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CW Simon: A Morse Code Game

CW Simon: Simon, but for Morse Code

Remember Simon from the ’90s? The handheld game with four buttons that played a sequence you had to copy back from memory? Each round added one more step, and you kept going until you finally made a mistake.

KO6BTY built a phone game, Project TouCans CW Simon, using Gas Town that does the same thing, but for Morse code.

Part of the inspiration for CW Simon was W1REX telling KO6BTY and I that he’d worked on Simon 2. You can hear more about that on Rex’s episode on HRWB.

Why CW Simon Exists

KO6BTY found that keying CW was helping her learn Morse more quickly, but she and I didn't always have enough time to get on the air together. CW Simon grew out of that. It is a quick way to get more sending practice in, one short round at a time.

CW Simon gives you a way to spend more time sending, not just listening. Long Island CW Club points out: “At least a quarter of practice should be sending.”

How CW Simon Works

The interface is simple. Pads “1” and “3” act as the dit and dah paddles for an iambic keyer. CW Simon plays a random letter or number, and you key the same character back using the paddles. The sequence builds just like Simon.

Mobile screenshot of CW Simon showing an on-screen iambic Morse keyer and controls for a Simon-style CW practice game.
CW Simon mobile interface with on-screen iambic paddles.

I’ve made it to seven rounds at 20 WPM so far. Give it a try and see how far you can get. I'm also curious what people think of the iambic phone keyer itself.

Haptic Mode

This is another feature I really like. If you want to practice quietly, or if headphone sidetone delay is making clean sending annoying, you can play CW Simon in full haptic mode. The game can send characters to you through vibration, your sidetone as you key is haptic aw well. Give it a try. When you turn the volume on your phone to zero, you're in CW stealth mode. I kind of love it.



Watch CW Simon in Action

Try CW Simon, put some time into sending, and let me know how far you get.

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