Morse Code Faster Than SMS

mentalflossboy writes "Engadget is reporting that Morse Code is actually faster than text messaging. According to the article, 93 year old Gordon Hill transmitted a message faster than 13 year old Brittany Devlin, despite Devlin's 'liberal use of texting slang.' And the fabulous quote they were they sending: 'Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing.'"

Comments

Re:I think the US Navy stopped training

[Kaimelar]

But is Morse proficiency still required for amatuer radio licensing?

For the Technician class license (the lowest one), no. For others (Technician Plus, General, Extra) there are still Morse code tests. Test requirements start at 5 WPM, if memory serves.

More info at http://www.arrl.org/

Damn, now you've got me wanting to order some study materials and upgrade my license, which I've been meaning to do for years . . . plus I could finally use the "use the keyboard LEDs to show data in Morse code" trick.

Re:Newsflash!

[Unknown Lamer]

Bullshit. I pay $10 a month for unlimited SMS. And I live in the US.

You can get 1000 for $7 from T-Mobile, $9 from Cingular. Verizon charges something like $20 a month for that (disclaimer: it's been a year since I had Verizon so they may have changed the prices now). You really only get screwed on SMS/data if you use Verizon.

And overage is usually $.05 per message ($.10 for Cingular, but incoming is free...so it balances out). That's way less than the $.40 per minute I pay for voice overage. For the same price, I could send eight text messages. You can say a lot in 1280 characters.