For those of us who are interested in morse code, there was an interesting article by Bill, NN9U in the Jan. 2009 QST page 55. Among other things mentioned, there is a chart showing the number of 'units' it takes to generate a character. A 'dit' is one unit, a 'dah' is 3 units and so forth. So you can find how many units it takes to generate a call sign by adding up the units for the dits, dahs, and the spaces needed. The word 'PARIS' is the 'W' in WPM. Since PARIS takes 50 units, you repeat it 5 times a minute for a speed of 5 WPM for a total of 250 units. So a unit takes 60 sec/250 or 0.24 sec. at 5 WPM. Using this information I wrote a BASIC program to show the time it takes to send a call sign using 3 different speeds. I have included the two extreme examples from the QST article. You may notice that the author has four units less than I show. That is because he follows the last letter in the call sign with a character space(3units), which is correct if the call sign is followed by a forward slash to modify it. In most cases the call sign is followed by a word space(7 units) so my program adds the additional four units to the count. Call signs are listed in order of length. Call sign N5EE has 4 characters and takes 32 units At 5 wpm it takes 7.60 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 2.56 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 1.28 seconds to send Call sign NN9U has 4 characters and takes 50 units At 5 wpm it takes 12 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 4 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 2 seconds to send Call sign N2DET has 5 characters and takes 50 units At 5 wpm it takes 12 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 4 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 2 seconds to send Call sign N2FTR has 5 characters and takes 58 units At 5 wpm it takes 13.92 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 4.64 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 2.32 seconds to send Call sign N2SKP has 5 characters and takes 64 units At 5 wpm it takes 15.36 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 5.12 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 2.56 seconds to send Call sign W2BOS has 5 characters and takes 68 units At 5 wpm it takes 16.32 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 5.44 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 2.72 seconds to send Call sign N2YYI has 5 characters and takes 68 units At 5 wpm it takes 16.32 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 5.44 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 2.72 seconds to send Call sign KC2NTV has 6 characters and takes 74 units At 5 wpm it takes 17.76 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 5.92 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 2.96 seconds to send Call sign WB2UWU has 6 characters and takes 78 units At 5 wpm it takes 18.72 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 6.24 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 3.12 seconds to send Call sign WA2WMJ has 6 characters and takes 80 units At 5 wpm it takes 19.2 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 6.4 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 3.2 seconds to send Call sign KC2LIX has 6 characters and takes 80 units At 5 wpm it takes 19.2 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 6.4 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 3.2 seconds to send Call sign KJ0QYJ has 6 characters and takes 102 units At 5 wpm it takes 24.48 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 8.16 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 4.08 seconds to send Call sign WB2UWU/W4 has 9 characters and takes 120 units At 5 wpm it takes 28.8 seconds to send At 15 wpm it takes 9.6 seconds to send At 30 wpm it takes 4.8 seconds to send Finn, WB2UWU