What Morse Code Taught Me About Music Recording

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This topic may seem like a stretch in a podcast about music
recording, but using Morse code on Amateur Radio taught me quite
a bit about hearing acuity. And my experience building devices
for my hobby taught me a lot about electronics, circuit design,
and construction.


From my first exposure to Morse code from interference from a RCA
Coastal Marine station in New Jersey as a kid, to learning the
code and using it for over 50 years, the code has been part of my
life. Although I do not have much time to use it these days, it
is a skill I try to utilize when I can.


I also taught myself the original Morse code, as developed by
Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail in the 1830s, which is quite
different from the modern code.


This episode has actual code segments to illustrate my points,
including a recreation of the cacophonous jumble of code signals
I had to deal with before I could afford more advanced equipment.


Interacting with people from all over the country and all over
the world via Morse code also taught me things about
communicating with different cultures and backgrounds.


Special thanks to Ian Alexander, voiceover artist, former radio
broadcaster, and second engineer on most of the recording
projects I have done over the past 35 years.


As an illustration of one of the points I make in this podcast, I
purposely recorded this episode without any written material or
notes. Previous episodes have been either completely scripted
(usually based on something I had written for another outlet), or
at least outlined. Each approach has its advantages and
disadvantages, but I think for most episodes I will stick with
scripting them in detail.


As you might imagine, this episode has a lot of edits, some of
which are not as smooth as I would like.


Technical details: I used an AEA KU4 directional ribbon
microphone for this episode, instead of the usual AEA R44 I have
used on most of the previous shows. The KU4 goes into a D.W.
Fearn VT-2 Vacuum Tube Microphone Preamplifier, a Merging
Technologies Hapi converter, and was recorded in Pyramix. A D.W.
Fearn VT-7 Compressor was used on the mix buss, but there is no
equalization at all.


email: dwfearn@dwfearn.com
www.youtube.com/c/DWFearn
https://dwfearn.com/