user Kisered.

In Reply to: Re: Signals posted by John Wilson on June 21, 2004 at 03:53:50:

John --

The concept of a DOT tap as compared to a DASH tap can be a puzzle. Let me include here a bit of descriptive text taken from my MORSE package that is offered at the end of my leading forum entry:

--------------
Another type of sound signal is the TAP.

You may wonder how a tap may be made longer to be the dash. A
tap is just a tap, and one tap is just as long as another, so how
do we distinguish between a tap meaning DOT and one meaning DASH?

In working with computers today, this modern generation has
become familiar with the use of a computer MOUSE, and with the
concept of clicking the mouse control button. You know the
difference between a single click, and a DOUBLE click, which is a
pair of clicks that must be made very rapidly together. This is
the same as tapping. A single tap, followed by a brief silence,
is a DOT. A TAPTAP, two strokes very close together, followed by
a similar brief silence, is considered to be the DASH.

For the tap method, the length of the TAPTAP (DASH) is the same
as the TAP (DOT). Get into a definite timing beat. The Silence
after a character is three beats. The Silence after a word is
seven beats. Depending on the skill of the sending and his
receiver, the time of these silent periods may be varied.
----------------

These "Pause" timings may seem to be a bit long, but these were the recommendations that were made to our Boy Scout Troop. With the idea that we were learning the process, it may be that these recommended pauses lengths were a bit extra long to accomodate our lack of skills at the beginning of the training period. The rule as stated above did indicate that we could speed that up a bit as skills improved.

Emphasis was made when tapping to keep the time of the dot to be the same as the dash. Drill was made to follow the beat of a clicking timer that normally would be used in music lessons. Too bad, back in those days, there was not the concept of a "double click on the mouse" for us to use as a definition of the TAPTAP, as the above guidelines were offered back in 1947 when I was first learning it. In my descriptions for my MORSE package, I added the "Mouse" concept as an aid in understanding the timing of the double tap.

1947 - that was a while ago. The reaction our fellow scouts had about learning and using Morse code back then was so enthusiastic, and was done with eagerness, and usage of the skill was applied at every available opportunity. I compare that desire we had then to the blank stares of total incredulity I got last year from this current crop of Boy Scouts when I tried to introduce the concept. It was such a difference. It was not what I was expecting at all.

Ed Kiser, South Florida



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