
Another Reason to Learn Morse Code: Kidnapping - wglb
https://hackaday.com/2018/04/13/another-reason-to-learn-morse-code-kidnapping/
======
aaronharnly
The most moving Morse code story I’ve heard is this one from Somalia: A man
writes a letter complaining about conditions in a hospital, and the government
imprisons him in solitary confinement, with no one to talk with and nothing to
read. After eight months, his next door neighbor whispers across: “Learn ABC
through the walls....” and he learns an ad-hoc Morse Code through knocks and
taps. Then, after two years, the neighbor begins “reading” to him, via the
code, the 800 page novel Anna Karenina.

[https://www.npr.org/2017/09/11/550058353/rough-
translation-h...](https://www.npr.org/2017/09/11/550058353/rough-translation-
how-anna-karenina-saved-a-somali-inmates-life)

~~~
nih
Theres also a radiolab episode: [http://www.radiolab.org/story/radiolab-
presents-rough-transl...](http://www.radiolab.org/story/radiolab-presents-
rough-translation/)

------
yason
The article doesn't seem to be exactly about using Morse code when kidnapped,
unlike the title, but about instances of Morse and other code used in various
circumstances today and in the past.

Having said that, to reflect the title itself I don't think Morse code has a
very good bang-for-buck ratio for kidnapping.

Absolutely most people never get kidnapped, it's a very rare occasion
statistically. Learning Morse code is not enough: you will have to use it
repeatedly to keep remembering it, and I don't think you need Morse code very
much in general life so you'll need to exercise your skills intentionally just
in case a very unlikely event would happen. Further, to benefit from Morse
code while being kept hostage you will need some medium through which to
transfer knocks or beeps and you need another party who is both listening and
can read Morse code.

It might make sense if your lifestyle calls for higher risks to be kidnapped,
but even then I think there are wiser ways to spend your minutes trying to
avoid being kidnapped in the first place.

~~~
w-m
I think learning just the SOS distress signal (...---...) has a decent bang-
for-buck ratio. And because of its frequent use in films there's usually not
even much learning involved.

~~~
trothamel
If you want, just remember that groups of three of anything are a distress
signal. It's why smoke detectors beep in groups of threes for example. Groups
of three whistles indicate distress. Three flashes of light. Etc.

Although I don't know how true this is, I've tried to keep to this in other
interfaces, avoiding three-blink patters on lights when someone is not in
trouble.

~~~
jfries
Just don't panic when the cruise ship you're on signals that it is operating
in reverse by sounding the horn three times.

~~~
lb1lf
There is cause for concern when hearing seven short and one long blast,
though. (General alarm; something has happened. Better head for the muster
station to find out what...)

~~~
nasredin
From the recent El Faro sinking post here on HN:

There's a General Alarm signal (above), but no Abandon Ship signal. The
captain gives those manually.

(I may be blatantly wrong!)

~~~
lb1lf
To the best of my knowledge (not a sailor, but my work has netted me several
hundred days on vessels offshore), 'Abandon Ship' is always an explicit,
verbal order from the captain (or whoever follows him in authority if he is
incapacitated)

The General Alarm typically calls for the crew to proceed (at haste!) to the
muster station to be informed of the nature of the emergency and be put to
work handling the situation.

Luckily, I've only ever had to abandon ship during a couple of drills.

------
lisper
If you want to learn Morse it is a lot easier if you don't try to learn it in
alphabetical order. Instead you should learn it in order of the lengths of the
signals, which corresponds roughly to the frequency order of the letters in
English, i.e. learn the one-beep-long letters first (E, T), then the two-beep-
long letters (A, N, I. M), then the three-beep-long letters, etc.

E . T -

I .. A .- N -. M --

S ... U ..- R .-. D -..

H .... B -... L .-.. F ..-. V ...-

W .-- K -.- G --. O ---

Z --.. C -.-. X -..- P .--.

J .--- Y -.-- Q --.-

~~~
knowsmorsecode
This method disconnects it from your normal language processing. Start by
learning simple words so you associate it with your language. You'll be at
20wpm no time.

~~~
kqr
So much this. Morse code is not a language of symbolic translation. You need
to hear entire words.

------
w-m
After listening to a Camille album from time to time, I subconsciously
internalized the backing vocals of the song "Show Me The Waves".
[https://youtu.be/S0PMZg8lZ-M](https://youtu.be/S0PMZg8lZ-M)

Knowing that it's Morse code for the title of the song, I can reconstruct the
individual codes for the letters AEHMOSTVW.

If someone were to write a hit song containing the whole Morse alphabet in a
way that gets stuck in your head easily like in this Camille song, we might
all learn it without trying.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
If you're familiar with "YYZ" by Rush you know two more letters!

~~~
saghm
I've listened to this song probably hundreds of times over the years, and I
never realized that was why it's called YYZ. I'm definitely not forgetting
those letters now!

~~~
mondoshawan
It's widely claimed, but most folks can't hear it because the rhythm is
totally wrong. Listen to high low freq shifts instead.

------
mannykannot
I think morse code could be helpful for someone with locked-in syndrome, like
Jean Bauby. In 'dictating' his memoir 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly', it
took him an average of two minutes to write each word by blinking at the time
when the next letter he wanted was presented to him.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diving_Bell_and_the_Butter...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diving_Bell_and_the_Butterfly)

~~~
matte_black
Meh, with an eventual VR/AR headset with eye tracking these patients will be
able to look at letters they want to type and then blink to type them out that
way.

~~~
mannykannot
Before you casually dismiss it as a worthless idea, consider that some victims
have fewer capabilities than Bauby was left with.

~~~
SmellyGeekBoy
I'd genuinely want to be euthanised in this situation. But that's a whole
other debate.

~~~
inteleng
Nobody asked for that opinion here, and it's not relevant to the conversation.

------
lscharen
Totally dating myself here.

In the Hardy Boys book “Hostages of Hate”, Frank Hardy’s girlfriend, Callie
Shaw, is kidnapped and is able to send a secret message to Frank by blinking
her eyes on a video recording.

Funny what sticks in your mind from a young age.

~~~
celticninja
Based on an actual event from the Vietnam war iirc.

~~~
noefingway
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Denton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Denton)

------
hartator
Had a question about this for while: Are movies where people communicate using
knocks really accurate?

I would assume to effectively use Morse code, you’ll need a way to convey
short silence, long silence, short beep, and long beep. Knocking misses the
long beep.

~~~
kqr
This has been a major annoyance for me my entire life. Of course, you cannot
possibly produce a long knock, any more than shooting someone slowly is a
vengeful way of killing.

What I guess you can do is vary the acoustics of your knocks (think knuckles
vs palm) but this will require the recieving party to do much more processing
when decoding.

~~~
bigKnockrs
I think that's a little bit pedantic. Complaining loudly about how the knocks
technically aren't, themselves, longer or shorter is a digression from the
reality that any sane human can detect and recognize consistent patterns in a
series of knocks on a door, or beats on a drum.

    
    
      shave and-a hair cut... two! bits! [0]
    
      match in-the gas tank... boom! boom! [1]
    
      –··–· ··
    

Everybody recognizes that knock pattern, whether they know the trivia behind
its origins or not. The singular instrument leaves the interpretation to the
pattern of the beats alone.

Meanwhile, a rimshot, involving two drum hits and a cymbal crash offers two
channels of interpretation.

    
    
      ba-dum tiss! [2]
    

The rhythm and the sound could each carry separate messages, which means the
carrier signal would have to be agreed upon, before sending the message. Is
the cymbal crash the best carrier for the dashes, or is the rest note in
between the drum hits and the cymbal crash actually the pause that signals the
dash?

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shave_and_a_Haircut](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shave_and_a_Haircut)

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5KBVCoKYt0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5KBVCoKYt0)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimshot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimshot)

------
gbacon
Instrument pilots use Morse code to identify ground-based navigation aids such
as Instrument Landing System (ILS) or VHF Omnidirectional Range (VOR)[0].

 _The VOR does not account for the aircraft heading. It only relays the
aircraft direction from the station and has the same indications regardless of
which way the nose is pointing. Tune the VOR receiver to the appropriate
frequency of the selected VOR ground station, turn up the audio volume, and
identify the station’s signal audibly. Then, rotate the OBS to center the CDI
needle and read the course under or over the index._

Say a pilot is flying by reference to Avenal VORTAC[1]. She would tune a nav
radio to 117.1 and listen for Morse code tones AVE, the station’s identifier
and helpfully printed on the chart for quick reference. Nice avionics units
will perform this translation for the pilot.

[0]: FAA _Instrument Flying Handbook_ ,
[https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/a...](https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/FAA-H-8083-15B.pdf)

[1]:
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/VOR_on_s...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/VOR_on_sectional.gif)

------
jlgaddis
U.S. Senator Jeremiah Denton, Jr., was a POW for ~8 years during Vietnam. He
did something similar.

> _Denton was forced by his captors to participate in a 1966 televised
> propaganda interview which was broadcast in the United States. While
> answering questions and feigning trouble with the blinding television
> lights, Denton blinked his eyes in Morse code, spelling the word
> "TORTURE"—and confirming for the first time to U.S. Naval Intelligence that
> American POWs were in fact being tortured._ [0]

You can see the video [1] on Youtube.

[0]:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Denton](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremiah_Denton)

[1]:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rufnWLVQcKg](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rufnWLVQcKg)

~~~
paulcole
Did you even look at the article? Denton’s story is mentioned in it and the
video is embedded.

~~~
jlgaddis
Nope. Lesson learned.

------
Tomte
I learned Morse code (only listening and transcribing, not producing) at the
German Army. It was an interesting, but also stressful experience, since we
weren‘t practicing on natural language, but meaningless gibberish.

Alas, I have lost the ability. Everything is gone.

------
southpawflo
I've tried several morse keyboards for android, but all of them seem to be
more fun than useful. if only I could get a cross between the hackers keyboard
and morse, I could stop finger fucking these tiny screens and actually type
what I want

~~~
pavel_lishin
Can you actually input morse faster than a keyboard?

~~~
curiousfab
No.

The world record in sending letters (random 5 letter groups) is 283 for one
minute: [http://www.hst2017.org/en/records](http://www.hst2017.org/en/records)

This is with a special key that's made for high speed telegraphy. Anything on
a mobile device would most likely be a lot slower.

There are some sample sounds of similar speeds, which you may find
interesting.

------
coatmatter
There are so many things to learn these days but learning morse code to fight
against kidnapping sounds about as esoteric/specific/paranoid as learning
shorthand so as to be able to transcribe important conversations quickly
without having to rely on audio equipment. Survivalists probably have more
practical tips at hand before needing to learn ham radio and morse. Heck,
learning to run fast and long is probably more useful for most people.

------
userbinator
I learned Morse many decades ago and still remember much of it, but if I was
in that situation now I'd probably think of FM-encoded ASCII first... and
while it might not be as "efficent" as Morse, I think ASCII is much easier to
remember and only requires two states to transmit.

------
iKenshu
Any idea where to learn it? Just in case.

~~~
rmason
Here are some resources from the ham organization ARRL on learning Morse code:

[http://www.arrl.org/learning-morse-code](http://www.arrl.org/learning-morse-
code)

------
skookumchuck
The "long knock" problem can be resolved in multiple ways. A dot can be a
single knock, and a dash can be two knocks very close together, for example.

