Well, it’s still used in fiction. A recent episode of Person of Interest had a short (but not SOS) message sent via Morse. Also, last year I read a book called About Average by Andrew Clements in which a character used a whistle to blow SOS.
Nothing at all. Just like SOS.
It is a common myth that “SOS” is meant to stand for “save our souls” or something like that. The pattern “…—…” was picked because it was easily recognized. The name “SOS” was picked because it produces that sequence (if inter-letter pauses are omitted), and then people started to make backronyms for those letters.
It’s not text, it’s a prosign.
yes a bug. the company that made them, Vibroplex over a century old, has a bug in their logo.
both dots and dashes can be automatic, there are a number of models. they are heavy too, a number of pounds, it stays still while skilled operators use lightning fast fingers.
My brother also told me that when in ‘conversation’ with Portishead, it was wise not to go too fast. However fast he could go, they could and would go faster. It was always embarrassing to ask for more than one repeat.
This should be three short, two long, three short, I think?
Similarly the MMORPG video game The Secret World has a quest clue that used, IIRC, an audio-only Morse code sequence. (I think I downloaded an iPhone app to deal with that decoding?)
So. You don’t think that three short and three long repeated doesn’t stand for anything?
A wrench on a ships hull, a rock in the rubble after an earthquake. A flashlight in the dark?
As a former Civil Air Patrol and Colorado Ground Search and Rescue team member, I could not disagree more.
Just a bit of trivia, since 2007, ham operators have no longer been required to learn Morse code. The FCC felt that people were mostly interested in voice and data and the requirement was keeping newcomers out of the hobby. You can still use it all you want and there are allocations for CW only in the ham bands, but it’s not required for licensing.
enipla, you misunderstand. The code “…—…” does stand for something: It stands for “Help, I’m in trouble!”. But “…—…” isn’t actually “SOS”; it’s its own thing. Saying that “…—…” is the code for “SOS” is like saying that S is the code for EEE.
S is the code for EEE 
Morse code -
… = S
— = O
How does …—… …—… …—… not = SOS SOS SOS?
No rescuer would not recognise …—…—…—… as a call for help. Or at least I hope not. (Yes that translates to SOSOSOSOSOSOSO. But really). How many rescue teams have you been on?
S is three dits, EEE is three dits.
By the same token:
… = I
.- = A
– = M
… = S
So how does …—… …—… …—… not = IAMS IAMS IAMS or VTB VTB VTB or any other the other possible decompositions.
The reason is that in Morse code, inter-letter pauses matter. “SOS” as in the letter “S” followed by the letter “O” followed by the letter “S” is “…<pause for the time of three dits>—<pause for the time of three dits>…” . “VTB” is “…-<pause>-<pause>-…”.
“SOS” as in the distress signal is …—… , with only the one-dit inter-symbol pauses. SOS is a mnemonic to help remember the prosign, but the sign is distinct from the way an ordinary message containing the letters “SOS” would be encoded. (Usually this distinction is made by putting an overbar over the prosign, but that is not available here).
I’m quite certain any rescuer would recognize any kind of rythmic banging as a distress signal. People buried in rubble can not be relied upon to capture the subtle nuances of the encoding, and we can forgive their lapses on account of the dire state in which they find themselves.
If you heard …—… …—… …—… …—… …—… How would you interprete it? Would you not look at the obvious pattern?
I think you are confusing pauses between words and letters here. The one dit pause is between letters and the longer pause is between words. The distress call SOS is transmitted without the one-dit pause between letters, as a single symbol.
There are three canonical gap sizes:
[ul]
[li]Between different elements of the same letter – the same length as one dit.[/li][li]Between different letters – the same length as three dits, or one dah.[/li][li]Between words – the same length as seven dits.[/li][/ul]
So if we use “s” to mean the short gap, “m” to mean the medium gap, and “l” to mean the long gap. The letters “SOS” as part of a word are encoded as:
.s.s.m-s-s-m.s.s.
while the distress signal <SOS> is encoded as:
.s.s.s-s-s-s.s.s.
Ok, I think we mean the same thing, but I made the mistake of thinking of musical notation here and not about the actual, technical length of the pauses. The rhythm of the distress call would be written something like ♪♪♪♩♩♩♪♪♪, without pauses, but of course there is a slight pause between dits or else it would just be one, long tone. Both ways add up the same, with two dits taking up the same space as one dah within a character.
You’re right, my mistake. Thanks for pointing this out.
I would interpret it as “Help, help, help, help, help”. I would not interpret it as the letter S, followed by the letter O, followed by a pair of Ss, followed by another O, and so on.
That’s a bit of a strawman, surely? leahcim said “SOS” doesn’t stand for anything, not “three short and three long”. I take this to mean that “SOS” isn’t an initialism.
As an aside, Morse is used by Radio Amateurs in the one of the available frequency allocations in the VHF c144Mhz, 2 metres for EME, Earth Moon Earth.
EME involves bouncing an RF signal off the moon and back to Earth. Signal loss is in the order of 250 - 300 dB.
Even with, my memory about this is more than 30 years old!, a transmitter o/p of 400w and a max aeriel gain of 26dB thats still a lot of loss, hence the use of specific frequency allocations and of morse.
Haven’t seen it done for years but it’s still a fascinating endeavor.
Peter
I have been fascinated with Morse Code since I was a kid. I am also a Ham Radio operator who uses CW exclusively.
For the past 3 years my endeavor has been to see just how “fluent” I could become in Morse Code. Call me a geek, obsessed, or whatever, but I have a key and oscillator in each car. I wouldn’t call it distracted driving because I practice sending everything I see…street signs, license plate numbers, descriptions of cars, etc. If anything, I am more focused on my driving than without the key.
I’m really pressing myself to reach a head-copy speed of 35-40 words-per-minute, or more. I listen to audio CD’s of classic novels in Morse Code (yes, they are available and most are free online). Just writing this makes me sound crazy, but so be it. It’s good for my brain and I am improving!
Morse Code is an interesting language, and when you begin to hear it in words, phrases, and sentences, it becomes addictive! Faster copy is becoming easier than slower copy. Too slow and I forget the beginning of the sentence.
So, “Cheers” to Morse Code! It is alive and well, at least in my life!