Posted on 05/11/2015 2:31:29 PM PDT by SandRat
Fort Huachuca, Arizona – It’s the beginning of the end of an era at Fort Huachuca. On April 27, National Morse Code Day, the last Manual Morse Code class begins here. In the future, the course will be taught by the Air Force at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas.
National Morse Code Day is celebrated on what would have been Morse’s 224th birthday. On May 24, 1844, Samuel F. B. Morse dispatched the first telegraph message in Morse code, the message, “What Hath God Wrought?” sent from the U.S. Capitol to Alfred Vail at a railroad station in Baltimore, Maryland.
The military first used Morse code during the Crimean War. Both the Union and Confederate armies heavily relied on Morse code during the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln utilized it to get military intelligence as well as command and control of his generals in the field.
Even in our increasingly high-tech world, there is still a need for this old school mode of communication, explained David Germain, chief of Morse Code Training and sole remaining civilian Morse code instructor at the 304th Military Intelligence Battalion. “We train Morse code because the adversary still uses Morse code,” Germain said. He and the other instructor for the course, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Joshua Henrichs, are training two airmen to serve as Morse code instructors at the new course in Texas.
Air Force Tech Sgt. Ryan Kilcrease agrees there is a continued need for Morse code training. “It remains the cheapest and most reliable means of communication,” added the instructor-in-training.
Senior Airman James Gosnell, also training to become a new instructor, learned Morse code at Fort Huachuca and upon completion of his training was assigned to Osan Air Force Base in South Korea for two years. He said the assignment was challenging.
“It took me nearly two months to get up to speed learning to keep up with some of the fastest transmitters in the world,” he said.
The Army, in a memo signed April 5, 1985, became the executive agency for training the Morse Code Course at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. A few years later, Fort Devens consolidated the Morse code training into a joint learning environment providing training to Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force. In 1993, the Morse code course moved to Fort Huachuca where it continued to be trained in a joint environment. The Army celebrated 30 years of being the Executive Agency to conduct Morse Code Training on April 5.
Over the years, the Navy and Marines reversed the training pipeline and started to send their students to Pensacola then to Fort Huachuca to attend the Morse code training. In 2006, the Air Force followed suit.
In late 2004, early 2005 the Department of Defense sent out a message stating there was no longer a need or requirement for operators trained in only Morse code. Based on that message, the Navy no longer sent their students to Fort Huachuca to be trained, deciding instead to conduct their own training in Pensacola, Florida. By 2007, the Marines also stopped attending Morse code training at Fort Huachuca.
That same year the training consolidated two separate courses, the Basic Morse Training course and the Advanced Morse Training course from 22 weeks of training down to 16 weeks of training. The cut in training time for the Army was due to the course not being considered as a primary Military Occupation Specialty, but as a secondary training for three Army specialties. In 1991, the course trained on average 1600 students annually for all the military services.
The current Morse code course is self-paced and 81 days are allotted to complete it. A student successfully completed it in a record 27 days. Master Sgt. Adella Creque, superintendent, 316th Training Squadron here, says the course is hard to because a student has to master one segment before moving on to the next and may fail several times before advancing.
In 2012 the Army stopped enrolling students in the Morse Code Course since it no longer has a requirement to train Soldiers. A cooperative agreement between the Air Force and Army allowed the training to continue here at Fort Huachuca until now.
“I think [Morse code] will always be out there. It’s cheap, easy, effective and reliable to use. There will always be a need for it,” said Germain about the future need for Morse code.
....best bent wire....
The Morse code around the edge reads:
British prisoner of War stitched hidden anti-Hitler message into Nazi quilt
A Prisoner of War stitched up his German captors after they unwittingly displayed his coded needlework containing the message 'God Save the King' and 'F**k Hitler' in prison camps where he was held captive.
“It’s OK. Morse is experiencing somewhat of a revival on the ham radio bands, despite the fact that we have many other digital modes that work better in bad conditions (e.g. PSK31); it’s a nostalgia thing, I guess.”
It is more than just nostalgia. There is something alluring about the self-sufficiency and simplicity of being able to communicate around the world on a couple watts power and without any infrastructure such as phone lines or internet. A ham friend of mine has designed and built a whole series of little QRP vacuum tube transmitters that would fit into a briefcase, and yet they can toss a signal around the world. He has also worked over 100 countries on all bands, using larger transmitters and code. The various Vibroplex mechanical “bugs” that he uses each have their own signature rhythm.
...there was a book called “Lassiters Run” by Le Carr about an agent behind the iron curtain communication in Morse code.
Facebook.
One more of my Boy Scout Merit Badges is going the obsolete route...
do-wah-diddy-diddy-dum-diddy-do
Soon they will be looking for folks to teach it again. When all is janed, MC CW will still work.
I had my Morse school at Keesler AFB and my crypto school at Goodfellow.
Frequency is fixed without some work on my part, and I've got a straight key that clamps onto my leg. An old aircraft style key.
I love the little beasty. It uses a 9V battery. I drag it out on field days, generally. I think I'm pushing 50 mw according to the spectrum analyser that I used to align the rig with.
Pretty much did the whole transceiver from scratch. Very straight-forward.
/johnny
Active Duty ping.
They already have that it’s called CB. No thank you keep the electronic theory questions, bring back CW for General and extra tests we don’t need appliance operators. Leave that for the CBers. The ones complaining about the test’s just need to study all good things come with WORK. To lazy stay with your cell phones and CB radios
During WWII, the govt put out a clever little bit of cardboard with the outer layer slightly larger than the inner. The outer layer was black with sideways slots in it; the inner was white. You squeezed the top and bottom between your thumb and forefinger. Squeeze and the white appeared between the slots. Let up and the white disappeared - it was like shuttered blinker-type Morse lamps the ships used. Talk about low tech - that worked. Today it would be some $500 gadget.
When I was in the Navy and was sitting around the messhall table b/sing, we had two radiomen who would communicate with each other by voicing dits and dahs. Drove us all crazy until the Chief of the Boat told them to quit or die.
CW requirements are not coming back. Trust me here. I know CW BTW.
If someone want to learn CW, they still can. No one is stopping them.
Most hams are basically appliance operators already. If someone wants to learn all the theory or become an electronic technician, they can still do that too.
BTW I not sure what you mean by “We don’t need” this and that. IMO this is the kind of attitude which would make a lot of people back off.
I have to tell you it was not until many years after I received my ticket when I learned real hands on experience regarding antenna design and actually learned/researched and got the nerve to work on rather high end solid state xcrv’s and solid state amplifiers.
Even after passing the 13wpm ditty, it did not help or prompt me to do any of the above. In fact I never operated or was even interested in CW until after the CW requirements were eliminated.
Just wanted you to know, there are a lot of people out there with very similar type stories.
You know, I bought a couple of CB’s just for emergency use, mostly, if necessary, on some trips out in Kansas where you’re totally isolated (main cell phone didn’t work but later I found one of my backups did).
It’s freaky-silent on ch 19 ... probably since just after “Smokey and the Bandit” but it does read the continuous mechanical-voiced weather updates on alternate channels.
Not a good idea to drop Morse Code. Never know when it’s going to come in handy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gfWxh5B1aE
No, say it ain’t so, you are a ditty-bopper! /...
I wasn't going to use the waiver, but I did get the volume cranked on the test.
/johnny
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