When I was a girl scout back in elementary school, our troop once did a scavenger hunt as a bonding activity. The game took place outdoors, and we split up into teams to win the final prize. I don’t remember much about what happened, but I do remember that one of the steps was to translate a slip of paper with a message written in morse code.
After finding the paper, my other three team members immediately began searching the campsite for clues to decode the message. However, as I helped them look, the same thought kept repeating itself in the back of my mind. If I just knew morse code, I could save time and translate the message without searching for clues.
But that’s exactly why the adults arranged this activity. Morse code is a seemingly dead method of communication that we primarily associate with sailors in the 1800’s. However, morse code has always intrigued me. Named after Samuel Morse, it encodes characters as a sequence of dots and dashes (also referred to as “dits” and “dahs”). Electrical telegraphs were important in the 1840’s to communicate in a quicker manner than physical transportation would allow. The electrical telegraph uses electrical pulses surrounded by periods of silence to transmit messages.
Morse code originally focused on numerals, and one would have to look up the corresponding letters in a codebook. However, Alfred Vail later developed the code to include letters and symbols as well. Since each dash is the length of about 3 dots, the code can be sped up or slowed down and still be understood.
Although it may look like a random series of symbols, there was planning involved to make the code as efficient as possible. If you look at the sequences corresponding to each letter, the most frequent letters we use in the alphabet tend to have easier codes. For example, E is one dot, while Q is 2 dashes, a dot, and another dash (–.-).
Even the famous SOS was chosen because it was easily recognizable: a simple 3 dots, 3 dashes, and 3 dots (…—…). Since SOS is 9 symbols long, it is easy to identify. Although many people believe that SOS came from the phrase “Save Our Souls”, that saying became popular after the code was widely used. Before SOS, the distress signal had been CQD. In fact, while the Titanic was sinking, they originally sent out CQD but later, desperately turned to the more modern SOS signal.
A big misconception is that morse code is only visual when in reality, it can be taught audibly. In fact, that’s how I ended up learning morse code. One day, during quarantine, I found a video about the history of morse code. With so much time on my hands, I decided that I was going to learn it.
At first, I tried staring at the dots and hoped that, somehow, I would miraculously be able to memorize them all. But it was harder than I thought to memorize so many dots and dashes for each letter. Instead, I lied down and played an audio that went through all 26 letters (I know that sounds incredibly boring, but it was probably the most mental activity I had during the entirety of 2020). I tried to memorize the letters however I could, whether it was by forming tunes to each sequence or associating phrases with them. In the end, it paid off, because now I know Morse Code.
I don’t think anyone is even aware that I know morse code, which isn’t a surprise considering I’ve never really had the chance to use it. I would like to seem intellectual and cla
im to have learned morse code to challenge my mind or for a sense of accomplishment. Although that’s partially true, deep down, I think I learned morse code because I have this fantasy that one day I’ll be threatened by some nefarious plot and have to translate a message in morse code to defeat an international villain.
Unfortunately, the only time I’ve ever used morse code is to be one step ahead of TV show characters. There’ve been multiple shows and movies I’ve seen where the characters spend time trying to decode a message in morse code, and I can simply laugh while knowing the message the entire time. Morse code sometimes comes up in mystery shows, and there are scenes in popular shows like Stranger Things and The Office that included it. I might never be able to use morse code in a dire emergency, but it’s still fun to know it.
Hi Sruthi,
I found your blog post to be incredibly interesting. Throughout my childhood, I never quite understood exactly how morse code worked. It seemed like a very versatile form of communication, and I was curious as to why it was not taught in schools. This form of language has many applications. As such, I find it unfortunate that it seems to be a dying method of communication. It is fascinating that you were able to learn morse code through a simple video online. Thus, displaying the simplicity of the language. In my own life, I have frequently pondered about times in which I may need morse code. Mostly, I would think about characters in a film that were stranded on a desert island, but managed to communicate to helicopters using flashlights. Although these situations are somewhat absurd, I frequently find myself wondering if I’ll ever need to know morse code in my lifetime. Yet, I have never sat down and actively tried to learn this form of communication. There are many applications for morse code, and I believe that learning it could prove to be incredibly useful. While I highly doubt that either of us would be a villain’s pawns in a nefarious plot, I certainly believe that there are other ways to utilize the knowledge of morse code. In your future posts, it would be interesting to read more about the applications of morse code!
Hi Sruthi,
I liked your blog! This actually reminds me of my bass luthier. He is just this random dude in Indiana that likes making instruments and does good bass repairs, but one distinctive fact about him is that he is obsessed with HAM radio. When I mean obsessed, I truly mean it— this guy has spent thousands of dollars on radio equipment. It’s kind of cool, to be honest. Anyways, he knows morse code and has one of those red buttons so that he can talk to other people over radio. It’s fascinating to watch in person. Your method of learning it seems pretty unconventional; my luthier friend just used one of those websites to learn it. Wow, I sound like an old person that doesn’t understand technology: “one of those websites.” I wonder, how many hours did it take you to learn morse code? And while we are on the topic of weird things we learned during covid, I became a really good minesweeper player and I know a lot of the patterns. I actually wrote a blog post about it, although I don’t play minesweeper much now. Another weird thing I became obsessed about recently is vinyl. I bought a vinyl player to listen to old classical records for $45 off of a strange guy from Craigslist. It was totally worth the risk and awkward conversation with the guy. Thanks for sharing, Sruthi! I enjoyed it!
Sruthi,
This hobby of yours is very intriguing and extremely useful. Just like in girl scouts, you never know when you might end up needing this ability. I don’t know if this is from the years of being raised on books like the hunger games, the Divergent series, or The Maze Runner series when I say that you never know when the world will end. You always have to be prepared. You knowing Morse code is a good way of being prepared. Especially for the purpose of communicating with others. I wish that I had gotten into something like this during quarantine, maybe learning a new language or learning a special skill. Instead, I more focused on finding myself by finding my interests in media and finding my sense of humor. Regardless, this is still a unique ability to have up your sleeve. It is interesting how this hobby was originally introduced to you through girl scouts. Looking back, I think my troop may have been very lame. We only really ever did arts and crafts like making candles and going to see glass melting. We were never given the opportunity to go outside and learn what I would consider traditional “girl scout” activities.