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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."
I was going to 'First Post!' in morse but the lameness filter won't let me. Dang now I'll just get modded to hell and back.
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...
Morse will truly have arrived in the 20th century when you can :) ;) and :)~
-G
It's not my fault! It was this way when I got here.
According to the article:
:)
The new sign, which will be known as a "commat," consists of the signals for "A" (dot-dash) and "C" (dash-dot-dash-dot), with no space between them.
This means that the @ is: dit-da-da-dit-da-dit so I don't mind the spammers listning for da-dit-da-dit-da-dit
Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
. . .get email through Morse code!
It'll probably end up as an emacs mode.
KFG
Well, given how illiterate today's generations of texters and emailers are becoming we can presumably look forward to ship bound soses such as ...
'OMG! U sUnK mY BatT13sH1p U Camp1ng fAg! Plz snd he1p! GG'
Wouldn't spelling as a-t it out be shorter/faster?
at = dit dah, dah
@ = dit dah dah dit dah dit
Or does an inter-symbol pause really take as along as 3 symbols?
> It'll probably end up as an emacs mode.
Try "M-x morse" on a region (in GNU Emacs 21.3, at least)
Just picture the scene, its the middle of a major terrorist attack, the control centres can only communicate via morse code, and suddenly...
Reading from piece of paper "Get The Cheapest Viagra now!"Oh dear, spam hit an all time low.
Of course. That'll learn me to try to make an emacs joke.
KFG
Odd thing, I could only understand this by di-dahing quietly under my breath.
When I was first learning code (mid 1970's) I had an ARRL practice tape. It introduced a few letters, had some practice, introduced some more letters etc.
My father had been a US Navy communications officer in WWII, but left radio behind at the end of the war. He went straight thru the tape making extremly minimal errors. He was doing better after 30 years of not practicing than I was doing after hours of practicing.
Some people are impressed by their parents.
DE WD4OMI
Morse codes can be quite useful, even today.
There is a Linux kernel patch floating around (IIRC it was in -ac, don't know about mainstream) that adds the output of kernel panics via keyboard LEDs. Nice for early oopses.
...before the server gets dash-dotted?
There are a number of morse code symbols that don't correspond to graphical letters, digits or interpunctuation; you may say that they are similar to ASCII control characters in denoting things such as "end of message".
Problem is, when you listen to and take down morse code by hand, you need an easy way to indicate those control symbols too. When I had some morse training in the 1970's (voluntary after-school classes), we used "+" to indicate "end of message" (.-.-.) and (surprise) "@" for "end of contact" (...-.-)...
I don't know whether "@" was in common use for that purpose or if it was just my teacher's idea. To me, @ thus meant "end of communication, time to do something else" long before I learned about spam!
I have to ask: with so many thousands of glyphs in Chinese, what did they do to utilize telegraph lines when that was the only means for fast long distance communication?
I'm assuming they didn't create a different sequence for each one....
"Provided by the management for your protection."
The first thing I thought of was that they were going to start sending XML down the line.
Imagine that horror:
<message sender="Titanic">
<word>
<char>dot</char>
<char>dot</char>
<char>dot</char>
<char>space</char>
<char>dash</char>
<char>dash</char>
<char>dash</char>
<char>space</char>
<char>dot</char>
<char>dot</char>
<char>dot</char>
</word>
</message>
Thanks,
--
Matt
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.
Since email was one of the first things used on the internet, why would adding the @ symbol bring Morse Code into the 21st century? Wouldn't it just bring it later into the mid 20th century?
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
The number 1 problem of working in a cubicle - 23 power cords, 1 outlet...