Monday, August 30, 2010

Morse code faster than texting

Just as I'm getting my mind around blogs, facebook and twitter, I'm whizzed backwards -- or is it forwards? While eating lunch yesterday at the Major Mitchell Campsite, the distinctive "Dit, dah" (short dots and long dashes) of a message carried across the clearing, a distance of about 50 m. Instantly we were taken back to the days of girl guides and scouts when we learnt the international Morse code for transmitting messages. As we wandered over to say, "G'day", an elderly man (ex-N Z Air Force) appeared and greeted us warmly. A simple canvas awning (attached to a camper trailer and Land Rover) protected his Morse code key, with an aerial wire strung up into a nearby eucalypt. "Under competition rules," he informed us, "Morse code is twice the speed of the fastest texting."
Here we were -- in 2010 -- listening to an incoming code invented by the American Samuel Morse, in 1835. This message connected this amateur radio operator to fellow Ham enthusiasts all over the world. This man was alone yet not alone. Amazed by the simplicity of a code that links outback Australia to the world, I think of that other technology, the Internet. Both beam across the airways, connecting people. Each, in its own way is extraordinary. At this present time, however, I have to lean towards the simplicity of Morse code, invented 165 years ago, 11 years before Major Mitchell camped here on his epic journey up the Maranoa River.

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