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Morse Code Migrating To The Net
Rosco P. Coltrane writes "With Morse code slowly disappearing off the air, there seems to be a growing number of people who carry out conversations in Morse over the internet. Several Windows and Linux clients using VoIP or special protocols, such as EchoLink, EchoLinux, MorseMail, CW Communicator or CWirc exist for Morse lovers worldwide to pound brass and make contact with one another. Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key ?"
Morseall is a morse code input server for Linux using the mouse buttons. Morse is being used to help the disabled use computers . A great way to learn morse code is to work on the computer using morse code instead of the keyboard for a few hours.
I like to build things and wire stuff together.
Dear Mr Morse
Unfortunately your patent application for a serial binary code device (RFC 1) has not been accepted, as a company called SCO claim prior art.
Humorous signatures are over-rated.
Ryan T. Sammartino
"Ancora imparo"
As a diehard fan, it's always made a lot more sense to just plug in the radio if I'm going to do comms in morse. It's a lot more gratifying, and believe it or not, a lot more entertaining than over the net. With a radio, you don't have to pay for air time, nor do you have to set up complicated clients.
Many a night has been spent in front of a glowing dim console, applying a feather touch to an old worn dial to a hear a faint signal, a single voice coming from a hemisphere away. Sure, the internet is a guaranteed easy, clean connection. That's a given.... but it's just not the same.
*sigh*
73, VA3CSG
Urban Detail
The next big thing: horse hitch accessories on the front of cars!
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
mmm... yeah... You see, we're putting the cover sheets on all TPS reports now before they go out...
Could the next must-have computer input device be a morse key?
Something wrong with any randomly selected key on the keyboard?
Of course, the real danger is that net.poseurs will use ASCII-to-Morse translators with programmable semi-random delays to simulate mad Morse skillz.
Hey, I hear cuneiform is dying out. Will the next must-have computer input device be a slab of wet mud?
Proud member of the Weirdo-American community.
Wouldn't a morse key describe the Apple's mouse?
Entering morse code sounds like it would be worse than trying to type on my cellphone.
I guess that's why it's not my hobby.
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
I happen to know morse code but I rarely find a use for it anymore.
... -- ... (SMS in morse). My feature is just one step beyond what the Nokia handset already provides! ;-) )
What I would really like to have is an option to my mobile phone that converts incoming SMS messages to morse code, beeping them out! With that feature I would not have to actually pick up the phone to read my SMS messages. Maybe this would be possible to program on the newer Java-enabled phones?
(The standard "ring tone" on my Nokia for a SMS message is
)9TSS
VRML smoke signals
Did anyone know that slashdot has a filter to prevent me from posting in morse code??!?! The irony is striking.
But, its like towing your car with a horse.
Not really-
With todays advanced micro electronics it's possible to create a matrix of keys each one programmed to output the morse equivalent of an alpha-numeric character. This way the sender only has to press one key one time to send a character... In fact the system could be set up so that the receiving computer automatically decodes the morse and displays it on the screen as plain text.
See, morse is for Everybody!
PS I wouldn't bother patenting that though.
Quite so. As an old guy, I learned Morse long ago, and use it to this day, but only on the radio. It is fun to be able to send and receive it (in my head - I do not bother writing it down) as fast as I can type, or even faster. I can listen in and follow along with the conversation, without having to take my eyes off of my work.
On the other hand, the most efficient communication I have ever been involved in involved using a sound board on my PC, hooking it up to the audio in/out of the radio transceiver, and using the computer to generate PSK31 encoded signals.
Hansi Reiser has written linux software for doing this: http://www.qsl.net/dl9rdz/#psk
73,
W4TI
Soli Deo Gloria
Yeah Randy had his compute blink his NUMLOCK light in morse code to defeat van eck phreaking. He would have fake shit on the screen and the real info coming out of the blinking light. Cool scene in the book, and a nice look at how to deal with known active attempts at getting at your data, and defeating it right under someones nose. Neat!
Dotdadotdotdot...etcetc
E-N-L-A-R-G-E
Y-O-U-R
P-E-hey!!!
You know somebody's gonna try it...
I was suprised at all the negative comments this story has received. I guess it's easy for most people to forget where they come from.
Morse code, in my opinion, is an invaluable tool in opening the doors to the young in such fileds as electrical engineering, physics, computers and radio communications.
There is no way most parents could/would shell out 500 dollars and upwards for even a used HF rig for their kid to get started in their "hobby".
But I bet you that same kid would never foget his first QSO with his home built, 200mw, 9 volt battery operated rig and a wire antenna. Especially if he's chatting it up with another ham 2 states away. These kist are available for as little as 20 bucks online, minus the cost of the soldering iron.
As for the art of morse code "dying", the poster has no idea that there are hundreds of contests that take place yearly on a international level.
I guess it's easier for parents to sit their kids in front of a tv/interet enabled computer than to sit with them and help them learn their first morse charachters.
A high-speed key, with weights on the back to allow the thing to send a string of dots or dashes just by holding the paddle one way or the other. Once you could send code using a key, using a bug was easily learned, and was necessary for speeds approaching 20 words per minute. The advantage of using code over voice was simplicity, no modulator needed, just break entire carrier on and off to send your message over short wave to the receiver, who then hetrodyned your signal locally in the receiver circuitry using an adjustable knob to produce an audible note. I was K5HLW in the 1950's, and used this form of communication in the 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands for a few years.
At the time, we had no idea that PC's such as we use today would be invented, even though we were the techies of the day. Could this happen again? Sure. Give it a few years, and everyone will be using something now unimagined.
I think you guess right, at least for some. Morse code is one of those things that you kind of have to do to understand. If you haven't held a QSO (conversation) in morse and developed the skills then there is no way to fully appreciate the art.
You are correct that it doesn't have any practical use, especially on the net. Then again there isn't any real use for the Mona Lisa, Dixie Chicks CD's, or internet pr0n. There doesn't have to be a use for something to be done, used, enjoyed, whatever.
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
dash dot
dash dash dash.
Just raise the taxes on crack.