Morse Code 5 Words Per Minute
Carolina Schmalzried
Proficiency in Morse code is measured in how many words per minute someone can send or receive. This seems a tricky concept given that you can send more short words per minute than long ones. The work-around is to standardise on the word "PARIS" as the standard word, so if Morse is being sent at 20 words per minute (or "20 wpm") then the word "PARIS" (or, more precisely "PARIS " with a space on the end) could be sent 20 times in a minute.
People learning Morse code often use what is called "Farnsworth" timing to make recognising the sound patterns easier. Rather than slowing down the whole sound, it is better to keep the character sounds at a moderately fast speed and just increase the gaps between the characters and words to give more recognition time. The speed of the characters are determined by the normal WPM speed ($s_wpm$) but the Farnsworth speed ($s_fwpm$) determines the actual number of words per minute. That is:
Although this derivation is a little different, you will find it comes out the same as the equations described by Jon Booom (KE3Z) in an ARRL article which Ronald L. pointed me to and which is about as definitive as I can find. ARRL is the (USA) national association for Amateur Radio.
Since words vary in length, for the purpose of measurement of text entry the definition of each "word" is often standardized to be five characters or keystrokes long in English,[1] including spaces and punctuation. For example, under such a method applied to plain English text the phrase "I run" counts as one word, but "rhinoceros" and "let's talk" would both count as two.
Karat et al. found in one study of average computer users in 1999 that the average rate for transcription was 32.5 words per minute, and 19.0 words per minute for composition.[2] In the same study, when the group was divided into "fast", "moderate", and "slow" groups, the average speeds were 40 wpm, 35 wpm, and 23 wpm, respectively.
Typically, professional typists type at speeds of 43 to 80 wpm, while some positions can require 80 to 95 (usually the minimum required for dispatch positions and other time-sensitive typing jobs), and some advanced typists work at speeds above 120 wpm.[3] Two-finger typists, sometimes also referred to as "hunt and peck" typists, commonly reach sustained speeds of about 37 wpm for memorized text and 27 wpm when copying text, but in bursts may be able to reach much higher speeds.[4] From the 1920s through the 1970s, typing speed (along with shorthand speed) was an important secretarial qualification, and typing contests were popular and often publicized by typewriter companies as promotional tools.
The numeric entry or 10-key speed is a measure of one's ability to manipulate the numeric keypad found on most modern separate computer keyboards. It is used to measure speed for jobs such as data entry of number information on items such as remittance advice, bills, or checks, as deposited to lock boxes. It is measured in keystrokes per hour (KPH). Many jobs require a certain KPH, often 8,000 or 10,000.[citation needed]
Words per minute is a common metric for assessing reading speed and is often used in the context of remedial skills evaluation, as well as in the context of speed reading, where it is a controversial measure of reading performance.
Research done in 2012[9] measured the speed at which subjects read a text aloud, and found the typical range of speeds across 17 different languages to be 18429 wpm or 863234 characters per minute. However, the number of wpm varied between languages, even for languages that use the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets: as low as 16118 for Finnish and as high as 22830 for English. This was because different languages have different average word lengths (longer words in such languages as Finnish and shorter words in English). However, the number of characters per minute tends to be around 1000 for all the tested languages. For the tested Asian languages that use particular writing systems (Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese) these numbers are lower.
While proofreading materials, people are able to read English at 200 wpm on paper, and 180 wpm on a monitor.[11] [Those numbers from Ziefle, 1998, are for studies that used monitors prior to 1992. See Noyes & Garland 2008 for a modern tech view of equivalence.]
An example of an agglutinative language, the average rate of Turkish speech is reported to be about 220 syllables per minute. When the time spent for the silent parts of speech are removed, the so-called average articulation rate reaches 310 syllables per minute.[16] The average number of syllables per (written) word has been measured as 2.6.[17][18] For a comparison, Flesch has suggested that the conversational English for consumers aims 1.5 syllables per word,[19] although these measures are dependent on corpus.
John Moschitta Jr. was listed in Guinness World Records, for a time, as the world's fastest speaker, being able to talk at 586 wpm.[20] He has since been surpassed by Steve Woodmore, who achieved a rate of 637 wpm.[21]
It is standard practice to use two different such standard words to measure Morse code speeds in words per minute. The standard words are: "PARIS" and "CODEX". In Morse code "PARIS" has a dot duration of 50, while "CODEX" has 60.
Although many countries no longer require it for licensing, Morse is still widely used by amateur radio ("ham") operators. Experienced hams routinely send Morse at 20 words per minute, using manually operated hand telegraph keys; enthusiasts such as members of The CW Operators' Club routinely send and receive Morse code at speeds up to 60 wpm. The upper limit for Morse operators attempting to write down Morse code received by ear using paper and pencil is roughly 20 wpm. Many skilled Morse code operators can receive Morse code by ear mentally without writing down the information at speeds up to 70 wpm.[25] To write down the Morse code information manually at speeds higher than 20 wpm it is usual for the operators to use a typewriter or computer keyboard to enable higher speed copying.
In the United States a commercial radiotelegraph operator's license is still issued, although there is almost no demand for it, since for long distance communication ships now use the satellite-based Global Maritime Distress and Safety System. Besides a written examination, proficiency at receiving Morse at 20 wpm plain language and 16 wpm in code groups must be demonstrated.[26]
Morse code is a telecommunications method which encodes text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called dots and dashes, or dits and dahs.[3][4] Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of the early developers of the system adopted for electrical telegraphy.
International Morse code encodes the 26 basic Latin letters A to Z, one accented Latin letter (), the Arabic numerals, and a small set of punctuation and procedural signals (prosigns). There is no distinction between upper and lower case letters.[1] Each Morse code symbol is formed by a sequence of dits and dahs. The dit duration can vary for signal clarity and operator skill, but for any one message, once established it is the basic unit of time measurement in Morse code. The duration of a dah is three times the duration of a dit (although some telegraphers deliberately exaggerate the length of a dah for clearer signalling). Each dit or dah within an encoded character is followed by a period of signal absence, called a space, equal to the dit duration. The letters of a word are separated by a space of duration equal to three dits, and words are separated by a space equal to seven dits.[1][5][a]
Morse code can be memorized and sent in a form perceptible to the human senses, e.g. via sound waves or visible light, such that it can be directly interpreted by persons trained in the skill.[7][8] Morse code is usually transmitted by on-off keying of an information-carrying medium such as electric current, radio waves, visible light, or sound waves.[9][10] The current or wave is present during the time period of the dit or dah and absent during the time between dits and dahs.[11][12]
Early in the nineteenth century, European experimenters made progress with electrical signaling systems, using a variety of techniques including static electricity and electricity from Voltaic piles producing electrochemical and electromagnetic changes. These experimental designs were precursors to practical telegraphic applications.[14]
Following the discovery of electromagnetism by Hans Christian rsted in 1820 and the invention of the electromagnet by William Sturgeon in 1824, there were developments in electromagnetic telegraphy in Europe and America. Pulses of electric current were sent along wires to control an electromagnet in the receiving instrument. Many of the earliest telegraph systems used a single-needle system which gave a very simple and robust instrument. However, it was slow, as the receiving operator had to alternate between looking at the needle and writing down the message. In Morse code, a deflection of the needle to the left corresponded to a dit and a deflection to the right to a dah.[15] The needle clicked each time it moved to the right or left. By making the two clicks sound different (by installing one ivory and one metal stop), transmissions on the single needle device became audible as well as visible, which led in turn to the Double Plate Sounder System.[16]
The Morse system for telegraphy, which was first used in about 1844, was designed to make indentations on a paper tape when electric currents were received. Morse's original telegraph receiver used a mechanical clockwork to move a paper tape. When an electrical current was received, an electromagnet engaged an armature that pushed a stylus onto the moving paper tape, making an indentation on the tape. When the current was interrupted, a spring retracted the stylus and that portion of the moving tape remained unmarked. Morse code was developed so that operators could translate the indentations marked on the paper tape into text messages.
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