MorCE™ Manual v1.0

Download from our web site, install on your computer. Run from Start->Programs->MorCE.

We suggest that you read this entire manual before you get started with MorCE. But for those of you that are impatient, dive right in! Choose New from the Game menu and MorCE will start asking you questions. As MorCE plays morse letters and numbers to you, type them on the keyboard. It's that easy!

On each level, you will be given a series of "tests." Each test consists of one or more letters, numbers or symbols in International Morse Code.

Each of the first 8 levels has a fixed set of tests which will be presented to you in a random order. You must answer each of the tests correctly at least twice in order to pass on to the next level.

Each test may be visually represented in one of three ways:

• If you have "Show Hints" enabled and you have never answered this word correctly, then the test will be displayed in yellow text. This is recommended for beginners, who may not be familiar with the morse alphabet.
• If "Show Hints" is disabled and you have never answered this word correctly, then the test will be displayed as a series of one or more question marks (one for each character in the test).
• Regardless of the "Show Hints" setting, any test that you have passed successfully will be displayed as an ellipsis ("...") while you are answering it, so as not to give you any indication of how long the test might be.

As you correctly type in the letters, numbers and symbols from the test, they will appear in black. You have five seconds to correctly answer each test. If you enter an incorrect character for one of the tests, the letter will appear in red and the test will continue. Once you have answered all of the tests in the level correctly at least twice the next level will begin.

On level 10, you will only be asked to answer one test. It will be fairly long, and will simulate an actual transmission ("QSO").

New: Used to start the game. Once a game is in progress, you can use this option (which changes to "End") to return to the main menu (to start another game).

Quit: exits the program. You will be asked to confirm that you want to quit if you are currently in the middle of a game.

Level: this is the level which you wish to start on. (Note: if your copy of MorCE is not registered, then you can only select the first two levels.) Once the game has started, you must end the game to change this setting.

Speed: this is the speed at which the tests will play. Once the game has started, you must end the game to change this setting. (See "Setting the Speed.")

Frequency: this is the frequency (pitch) of the beeps. Some people like specific frequencies better than others, so we've given you a range of frequencies to choose from. (The FCC specification for testing, as of this writing, states that tests should be given at frequencies between 700 and 1000 Hz.) This may be changed at any time, but tests that are currently sounding may stop and start over when this is changed.

Key Helper: when selected, MorCE will ignore any keystroke that is not a valid keystroke for any test on the current level. This can be useful if, for instance, you find that you're accidentally pressing the space bar instead of the 'M' key. This may be turned on or off at any time.

Show Hints: you may enable or disable hints at any time. When hints are on, MorCE will display the characters before they sound (unless you have already answered the test correctly).

Sound Effects: this controls playing of the end-of-level sound. This may be turned on and off at any time.

About: as you'd expect, this shows the about screen and some information about the application.

Register: allows you to enter the registration code from DejaVu Software, Inc.

Repeat: This left arrow will re-start the current test from the beginning.

Pause: this pauses/resumes the current test. When you resume from a paused state, MorCE will resume from the beginning of whatever word you last typed.

The first six levels come directly from the Navy's Radioman Training Manual from the 1960s. Levels 1, 3, and 5 introduce single characters, and levels 2, 4, and 6 introduce words that use those characters.

Level 7 is a list of common English words, ranging from 2 to 5 characters in length. Level 8 is numbers and symbols. Level 9 is a randomly generated list of 100 strings of letters and numbers which look like amateur radio call signs. Level 10 is a sample conversation ("QSO") similar to those that might be on an actual test.

MorCE is configurable between 5 and 30 words per minute (WPM). Understanding what each setting does is a little complicated.

Most people that are learning morse code listen to the dots ("dits") and dashes ("dahs"). This works reasonably well when you're listening to very slow code, but it's very difficult to go faster than about 12 WPM using this method.

Anyone that can copy code at 15 WPM or faster will tell you that they're hearing rhythms. Rather than hearing "dot dot dot," they hear a single rhythmic pattern. Instead of "dash dot dot dash dot" (a slash character), they hear the rhythm from "shave and a haircut" ("dah di di dah dit").

Apparently, if your brain learns morse by listening to very slow characters (for example, at 5 WPM), then you're actually training your brain to listen for dits and dahs, and not the rhythmic patterns. If you ever want to learn faster morse later, you'll have to re-train your brain all over again.

If you start out by listening to faster characters, then your brain is learning the correct behavior to begin with, and you won't have to re-train yourself later (you'll just have to practice a lot).

In the same way that we don't teach babies English by talking to them vvvveeeerrrrrrrrryyyyy sssslllloooowwwwllllyyyy, we also shouldn't teach ourselves morse by listening to the individual "syllables" (the dahs and dits). We should listen to the whole character and identify it that way.

The Farnsworth method of learning morse takes this into account. Named after Donald Farnsworth, a blind amateur radio operator, this method sounds out individual characters at a high speed, leaving long gaps between the characters. (As an aside: even though this method is named after Donald Farnsworth, he did NOT invent it. Farnsworth's actual method was at full-on 13 WPM code, with messages that increased in complexity over time. Nobody knows the actual origin of what is now called the Farnsworth method.)

For example, the text "hi" at 5 WPM might sound like this:

diiii diiii diiii diiiit    diiii diiiit

di di di dit                di dit

The brain hears the right pattern, rather than the syllables, and has some time between the characters to think about it.

MorCE supports the Farnsworth method. The speed labelled "Farns 5/15 WPM" plays the individual characters at 15 WPM, but spaces them apart to achieve an overall slower speed of 5 WPM. (This is the configuration used on most of the US amateur radio morse tests.)

Speeds labelled without the "Farns" designation are "straight morse."

Windows CE devices are designed to operate on as little power as possible. When they are done playing sounds, they turn off as much of the sound circuitry as they can get away with. As a result, there is usually a small popping sound whenever a sound finishes playing (when the sound circuitry is shut down), and sometimes a similar popping sound when the circuitry is turned back on again.

All of this turning on and off is controlled by the OS and the hardware, and MorCE has no direct control over it. Some devices are better than others about the order in which they turn on and off their sound hardware. For example, the iPaq 3600, running its original OS but upgraded with the EUU2 pack, suddenly starts popping disturbingly loudly whenever any sound is played. (A patch was released to address this problem with the OS.)

Rather than playing individual dahs and dits, MorCE will dynamically create a sound file for the entirety of each test. This prevents the sound system from powering down in the middle of the test, but it does not prevent the device from powering down the sound subsystem at the end (nor does it prevent your device from powering off completely, depending on its power management settings).

It would be possible for MorCE to keep the sound hardware active (by playing "silent" sounds between tests) to avoid the popping, but this would waste an incredible amount of extra power and would require some significant development time. We've made a design decision not to waste time developing a feature which would waste battery power.

Each level has a different graphic background. These are 240x320 Jpeg files which are installed on your device in the same directory as the MorCE program. Theoretically, you could replace them with other pictures that are the same size. We make no guarantees as to whether or not this will work; there is always a chance that replacing these pictures will crash the application (especially if they are a different resolution).

Theoretically, MorCE is capable of sounding at frequencies other than those we offer in the application. If you really feel the need to change to some other frequency, you can use a registry editor to change the value of the key:

       HKCU\Software\DejaVu\MorCE\Frequency

The value is in hertz. Any damage that you do to your device by editing your registry and changing this value is your own responsibility; we don't recommend this method, but nonetheless it is possible.

All pictures used with permission of their respective copyright holders. These pictures may not be redistributed or used for any other purpose without written consent from their owners.

Introduction and About ("key") screen: Morse key and sounder. © 2004 Jorj Bauer.
Level 1: trees in New Orleans, Louisiana. © 2003 Jorj Bauer.
Level 2: stone structure in New Orleans zoo. © 2003 Jorj Bauer.
Level 3: shadow of Empire State Building in New York City. © 2003 Jorj Bauer.
Level 4: Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana. © 2004 Tobias Buchmann.
Level 5: The Lodge in snow. © 2003 Susan J. Talbutt.
Level 6: Manual typewriter. © 2003 Tobias Buchmann.
Level 7: Bush in Jackson Square, New Orleans. © 2003 Susan J. Talbutt.
Level 8: Skeleton in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. © 2003 Jorj Bauer.
Level 9: Isolated rural road in central Virginia. © 2003 Jorj Bauer.
Level 10: Ferns in Redwood National Forest. © 2004 Susan J. Talbutt.

Special thanks go to Tobias Buchmann for allowing us to share his company and his photographs.

The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), operating station W1AW, publishes sample .MP3 files of morse broadcasts that they've recently made. These are usually transmitted excerpts from their magazine QST. You can find them on the web at: http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/morse.html.

Sometimes the MP3 files are clean sound files just like you'd find at an amateur radio test. Other times they're taped from a broadcast, and aren't very clean at all.

The FCC amateur radio code tests are perfect, clean morse without any such noise, and some people reportedly have trouble adjusting to "perfect" morse for the test if they practice with on-air samples. It is recommended that you practice with a morse generator or morse practice tapes for at least a few days before your test in order to get the feel for it again.