World of Ham Radio 1994 January

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M o r s e M a n P l u s & M o r s e M a n "The Premier Morse Code Trainer" copyright(c) 1988, 1989 by Robin A. Gist, NE4L All Rights Reserved +++ L I C E N S E and D I S C L A I M E R License I - (applies only to registered users of MorseMan, who are now using MorseMan Plus). You have the non-exclusive right to use the enclosed software (MorseMan Plus) on one computer at a time. You may make backup copies of the program for your own personal use, but only one copy of the program may be in use at one time. You may not electronically transmit the program, duplicate or copy it in any way (except for the above stated "back-up" copies), give copies away, duplicate the printed form of this manual (except for your own personal use) or alter/translate the program. MORSEMAN PLUS IS NOT PUBLIC DOMAIN OR SHAREWARE (IT IS A COMMERCIAL PROGRAM) AND MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT EXPLICIT PERMISSION FROM RENAISSANCE DEVELOPMENT. By using MorseMan Plus, you agree to the above conditions. You will also, under the same conditions, use your best efforts to ensure that the terms of this license are not violated. Renaissance Development Corporation reserves the right to revoke any license without warning for any reason it deems necessary. License II - (applies only to shareware users of MorseMan, who have not registered their copy with the author and Renaissance Development.) You have the non-exclusive right to use MorseMan as you wish for a period of 30 days. During that time, you are stongly encouraged to copy MorseMan and give them to whoever you wish. You may upload MorseMan to electronic bulletin boards (BBS's) as long as ALL files that come with the original disk are also uploaded along with it. Shareware distributors are encouraged to distribute MorseMan as long as they; (a), charge reasonable copying and service fees ($6.00 and under is considered reasonable) and (b) they make it clear that what they are selling is indeed only a distribution copy and the program itself has not yet been paid for. At the end of 30 days, you are STRONGLY encouraged to register your copy of MorseMan with the author and Renaissance Developement. Registration fees are only $15.00 ($20.00 after October 1, 1989) and this will get you a registered copy of the latest version of MorseMan Plus (add $3.00 if you would like a typeset and printed manual.) By using MorseMan you agree to the terms and conditions of the above license, and you also agree to use your best efforts to ensure that the terms of this license are not violated. Renaissance Development Corp. reserves the right to revoke any license without warning for any reason it deems necessary. Limited Warranty - (applies only to users of MorsMan Plus) For a period of 90 dyas, Renaissance Development Corporation warrants to the original purchaser that the disks are not defective and that the program is recorded properly. If a defect occurs within this period, you may return the disk to Renaissance Development, along with proof-of-purchase, and it will be replaced free of charge. +++ D I S C L A I M E R (applies to ALL users) - RENAISSANCE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION MAKES NO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABLILITY PERFORMANCE OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ALL WARRANTIES, EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED, ARE LIMITED TO A PERIOD OF 30 DAYS FROM THE DATE OF ORIGINAL PURCHASE. FURTHER, RENAISSANCE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION LIMITS THE LICENSEE'S REMEDIES TO RETURN THE PROGRAM AND MANUAL TO ANY PARTY FOR REPLACEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL RENAISSANCE DEVELOPMENT CORP. BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY. ALSO, RENAISSANCE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBLITY FOR DAMAGES THAT MAY OCCUR TO ANY EQUIP- MENT, MATERIALS OR PERSON AS A RESULT OF USE OF THIS PROGRAM. BY USING MORSEMAN OR MORSEMAN PLUS, YOU EXPLICITLY AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THE DISCLAIMER. +++ Welcome to MorseMan and MorseMan Plus Now that we have the legalities out of the way, I would just like to take the opportunity to personally welcome you to MorseMan and/or MorseMan Plus. This manual is primarily written for MorseMan Plus, but it also applies to MorseMan except where stated. If you are just starting out on an attempt to learn Morse Code, I would like to be one of the first to wish you good luck. Amateur Radio is a wonderful hobby and after you are licensed, you will probably make hundreds of friends all over the World! The modes of communications that you can use are astounding. From simple CW, which breaks the language barrier, to Amateur Satellites. All of it is there for you to enjoy! And hopefully, you will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to broaden your horizons and make new friends by learning the Morse Code and obtaining an Amateur License. The world is yours to explore from your own home when you get your first station on the air. And from there, the sky is the limit!!! +++ What is MorseMan Plus? In your hands, you hold the manual for one of the most powerful Morse Code trainers available. It is designed not only to teach you the international Morse Code, but to also help you achieve expert efficiency, quickly and easily. MorseMan Plus will take you from learning the code, getting a Novice license, all the way through the Extra code, and beyond. The reason that MorseMan Plus is different from other trainers is because they put you out on your own after they teach you the code (if they can do that). MorseMan Plus is just getting warmed up after you learn the code. From that point, MorseMan Plus will let you choose your own method to help you increase your code speed. You can pick between random characters, random words, or realistic random callsigns. You can even select the option to allow the callsigns vary is speed and frequency so that it sounds like you are listening to stations on the air. Aside from the random features incorporated into MorseMan Plus, there is the ability to send code characters as they are typed from the keyboard. You can also send code from any ASCII text file, or create a file to send from within the program. And last, but not least, MorseMan Plus is CPU independent. Most CW trainers lose their accuracy when run on machines other than the one it was designed on. MorseMan Plus uses a simple, but effective, speed measurement algorithm that insures CPU calibration, regardless of what machine you are running. MorseMan Plus is the ultimate trainer program and it will get even better. There are already plans to incorporate a QSO generator, among other innovations, into the program. Look for future versions soon. Use of MorseMan Plus MorseMan Plus is a tool intended for use by amateurs, aspiring hams or anyone else who wishes to either learn the International Morse Code and\or improve their performance and code speed. MorseMan Plus will take you through the procedure of learning the morse code (or CW as called by hams) and help you to increase your speed. You can start with the easiest characters and work through a small group, later going back to the ones that you had trouble with. MorseMan Plus is written with repetiveness in mind, as the more often you hear the character and associate it with the sound, the easier it will be to recall it. +++ TIPS FOR LEARNING MORSE CODE If you already know Morse Code, then you should skip onto the next section, but it is recommended that you go over the following section if your code speed is a slow (under 10 wpm). While learning and practicing, keep the following suggestions in mind: 1> Keep your sessions short. Never go more than 30 to 40 minutes in a single session. After that time, your mind tends to wander and you are actually learning very little, if any past this point. Let it rest for a few hours, or the rest of the day and come back to it later. 2> Concentrate! Keep your mind on what you are hearing and what it means. If you feel that you can't give it the proper attention at the time, then by all means give it a break or don't attempt to learn characters then. Wait till you can give your undivided attention. 3> Don't get discouraged! If you feel that you are not learning as fast as you'd like or if you just can't seem to remember a character, don't give up. Every ham who has a license today had to learn the code and they all went through exactly what you are going through now. Just keep on chugging through it. You probably are remembering more than you think. DON'T GIVE UP!! 4> Pace yourself: You don't have to learn it all in one day! Give yourself some time. A lot of people have learned CW in three days and for some it will take a few weeks or even a month or so. Give yourself ample time to learn it. Also set aside some time EVERY DAY to practice code. At the beginning of each session, go over what you have learned up to that point. The reinforcement of previous learned characters will dramatically increase the speed of your learning. A special note: If you can schedule your sessions to come right before your normal bedtime, do it. If you can work on the code for 20 or so minutes before you retire, your mind will work on it while you are asleep. This would amount to better retention and an increase in speed occuring a little faster (normally). If you are usually "worn out" at bedtime, don't schedule your normal session at that time. Schedule it earlier in the day and brush over the characters at bed- time. +++ Operation of MorseMan Plus (At this point, make sure that you have made a backup copy of the main disk. Make sure that all files are present on the new disk.) The MorseMan Plus program is very easy to operate and requires very little computer experience to use. Place the disk in the appropriate drive (after properly booting the machine) and type MMPLUS at the DOS prompt. Shortly, you should see the introduction screen. After a few seconds, the main menu window will appear. Just use your arrow keys to move to the mode of operation that you desire and press enter. OPERATING MODES Keyboard Mode In the Keyboard Mode, the program sends Morse code characters for the letter that you hit on the keyboard. You do not have to press <enter> for the text to be sent. When you get through, press <=> to exit back to the main menu. Ending signals (AR, BK ect..) may be sent by pressing the following keys: [ BT ] SK ; AR ' KN These keyboard symbols may also be incorporated in text files. Default Parameters In this window, you can set the MorseMan Plus defaults, such as speed, tone, ect. In order to select a setting, move the arrow keys up and down until you have the cursor bar over the desired parameter, and then press return. You are then prompted by the parameter window the enter a new setting. If you change your mind and decide not to alter the setting, just press return, without a response, and the setting will remain unchanged. Speed - sets the default speed of the characters. The setting that you select must be between 5 and 99 words per minute. Freq(uency) - sets the default tone of the characters. The setting that you select must be between 200 and 1500 kilohertz. +++ Spacing - sets the spacing between characters and words. 10 is the default setting and it doesn't alter the spacing between characters. Any increment of 10 (up to 100) doubles the spacing between characters. For example, a setting of 40 has four times the amount of spacing between words and characters as 10 whereas 5 has half as much spacing as 10. The spacing parameter must be between 1 and 100. Random Freq(uency) Range( APPLIES ONLY TO MORSEMAN PLUS RELEASE 2.0 AND LATER) - sets the range for possible tone frequencies that a random callsign may have. This feature was implemented in release 2.0 of MorseMan Plus. It allows you to choose the range of frequencies that randomly generated callsigns may have. You will be prompted for two frequencies; "Lower Frequency Limit" and "Upper Frequency Limit". Your lower frequency can be any frequency between 200 and 1500 kilohertz but the upper frequency must be above the setting for the lower one. If this feature is implemented with a wide range, the random calls generated in the random call mode (a.k.a. "Pile-Up Man") sound realistic - almost like listening to the callsigns in a pileup! Random Speed Range (APPLIES ONLY TO MORSEMAN PLUS REL. 2.0 AND LATER) - sets the range for possible speeds that a random callsign may be sent. This feature was also implemented in release 2.0. It allows you to choose the range of possible speeds that the random callsigns can be sent. The same rules apply as for the Random Frequency Range: the lower speed can be anything between 5 and 99 words per minute but the upper speed has to be above the lower speed. If you choose an illegal frequency, you will be reprompted (in all cases) for a new parameter. This feature coupled with the above random frequency feature can make Pile-Up Man sound very realistic. You'd almost swear that you were listening to a real pile-up (except there is no static or QRM - but we are working on that!!!) Write Random - If set to on, MorseMan Plus will keep track of all characters, words and callsigns sent in the "Random" modes. This feature allows you to write everything that is randomly generated to an ASCII text file. This is great for when you want to make a friend, or yourself, a code tape and want an accurate record of what is actually on it. If you do not want to keep track of your code on a file, toggle this setting to off by selecting "N" at the "File Random Words" window (activated by selecting this option). EXIT TO MAIN MENU - This will take you back to the main menu. If any changes have been made, you will be prompted as whether you wish to make them permanent or not. +++ TUTOR MODE The Tutor Mode of MorseMan Plus is where a newcomer may learn morse code in steps or an experienced amateur may practice his CW in order to upgrade. If you are an experienced amateur who is competent in Morse code, then you may skip to the next section. If you enter the Tutor Mode, then you will be prompted with a new menu that will allow you to choose which group of characters you desire. It is STRONGLY recommended that you learn the characters by groups and in their logical order (I.E. Group One, then Group Two). After learning each group, you will be ready to practice the group. If you do not leave the group that you are in, you can learn all of the characters in the group and practice that group. If for some reason you must leave the practice session, you can enter it again at the point you left. All practice is via random characters. When you are learning characters (in the "Teach Mode", you will be sent the character you are learning nine times. After the computer is through, you will be sent the next character nine times. Try to remember these by sound (dits and dahs) and not by sight (dots and dashes). You will then be prompted again and you will be sent 25 random characters, each being one of the two that you just learned. You will do this for each character. (Groups of four or six and subgroups of two). Practice each group until you are comfortable with them, then proceed. You will most likely never see the same group of characters twice. This way, you won't be able to memorize that characters in any practice set. That is a common problem when learning from code tapes, as the character order never changes and it is easily memorized. After you get through learning a group of characters and practicing it, you will be placed back into the Tutor Menu. From here, you should go back to the group you were practicing and select "practice all". From here, you can practice all the characters that you have learned up to this point. It is strongly recommended that you do this before you retire from the session and before beginning a new session. One final note, when you are first starting out with the tutor, (assuming that you don't already know the code), set your speed to a setting between 14 and 18 words per minute and the spacing between 60 and 80 (speed at 15 wpm and space at 80 yields about 5 words per minute). When you practice the code at higher speeds with a lot of spacing, you get the lower net speed but you hear the characters fast enough that you have to learn the sound of the character instead of learning to count dits and dahs. +++ CREATE TEXT FILE In the create text file mode, you can create an ASCII text file from within MorseMan Plus to be sent later. Most people would probably rather do this with their favorite word processor (in ASCII mode) or text editor, but this feature has been implemented to allow you create one if you don't have a text editor, or rather not use one. To use, just type in your file (try to eliminate blank lines and unneeded blank spaces - they take time to "send"). You may send the prosigns by placing their keyboard equivalent in the text (they will be printed out as a prosign, not punctuation, which is what they actually are.) When you are finished, just type <CTRL-X> (control key-x) on a blank line. You will then be prompted for a filename. If you don't give one, your file will be given the default filename <UNTITLED.CWT>. If you decide that you do not want to save this file, or that you want to quit this mode, just type <CTRL-Y> on a blank line and press return. You will be returned to the main menu. SEND FROM TEXT FILE This option will allow you to send any text file in Morse Code. When you enter this mode, you will be asked for a filename. If you cannot remember the filename, just press return and a listing of all files on the disk (or subdirectory, if on a hard drive). After the listing, you will be prompted again for a filename. Enter the full filename. If you decide not to send a file, just press return and you will be placed back at the main menu. RANDOM CALLSIGNS - Pile-Up Man (Only in MorseMan Plus release 2.0 and later versions) Pile-Up Man is a full-fledged true random callsign generator within MorseMan Plus. This allows the program to generate realistic random callsigns (Both W/VE and DX). It is a fun and challenging way to increase you code speed quickly and easily. After you select the "Random Callsigns" option at the main menu, you will be prompted "Enable Random Frequency <y/N>". If you would like the callsigns to vary in frequency then type "Y". This will make them sound more like you are listening to an HF rig, and actual stations in a pile-up! You will then be prompted "Enable Random Speed<y/N>". This will make the speed of the callsign vary within the parameters set in the default option of the main menu. With both of the options on, the calls sound very realistic. +++ The options that you have set will be printed at the top-right hand corner of the screen. "FRQ" means that the random frequency setting is toggled on. "SPD" means that the random speed setting is on and "WRT" means that all callsigns are being written to a file. If you have the "Write Random" mode ON (setable in the DEFAULT PARAMETERS window), you will be prompted for a filename upon exiting Pile-Up Man. If you don't give one, the file with the callsigns will be called "UNTITLED.CAL". It is highly recommended that you name the files that you want to save as you can very easily write over them by not naming them anything but UNTITLED.CAL. RANDOM WORDS (Only in MorseMan Plus release 2.0 and later versions) MorseMan Plus allows you to send random words (up to 1500 different ones on a single list). MorseMan Plus loads up the vocabulary list when the program is booted up. You will be sent words randomly from the list. If you have the "Write Random" mode ON, you will be prompted at the end of the session for a filename. If you don't enter a filename, the word file that was sent will be named "UNTITLED.WRD". RANDOM CHARACTERS MorseMan Plus allows you to send and record true random characters. You will be sent random characters in groups of five. This mode is great for practice because you cannot anticipate any characters like you can when you are being sent words or sentences. You can also save the character sequence to a file in this mode. If you have "Write Random" set to ON, you will be prompted for a filename at the end of your session. If you don't give a filename, the file will be named "UNTITLED.RC". Again, it is strongly recommended that you name all of your files. EXIT When you are through using MorseMan Plus, just select this option from the Main Menu. You will then be bid 73! +++ CONCLUSION - A personal note If you are just starting out with morse code, then I wish you the best of luck! Ham radio is a very exciting hobby and today, with the Novice license in hand, you are no longer limited to using just CW. You can also use phone, radioteletype, packet radio and repeaters. Above all, don't let the code stand in the way of getting a license. If you are like I was, you will start out disliking the code, because it is then considered an obstacle to a license. Later after you get used to it, you may develop a love affair with CW that lasts a lifetime. Take the advice of a ham who has been there: don't look at the code as an obstacle, look at it as entertainment, a new language or (as I did several years ago) something that no one else in my neighborhood knew! 73 and see you on the air! ...Robin Gist, NE4L +++