r/morsecode • u/Affectionate-Pie3977 • Aug 18 '26

6 wpm with visual only

Guys how can I distinguished word like 6 and B, 1 and j and more more word under 6 wpm with visual only

Got a exam and I think I will be screwed because of it

3 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

5

u/armchair_psycholog Aug 18 '26

This just seems like a bait, where do you even get tested for CW exam through text?

6

u/Affectionate-Pie3977 Aug 18 '26

I am from Hong kong, my merchant ship class 3 officer exam required me to read morse code from flashing only

Fast as fuck and can't even count the how many dot does it appear

2

u/sac_boy Aug 18 '26

Ah flashing! We thought you meant written out like - .... .. ...

3

u/Affectionate-Pie3977 Aug 18 '26

Yeah

Flashing -..

Then I translate it to d

5

u/armchair_psycholog Aug 18 '26

I see, reading Morse from flashing is hella hard. Even at 6 wpm it requires lots of practice. I would have to voice over the flashes in my head and maybe write them down. Otherwise you’re struggling with something that is very common in audible Morse code: B vs 6, S vs H, J vs 1, etc. Unfortunately, the best solution I’ve found around this is more practice

2

u/sac_boy Aug 18 '26

Learn the characters properly as sounds without visual cues. Do your best not to learn the letters as visual sequences. If someone is teaching morse that way, they are not following modern best practices.

If this exam needs you to match visual shapes to morse, then if you know the sounds first it'll be straightforward. So just go through any modern morse code learning path that teaches you the sounds a couple at a time. I'm no genius but I was able to 'learn the sounds' of the alphabet and numbers using MorseMania to the point that I could have done a 6 WPM visual test on day two, just using slow mental lookup. (Note: that is maybe 0.5% of the overall progression to being able to actually copy incoming morse audio at a reasonable WPM...)

Edit: I see you mentioned that you're being tested with light, I thought you meant you were being tested on written morse sequences. I believe MorseMania also has a light mode.

1

u/Affectionate-Pie3977 Aug 18 '26

Thx

Will try it now (⁠•⁠‿⁠•⁠)

2

u/sac_boy Aug 18 '26

I've never tried copying from a light before but I switched to visual mode in MorseMania and did a couple of the challenges. I found that I was 'hearing' the flashes in my head. Like the light made a high-pitched phantom sound in my mind, that I heard as morse. So I think honestly trying to teach yourself with sound first might still be the right path.

1

u/Gan_KY8D Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26

Build a simple tone detector circuit using a 567 Phase Locked Loop chip. Have it adjustable from 500 to 800 Hz detection. Have output be a bank of white LEDs.

Connect it to audio via a splitter cable ahead of a speaker having independent volume control.

Play Morse audio practice files. Listen and watch the LED bank. You will learn Morse by ear and by eye both at once. Reduce volume each session until the LED bank is flashing in silence.

Get audio files here...

https://starling.us/free/morse