Learn Morse Code in 20 Minutes

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Written by Amir Fleminger
Monday, 11 May 2009 05:43

Morse code has been around for many years. In today's aviation it's primary use is for the identification of radio navigation aids such as VORs, ILSs, DMEs or NDBs. The FAA and FCC do not require knowledge of Morse Code for pilot training. In fact, it has been off the syllabus for decades. So, why learn Morse Code to begin with?

Frankly, you can get along just fine without knowing Morse Code as a pilot. However, anything that helps reduce our workload in flight is a good thing to have. Staring at the dits and dahs printed on the aeronautical chart to figure if we are tuned to the correct station can be very distracting, especially at times when we need those navaids the most, such as during an instrument approach when single-pilot hand-flying the aircraft through bad weather.

By learning Morse Code, you would only need to know the letters of the identifier and eliminate the chart-staring. Does it worth the trouble learning this archaic code by heart? Yes! Especially since you can learn it in 20 minutes or less!

It's quite simple actually. You may not become a master Morse Coder overnight, but you'll learn the basics required for flying purposes.
Things you'll need:

A Morse Code cheat sheet:
A few blank sheets of paper
A book or any other form of lengthy text: a magazine, an aircraft manual, a web article, your sister's homework, etc…

Now, start translating the book's content into Morse Code onto the blank sheets. Use the cheat sheet for reference and don't worry about how you would remember each letter, eventually your brain will automatically do it for you. After a page or two, you will notice that you don't need the cheat sheet anymore. At this point, start translating the Morse Code you wrote back into English on a new blank sheet.

Congratulations! You should now be familiar with the basic Morse Code characters! (only letters are used in aviation, so you can skip learning numbers and special chars). Next step is to practice listening and sharpening your Morse code skills. WDMORSE is an old freeware program for windows that you can use for practice.

Good luck and let me know how you did!

P.S.
if you're interested in preparing for your FCC radio telephone exam, you may want to check out Randall Glass's Radio Telephone Tutor.

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