You will go to the moon You'll probably be heading there soon Someday flowers will grow there But first you've got to go there Oh, You will go to the moon
You will live in the stars Your backyard will probably be Mars You will ride a crater scooter And eat off your computer Oh you will live in the stars
Your stellar smile will always beam Knowing you're home and home to stay And you'll look down upon the earth And say, "I can't believe we ever lived that way!"
You will go to the moon There's plans for a hotel and a lagoon You'll be savoring a star fruit And kicking off your moonboot Oh you will go to the moon.
Hey, you will go to the moon A paradise to rival Cancun And one side's always sunny You'll be raking in the money Oh you get paid on the moon
It's been our most abiding dream And a dream is an easy sell And when the tourists come in droves You'll be the big cheese on that orbiting rondelle
You will go to the moon Daring pioneers will call the tune Ah someday flowers will grow there But first you got to go there Oh you will go to the moon I'm gonna tell ya, you will go to the moon One more! You will go to the moon!
Thank you for using the name of the act correctly. After all, it has nothing to do with patriotism - they just want us to think it does. USAPATRIOT is an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism". It's a bit ironic because it's done anything but unite and strengthen America, or at least its citizens. I wish everyone would stop calling it the "Patriot Act" and instead refer to it as the "U-S-A-P-A-T-R-I-O-T Act."
Go to qrz.com and take the practice tests. They're fun to do, you probably remember more than you realize, and with some study of current rules & regs you'll be ready to show up at your nearest club's VE session.
if rain travels between the dish itself and the "stalk" pointing at the dish, then your signal will degrade
The "stalk" is called the feed assembly. Old timers like me still call it the "feed horn". In most satellite receive systems, it contains the actual receive antenna (usually a horn-coupled waveguide) and a preamplifier and frequency converter commonly called a "LNB" (low-noise block converter).
Heavy rain affects Ku-band satellite signals by attenuating them as they make their way through the area of rain near the surface. The signal can also be scattered somewhat by the rain but it is not as significant a phenomenon as rain attenuation. Here is a good explanation of rain fade.
I've seen rain fade affect terrestrial microwave links as well. I once lost a 13-GHz link for about 10 minutes when a heavy rain storm moved into the path between the transmitter and receiver. The fade margin on that link was around 30 dB, so the rain cut the signal to less than one-thousandth of what it was. I've also seen C-band rain fade, but this was on a very-small-aperture (1-meter) dish which has just enough gain to get the signal it's supposed to get.
"dish socks" stretchy covers that go over the dish. It keeps rain from passing through the dish and the LNB.
These are actually covers that primarily prevent snow from accumulating in the dish and spoiling the parabola, greatly reducing the antenna gain and consequently the recovered signal strength. Other methods of accomplishing this are a non-stick coating applied to the dish so that the snow slides off, and heating systems, either heat tapes applied to the surface or hot-air systems, which blow heated air into cavities behind the dish panels. The latter is most often used on uplinks, where a change in gain and directivity could mistakenly illuminate other satellites.
I still plan on practicing when I get my HF antenna set up, and when I can afford to get an HF rig I may very well do some CW just for grins.
You should, and you'll have fun doing it. You'll never forget the thrill of pounding out your first CW QSO, with the patient ham at the other end helping you along and working with you to complete it. And then you get the QSL card in the mail with the notation: Mode - CW. You try again, make more contacts, and notice that your speed is getting better (and your wrist is getting tired) and decide it's time to get a paddle and a keyer. Pretty soon you're up to 10 or 12 WPM, then you break thru and realize you can copy 15 or 20 pretty solid. It's then that you realize that you're hooked.
seventy-five meters
Which, for those of you who are not hams, is roughly the equivalent of reading at -1
what's worse is what I anticipate happening when the first batch of codeless Generals hit the air
Unless you look up their license record, how will you know? For the most part, they will be existing Techs who are already used to operating phone on VHF (which I'll admit is procedurally a bit different than HF phone), but like any new ham, they'll pick up the protocol and blend in in short order.
I'm not too worried, because as a mostly CW operator, I know I won't find them down by where I hang out.
The NSA can't find its friggin' Boy Scout's handbook on morse code
That's because Morse Code isn't in the Boy Scout handbook anymore. Hasn't been for years, and neither has there been a Signaling merit badge (also eliminated, along with other "archaic" ones like Beekeeping, Bookbinding and Rabbit Raising). In fact, the Radio merit badge doesn't require Morse either -- it allows the Scout to choose either voice or Morse Code for his required contact in the Amateur Radio track (but no mention of alternative modes like PSK31 or image).
it amazes me that anyone would consider removing the morse requirement.
Remember, they are not removing a ham's ability to use Morse - only the need to demonstrate proficiency in Morse in order to use unrelated modes and frequencies. The benefits you listed are all excellent reasons for using Morse, and for those reasons its use will persist for a long time to come.
Oh, there's one more you forgot:
6) It's just plain FUN!
it seems to me they're just lowering the entry barrier for little benefit
One of the arguments has long been that it is in fact a barrier that was keeping out otherwise technically qualified individuals. That may have been more true back when all classes of license required a code test, and the HF licenses (General, Advanced, Extra) required 13 or 20 wpm proficiency. However, 5wpm is easy enough for anyone to learn so it's really not a barrier any more. The Commission's proposal basically recognizes that and acknowledges the ITU's action to eliminate the Morse proficiency requirement for HF operators worldwide (but leaving it up to individual countries). For a long time we've had the "no-code" Technician license, and it's brought in thousands of new hams who are active in public service and technical advancement.
Is there much point, all in all, in going for the higher level licenses, or should I just stick with the low-band entry level ones?
That all depends on what you plan to do on the air. If you're interested in mostly local communication with other hams in the area on VHF/UHF frequencies, the Technician license will allow you to do that. The local repeaters (and non-repeater simplex channels) are also most commonly used for local emergency communications, since most emergencies are of a local nature (severe weather is the most common). As a Technician you'd have no privileges on frequencies below 50 MHz unless you passed the code test, while it's still in effect, but even then you'd have limited privileges (mostly CW) on a few bands. You could still take part in HF emergency communications as a member of a team that had other operators with higher-class licenses as long as they are the control operators.
The Technician exam isn't difficult. You can learn all you need to know to pass the exam from books and other learning aids, or by taking classes from a local club. You can even take practice tests online using the actual FCC question pool.
The General Class license would give you at least some frequency privileges on every amateur band, including the MF and HF spectrum (ten frequency bands ranging from 1.8-29.7 MHz), where worldwide communication is commonplace. You could use voice, Morse Code, image (slow-scan television), data (PSK31, radioteletype, etc) and newer modes like digital voice. But as was mentioned earlier, most of the choice DX (stations in rare foreign countries) is found in the band segments reserved for Extra Class operators only. And a lot of hams in those countries are nowhere nearly as well-off as most of us are in the US, so their stations tend to be limited in capability and many only operate CW, so there's where knowing the code comes in handy. As an Extra, you don't have to remember which frequencies you can and can't use. And if you're interested in the thrilling aspect of radio known as "contesting", an Extra Class license is desirable.
Go for the Technician license as a starting point. Then, join a club (or just meet other local hams on the air) and get a taste of other areas of the hobby you'd like to explore. The club members can probably help you learn what you need to know to upgrade. 73 es hpe CU on the air soon!
Morse code certainly works well with QRP, but so does PSK31
Yes, but for PSK31 you need more than just a contact closure to send a message. With Morse, you just need a key, or a paper clip to bridge the key connection. Some QRP rigs like the Elecraft KX1 allow you to use the front panel pushbuttons to key the rig (it's clumsy but it works), so you don't even need to bring a key or paddle.
There's no question that PSK31 is the low power champ for busting thru the QRN, and it's very efficient on bandwidth, but you need to haul your Powerbook around with you in order to use it.
The problem is that there's no learning path. You have to spend many hours before you can even start typing.
This is true. Morse students, in their early phases, can copy words like EAT and SIN but it does take a few weeks to get to where you can comfortably copy the whole alphabet.
However, this is not such a big problem in this application. In order to utilize Morse as a text entry tool you only need to memorize the characters and be able to send them. The more difficult, and steeper, learning curve, is being able to receive them by ear. When you are receiving code, the characters are coming in a steady stream that you don't get to pause while you try to remember what DAHDAHdiDAH is. When you send, though, especially into a caching device like a phone, you can send characters at your own rate, so you can take a few seconds to think "Q... Q... oh yeah, DAHDAHdiDAH". Thus, one would be up to speed with being able to send Morse to a text phone much more quickly than if one were studying to take a receiving test.
I don't really advocate changing over to this wholesale, nor do I argue that it is right for the average person, just like I don't think you need to learn how to use emacs and TeX just to write a letter to your grandma. It would be a useful accessory for those of us who are already proficient in Morse. The blog entry referenced earlier on the Morse app for Nokia phones is not surprising, given the state of high-tech in Finland and the large number of amatuer radio operators who work for Nokia (including Martti, OH3BH, one of the world's best known hams).
It takes several keypresses to send a single character in morse
True, but so it also does using a telephone keyboard, where, depending on the protocol used, it takes one to three keypresses (and sometimes a short wait) to send a single character. It would be a simple matter to set up the keyboard with two buttons, one for dit and one for dah, just like a paddle would be configured. (Some ham rigs, including the cute little Elecraft KX1 allow you to do this with the front panel buttons if you don't happen to have a key handy.) Add an iambic keyer (which alternates between dit and dah when both levers are pressed simultaneously -- a highly efficient way of sending at high speed. More on this here [27k PDF] ) and you can send multi-element characters with one or two keypresses. Example: the letter Y is dah-di-dah-dah. You hold the dah, then tap the dit once, and keep holding dah until the last dah is sent. The keyer forms the character for you. Result: you only need two presses instead of four. In the case of our telephone handset, you have to press the 9 button three times to send a Y (W..X..Y). Result: With Morse, 33% fewer keystrokes for that character. Want another example? E, the most common letter. Morse: dit. Phone: 33. 50% fewer with Morse!
Ergonomically, you could even set it up so that the buttons you find on the outside edges of the handset (like on some Motorola phones) are your keying buttons so there would be no need to locate the right keys on the keypad.
it takes ages to learn morse
Not really. One can become proficient at about 5 words per minute in just a few weeks or even shorter if you work at it. The average person needs about 30 hours of study - about a half hour twice a day for a month. I've taught Morse to the level of proficiency needed to obtain an Amateur license in about six weeks.
morse code (designed for carrier wave)
Not really - it was originally designed for use on a DC wire circuit, where the key opening and closing would click a sounder at the other end. It was designed, and works, anywhere you can signal with an on-off state, such as signal lights on Navy ships or even conceivably smoke signals. It is said that Thomas Edison's wife communicated with him after he became deaf by tapping out Morse on his knee. Actually, its first use in radio was to key a spark generator, which produced not a carrier wave but a broad spectrum of noise. (Modern Morse radio transmission only occupies a few tens of Hertz bandwidth, making it one of the most spectrum-efficient forms of communication in existence.)
Actually, this is an idea I've had for some time, after fumbling around trying to compose a SMS message while walking through the mall, and got to thinking that if only you could use Morse to enter the message, it would be a lot easier (for me, anyway).
The thing that killed it for me wasn't that it *did* run Windows apps, but that it didn't run them flawlessly.
Okay, it didn't run them flawlessly, but it did run OS/2 native apps more or less flawlessly. The presentation manager (desktop) was extremely intuitive to an extent that I've yet to encounter in any other OS including MacOS or any of the Linux PMs (I don't need to dwell on what is to me the utter unusability of the MS_Windows interface. And OS/2 just didn't crash. Well, sometimes the PM got hung until they fixed the single input queue problem, but the kernel kept on ticking.
Rather than trying to run M$ software under OS/2, what I did was seek out native OS/2 applications. Unfortunately though, many of them are out of business and their file formats ended up being just as proprietary as M$'s.
Not only that, it's Microsoft's business model! Fortunately, there are those who do their part by carefully aiming and re-aiming, like wine, and the Odin project which provides OS/2 users a similar Win32 layer to run those apps natively.
you are bound to bump into a software patent on something down the road eventually
In the case of OS/2's Windows compatibility, that was provided by using genuine Microsoft Windows code within OS/2, the alimony in the corporate divorce of IBM and Microsoft. The children of that divorce, of course, were OS/2 and Windows NT. A good timeline on all this can be found here.
If there is no need to write native games for Linux, then why bother?
This is one of the things that killed the mass-marketability of OS/2. Since it would run Windows 3.1 apps, there was little need to provide a higher-performance OS/2-native version. Most apps written for OS/2 were excellent performers (e.g. DeScribe), but the market was too small to be viable.
It wasn't a Bug(tm). It was a Bencher BY-1 iambic paddle, connected to the keyer input of the Yaesu FT-817 transceiver. They were operating on 432.2 MHz.
A Bug, made by Vibroplex, uses a bidirectional horizontal motion. Pressing the lever in one direction causes a weight to oscillate at the back end of the lever arm, making a string of "dits" as the arm wiggles back and forth. The Bug will send ten or twelve dits in this manner, and the speed at which the dits are sent is determined by the position of the weight. "Dahs" are sent by pressing the lever in the other direction. They are formed manually with no automatic formation or repetition.
The key used on the Tonight Show was an iambic paddle; i.e., a key with two separate contacts which, when connected to an iambic keyer, will produce endless strings of dits and dahs, or a di-dah-di-dah sequence if both are pressed simultaneously (hence the name iambic). Once you learn to send with this type of key, your "Bug fist" is ruined. Right-handed operators usually set them up so that pressing with the thumb sends dits, and with the forefinger, dahs.
The old "straight key" is still around, but it is fatiguing to use and one cannot send as fast as when using an automatic key. Old telegraphers used to get "glass arm" from "pounding brass", or using a straight key, for long periods of time (an early appearance of carpal tunnel syndrome).
We have this already. Twice a week I get an e-mail with an update on my kids' lunch account balances, and each week a PDF showing every purchase including a la carte items. I find it most useful in challenging charges made by shoulder-surfers who use their account numbers.
"...the number of copies of Windows sold this year will be more than all the Macintosh computers used worldwide."
The number of Fords and Chevys sold this year will probably be more than all the Mercedes used worldwide, but that doesn't automatically make them better, does it?
I've had problems connecting with my Palm Tungsten C. I connect and get DHCP, but when I try to retrieve a page I get the "You are being connected..." page from the proxy and then nothing. If I manually go to the www.qgo.biz/panera/index.cfm page it renders the click-thru user agreement page, but then authentication usually fails (although it has worked in the past, and it varies by location). Of course, nobody ever answers the 800- help number. Anyone have similar problems?
Slashdot Mirror
With thanks to Moxy Fruvous...
You will go to the moon
You'll probably be heading there soon
Someday flowers will grow there
But first you've got to go there
Oh, You will go to the moon
You will live in the stars
Your backyard will probably be Mars
You will ride a crater scooter
And eat off your computer
Oh you will live in the stars
Your stellar smile will always beam
Knowing you're home and home to stay
And you'll look down upon the earth
And say, "I can't believe we ever lived that way!"
You will go to the moon
There's plans for a hotel and a lagoon
You'll be savoring a star fruit
And kicking off your moonboot
Oh you will go to the moon.
Hey, you will go to the moon
A paradise to rival Cancun
And one side's always sunny
You'll be raking in the money
Oh you get paid on the moon
It's been our most abiding dream
And a dream is an easy sell
And when the tourists come in droves
You'll be the big cheese on that orbiting rondelle
You will go to the moon
Daring pioneers will call the tune
Ah someday flowers will grow there
But first you got to go there
Oh you will go to the moon
I'm gonna tell ya, you will go to the moon
One more! You will go to the moon!
Thank you for using the name of the act correctly. After all, it has nothing to do with patriotism - they just want us to think it does. USAPATRIOT is an acronym for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism". It's a bit ironic because it's done anything but unite and strengthen America, or at least its citizens. I wish everyone would stop calling it the "Patriot Act" and instead refer to it as the "U-S-A-P-A-T-R-I-O-T Act."
Actually, Intel has their own solution to this problem - redesign transistors out of different materials that switch faster and consume less power.
C A comment per line
C means you're doing just fine
The equipment you need to feed a radio signal is somewhat bulky and expensive.
Not so. You can fit a transmitter that will broadcast to the entire Astrodome, and several city blocks around it, in the palm of your hand.
Go to qrz.com and take the practice tests. They're fun to do, you probably remember more than you realize, and with some study of current rules & regs you'll be ready to show up at your nearest club's VE session.
if rain travels between the dish itself and the "stalk" pointing at the dish, then your signal will degrade
The "stalk" is called the feed assembly. Old timers like me still call it the "feed horn". In most satellite receive systems, it contains the actual receive antenna (usually a horn-coupled waveguide) and a preamplifier and frequency converter commonly called a "LNB" (low-noise block converter).
Heavy rain affects Ku-band satellite signals by attenuating them as they make their way through the area of rain near the surface. The signal can also be scattered somewhat by the rain but it is not as significant a phenomenon as rain attenuation. Here is a good explanation of rain fade.
I've seen rain fade affect terrestrial microwave links as well. I once lost a 13-GHz link for about 10 minutes when a heavy rain storm moved into the path between the transmitter and receiver. The fade margin on that link was around 30 dB, so the rain cut the signal to less than one-thousandth of what it was. I've also seen C-band rain fade, but this was on a very-small-aperture (1-meter) dish which has just enough gain to get the signal it's supposed to get.
"dish socks" stretchy covers that go over the dish. It keeps rain from passing through the dish and the LNB.
These are actually covers that primarily prevent snow from accumulating in the dish and spoiling the parabola, greatly reducing the antenna gain and consequently the recovered signal strength. Other methods of accomplishing this are a non-stick coating applied to the dish so that the snow slides off, and heating systems, either heat tapes applied to the surface or hot-air systems, which blow heated air into cavities behind the dish panels. The latter is most often used on uplinks, where a change in gain and directivity could mistakenly illuminate other satellites.
Anyone who wants to can get a radio
Yes, but in the amateur bands, they'll get caught.
I still plan on practicing when I get my HF antenna set up, and when I can afford to get an HF rig I may very well do some CW just for grins.
You should, and you'll have fun doing it. You'll never forget the thrill of pounding out your first CW QSO, with the patient ham at the other end helping you along and working with you to complete it. And then you get the QSL card in the mail with the notation: Mode - CW. You try again, make more contacts, and notice that your speed is getting better (and your wrist is getting tired) and decide it's time to get a paddle and a keyer. Pretty soon you're up to 10 or 12 WPM, then you break thru and realize you can copy 15 or 20 pretty solid. It's then that you realize that you're hooked.
seventy-five meters
Which, for those of you who are not hams, is roughly the equivalent of reading at -1
<vbg> (or as we'd say, hi hi)
what's worse is what I anticipate happening when the first batch of codeless Generals hit the air
Unless you look up their license record, how will you know? For the most part, they will be existing Techs who are already used to operating phone on VHF (which I'll admit is procedurally a bit different than HF phone), but like any new ham, they'll pick up the protocol and blend in in short order.
I'm not too worried, because as a mostly CW operator, I know I won't find them down by where I hang out.
Who will warn the President?
Why, Chicken Licken, of course!
The NSA can't find its friggin' Boy Scout's handbook on morse code
That's because Morse Code isn't in the Boy Scout handbook anymore. Hasn't been for years, and neither has there been a Signaling merit badge (also eliminated, along with other "archaic" ones like Beekeeping, Bookbinding and Rabbit Raising). In fact, the Radio merit badge doesn't require Morse either -- it allows the Scout to choose either voice or Morse Code for his required contact in the Amateur Radio track (but no mention of alternative modes like PSK31 or image).
it amazes me that anyone would consider removing the morse requirement.
Remember, they are not removing a ham's ability to use Morse - only the need to demonstrate proficiency in Morse in order to use unrelated modes and frequencies. The benefits you listed are all excellent reasons for using Morse, and for those reasons its use will persist for a long time to come.
Oh, there's one more you forgot:
6) It's just plain FUN!
it seems to me they're just lowering the entry barrier for little benefit
One of the arguments has long been that it is in fact a barrier that was keeping out otherwise technically qualified individuals. That may have been more true back when all classes of license required a code test, and the HF licenses (General, Advanced, Extra) required 13 or 20 wpm proficiency. However, 5wpm is easy enough for anyone to learn so it's really not a barrier any more. The Commission's proposal basically recognizes that and acknowledges the ITU's action to eliminate the Morse proficiency requirement for HF operators worldwide (but leaving it up to individual countries). For a long time we've had the "no-code" Technician license, and it's brought in thousands of new hams who are active in public service and technical advancement.
Is there much point, all in all, in going for the higher level licenses, or should I just stick with the low-band entry level ones?
That all depends on what you plan to do on the air. If you're interested in mostly local communication with other hams in the area on VHF/UHF frequencies, the Technician license will allow you to do that. The local repeaters (and non-repeater simplex channels) are also most commonly used for local emergency communications, since most emergencies are of a local nature (severe weather is the most common). As a Technician you'd have no privileges on frequencies below 50 MHz unless you passed the code test, while it's still in effect, but even then you'd have limited privileges (mostly CW) on a few bands. You could still take part in HF emergency communications as a member of a team that had other operators with higher-class licenses as long as they are the control operators.
The Technician exam isn't difficult. You can learn all you need to know to pass the exam from books and other learning aids, or by taking classes from a local club. You can even take practice tests online using the actual FCC question pool.
The General Class license would give you at least some frequency privileges on every amateur band, including the MF and HF spectrum (ten frequency bands ranging from 1.8-29.7 MHz), where worldwide communication is commonplace. You could use voice, Morse Code, image (slow-scan television), data (PSK31, radioteletype, etc) and newer modes like digital voice. But as was mentioned earlier, most of the choice DX (stations in rare foreign countries) is found in the band segments reserved for Extra Class operators only. And a lot of hams in those countries are nowhere nearly as well-off as most of us are in the US, so their stations tend to be limited in capability and many only operate CW, so there's where knowing the code comes in handy. As an Extra, you don't have to remember which frequencies you can and can't use. And if you're interested in the thrilling aspect of radio known as "contesting", an Extra Class license is desirable.
Go for the Technician license as a starting point. Then, join a club (or just meet other local hams on the air) and get a taste of other areas of the hobby you'd like to explore. The club members can probably help you learn what you need to know to upgrade. 73 es hpe CU on the air soon!
Morse code certainly works well with QRP, but so does PSK31
Yes, but for PSK31 you need more than just a contact closure to send a message. With Morse, you just need a key, or a paper clip to bridge the key connection. Some QRP rigs like the Elecraft KX1 allow you to use the front panel pushbuttons to key the rig (it's clumsy but it works), so you don't even need to bring a key or paddle.
There's no question that PSK31 is the low power champ for busting thru the QRN, and it's very efficient on bandwidth, but you need to haul your Powerbook around with you in order to use it.
The problem is that there's no learning path. You have to spend many hours before you can even start typing.
This is true. Morse students, in their early phases, can copy words like EAT and SIN but it does take a few weeks to get to where you can comfortably copy the whole alphabet.
However, this is not such a big problem in this application. In order to utilize Morse as a text entry tool you only need to memorize the characters and be able to send them. The more difficult, and steeper, learning curve, is being able to receive them by ear. When you are receiving code, the characters are coming in a steady stream that you don't get to pause while you try to remember what DAHDAHdiDAH is. When you send, though, especially into a caching device like a phone, you can send characters at your own rate, so you can take a few seconds to think "Q... Q... oh yeah, DAHDAHdiDAH". Thus, one would be up to speed with being able to send Morse to a text phone much more quickly than if one were studying to take a receiving test.
I don't really advocate changing over to this wholesale, nor do I argue that it is right for the average person, just like I don't think you need to learn how to use emacs and TeX just to write a letter to your grandma. It would be a useful accessory for those of us who are already proficient in Morse. The blog entry referenced earlier on the Morse app for Nokia phones is not surprising, given the state of high-tech in Finland and the large number of amatuer radio operators who work for Nokia (including Martti, OH3BH, one of the world's best known hams).
It takes several keypresses to send a single character in morse
True, but so it also does using a telephone keyboard, where, depending on the protocol used, it takes one to three keypresses (and sometimes a short wait) to send a single character. It would be a simple matter to set up the keyboard with two buttons, one for dit and one for dah, just like a paddle would be configured. (Some ham rigs, including the cute little Elecraft KX1 allow you to do this with the front panel buttons if you don't happen to have a key handy.) Add an iambic keyer (which alternates between dit and dah when both levers are pressed simultaneously -- a highly efficient way of sending at high speed. More on this here [27k PDF] ) and you can send multi-element characters with one or two keypresses. Example: the letter Y is dah-di-dah-dah. You hold the dah, then tap the dit once, and keep holding dah until the last dah is sent. The keyer forms the character for you. Result: you only need two presses instead of four. In the case of our telephone handset, you have to press the 9 button three times to send a Y (W..X..Y). Result: With Morse, 33% fewer keystrokes for that character. Want another example? E, the most common letter. Morse: dit. Phone: 33. 50% fewer with Morse!
Ergonomically, you could even set it up so that the buttons you find on the outside edges of the handset (like on some Motorola phones) are your keying buttons so there would be no need to locate the right keys on the keypad.
it takes ages to learn morse
Not really. One can become proficient at about 5 words per minute in just a few weeks or even shorter if you work at it. The average person needs about 30 hours of study - about a half hour twice a day for a month. I've taught Morse to the level of proficiency needed to obtain an Amateur license in about six weeks.
morse code (designed for carrier wave)
Not really - it was originally designed for use on a DC wire circuit, where the key opening and closing would click a sounder at the other end. It was designed, and works, anywhere you can signal with an on-off state, such as signal lights on Navy ships or even conceivably smoke signals. It is said that Thomas Edison's wife communicated with him after he became deaf by tapping out Morse on his knee. Actually, its first use in radio was to key a spark generator, which produced not a carrier wave but a broad spectrum of noise. (Modern Morse radio transmission only occupies a few tens of Hertz bandwidth, making it one of the most spectrum-efficient forms of communication in existence.)
Actually, this is an idea I've had for some time, after fumbling around trying to compose a SMS message while walking through the mall, and got to thinking that if only you could use Morse to enter the message, it would be a lot easier (for me, anyway).
The thing that killed it for me wasn't that it *did* run Windows apps, but that it didn't run them flawlessly.
Okay, it didn't run them flawlessly, but it did run OS/2 native apps more or less flawlessly. The presentation manager (desktop) was extremely intuitive to an extent that I've yet to encounter in any other OS including MacOS or any of the Linux PMs (I don't need to dwell on what is to me the utter unusability of the MS_Windows interface. And OS/2 just didn't crash. Well, sometimes the PM got hung until they fixed the single input queue problem, but the kernel kept on ticking.
Rather than trying to run M$ software under OS/2, what I did was seek out native OS/2 applications. Unfortunately though, many of them are out of business and their file formats ended up being just as proprietary as M$'s.
Windows compatibility is a moving target.
Not only that, it's Microsoft's business model! Fortunately, there are those who do their part by carefully aiming and re-aiming, like wine, and the Odin project which provides OS/2 users a similar Win32 layer to run those apps natively.
you are bound to bump into a software patent on something down the road eventually
In the case of OS/2's Windows compatibility, that was provided by using genuine Microsoft Windows code within OS/2, the alimony in the corporate divorce of IBM and Microsoft. The children of that divorce, of course, were OS/2 and Windows NT. A good timeline on all this can be found here.
If there is no need to write native games for Linux, then why bother?
This is one of the things that killed the mass-marketability of OS/2. Since it would run Windows 3.1 apps, there was little need to provide a higher-performance OS/2-native version. Most apps written for OS/2 were excellent performers (e.g. DeScribe), but the market was too small to be viable.
It wasn't a Bug(tm). It was a Bencher BY-1 iambic paddle, connected to the keyer input of the Yaesu FT-817 transceiver. They were operating on 432.2 MHz.
A Bug, made by Vibroplex, uses a bidirectional horizontal motion. Pressing the lever in one direction causes a weight to oscillate at the back end of the lever arm, making a string of "dits" as the arm wiggles back and forth. The Bug will send ten or twelve dits in this manner, and the speed at which the dits are sent is determined by the position of the weight. "Dahs" are sent by pressing the lever in the other direction. They are formed manually with no automatic formation or repetition.
The key used on the Tonight Show was an iambic paddle; i.e., a key with two separate contacts which, when connected to an iambic keyer, will produce endless strings of dits and dahs, or a di-dah-di-dah sequence if both are pressed simultaneously (hence the name iambic). Once you learn to send with this type of key, your "Bug fist" is ruined. Right-handed operators usually set them up so that pressing with the thumb sends dits, and with the forefinger, dahs.
The old "straight key" is still around, but it is fatiguing to use and one cannot send as fast as when using an automatic key. Old telegraphers used to get "glass arm" from "pounding brass", or using a straight key, for long periods of time (an early appearance of carpal tunnel syndrome).
We have this already. Twice a week I get an e-mail with an update on my kids' lunch account balances, and each week a PDF showing every purchase including a la carte items. I find it most useful in challenging charges made by shoulder-surfers who use their account numbers.
One of my CS profs used to say "A comment per line means you're doing just fine."
"...the number of copies of Windows sold this year will be more than all the Macintosh computers used worldwide."
The number of Fords and Chevys sold this year will probably be more than all the Mercedes used worldwide, but that doesn't automatically make them better, does it?
I've had problems connecting with my Palm Tungsten C. I connect and get DHCP, but when I try to retrieve a page I get the "You are being connected..." page from the proxy and then nothing. If I manually go to the www.qgo.biz/panera/index.cfm page it renders the click-thru user agreement page, but then authentication usually fails (although it has worked in the past, and it varies by location). Of course, nobody ever answers the 800- help number. Anyone have similar problems?