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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment.

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Old 13th Jan 2023, 9:23 pm   #21
Jon_G4MDC
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

It think it was Nokia who first decided that messages would be announced by sending "SMS" in morse. That was fun.
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Old 13th Jan 2023, 9:46 pm   #22
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

I use "QTC1" at 25wpm as my alert for a text message, "I have one radio-telegram for you".

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Old 13th Jan 2023, 11:18 pm   #23
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

How about "Danny boy calling Broadsword" Nicely anonymous and anyone who can read it will smile.

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Old 13th Jan 2023, 11:47 pm   #24
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

Not a bad idea, but I chose 'the quick brown fox' because it contains an equal amount of every possible Morse character, which makes it a bit more melodic and even than it would be if it was biased towards more common characters, as real Morse naturally is.
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Old 14th Jan 2023, 1:37 am   #25
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

Quote:
Originally Posted by G3VKM_Roger View Post
I use "QTC1" at 25wpm as my alert for a text message, "I have one radio-telegram for you".
73
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I have done exactly the same with my phone!


At one time, Nokia used "connecting people" as their SMS alert sound, I think it was the company's motto.
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Old 14th Jan 2023, 3:13 am   #26
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

My wifi encryption key is a long string of seemingly random characters which I alone have no problem remembering, because it's CW procedure.
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Old 15th Jan 2023, 3:23 am   #27
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

It was 1963 when I attended tech college to get qualified as a marine radio officer. On the second day about 25 of us were introduced to 'Percy' - for the life of me I can't remember his surname. Ushered into a special classroom with a booth each containing a pair of headphones (SG Brown Type "F") and a couple switches and controls on a small panel. What - no morse key- No, says Percy, when you can receive at about 12wpm without too many mistakes, then we might try some sending. Every day we were introduced to another five letters of the alphabet, numbers and some accented letters and we were told to practice on our way to and from college. So we persevered dit-dahing to ourselves from anything we saw. The sight of a half-dozen youths at a bus stop dit-dahing as the "London Transport" bus went past had some other passengers doubting our sanity. Anyway, we all passed the 12wpm test and so Percy had the infamous Marconi 365B key installed to each booth and proceeded to instruct us on how to set it up and how to send properly - no arms on the table please! Every day Percy would send something from a newspaper for about 40 minutes and then we had to send it back to him. Then he would send it again and we would endeavour to send along with him. He was bringing up our speeds and the quality of our sending was like Percy's.So after a year had gone by, the new boys got Percy and we got Hank Bondermaker - a Dutch guy who used to work at the PCH coast station. He could listen to each individual sending on his headset and so he gave us a bit on the morning newspaper to send to him. Hank disappeared for the start of the next period but came back with a broad smile on his face. He said "I've been next door and listened to some code. Good heavens" he said, "you all send like Percy!" That was the introduction to the 'character' of anyone sending morse - and also persuaded the college to buy a Creed perforator and sender to get us to send "perfect" morse. Gradually we built up speeds until we could send and receive the 25wpm or more required for our final exam.

So that's how I learnt "the code". I doubt if I could send at 25wpm now but I can still get about 30+ in my head but I never learnt to type!

Incidentally, everyone says that morse is dead in the commercial world - but it's not. One of the prerequisites for getting your pilot's instrument rating is to learn the code as it's used as the identification signal on navigation beacons - although I must say that the ident is shown as dots and dashes on the chart! Also ships can call each other at night using the Aldis signalling lamp - but usually the watch keeper usually shouts "Sparks, we're being hailed, come and talk to this ship"!
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Old 15th Jan 2023, 12:25 pm   #28
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

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<snip>...but I can still get about 30+ in my head but I never learnt to type!
Quite! I was taught to type but never got past the two-finger stage and can still only take CW reception by hand writing the result - in block capitals too! 40+ wpm in block text is hard work....
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Old 25th Feb 2023, 1:19 pm   #29
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

I suppose if you want to learn the American way then this might help.

https://youtu.be/waIFtVodHHM
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Old 2nd Mar 2023, 8:32 am   #30
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

The Federal Communications Commission Testers here in the U.S. always sent Morse Code characters at 20 WPM, with appropriate spacing for slower speeds when doing testing in person at the local Federal Building (Seattle Washington).

As I am getting hard of hearing I find that lightly resting my finger tip on the speaker cone can help.

BTW- I learned Morse Code by listening to Coastal Stations transmitting nice clear wx reports at 20 WPM. In storage I have an old paper punch code machine with the Continental Morse Tapes. My father learned it by hanging around the local Railroad Telegraph Office back in the early 1900's. Just had the old sounders back then.
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Old 3rd Mar 2023, 9:56 pm   #31
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

I first learned the alphabet by reading anything I saw in morse by going dah-dah dah-dah-dah di-dah-dit di-di-dit dit in my head but didn’t do anything serious about getting up to speed as I regarded it as something of a chore to be done in order to get the Class A licence.

I was licenced some years as a G8 and, busy with studies and first jobs and rather enjoying 2m SSB, morse went into the Round Tuit pile. Then I caught chickenpox which as an adult was no joke. After a week I was over the worst but was quarantined at home and thus away from work for four weeks.

Stuck at home and tuning the bands for something to do I stumbled across an informal tutorial group that was operated most evenings of the week at the bottom end of the 2m SSB segment by some G3 and G4 stations. It was an offshoot of a class running at a college (and which was already half way through) but I realised this was an ideal opportunity to learn.

I improved quickly but did no sending until I joined the class having discovered that it had been had arranged for a coastal station officer to visit to conduct a mass testing session. By the time I got to send to the class tutor I was near the required 12 WPM receiving so had the rhythm. I took the test and passed. The coastal officer said I had a very good sending style and not to mess with it. I understood this was largely due to leaving the key alone until I was of reasonable speed.

I found I rather liked CW and with my G4 I enjoyed many a ragchew at the bottom end of 2m. I can remember QSOs where I described my transmitter and antenna modifications in some detail. I also worked some very nice DX under lift conditions with just 1.5W into a 20 element beam.

Though I could recognise whole words and progressed beyond writing down messages I never got beyond 20 WPM. Alas, forty years on it is as rusty as heck but tuning across the HF bands I can still read the slower stations. What I do notice is that a lot of CW is now what I would guess to be auto-generated and ‘clinical’. On 2m where I got to know the active stations I could often tell who was sending by their keying style alone.
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Old 3rd Mar 2023, 10:41 pm   #32
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

Quote:
I expect it would need someone like kellys_eye to read it and I doubt that there are very many like him around now.
You might be surprised. Ever tried listening about 30kHz up from the bottom of the band at 1300z or 1900z on a wednesday? This is CWT (happens every week), where the high speed boys try to make as many contacts as possible over one hour. Most are operating at 25 to 30wpm, but many are at 40+

It can be very busy during that hour (25 to 45KHz up is the recommended slot to operate by the way)

73
Ralph
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Old 4th Mar 2023, 7:41 am   #33
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

CWT seems to be a contest in how quick you can send your membership number. I am perfectly fluent at 40 wpm but even I think their speeds are ridiculous. Occasionally I have a dabble in it but don't really care for QSOs which leave out the 599 bit.
(I think I know what your call is and I guess you know mine as well...).

CW is certainly fun when you get to the point when you can copy it in your head but it does take a little while to get there, Been doing it for over 50 years now).

73 Dave
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Old 4th Mar 2023, 3:49 pm   #34
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

It was an article in The Times on 11 January 2023 which prompted me to start this thread. On Saturday 28th January, also in The Times there was another article which took up almost half a page (page 39) including two photographs, entitled ‘Ham Radio Tunes into a New Generation’. Hats off to whoever managed to get half a page of editorial published in The Times on a Saturday.

It could be that the copy was written by someone at RSGB as it follows the familiar narrative that RSGB has been pursuing for some years now. Namely: The hobby is no longer pale, male, and stale, nor is it declining - it’s attracting young people in ever growing numbers. (‘New blood’, ‘a shot in the arm’, ‘catching them young’). Furthermore, far from Morse code declining, its usage is increasing.

To underline that narrative there is a picture (6cm x 8cm) with three children - a boy who looks to be aged about twelve, on a microphone and wearing headphones, watched excitedly by a girl age about ten sat next to him, and a boy aged maybe 14, leaning over them. (As the ‘operator’ is wearing headphones, his two onlookers wouldn’t hear what the station at the other end was saying, but hey, it’s just a posed photo).

There is a much larger photo (18 x 12cms), which is of Cambridge University Wireless Society shack, with the President of the society (aged 69) sat at the station, and the Chairman, (aged 22) stood alongside him. Given that the article is about young people and that amateur radio is an inclusive hobby, which doesn’t need to be expensive, and is open to all of whatever age and socio-economic background, the image which that photo projects (an exclusive red-brick university), is at odds with that narrative. That said, given that the Society is primarily for undergraduates, typically aged 19 on entry, it’s doing its bit to encourage their participation in the hobby, and it’s often said that 'there’s no such thing as bad publicity'.

The essence of the article is that 'the dots and dashes of Morse code, familiar from black-and-white war films might seem to be a relic of a bygone era, but more than 100 years after it was first used, it’s making a comeback'. It states that: 'according to the RSGB, since 2006, the number of amateur radio licenses which allows holders to send Morse Code, has increased by almost 60%'. Last year, the number of 13 – 44 year olds viewing the Society’s online tutorials which covers topics such as ‘improving your Morse skills’ and ‘how to build your own equipment’ has more than tripled. (That's encouraging, but 'tripled' from what base?).

The article continues: ‘Allowing people to reach out to distant lands on a shoestring budget, the hobby could have been tailor-made for lockdown. The Netflix series ‘Stranger Things’ in which a ‘ham’ radio set in used to contact another dimension has also been linked to an increased interest. Amateur radio is many different hobbies. Teenagers and retirees are picking it up. Some enjoy soldering together homemade circuits, others specialise in sending signals very long distances by bouncing them off ionised plasma created high in the atmosphere by meteors, or spend weekends hiking up mountains to contact other continents. Professor Cathryn Mitchel, University of Bath has for the amateur radio community helpful into how the upper layer of the atmosphere is used to deflect signals around the world’.

There’s more, but that’s quite enough.

As I recall, the Foundation licence was introduced in 2003, since which time many thousands have been issued. I wonder how many of the ‘new generation’ are ever heard on air? Not many would be my guess. And how many of those use CW? Fewer still. Too busy on Instagram and Tik Tok. (Ask any dad or granddad).

Every good wish to those that are active on air – there are lots of less worthwhile things that young people could be doing.
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Old 13th Apr 2023, 12:19 pm   #35
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Default Re: 'Forget dot com, Americans making a dash for Morse code'

I guess in the USA we see learning Morse code similar to learning Latin.
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