Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

Technologies, Communications and Codes, International Morse Code

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Subcollections

Communications Gallery - Centenary of Royal Australian Corps of Signals

Overview

Morse code is a telecommunications method which encodes text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes, or dits and dahs. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of the early developers of the system adopted for electrical telegraphy. Since many natural languages use more than the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, Morse alphabets have been developed for those languages, largely by transliteration of existing codes.

Historical information

International Morse code encodes the 26 basic Latin letters A to Z, one accented Latin letter (É), the Arabic numerals, and a small set of punctuation and procedural signals (prosigns). There is no distinction between upper and lower case letters. Each Morse code symbol is formed by a sequence of dits and dahs. The dit duration can vary for signal clarity and operator skill, but for any one message, once established it is the basic unit of time measurement in Morse code. The duration of a dah is three times the duration of a dit (although some telegraphers deliberately exaggerate the length of a dah for clearer signaling). Each dit or dah within an encoded character is followed by a period of signal absence, called a space, equal to the dit duration. The letters of a word are separated by a space of duration equal to three dits, and words are separated by a space equal to seven dits.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-54-480

Inscriptions and markings

Morse code can be memorized and sent in a form perceptible to the human senses, e.g. via sound waves or visible light, such that it can be directly interpreted by persons trained in the skill. Morse code is usually transmitted by on-off keying of an information-carrying medium such as electric current, radio waves, visible light, or sound waves.The current or wave is present during the time period of the dit or dah and absent during the time between dits and dahs.

Contextual Information

Morse code and associated technologies are presented in the Communications Gallery commissioned by the Australian Army Museum of Western Australia as part of the Centenary commemorations of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals. Communication devices used by the Australian Army also are presented in their operational context throughout the Museum.

Links to additional resources

Morse Code variants

Eucla Telegraph Station

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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