
You may not be a classical music fan but you’re probably familiar with the opening bar of his 5th symphony: “dididit dah”. Let that go around in your head a few times. There, now you know the letter V in Morse Code!
Now add the simplest letter of them all, E. It’s just a “dit” in Morse. Hey, now you know VE. Now add a “dah” to Beethoven’s famous V and you’ve got yourself a 3. Now you know VE3 already.
Ah, but what if you have a VA3 callsign? No problem, just add a “dah” to the E and you have yourself an A.

Everyone knows SOS; it’s 3 “dits”, 3 “dahs”, 3 “dits”. So now you’ve learned 6 letters and that’s nearly a quarter of the whole alphabet.
Footnote: Music and Morse Code have one very important thing in common – rhythym! Just ask country music singer Johnny Cash. Ok, you can’t; he is singing with the choir invisible (the poetic version, not the band of the same name). Johnny Cash was not only a talented musician but an outstandingly good radio telegraphy operator during his time in the military.
Thanks Ludwig!
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Funny how you mention Beethoven. Back in the day I worked at Tofino Coast Guard Radio. Callsign VAE. I always tried to emphasize the V with a slightly longer dash. Glad to see others think along similar lines.
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Thanks for the feedback. I used this to try to stimulate some interest in CW in my club. It may have worked; a couple of members have since learned the code. I have never quite made it as far west as Tofino, but I have visited Vancouver Island a couple of times. My wife and I once planned to retire to Qualicum Beach but life changed plans …
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A note on the International Distress Signal, SOS, it is not sent as 3 separate letters, it is sent as one character …—… no spaces. If you ever hear one for real, you never forget.
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Just like a prosign. Interesting to learn that, thanks.
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