I love Morse Code. :-)
The Civil War history of telegraphy is indeed interesting.
Many operators were boys of just 12...amazing.
They used the old American Morse Code though, now the International Morse is the norm. American Morse worked well with the old ‘sounder’ equipment..(clicketty clack clack)
Many consider the Morse Code as the first binary communications protocol but that is incorrect. Morse does not use the binary system of on/off or zero and one. It uses on,off and various lengths of empty space(time). Without the spaces it would be meaningless noise.
The various spaces are based on the length of the single dit. One dit length space between the elements of a character, three between characters...etc.
Morse is mostly just a curiosity in the modern world. It was once a requirement to get an Amateur Radio license.
Morse is the best way to get a signal through in noisy conditions.... if sent at extremely slow speed and decoded by a computer you can communicate worldwide with less than a milliwatt of power.
I love Morse :-)
QRP 4ever
INT QRK = What is the intelligibility of my signal?
ZBK2 = Your transmission is garbled.
ZUJ = Standby.
ZFR = Disregard previous transmission.
INT QRK = What is the intelligibility of my signal?
QSY = change radio frequency.
INT QRL = Are you busy?
ZBM = give me a competent operator.
I didn't have to learn Morse Code but the Ditty Boppers were on the hallway below ours. It was the oddest thing in the world to hear a classroom of men in unison saying a seemingly endless stream of dits and dahs while the instructor pointed to the symbols on a board. They would get really mad if we cut through their hallway to get to the break pad outside. Morse Systems Specialists were sent to remote sites on the Russian frontier and other locations to constantly monitor radio signals.
Let me see : .. ._.. _ _ _ _.. . _ _ _ _ _ .._ ... . _._ _ _ _ _ _.. .
OK! "I LODE MOUSE YODE" - Excellent! I'm sure they got the message.