r/woahdude Mar 03 '25

audio Visualization of the morse code alphabet

3.0k Upvotes

61 comments sorted by

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492

u/HugoDCSantos Mar 03 '25

I still find it amazing that some people could decode the morse code just by hearing a ton of beeps.

330

u/CronWrath Mar 03 '25

Almost as amazing as reading an entire book with just lines of ink on a page!

92

u/Pretend-Buy7384 Mar 04 '25

THAT IS THE MOST CONCISE WAS IVE EVER HEARD IT PUT I LOBE YOU THANK YOU

56

u/KellyBelly916 Mar 03 '25

It's just 26 distinct patterns. You can get it down if you take the time to.

46

u/RosettaStoned6 Mar 04 '25 edited Mar 07 '25

I have a hard time gauging when one sequence stops and another begins.

12

u/Action_Bronzong Mar 04 '25

That's what the pauses are for. Close your eyes and listen to the video again, it's very noticeable.

11

u/RosettaStoned6 Mar 04 '25

This is also a slower speed, I'm talking about the faster WPMs

3

u/Euklidis Mar 05 '25

Well, with experience you learn to pick up on those pauses more easily. It's kinda like when you learn a different language for the first time. At first all you hear is a bunch of same-sounding noises, then you start noticing vowels and consonants, then through time and experience you start hearing word clearly even when others speak really fast.

1

u/Sarasha Mar 04 '25

Is it like reading music notes? I don't know how to. I don't know how to play an instrument. I'm just to find something in common. I hope that doesn't sound to stupid. :Edit context

3

u/KellyBelly916 Mar 04 '25

I'm a former pianist, it's not the same. Reading music it to assign it to notes and timing, not just letters themselves. Reading music is more complex beyond a note to a letter.

1

u/Sarasha Mar 04 '25

Ok ty. I've always wanted to know this. Was afraid to ask.

2

u/Euklidis Mar 05 '25

I would say it is closer to learning a new language (because it kinda is)

3

u/mamurny Mar 04 '25

Not only that, they competed in how many letters they can do per minute. I remember watching one training for competition, he used Commodore 64 to produce the beeps, and it was insanely fast, faster than i could type, and i can type fast.

2

u/Emergency_Passion_77 20d ago

My Dad did this. Sit and write. Then, Tap message back. When you think about it, it's not much different than the T9 texting. Could do that while biking back in the day..

183

u/activeXray Mar 03 '25

Just FYI this is a horrid way to learn Morse, maybe to get you to like 5WPM, but to get fast you just have to learn the sounds of the letters. Farnsworth method is pretty good.

108

u/AndrewFGleich Mar 03 '25

Farnsworth you say?

135

u/Netsuko Mar 03 '25

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE!

50

u/StarConsumate Mar 03 '25

To shreds you say?

28

u/Phillip_J_Bender Mar 03 '25

The easy part was getting the brain out. The hard part was getting the brain out.

12

u/Radical_Coyote Mar 04 '25

However if you DON’T want to learn Morse code, it’s a very convenient and compact way to decode it slowly with basically no experience that works a lot better than an alphabet printout

10

u/blueavole Mar 03 '25

Oh see this works for me.

This is so much easier than trying to learn it by just memorizing every letter.

23

u/Enginerdiest Mar 03 '25

yeah, that's not what they're saying.

This is an easy way to learn to be slow.

But if you want to learn to be fast you have to "hear" whole letters at a time, not decode them.

It's just like sounding out words, or reading with your finger on the page -- it is easier at first, but it's a bad habit that will hold you back if you don't un-learn it.

18

u/blueavole Mar 03 '25

Not everyone’s brains work the same way.

I tried the farnaworrh method and it was painful . It felt like i had to go through the entire alphabet every single letter. Because in my memory they were in order.

I never could get past the slowest pace.

This is what my brain was trying to do- have the path of the different options. But I was told that was wrong.

28

u/soks86 Mar 03 '25

This is awesome.

10

u/user725 Mar 04 '25

I know this is odd but is there a physical version of this you could buy that tells you what letter you are pressing when you hit the paddle. Like it could be a fun toy used to teach kids to be familiar with Morse code? I sort of looked and there are some vintage 60s space station ones with a read out key that show you each letter. But I’m trying to find something like this, a modern version.

5

u/spank-you Mar 03 '25

Now give us dimensions on playmate of the month

4

u/Spin737 Mar 03 '25

Cool art, but not helpful as a tool, for me anyway.

9

u/Learning_Goodly Mar 03 '25

Such a cool way of visualizing Morse Code. The visuals and audio are very well done.

5

u/Final-Sprinkles-4860 Mar 03 '25

I would have much preferred it to spell out a Rick roll

5

u/abat6294 Mar 04 '25

If anyone is curious as why it seems to be all over the place, the most commonly used letters (like e and t) have the simplest code while the least common letters have the most complex.

30

u/blazerunnern Mar 03 '25

First time I've seen this visual. This will make me remember.

20

u/M4xW3113 Mar 03 '25

How is this helping to remember ?

5

u/blazerunnern Mar 03 '25

Hard to explain but I can see a path to memorizing personally

3

u/Pudding_Hero Mar 04 '25

*stares suspiciously

2

u/EnvBlitz Mar 04 '25

Seriously I'm supposed to link dotdash as A then the natural progression to B is dashdotdotdot? Then dashdotdashdot as C?

Which part exactly makes it easy?

3

u/[deleted] Mar 04 '25

[deleted]

2

u/EnvBlitz Mar 04 '25

Now this is an explanation I can get behind, as I see now that frequently used letters are truly shorter. Thanks for the info.

0

u/Soveryenthusiastic Mar 04 '25

I think this is just an example that highlights that different people can learn drastically differently. I am very dyslexic and this is the most concrete and example of morse code I've ever seen. I find it waaaaay easier to think about what this looks like and visualise the beeps going in certain directions.

3

u/jvd_808 Mar 04 '25

.. ..-. / -.— — ..- / -.-. .- -. / .-. . .- -.. / - .... .. ... .-.-.- / .... .- ...- . / .- / —. .-. . .- - / -.. .- -.— -.-.—

1

u/RS_Someone Mar 05 '25
  • .... .- -. -.- ... --..-- / -.-- --- ..- / - --- ---

1

u/CocHXiTe4 Mar 03 '25

Sounds like Among US

1

u/ThorMis Mar 04 '25

What's with the creepy background noise?

1

u/getmybehindsatan Mar 05 '25

The inconsistent positions of the letters in the diagram is mildly annoying

1

u/Jamesathan Mar 05 '25

Seeing it like this has blown my mind.

But I'm wondering how they decided on certain combinations. Like how they unanimously said Dash-Dash-Dash-Dash is not good.

Because wouldn't Dot-Dash-Dot-Dash have been a faster one to include than Dash-Dash-Dot-Dash?

Must be some extra rule I'm not seeing...

1

u/Houtaku Mar 08 '25

N-E-V-E-R-G-O-N-N-A-G-I-V-E-Y-O-U-U-P

1

u/cpt_ugh 22d ago

So this got me thinking and I believe Morse code could be more time efficient. Here's a break down of each letters' time-to-tap cost (assuming a dot is half the duration of a dash) and distribution in English words.

For maximum efficiency, the costs should exactly match the distribution ratio (lowest cost at the top). So we could reduce the morse time-to-send value with some letter rearranging.

Letter Cost (time) Distribution
e 1 12.70%
t 2 9.10%
a 3 8.20%
o 6 7.50%
i 2 7.00%
n 3 6.70%
s 3 6.30%
h 4 6.10%
r 4 6.00%
d 4 4.30%
l 5 4.00%
c 6 2.80%
u 4 2.80%
m 4 2.40%
w 5 2.40%
f 5 2.20%
g 5 2.00%
y 7 2.00%
p 6 1.90%
b 5 1.50%
v 5 0.98%
k 5 0.77%
j 7 0.15%
x 6 0.15%
q 7 0.10%
z 6 0.07%

1

u/MattMooks Mar 03 '25

.-- --- .- .--

13

u/Ok-Childhood-9392 Mar 03 '25

Woaw?

5

u/HighlyNegativeFYI Mar 03 '25

.-.. - - .- - - -

1

u/Ok-Childhood-9392 Mar 03 '25 edited Mar 03 '25

.. -.- .-.

0

u/MattMooks Mar 04 '25

Dammit, how did I mess that up

1

u/Ok-Childhood-9392 Mar 04 '25

Happens to the best of us! 🫂

-6

u/ShiroDXDX Mar 03 '25

Is this supposed to spell something?

11

u/ElaineMae Mar 03 '25

No it's just doing the alphabet