Morse Code Ringtones on Cellular Phones

I always chuckle when some teeny-bopper's mobile phone sends the letters SMS in Morse when a text message arrives (though I'd bet the significance is lost on just about all of them). This got me to wondering how I can customize the ringer on my own mobile to send Morse Code ringtones for more than just SMS. I have a relatively-new LG mobile that allows customized polyphonic ringtones for either every call in general or specific to each number that caller-ID matches to a number in my phonebook.

After a little homework I found the easiest way to do this requires a data connection from my PC to the phone and three pieces of software. First was the Susteen Data Pilot software that came bundled with the phone's USB cable; this allows the phone to communicate with the PC. This is the medium through which everything is loaded, but you don't actually DO anything with it.

Next, I needed to generate sound files of the various Morse words or phrases that I wanted. I used a freeware program called WinMorse 2 to generate these WAV files, which I then converted to MP3 format (you can use any standard audio conversion program readily available on the web).

Finally, I uploaded the MP3 files to the phone using BitPim version 0.7.23 (use whichever version is the most recent), another free piece of software which happens to communicate with my phone. You need to ensure compatibility between your phone and this software, or else use software specific to your phone.

Once this was accomplished, I went into the phone's menu and associated these new Morse tones with individual numbers and a general "CQ CQ DE W2IRT" for any unknown or unmatched number. All of these were recorded at a nice 25 wpm speed at 800 Hz and are loud enough to be annoying--er--be heard in noisy environments (yeah, that's it). It's also unique enough that when it goes off a dozen people won't all be reaching for their own phones at the same time.

I don't know if there's a way to do this with Midi files or for phones that don't have so-called polyphonic ringers, but I'm sure it's possible (though maybe a little harder to do). Give it a try and see if you can spot another ham in the room!

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