Morse Code Enters The 21st Century

N8TWJ writes "The International Telecommunications Union has decided to bring Morse Code into the 21st century by adding the loved (or hated?) - at (@) symbol. Lets hope the spammers don't start sniffing 20 meters for da-dit-da-dit-dah-dit..." According to the article, Paul Rinaldo, chief technical officer for the American Radio Relay League, says: "It's a pretty big deal... there certainly hasn't been any change [in Morse Code characters] since before World War II."

Comments

Re:Cool, but not essential

[dysprosia]

Take a look at some examples of the Q code for some TLAs that were commonly used, along with a whole lot of casual abbreviations, for example...

Re:Excellent! Good-bye computer and monitor!

[rjmx]

> It'll probably end up as an emacs mode.

Try "M-x morse" on a region (in GNU Emacs 21.3, at least)

Re:The @ is good but....

[dysprosia]

Oh but you can! ---... -.--.- is :) and -.-.-. -.--.- is ;)

Re:spelling it out is faster?

[lussmu]

No, the inter-symbol pause really doesn't take that much time. It actually takes only marginally longer than the pause between dots/dashes, because once you get to real morse speeds (>100 cpm) you don't really listen to the signs, you listen for the "rhythm". However, what does take long, is the pause between words, that you have to leave to make the letters a and t stand out as a word, especially since they are both so short. So all and all, this will speed things quite a lot.

Re:wrong spelling....

[ivey]

A: dot dash
T: dash
AT: dot dash dash
W: dot dash dash

wouldn't work.

Re:Morse?!

[lussmu]

Morse code is the primary communication method during harsh conditions. From the 12 months I was in the navy, about 4 we practised morse code. The same goes for national emergencies, when cell phone networks and other electrical communications networks would be down.

Even in extremely bad radio wheather, and when all other communications networks are down, morse code is audible behind all the hiss and crackle (with good equipment).

Here in Finland, where extreme distances are a problem (our country is twice as big as England with a population of 6 million) radio amateurs have arranged a peer-to-peer network for emergencies. They have a yearly test of the network. Basically even the authorities have to trust this voluntary network when a bigger chrisis occurs.

Re:Obsolete?

[PiratePTG]

I thought the Morse code was declared obsolete a few years ago.

It was never declared obsolete... It was just eliminated from the ITU rules for maritime radiotelephone operators. For us Hams, knowledge of it was also required for us to use any frequency below 30MHz. Since the ITU has eliminated it from the international treaties, most countries are eliminating it from their amateur radio requirements. The ARRL is also proposing a partial elimination of it for those of us in the US. It will be eliminated for every class of operation other than Extra (if the FCC approves it).

73 de Paul, KC4YDY