Re: maximum 'tatum' speed perception (at)

Subject: Re: maximum 'tatum' speed perception
From:    at <mercuriGRADIENT.CIS.UPENN.EDU>
Date:    Sun, 7 Apr 2002 23:01:17 -0400

As an amateur radio operator, it comes to mind that there are
likely a number of military studies on speed of CW ("Morse Code")
deciphering. Just as a rough guestimate, I happen to know a
number of Extra Class Hams who can receive in the 50 wpm range.
Given that a word might average say 5 characters in length, and
a character averages 3-4 bits (dits or dahs), that would yield
about 750-1000 bpm -- interestingly very similar to the 800 bpm
the drummer noted he could hear. All hams find that they have to
develop the ability to hear words "as words" and not as letters,
in order to pass the 20 wpm test (there's a mental hurdle at
10 wpm too, where letters have to be heard "as letters" instead
of dits and dahs). That would be very similar to hearing patterns
and phrases in music.

I though you folks might be interested in my "back of the envelope"
calculations, but I suspect there might be real data about this
somewhere (though it may still be classified, who knows).

Dr. Rebecca Mercuri
KA3IAX (General Class).