Posted by Dave W on January 16, 1999 at 13:11:55:
In Reply to: End of Word in morse and semaphore posted by Alexis on January 16, 1999 at 12:03:50:
When communicating using morse code, there are a number of different ways of signalling breaks between words etc, usage depending on how the morse is being sent.
For acoustic methods, such as tones keyed on and off by the sender's morse key, the period of silence (non-transmission) between the words is noticeably longer than between the characters making up each word.
This would also be appropriate to tapping sounds, such as when the Amazons and Captain Flint communicate on the pirate junk, after capture (in Missee Lee).
For written morse characters, again the grouping of characters into each word can be clearly indicated.
For visual methods, such as lamps flashed on/off, or short and long sweeps of a flag, the same method will work although the overall slower speed compared with acoustic transmission might make it more difficult to decide when the spacing occurs.
Writing the received letters down will show visually by inspection where the word breaks occur, assuming the message is not coded!
In addition to the character group correponding to each letter of the alphabet and numerals, there are other characters available for indicating breaks, commas, question marks, full stops etc.
For the end of a section of a message (in a 2-way communication)the letter K is an invitation to the other end to start sending (as in the use of "over" in a speech link)
For the complete end of the transmission, the characters SK can be sent, to indicate Stop Keying.