this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2025
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[–] Arrkk@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Always been a bit annoyed that people describe Morse as a binary code, it isn't, it's technically trinary, you have 3 symbols, dot, dash, and space. Without a space you can't discern the difference between "hi" and "eeeeee".

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I dunno that’s kind of like saying computer binary is trinary because there is a distinct separation of the bits

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

But there's not a distinct separation of the bits

[–] jerkface@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

There is more than one width of space as well. And indeed, there are sometimes tones longer than a dash used as control codes.

But it's a binary signal. It's either on or off. All the symbols are described using a binary signal. There is a regular clock that divides the signal and each interval of the signal is read as on or off. A dah is three dits wide, most spaces are one or three dits wide, etc.

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[–] j4k3@piefed.world 2 points 1 day ago

It is about like the difference between SPI and I2C serial communications.

I struggled with that one for a little while. My intuition of serial is more like SPI where there is a dedicated clock structure from a clock source that is separate from the data transmission. Or like with UART serial where the clock baud rate must be known or set in advance to establish communications.

However, with I2C serial it is only a 2 wire data interface, and the clock is built into the data. That is the main serial communications method used for most analog-world type sensors, like temperature, pressure, real time clocks chips, and many slow types of EEPROM persistent memory. SPI is used for small simple displays in embedded devices, and stuff like the flash memory chip that stores your bootloader on your computer. UART is most often the remote serial terminal access on stuff like your computer and router, though all of these com peripherals have exceptions in use cases.

The way I2C works is that the data line is always held in a high state with a weak pull up resistor. The devices attached to this data line use NPN transistors to pull the line low. Then the protocol establishes who gets to talk and when and how.

I appreciate the Archer reference

[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (3 children)

For something so commonly used, it's got some pretty glaring flaws. Most critically, 'golf' and 'mike' - single syllable, which over radio comms often doesn't sound like shit. Compare to something like 'oscar', which even if either half of it gets all staticky you still hear "osc--" or "--car" which is enough to still receive an accurate exchange of info.

My more whiny complaints are that the number of syllables are inconsistent, F and X use compound words instead of one single complete word which feels... icky... x gets a pass cuz x is always janky and x-ray is perfect. Some of the entries rhyme with commonly used words that could confuse someone who's either inexperienced or in a stressful situation like being shot at. For example, "echo" could be misheard as "gecko" and even though "gecko" isn't on the list, our brains do stupid shit when they're saturated with adrenaline, so something like this should be as absolutely idiot-proof as possible.

If I could magic that fucker into something new, I'd shoot for:

  • every entry is exactly three syllables.

  • no two of the same syllables in any entry can rhyme with those two syllables of another entry. I.E., "Uniform" and "Chloroform" are not compatible because syllables 2 and 3 are too similar.

  • Each entry should be as common a word as possible, in as low/unspecialized a reading level as possible. I.E., "November" is recognizable by nearly everyone; vs something like "Ganglia" which is gibberish to anyone without specialty knowledge requiring them to be familiar with ganglia.

  • No compound or multiple word entries.

  • X gets a pass cuz x is always janky and x-ray is perfect.

  • Prototype phonetic alphabet must be first scrutinized by a panel consisting of a linguist, a speech pathologist, an English teacher, a 7 year old, a highschooler, a geriatric with severe hearing loss, and a junior enlisted US Marine. Their job is to find any potential for confusion.

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Having a 7 year old and a junior enlisted US Marine seems redundant

[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I mean... someone has to supervise the Marine...

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's fair. I've got enough marines in the family to know what happens when they're left alone and get bored. Always best to have a more mature playmate with them.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I've got enough marines in the family to know what happens when they're left alone and get bored.

The good crayons always go missing and there’s waxy buildup around their mouth.

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Oh you're so lucky their mouth is the only place your marines have stuck the crayons...

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[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But with your new rules, x can be xylophone so you don’t need the special case rule for x anymore.

Ooh, good call!

[–] 667@lemmy.radio 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In Amateur Radio, if our first calls are not received correctly, most experienced operators will switch up and use alternates for troublesome phonetics. America for Alpha, Germany for Golf, Kilowatt for Kilo. Some folks even use amusing ones. I once heard an American station using “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for their callsign ending in KFC.

I once heard an American station using “Kentucky Fried Chicken” for their callsign ending in KFC.

i mean that one is perfect

[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

one of my last jobs needed me to use this for reading inventory locations to a crane operator over a phone. he always seemed slightly bemused that I didn't know the phonetic alphabet and had to make up my own phonetics for him

[–] 4am@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tiajuana-Gringo-Water-Fiver-Zero

[–] sad_detective_man@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 day ago

exactly. I KNOW that dude was clowning me as soon as I hung up the phone 😂

[–] tiramichu@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago

I can imagine the laughs at all the words you might have come up with. "It's at uhh..... Narwhal Sellotape Banana!"

A reminder though, to anyone who needs it - don't be condescending to others for not knowing things. Everything we know, we had to learn.

For me, I learnt the phonetic alphabet after getting frustrated one too many times trying to give my postal code and car reg on a bad phone line.

[–] RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

For years I thought U was unicorn.

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

It can be! As long as they hear the U and know what you mean, who cares.

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[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Pretty cool about the peace symbol

[–] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago

Papa and Mike

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As a Swedish IT technician, I use two phonetic alphabets.

The Swedish phonetic alphabet was created in the 1890s and first published in 1902, in the 1960s a few entries were changed to reduce the risk of confusion.

A - Adam
B - Bertil
C - Cesar
D - David
E - Erik
F - Filip
G - Gustav
H - Helge
I - Ivar
J - Johan
K - Kalle
L - Ludvig
M - Martin
N - Niklas
O - Olle (air traffic communications), Olof (military use)
P - Petter
Q - Qvintus
R - Rudolf
S - Sigurd
T - Tore
U - Urban
V - Viktor
W - Wilhelm
X - Xerxes
Y - Yngve
Z - Zäta
Å - Åke
Ä - Ärlig
Ö - Östen

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[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

it seems hard unless you use it a lot and then it's second nature. I've had to actually stop myself from using it in places like for a drive-thru pickup code, as that never goes well.

[–] harsh3466@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was using this to read put a gift card code to make a purchase over the phone with apple (don't ask why, it was a shit show), and when I gave Sierra, the person thought it was C as in Ciara. Had to repeat the whole thing over again.

[–] scott@lem.free.as 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Sierra's even the name of one of their OS versions.

"Ciara". smh

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[–] lol_idk@piefed.social 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Doubly clever! For those that don't know, that's the code cops use. :)

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