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Nifty I Phone Morse Code Decoder
6 July 2015 | by HOT PAW
MORSE CODE DECODER FOR I PHONE
Screen Snap of Hot Paw Morse Code Decoder
I recently installed a ham radio station in my truck. Since then I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, using SSB mostly, since that is a novelty for me. Most of my operating has been using CW, but taking a side trip into PSK occasionally. Logging is somewhat cumbersome in a truck. I used big elastic bands to attach a small clip board to my leg so I could quickly write down a call sign and very basic information. This information would be then transferred to a computer log at home. I tried using the computer in the truck also, and that proved even more cumbersome, having the laptop jammed into the steering wheel.
I like to use a keyboard to send code but no matter what I used, it was a bit awkward in the truck. At the very least, the laptop stays put when its jammed into the steering wheel. Using the passenger seat would require my changing the radio head orientation, the antenna control and paddles which are all set up for easy use from the drivers seat.
Occasionally I’d switch to CW and fumbled for a pen to write down a call sign, time, and band. The guy I was chatting with on 40 meter CW was running just a tad too fast for me to copy ‘everything he sent’, so I missed some of it. It seems that the ‘buffer in my brain’ is smaller than I’d like it to be and with FIFO being the rule, the beginning of a word vanishes as I copy the ending.
(FIFO, First In, First Out’) Some folks may complain that using a ‘decoder’ is cheating somehow. Yes, for a contest, but for every day QSO’s its not cheating at all. If you don’t like it, don’t use it!
I discovered this app and tried it last night for the first time. Wowzah, can it copy code! Just lean it up against your radio, or just near it, and it copies CW. This is a really great help when someone is sending just a ‘tad faster’ than my ability to copy ‘everything’! Its also handy to ‘get the entire call sign’, while I was fumbling with other things in the truck! It works pretty well even in poor band conditions, and has Farnsworth Method as well as regular copy. It has ultra high speed copy, but I have not tried it. 1oo WPM code is hard to come by on the air.
This proves very useful in the truck, but my guess is that other hams will find it handy in other ways.
One Response to “Nifty I Phone Morse Code Decoder”
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Pretty cool, though I’m sorry their website says “dot dash” rather than “dit dah”, which is more accurate when discussing Morse. Personally I never used it much, though did get the commercial radiotelegraph license just for an exercise in futility. (Navigation and frequency holder beacons aside, except for 1 museum–KPH–and a few ship hobbyists there are no commercial Morse stations in the US!). But as I said it’s neat to see what people are still doing with good old CW.