Moonlit Morse

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help out if you’re short on helpers.

Setting up the activity

• Look through the ‘Torchlight Morse code’ sheet, so you understand the idea and can answer any questions the group may have.

Learn Morse code

1. Separate everyone into small groups. If you can, it may be helpful to have an adult to help each group.
2. Everyone should get a copy of the ‘Torchlight Morse code’ sheet and look at the code. If it’s already really dark, they should use their torches to help them.
3. Explain that:
   1. Dot = flash the light for 1 count
   2. Dash = flash for 3 counts
   3. Pause between parts of a letter = 1 count
   4. Pause between letters = 3 counts
   5. Pause between words = 7 counts
4. You could count out loud to help you measure the units.
5. The adult in each group should show how to use their torch to represent the dashes and dots. They should spell out a simple word, such as their name, as an example.
6. If it’s tricky to turn the torch on and off quickly, you can just cover the lamp using your hand, your necker or a piece of card.
7. Each person should practise flashing their name or a short word using their torch.

Sending Beacon Codes

1. The person leading the activity should explain that in real life aviation, navigation beacons transmit a unique three-letter identifier in Morse code.
2. These beacon signals help pilots check they’re tuned to the correct location during a flight.
3. For example:
   1. LON = a navigation beacon near London
   2. JFK = a beacon near New York’s JFK Airport
   3. MAN = Manchester
   4. CDG = Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris
   5. GLA = Glasgow
   6. DUB = Dublin
4. These three-letter codes are broadcast repeatedly in Morse code, and pilots decode them using their radio or instruments to confirm they’re flying the right route.

Beacon check

1. Assign one code (such as, "LON" or "JFK") to each person or team — this will be their beacon ID.
2. Ask teams to line up facing each other, with enough space to see each other’s torches but not get dazzled.
3. One team will be the "beacon", sending their assigned three-letter Morse code using torches.
4. The other team acts as pilots, watching the torch signals carefully and decoding the letters aloud as they go.
5. When they’ve received and decoded all three letters, the team of “pilots” shouts the full code (such as, “LON!”) to confirm.
6. Switch roles so both teams practise sending and decoding

Navigation challenge (optional)

1. Once everyone’s confident sending and receiving Morse code, add an extra layer with a beacon identification challenge. This maybe better to be done in a larger space to avoid lights being too close together. 
2. Choose one team to be an aircraft, they should turn away or safely step out the room for the moment. 
3. Quietly assign and tell the rest of the teams their beacon code (for example, LON, CDG, JFK).
4. Give the aircraft team a destination beacon code (such as, “Find DUB”).
5. All the beacon teams begin transmitting their three-letter Morse code using torches.
6. The aircraft team must move around, watching and decoding the signals from each beacon team until they identify the correct code.
7. Once they think they’ve found the correct beacon, they must say the code out loud and confirm their decision.
8. If correct, they’ve successfully navigated using Morse — just like a real pilot would using ground-based beacon signals!
9. You can repeat the challenge with a different team acting as the aircraft each time, or even add time limits or multiple aircraft to increase the difficulty.