 | Another approach to learning Morse code is to learn by doing. In the Exercises part of the program you transcribe incoming Morse code. You can use any of the many built-in exercises plus you have a wide range of options for constructing your own.
|
| When you click  (or press Enter) the exercise will start and Morse code will be generated. You can transcribe onto paper or type in what you hear. What you type is displayed in the lower panel. At this point the upper panel just shows the name of the exercise and such information as how long it is, etc. When the exercise is complete, the message that was sent appears in the upper panel and you can see if you got it right. You can end an exercise at any point by clicking  (or pressing Enter). Use the scroll bars if the message is too long to fit in the panel.
|
| There are many ways to construct and modify exercises. You can edit the text of an exercise by clicking  at the bottom of the screen or by using the Edit... command in the File menu. This brings the message into the top panel in editable form. Edit it as you would text in NOTEPAD or any other Windows program. When you are in edit mode you can Cut or Delete selected text or use Paste. To enter text from another file, copy the text to the clipboard and paste it into the top edit panel where you need it.
|
| If you press the Enter key in edit mode, a return will be included in your message. In Morse code this sounds like two spaces. You must click a second time to exit edit mode.
|
| The title, speed, and many other properties of an exercise are set in the Exercises Options Dialog Box. When you save an exercise, all the properties of the exercise are saved along with the text in a single file.
|
| A particularly nice feature is the ability of exercises to have variable content. You can construct a message with alternative sections; a different section of text is randomly selected each time the exercise is played. Variable text allows you to listen to an exercise several times without knowing exactly what is coming.
|
| Ham University comes with a variety of exercises in Variable Text Format using typical message content and abbreviations. Choose File menu item Open Exercise... and look in the sub-directory Exercise.
|
| When editing, you can test your message by clicking  . You may add to the end of your message while it is playing. This "instructor mode" is useful for instructors wishing to send a series of messages to their class. If you highlight part of the text and then click only the lit portion will play.
|
| The Pause key may be used to pause an exercise. Press Pause again to continue the message.
|
|
|