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Happy Morse Code Day!
27 April 2015 | by Today is Morse Code Day, which of course, is celebrated on the birthday of Samuel FB Morse.
Does this make Samuel the original "Old Man"? Sorry Mr. Maxim*, I think Mr. Morse has seniority on you for that title, as Mr. Morse would be celebrating his 224th birthday today, were he of the kin of Methuselah.
Now that QRPTTF is over, except for e-mailing in my log summary, I thought I'd post where my signal was being heard on Saturday, according to the Reverse Beacon Network.
Bob W3BBO and I were discussing QRPTTF yesterday amongst ourselves, and it occurred to both of us that the western half of the nation seems to have reported larger QSO totals than the eastern half of the nation. This based on e-mails sent to QRP-L that we had read. Not sure what that means, but so far I haven't seen many e-mails from anyone east of the Mississippi with log summaries of around 40 QSOs or so. It will be interesting to see how it breaks down geographically once the results are in.
The EARCHI does get heard, and being on the top of a high hill (we call those mountains, here in NJ) sure makes a difference. And this makes for the other important lesson I've learned from events such as these. As nice as it would be to come in 1st place in a contest such as QRPTTF, the real prize won is enjoying a day outdoors, playing radio in the fresh air and sunshine, being able to forget about everyday worries, cares and concerns, even if it's just for a couple hours.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
* - For those of you who are new to the Ham radio game, Hiram Percy Maxim who founded the ARRL, often wrote editorials under the pseudonym "The Old Man". Since HPM lived from 1869 - 1936. I guess that makes Mr. Morse the rightful holder of "The Old Man" title.
Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].Does this make Samuel the original "Old Man"? Sorry Mr. Maxim*, I think Mr. Morse has seniority on you for that title, as Mr. Morse would be celebrating his 224th birthday today, were he of the kin of Methuselah.
Now that QRPTTF is over, except for e-mailing in my log summary, I thought I'd post where my signal was being heard on Saturday, according to the Reverse Beacon Network.
Even though I didn't make any contacts on 15 Meters, it appears my signal was leaping over The Pond. Not the loudest, but still making it. Here's as much of the table was I was able to snip.
Bob W3BBO and I were discussing QRPTTF yesterday amongst ourselves, and it occurred to both of us that the western half of the nation seems to have reported larger QSO totals than the eastern half of the nation. This based on e-mails sent to QRP-L that we had read. Not sure what that means, but so far I haven't seen many e-mails from anyone east of the Mississippi with log summaries of around 40 QSOs or so. It will be interesting to see how it breaks down geographically once the results are in.
The EARCHI does get heard, and being on the top of a high hill (we call those mountains, here in NJ) sure makes a difference. And this makes for the other important lesson I've learned from events such as these. As nice as it would be to come in 1st place in a contest such as QRPTTF, the real prize won is enjoying a day outdoors, playing radio in the fresh air and sunshine, being able to forget about everyday worries, cares and concerns, even if it's just for a couple hours.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
* - For those of you who are new to the Ham radio game, Hiram Percy Maxim who founded the ARRL, often wrote editorials under the pseudonym "The Old Man". Since HPM lived from 1869 - 1936. I guess that makes Mr. Morse the rightful holder of "The Old Man" title.
5 Responses to “Happy Morse Code Day!”
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During a recent trip to The Metropolitan Museum in NYC, I was surprised to see paintings by Samuel F.B. Morse in their collection. Who knew?
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/09.18
I would like to see a new ham radio stamp today.
How would we do this?
Hi everybody,
HPM has the priority as the old man. Morse’s device was a machine. See patent US1647. Hand sending and receiving came later. BTW, Morse did not even invent the “Morse code”. This was done by his collaborator Alfred Vail, wo – unlike Morse – was an engineer ( Morse was a painter by profession ).
However, Morse did his best to not credit Alfred Vail for his help and thus Vail even today is relatively unknown.
By the way – how about an NCI day ?
73s de Karl-Max
What is an NCI day?
NCI means No Code International and was a global organisation fighting for the abolishment of morse exams as an access condition for HF operation (a thing that has done a lot of damage to ham radio). It was founded by Bruce Perens, KB9P in 1997. Here in OE first OE2HHN (Herbert Heitzmann) and subsequently yours truly was chapter chief. The bylaws stated that after achieving that goal NCI should disband. Which we did. Now a whole generation of hams has grown up that never has experienced any of the above and this is good so.
However, on the other hand those who do not learn the lessons of history are bound to make the same mistakes over and over again – and in this vein it would make sense if the new generation learns about the mistakes generations before it made in order to not repeat them on their own.
This is why I would consider it worthwile to create an NCI Day.
73s de OE4KMC