Morse Code

Morse code is an alphabet for encoding a message by short and long pulses (such as sounds, visual/light signals, electrical, etc.). Adopted internationally, the Morse alphabet is a precursor in telecommunications, although obsolete with the advent of digital, there are traces of it in military, maritime or radio transmissions or for the SOS code.

Morse code assigns to each letter, digit, or punctuation sign, a unique combination of signals made of short and long impulsions (usually represented with a dot . and a dash -).

The alphabet or complete table of Morse Code is

Impulsions can be electric, acoustic or luminous. Any telecommunication format is possible.

Messages sometimes starts with △ -.-.- (start of transmission) and end with ▽ .-.-. (end of transmission)

By convention, when writing, each character is separated by a space and each word is separated by a slash /. Sometimes the characters are separated by a / and the words by a double slash //.

Morse decryption/translation in English uses the same alphabet as encryption, but in order to accelerate the translation process, decoders use a tree like this:

The ciphered message is mainly composed of dots and dashes (or sometimes, any other couple of characters).

Morse code is an auditive code, any long and short beep sounds, it can be Morse

Same with syllables in I or E for short and A or O for long.

There is not really a good way or official method of writing Morse. It is first a sound code. Visually the written Morse code should be arranged on the same line. Computers, however, has trouble writing it with the dashes - or _ and the dots . which are not at the same level.

The key is to differentiate the characters: example ▄ (short) and ▄▄▄▄ (long).

Listen to the message and type simultaneously on a keyboard . (dot) for a short/acute sound and - (dash) for a long/grave one.

Morse deciphering without a separator can be cracked, but hardly, as possibilities are exponential. dCode has some tools, such as a brute-force attack or a dictionary attack.

It is possible to replace the two characters for short and long by others like A and B for example. It is even possible to switch them in order to fool the decoder.

There is a fairly well known overencryption: Fractionated Morse cipher.

A variant encodes morse with a kind of mountain profile:

There are no real rules, however, frequent characters (E, T, A for example) are coded with short signals (1 or 2 impulsions). The less frequent letters are coded with 4 signals maximum, digits with 5.

Many methods are used, the principle is to remember 26 words, and with these words find the corresponding association between a letter and its code.

Here is a list of words where each vowel is a dot, each consonant is a dash.

Another method used English pronunciation, stressed syllables standing for a dash and unstressed syllabes stands for a dot.

To train yourself, morse code kits are available (for children and adults) to transmit Morse here (link)

SOS is coded ...---... (3 shorts, 3 longs, 3 shorts)

In practice, when a letter is finished, the morse encodes the end of a character with empty sounds (silence) or empty visuals a bit long. When retranscribing, a slash / or any separating character can be added.

Morse code was developed by Samuel Morse, an American scientist whose name he kept. Morse therefore has no meaning or relation to the walrus animal (morse in French).

Morse Code was invented in 1835 by Samuel Morse