There was no way to make this post relate to Cubase or music etc etc at all (and I may be required to bribe the mods with a mortgage payment or two )
but I just had to ask.
Has anyone here ever learned/use(d) Morse Code?
Why/When did you start etc etc?
I use to own a nice lil rig and do some ham radio stuff waaaay back-n-da-day
(sold all my gear but I still keep a nice collection of QSL cards)
and wondering now if any of the younger generation
is still mucking about with this ‘antiquated’ but
still ‘effective’ if not ‘essential’ communication technology?
This is a trick question, I can feel it in my Ol’ bones!
Yes, I learned Morse Code some years back when taking an Amateur Radio Course. I had passed all tests to become a General Class at the time. During my practice sessions with my cassette tape I bought from Radio Shack, I was up to I think 13 words per minute, although when I took the actual test, I swear it was more like 20 words per minute…I mean WAY faster than my practice tapes. Well, I did not pass the highest code test, therefore I did not become a General Class, so that put me back into the Technician Class. Farking Bustards!
Actually my 10 year cycle for renewal came last year and I have not renewed my Ham license, but we’re given I think 3 years grace period in which I intend to renew. Of course, these days you do not need to take the code test to become the highest class, General…I may or may not re-take the higher grade test to become a General at some point…or not…?
I still have my radio’s…all 2-Meters, talkies & a mobile rig(well one is 144/448 dual band) which my license class can do those. VHF! Technician’s cannot do 10 meter or any other HF. I never really wanted to do HF and talk around the world with HUGE antenna’s anyway. I really like the VHF freq’s and the use of local repeaters. I recall hiking Yosemite’s Half Dome here in California, and chatting to some guys (radio nerds) in the SF Bay Area (Castro Vally I think?) and at some point I needed use of BOTH my hands, so I bid them 73’s
What got me into it is, on jobs sites we’d use 40 channel CB walkie-talkies, and I thought it was so cool. I spent a lot of time in the local library reading about how 2 way radio’s work, and checked out all the books I could on the subject. Eventually I discovered this thing called Ham Radio…I signed up & took a Ham Radio course at night (talked my wife at the time into doing it too), and we both got our license and became a member of the Livermore Amateur Radio Club (LARK). KE6GAP
I learned it in the 50’s in England, when I was in the Scouts, then used it briefly for Ham radio in the early 60’s.
Then I got interested in recording and lost interest in the morse code, didn’t seem too relevant as recording was way more exciting
Now I’m so old, I think I’ll take up reclining in my Lazyboy, see how that pans out
I remember in the early 60’s my father came home with a Hallicrafters SW receiver. I spent hours playing with that thing. I remember starting to get into Ham radio in the mid 60’s (still got my T-key somewhere) and still have my original copy of the Radio Amateurs Handbook. In the 70’s GRS became popular and with some of my friends I got into that for a while, and the whole Ham thing fell by the wayside. When cable TV came in I was able to use the mast for my antennae. In the early 80’s I became involve in a radio telescope project with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Finally sold my gear when we came to Europe.
I learned in my very early teens back in the late 70s at school with one of our science teachers… at that time the cost in the UK was pretty prohibitive for a 12-13 year old so when CB radio was legalised over here a lot of us younger ones just migrated to that as there were no long exams etc… the folly and impatience of youth! lol
I’m impressed, but nobody is under 45 that’s responded (I am guessing of course)…
Me and some of henchmen messed about with all sorts of radio stuff in our teen years (1970’s), CB, old aircraft and tank radios, bent the law a little there I think … but I think only of of those guys actually did Morse code. ot
Even though I was using the 2-meter band via repeaters primarily, when I was with my ex-wife, who also had her license, the radio’s came in very handy for direct Takie-to-Talkie communication …even at Costco, while driving separate vehicles on camping trips, and other outings, etc, etc. Far less dumb clucks on there than on CB radio!
Then we got some FRS family radio’s when they came out, which then the kids could get in on the action! …less powerful but for the most part worked for the ranges we needed them for. Even my 1st pair of FRS radio’s, which had less power/range when they came out than they have now, worked fairly well throughout our trips to Disneyland We’d lose contact if we were at the furthest ends from each other, but that usually didn’t happen. Home Depot even sells the 35 mile range FRS radios now, a 2-pack for like $60.00! Jeez, I think my 1st pair had a mile range or something (all line of sight!) and were $100 each back then!
FRS (Family Radio Service) is really the way to go for the average person if you want to get into using 2-way radio’s these days for general use with friends & family. But if you want some BIG range, and still want to use Hand-Talkies, get a Technician Class and use 2-meter via repeaters, there’s almost no place that you don’t have repeater access…anywhere there’s cell phone service, there’s always Ham repeater access…where there’s NO cell phone service, there’s Ham repeater access…unless you’re in a valley or in between hills where there’s NO communication for anything.
Not only do I still have all my Ham stuff, but I have my CB stuff & FRS stuff
Oh, and PS… I don’t remember much of code anymore…been so long since I’ve used it…last time was when I was preparing for my Ham license, and I didn’t use it after I got my technician’s license, only voice.
I use morse code on a fairly regular basis. I have never memorized it though.
In aviation, we tune VHF navigation aides and listen to the morse code identifier to make sure we have tuned the correct one.
As someone in the mid twenties, I’m afraid I’ll have to burst your bubble. Of all the people my age I can think of, there’s only one who ‘might’ know morse, from the scouts. But even if he does, I very much doubt he could read/write it without some practice again. Seems like a lost art
)
… but I think only of of those guys actually did Morse code. ot