How to quickly copy morse code without memorization!

Don't say "dot" and "dash" - it's too slow. Use "dit" for the shorts and "dah" for the longs.

I'm a radio operator, I've found you can rattle code off much quicker and more reliably using those alternatives instead. It's a bit faster (the 'sh' in 'dash' is terrible), and easier to distinguish when the audio quality just isn't there for whatever reason. Try it - say this aloud both ways and find which you prefer:

| · · · · | · | · – · · | · – – · | – – | · |

(the | is a word seperator there, since multiple spaces isn't reliable on www)

Next, ignore any table of dits and dahs you might find online. Those are good to represent it in a condensed manner, or for looking up the dits/dahs for a particular letter (as if you were sending a message). If you're trying to read what you're hearing (and you don't have it memorized), you want to look at it in a completely different way.

To use, let's use "P" for example, "· – – ·". Start at the top of the tree. The first character is a dit, so go left. Next is a dah, so go right. Next is another dah, so right once more. Next is a dit, so go left. We ran out of symbols, so where we are on the tree is the appropriate letter!

This particular graph is of International Morse. There's only one other variant around and the differences don't matter to us. However, in future bomb manuals, the code-to-letter translation may differ. You should be able to spend the time once to construct such a graph, and use it for much quicker reading in the future.

NOTE: this[apfelmus.nfshost.com] page has much more information on the topic, and is where I found the graph I've shared.

Rather than getting into the details here, I'd refer you to some of the material the ARRL has available.[www.arrl.org] This should get you started :)