Signalman will undoubtedly have considerable appeal to those outdoor types, scots and boys brigaders, who are also ZX81 owners. It enables the user to learn, and practice, semaphore, blinker-lights and Morse-code.

To start, you first select the system you wish to use from a menu. There are two Morse options, radio, wig-wag flag (in this semaphore-type system, the dots and dashes of Morse-code are represented by the positions of the arm). There is then a further menu, from which you select up to five alternative ways to use the program.

You can run through the alphabet in your chosen system; see any letter (or number) on demand; get the computer to select letters at random; or test your knowledge by the use of a quiz. In addition, there are 50 short messages included in the prgram to enable the user to practice receiving signals, examples are "Welcome aboard my yacht - it is your turn to row" and "The beachmaster wants bikini suits off now". The messages can be altered by the user if necessary.

Each signalling method is displayed in the appropriate manner. In semaphore and wig-wag flag, an arm-waving figure is shown in blinker-lights. The screen shows a ship with a flashing light. In Morse, in addition to an on-screen display of dots and dashes, the signals are supposed; this feature did not work at all well on my set.

Signalman is a competent and well-written program. The scout with this on his ZX81 is likely to be at a considerable adventage over his fellows, in sending and receiving coded signals. I would have liked the option to slow down the message transmission speed, as it is rather fast for the absolute beginner.