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CW(7)			Miscellaneous Information Manual		   CW(7)

NAME
     CW - the international Morse code

DESCRIPTION
     CW  is  an  abbreviation for "continuous wave", the commonly used technical
     term for Morse code communication.  A basic knowledge or  understanding  of
     Morse  code  is a requirement for Radio Amateurs and Marine Radio Operators
     in many parts of the world.

   MORSE CODE TIMINGS
     In Morse code, a dot or dash is referred to as an element.  The basic  tim-
     ing  unit is the dot period.  This is the time taken to send a dot, not in-
     cluding any space before or after the dot.  The lengths of all  other  ele-
     ments are then derived from this basic unit, using the following rules:

	    The duration of a dash is three dots.

	    The time between each element (dot or dash) is one dot length.

	    The space between characters is three dot lengths.

	    The space between words is seven dot lengths.

     The  following  formula  calculates the dot period in microseconds from the
     Morse code speed in words per minute:

	    dot period = ( 1200000 / speed )

     This formula arises from the use of the word PARIS as a 'standard' word for
     calibrating Morse code speed.  PARIS is 50 units long when  sent  in  Morse
     code.  Analysis of English plain-text indicates that the average word is 50
     units, including spaces.

   MORSE CODE CHARACTERS
     The following list shows the IS0 8859-1 (Latin-1) characters that have com-
     monly understood representations in Morse code:

	    ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789"$()+-./:;=?_@ and space

     In  addition,  following  ISO 8859-1 and ISO 8859-2 accented characters are
     also part of the generally accepted international Morse code:

	    UACOEEAN, (S with cedilla), Z (Z with caron/hacek),

     Finally, libcw adds the following ASCII characters as extensions to  single
     character procedural signals:

	    <>!&^~

   MORSE CODE CHARACTER TABLES
     The  following  table  shows the Morse code equivalents for the ISO 8859-1,
     accented ISO 8859-1, and accented ISO 8859-2 characters above.   The  ASCII
     portion of this table is taken from the ARRL Handbook, and the accented ex-
     tensions from various other sources:
     Ch   Code	    Ch	 Code
     ---------------------------
     A	  .-	    B	 -...
     C	  -.-.	    D	 -..
     E	  .	    F	 ..-.
     G	  --.	    H	 ....
     I	  ..	    J	 .---
     K	  -.-	    L	 .-..
     M	  --	    N	 -.
     O	  ---	    P	 .--.
     Q	  --.-	    R	 .-.
     S	  ...	    T	 -
     U	  ..-	    V	 ...-
     W	  .--	    X	 -..-
     Y	  -.--	    Z	 --..
     0	  -----     1	 .----
     2	  ..---     3	 ...--
     4	  ....-     5	 .....
     6	  -....     7	 --...
     8	  ---..     9	 ----.
     "	  .-..-.    '	 .----.
     $	  ...-..-   (	 -.--.
     )	  -.--.-    +	 .-.-.
     ,	  --..--    -	 -....-
     .	  .-.-.-    /	 -..-.
     :	  ---...    ;	 -.-.-.
     =	  -...-     ?	 ..--..
     _	  ..--.-
     Ch 	     Code    Ch 		 Code
     --------------------------------------------------
     U		     ..--    A			 .-.-
     C		     -.-..   O			 ---.
     E		     ..-..   A			 .-..-
     A		     .--.-   N			 --.--
     , (S+cedilla)   ----    Z (Z+caron/hacek)	 --..-

     In  addition to the above standard characters, the following characters are
     conventionally used for punctuation and procedural signals as follows:
     Ch   Code	    Ch	 Code
     ---------------------------
     "	  .-..-.    '	 .----.
     $	  ...-..-   (	 -.--.
     )	  -.--.-    +	 .-.-.
     ,	  --..--    -	 -....-
     .	  .-.-.-    /	 -..-.
     :	  ---...    ;	 -.-.-.
     =	  -...-     ?	 ..--..
     _	  ..--.-    @	 .--.-.

     and the following are non-conventional extensions implemented by libcw:
     Ch   Code	   Ch	Code
     ---------------------------
     <	  ...-.-   >	-...-.-
     !	  ...-.    &	.-...
     ^	  -.-.-    ~	.-.-..

     An alternative view of punctuation and procedural signals is as combination
     Morse characters:
     Ch   Prosig      Ch   Prosig
     -----------------------------
     "	  [AF]	      '    [WG]
     $	  [SX]	      (    [KN]
     )	  [KK]	      +    [AR]
     ,	  [MIM]       -    [DU]
     .	  [AAA]       /    [DN]
     :	  [OS]	      ;    [KR]
     =	  [BT]	      ?    [IMI]
     _	  [IQ]	      @    [AC]
     <	  [VA],[SK]   >    [BK]
     !	  [SN]	      &    [AS]
     ^	  [KA]	      ~    [AL]

NOTES
     Despite the fact that this manual page constantly and  consistently  refers
     to Morse code elements as dots and dashes, DO NOT think in these terms when
     trying to learn Morse code.  Always think of them as 'dit's and 'dah's.

SEE ALSO
     Man  pages  for libcw(3,LOCAL), cw(1,LOCAL), cwgen(1,LOCAL), cwcp(1,LOCAL),
     and xcwcp(1,LOCAL).

				CW Tutor Package			   CW(7)

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