The keyboard session allows actual text to be prepared and sent for practice.
It is possible to edit, save and reload text to and from diskette or hard
disk. The function keys F2 thru F9 select program options.
F2 will toggle the keyboard between EDIT and SEND states. In SEND state the
text on the screen will be sent in Morse code. Once the last character is
sent (marked by the small square character at the end of the text),
transmission ends. At any time during transmission of the code, pressing F2
causes sending to be suspended, and the EDIT state entered. If the Prosigns
option (in the Options menu) is "On", whenever the program enters the Edit
state it sends the Prosign AS (wait) to show suspension of code transmission.
The cursor position displayed is the next letter to be sent. Pressing F2
again returns to the SEND state and causes code transmission to resume where
it left off.
As a memory aid for the operator, line 23 is used to display the keys to send
the Morse Prosigns. For example " AR * " means that the Prosign AR is sent
using the "*" key on the keyboard.
The program MUST be in the EDIT state to use the F3 thru F9 program options.
NOTE - the default mode is EDIT mode; you can only enter SEND mode by
pressing F2 when in EDIT mode.
F3 allows the average speed of transmission to be set in words in minute.
F4 allows the character speed of code transmitted to be set in words per
minute. If the speed selected is faster (it can't be slower) than the
average code speed, delays are inserted between characters to cause the
effective transmission speed to be equal to the average speed selected by F3.
At the end of the message, the elapsed time is displayed on line 22 along
with an equivalent characters count (numerics, punctuation, and prosigns
count as two characters). This information is used to compute and display
the effective sending speed, i.e. WPM=10*(Count)/(Seconds).
F5 clears the screen to allow the start of input of new text.
F6 allows the loading of previously saved text. Pushing the key displays a
complete list of all saved files, and provides a prompt at the top of the
screen requesting the name of the file to be loaded. If the file is
available, the screen is cleared and the stored text displayed.
F7 allows the saving of screen text for later recall. If overwriting of a
previously saved file is requested, the operator is given the opportunity to
confirm that overwriting is desired.
F8 allows files to be deleted from the directory. The DOS file name
wildcards * and ? can be used to delete groups of files. Deleting a .KB file
will automatically cause the corresponding .TST and .KEY files to be deleted.
F9 displays character statistics and estimated time for the text displayed.
If you wish to add your own ASCII files, just copy them to the your MA
diskette in the same sub-directory with the other .KB files, making sure that
each file has an extension of ".KB". Morse Academy will automatically add
them to its directory at the start of execution.
In EDIT state the following editing keys are active:
The ENTER key inserts an end of line symbol (small triangle) at the cursor
position and erases the remainder of the line.
The INSERT key toggles the keyboard mode between INS (insert) and OVR
(overlay) states. The state is displayed on the right of line 24 of the
screen. In OVR state input from the keyboard replaces text on the screen. In
INS mode it is inserted into the text and the screen text scrolled to the
right to allow space for the inserted character.
It is possible to embed in the text, information about the average speed of
code to be sent and the character speed to be used during the transmission.
This is done by preceding the text with a string of the form "<w,c,f>", where
w is the average sending speed, c is the Farnsworth character speed. For
example "<5,18,850>" causes the text to be sent at 5 WPM, with a character
speed of 18 WPM, and at a tone frequency of 850 Hz. (either a colon ":" or
comma "," can be used as a delimiter).
ESC ends the keyboard session and returns to the main menu.
Figure 7. Keyboard Program Menu
UP - cursor up one line DOWN - cursor down one line
PAGE UP - cursor to previous line PAGE DN - cursor to next line
LEFT - cursor left one character RIGHT - cursor right one character
HOME - cursor to home position END - cursor to end of text
By Joe Speroni
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