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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
       timing  unit  is the dot period.  This is the time taken to send a dot,
       not including any space before or after the dot.  The  lengths  of  all
       other  elements  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
       commonly 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:

              ÜÄÇÖÉÈÀÑ, S with cedilla and Z with dot above.

       Finally, cwlib 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 extensions from various other sources:

       Ch   Code     Ch   Code     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    ----.

       "    .-..-.   ’    .----.   $    ...-..-   (    -.--.
       )    -.--.-   +    .-.-.    ,    --..--    -    -....-
       .    .-.-.-   /    -..-.    :    ---...    ;    -.-.-.
       =    -...-    ?    ..--..   _    ..--.-

       Ü    ..--     Ä    .-.-     Ç    -.-..     Ö    ---.
       É    ..-..    À    .-..-    À    .--.-     Ñ    --.--

       S with cedilla: ---- and Z with dot above: --..-

       In addition to the above standard characters, the following  characters
       are  conventionally  used  for  punctuation  and  procedural signals as
       follows:

       Ch   Code     Ch   Code     Ch   Code      Ch   Code
       -------------------------------------------------------
       "    .-..-.   ’    .----.   $    ...-..-   (    -.--.
       )    -.--.-   +    .-.-.    ,    --..--    -    -....-
       .    .-.-.-   /    -..-.    :    ---...    ;    -.-.-.
       =    -...-    ?    ..--..   _    ..--.-    @    .--.-.

       and the following are non-conventional extensions implemented by cwlib:

       Ch   Code     Ch   Code      Ch   Code    Ch   Code
       -----------------------------------------------------
       <    ...-.-   >    -...-.-   !    ...-.   &    .-...
       ^    -.-.-    ~    .-.-..

       An  alternative  view  of  punctuation  and  procedural  signals  is as
       combination Morse characters:

       Ch   Prosig      Ch   Prosig   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    cwlib(3,LOCAL),   cw(1,LOCAL),   cwgen(1,LOCAL),
       cwcp(1,LOCAL), and xcwcp(1,LOCAL).