Morse Code

[AlexEvans]

Are PPL students supposed to learn it? I mean how useful a skill is it to have?

During my time away from the Trevor Thom manuals I have decided to learn morse code, if only for a break from the reading. It's not as hard as initially feared - I think I have most of the letters learned by their sound. I bought a CD off of the Internet.

My understanding is that it is used for identifying navaids. I have read on PPRUNE that the big boys don't really need to identify morse because their FMC's do it for them and that they don't even have to learn it for their JAA ATPL.

[FlyinLow]

Even CPL don't need to learn it, if you check your maps, next to the navaid's frequency they have ther morse code identifier. Its just dots and dash which you can clearly hear when you have the navaid tuned.

[mad_bear]

True; but it isn't terribly difficult to learn, to the standard needed to be able to read a navaid ident in morse. After all, they only transmit at about on letter per second, don't they? In my opinion, it isn't hugely more difficult to learn to that standard than it is to lean, say, the phonetic alphabet. Just my two-penn'th, of course.

[Mariner9]

Had to learn Morse for my former Merchant Navy career. On my GFT, examiner complained that I didn't ident a VOR by reference to a printed morse sheet :)

[S-Works]

Had to learn Morse for my former Merchant Navy career. On my GFT, examiner complained that I didn't ident a VOR by reference to a printed morse sheet :)
My mate is a signalman in the Navy, his morse code is some amazing rate and not just the basic letters and numbers, full punctuation. He got pulled for the same thing and procedeed to demonstrate to the examiner.
I have tried to learn it loads of times, I just don't seem to have the ear for it.

[Floppy Link]

...I have read on PPRUNE that the big boys don't really need to identify morse because their FMC's do it for them...

FMC can't fly an ILS, even on an autoland we still needed to monitor the morse to ensure 1) 'twas the correct one and 2) to know if it went off air
:ok:

[soay]

The G1000 converts the morse code into letters, when you tune it into a navaid, but you are advised to DIY as well.

[UL730]

At my Morse exam - General Belgrano, Gatwick – the invigilator commented upon the amount of spare pencils I had on my desk prior to the test. (We were advised to have spares available because if you break a point – you simply don’t have time to search for another)

“One for every time I’ve taken the test, mate” - was my reply.

Broke the ice amongst some nervous and stressed out candidates.

Learning Morse code has been useful: once when making a UK IFR approach after the runway in use was reversed - the ILS was mistakenly not adjusted. Identing saved me the embarrassment the A/C in front of me must have experienced making sort of back beam approach.

[Mark 1]

It's quite easy to learn the Morse letters in a couple of evenings using one of the computer based tutors. Or get a fancy Garmin, and let it do the identing for you.

Not really needed for PPL, but why not have a go anyway and surprise your instructor.

Although there is no more "Signals" test for CPL, I think that it is still a required part of the training syllabus.

You probably only need to remember about 2 or 3 local beacons on the PPL course.

[jabberwok]

In most cases you are using Morse to confirm identification. By that I mean you already have the ident on your chart and are listening to confirm the dots and dashes meet your expectations.
It becomes trickier if you hear a Morse signal you cannot recognise because you now have to work backwards to find the letters and pinpoint the navaid. I have a little diagram clipped to my kneeboard which helps.
http://www.homepages.mcb.net/bones/WebPix/morse.jpg

[IO540]

In what circumstances would one need to identify an unknown navaid from a morse signature?

All that the morse ID does is confirm one has the right frequency tuned and the navaid is not officially offline. It does no more and no less. Specifically (despite widespread suggestions to the contrary) it tells you exactly nothing about any failure in your receiving equipment. I've flown with duff VOR and DME equipment which sounded out the correct ident, but wasn't working; the best example was a certain G-xxxx PA28 Archer, used for IMC training :yuk: in which the DME would read 5.5 when the distance was 3.7, etc.

[jabberwok]

In what circumstances would one need to identify an unknown navaid from a morse signature?

When you tune into a navaid and receive a morse ident that isn't the one you expected. It happens.

[IO540]

Yes but then you have the wrong navaid. The approach plate (or whatever) is the reference which one must work from. Why go rummaging around for a navaid which matches the ident? If one tunes in a navaid and heard some other ident then one needs to report it to ATC; I can't see what useful thing one could possibly do with such a combination.

[Pitts2112]

In these days of GPS, does anyone really use radio navaids any more (other than the fact that the CAA won't come into the 21st century). Might as well use Roman semaphore towers as a VOR or NDB these days. And signal squares?

Pitts2112

[IO540]

Yes, in the IFR enroute context, navaids are handy as a backup to GPS BRNAV (BRNAV, which means GPS, is mandatory for enroute IFR in Europe). Instrument approaches are however still based on navaids: ILS, VOR/DME, NDB/DME, etc.

There are some GPS approaches in Europe but only a few, and all of them AFAIK are at airports that have conventional-navaid approaches to the same runways. Such approaches sometimes use an NDB as a part of the missed approach, which defeats the point somewhat...

One can fly enroute, VFR or IFR, entirely on GPS but it's wise to always have two methods of navigation a) in case one packs up and b) it tends to pick up gross errors like flying 080 instead of 180 (easy to do with a VOR but nearly impossible with a GPS).

That said, if using VORs and NDBs as a backup for a GPS enroute, one tends to not bother identing them.

The FAA does not require identing navaids at any stage up to and including the IR.

Personally, I ident all navaids used in an instrument approach. It helps to pick up mis-tuned frequencies.

[slim_slag]

The FAA does not require identing navaids at any stage up to and including the IR.Not identing or mis-identing a navaid on an FAA IR checkride is usually an automatic bust.

[Eddie_Crane]

Have you read this (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=246500)? It might be partly relevant?

My suggestion is that you learn the dang thing. It will take you one, two days at most (if not, up your intake of fish ;) ). Train your ear to recognise the SOUND not the number of dots n dashes ("oh how many dots n dashes was that, hang on which one was that, Y or Q ... F or L.. d'oh!!!"). It'll become second nature as you ident a navaid and you'll instantly recognise it as right or wrong and you'll have LOTS of spare capacity to deal with the rest of your tasks.

[Keef]

Agree that! Forget the little charts, and learn the music of the morse. I learned it back in the dark ages for my amateur radio licence, and it's been a great help when flying.

Yes, the examiner will "comment" if you don't look at the printed dots and dashes, but explaining that you read morse will avoid any problem. It's great when you mistune a VOR or press a wrong button, and recognise the different (unexpected) ident.

The FAA certainly wanted me to ident any navaid on my IR checkride - and to leave the ADF ident running the whole time I was using it, in case it went "off air" during the procedure or missed.

[AlexEvans]

Thanks for the help and advise.

It's already taken me longer than 2 days to learn 20 letters. Did you mean 48 hours of study? I must have studied for much less than that so far. I have the hardest (longest) ones remaining to learn. Still - my mates at work are well impressed already.

I should nail it this weekend, along with book 5 - Radio navigation.

Cheers,

Alex

[blue up]

Fly to Majorca, Palma (LEPA) and ident the VOR there (JOA, 117.7). Chances are you'll still get the Toulouse beacon until you are halfway down the descent on a 757. The higher you fly, the more chance of getting the wrong ident and VOR. Same with ATIS. Get Brussels (?) trying to get Cardiff when descending over London. Also, over London and identing Cardiff ILS you'll get Gatwick ILS until passing Swindon.

This info on frequencies may be out of date. I've started doing Longhaul!!:cool:

[nigelisom]

Jabberwok
Many thanks for the morse chart, I have learnt morse but due to not using it all the time I sometimes struggle with some of the less used letters. The chart makes a excellent aid memoir.
In fact the design is pure genius in its simplicity and clarity, if you thought it up I salute you, if you blagged it from somewhere else many thanks for sharing it.
Nigel

[tiggermoth]

That morse chart is a brilliant idea!

I learnt morse and did my morse test for my Amateur Radio licence. I also used it to a reasonable speed for quite a number of years because I couldn't afford expensive modulated (SSB) equipment.

Although I can still copy morse at speed, I find it a bit strange hearing the morse idents at such slow speed - I have to think about it. I think it's becasue one gets used to the sound of the whole letter at a particular speed, rather than thinking about the dots and the dashes.

Morse unfortunately is dying out from all types of radio telecommunication these days, which is a great shame. As a means of communication with the most basic of kit (costing less than two packets of cigarettes) over thousands of miles it cannot be beaten.

There are plenty of morse tutors that can be freely downloaded (shareware/freeware), and it's a good effective way to learn.

[jabberwok]

In fact the design is pure genius in its simplicity and clarity, if you thought it up I salute you, if you blagged it from somewhere else many thanks for sharing it.

I readily admit it wasn't my idea - it was one of my students. I'd been going through the Morse code with him and noticed he was writing it down in an unusual manner - a crude flow chart. When I asked him about it he just said "It seemed more logical this way."

We tidied up the format a bit and used to give it out to all club members going through the IMC Rating - and a few others too. I've seen other copies around so I am sure others have hit upon this method too.

I still use the chart as my Morse is getting worse with time - a combination of age and lack of frequent use. Like the old adage of "read from ground to map and not from map to ground" I prefer to decode what I hear rather than try to make the code fit what I see on the chart.