Skip to main content

Morse Code - Another 173 Years?

Posted
Stop the presses - we have arrived! On page 41 of the August issue of Wired magazine:
Wired: Morse code
Tired: texting
Expired: shorthand
(Thanks, Steve, KI0KY)

-- From the Contester's Rate Sheet (ARRL) of 10 August 2005, edited by Ward Silver N0AX.

A quick googling (wired morse code) took me to the premonitive wired/tired title from larry borsato. He's referencing a Times Online article telling of an Australian nonagenerian and his buddy using the code to whip some cell toting whippersnappers in a communications contest.

A similar competition was ably staged later on Leno.

The morse rally is building. Hurrah!

Hams speak an esoteric language, a mix of radio slang and callsigns, and they like to talk about the enduring virtues of Morse code

That's Mark Baard, 3 months before page 41 above, writing in Wired itself. The quote's actually from the second page.

Samuel F.B. Morse's code dates to 1832.

I've known Morse code since 1972. My Quite Happy Grandfather taught me. I've used it often since summer '73.

I love its rhythm, cw dx, and the mystery message within another sender's signals.

The FCC plans to eliminate Morse code as a requirement for all amateur radio license classes. A sad decision, but the code will stick around regardless. Till 2178? Sure. And beyond.

The ARRL, which advocates retaining a test for extra class licenses only, reported the FCC's notice of proposed rule making.

Keep testing on the books, I say. No time to say exactly why right now, though.

cul

dah-dah-di-di-dit
di-di-di-dah-dah

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Elusive Subja Seed

Posted
Why am I so captivated by the idea of drinking tasteless, slippery, crunchy-kerneled seeds? Because subja seeds sound like fun. I first learned of them by browsing The Indian Spice Kitchen , where Monisha Bharadwaj describes them, but Osimum basilicum seeds seem impossible to find. I made a special trip to Seattle's Uwajimaya to track them down, but came up empty. I stopped at Market Spice at Pike Street, where they hadn't heard of them (but they suggested another shop down the street). I went into Souk, where the gentleman understood what I was looking for only after I described it; he knew the seeds by a different name, which he couldn't remember, and said his sister gets them at a shop (the name not in his memory) on Roosevelt Avenue. But I was out of time in the city and couldn't follow up. (But before I took more than a few steps out Souk's door, the proprietor called me back in, because he had asked his arriving friend what those seeds were called. Tukmaria, ...
7 comments
Read more

1AQD / NU1AQD / W1AQD QSL Collection

Posted
My great uncle Louis C. Brown, "Brownie" in Maine, was active in amateur radio between 1927 and 1936. I have 250+ of his QSLs from United States stations and additional cards from DX hams. I will gladly provide digital images of individual QSLs for relatives or others who wish to have them for their research or records. Calls are listed by call area then suffix W1ABG (2), W1ACR, NU1AHY, W1AIC, W1ALO (3), W1AMG, W1AMQ, 1AOF, W1AOT, W1APR, 1AQL, W1AQW, W1ART, W1ARW, 1AUR, W1AUR, 1AVJ, NU1BBM, W1BEF, W1BEO, W1BEU, W1BFT, W1BFZ, W1BIG, W1BIR, NU1BJC, W1BNG, 1BNL, W1BOK, W1CE, W1CIB, W1CPF, W1CQL, W1CQR, W1CTF, W1IVZ, W1KL, W1LQ, W1NS, W1QH (2), W1UR, 1VE, W1VM, W1VS, W1WV, NQ2AC, W2ACD, U2AET, W2AGI, W2AHU, W2AVO, 2AVP, W2BAK, W2BDX, NU2BHB, W2BVT, W2BXA, 2PO, NU2RK, 2WI, W3ADX, NU3AEL, NU3AEL, W3AER, W3AIA, W3AWS, 3ARC, NU3ASC, NU3BNS, W3EZR, NU3QE, NU3TR, 3AWQ, NU4ACC, NU4ADL, W4AFM, NU4AFP, 4AGE, W4AII, W4AJL, NU4CS, W4CWH, 4DS, W4HC, 4HH, W4KA, W4LY, W4MF, W4NE, W4TN, W4...
9 comments
Read more

Realistic HTX-100

Posted
The 30th Annual Conference of the Central States VHF Society was held July 26-28, 1996 at the Thunderbird Hotel & Convention Center in Bloomington, Minnesota. Among the papers presented was Make Your HTX-100 a Flexible IF Transceiver by Rus Healy, NJ2L (now K2UA).
3 comments
Read more