Morse code gets the "@" sign

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

http://www.cjonline.com/stories/021704/pag_morsecode.shtml

The 160-year-old communication system now has a new character to denote the "@" symbol used in e-mail addresses.

In December, the International Telecommunications Union, which oversees the entire frequency spectrum, from amateur radio to satellites, voted to add the new character.

The new sign, which will be known as a "commat," consists of the signals for "A" (dot-dash) and "C" (dash-dot-dash-dot), with no space between them.

The new sign is the first in at least several decades, and possibly much longer. Among ITU officials and Morse code aficionados, no one could remember any other addition.

[CO Liberal]

1. I Thought They Stopped Using Morse Code a Few Years Ago

Because technology made it obsolete.

[DarkPhenyx]

4. Nope. It is still in use.

You still need code for the higher licenses, and there are still entire sections of the spectrum restricted for code use only.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. FB!

73 DE N1FDU

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. WTF was that? (nt)

[Davis_X_Machina]

5. FB = "Fine Business" and is

...Morse shorthand for "Great!"

73 = "Best wishes", Morse shorthand for "See you later/Shalom/Ciao!"

DE = "From"

And my callsign is N1FDU.

Morse is the original text messaging system, with a rich set of abbreviations that speed things up and cross language barriers.

HW?

[markus]

10. Maybe you can explain the '33' on the beer bottles, then!

You would make American a better place.

I listened (DX?) a lot as a kid in the sixties, but never got off my can to get a license.

It's something I still think about as I'm closer to retirement than my teens.

[tridim]

6. Apologies to all hams

but IMO Morse code is completely pointless unless you're a sailor trapped in a submarine and have to tap signals on the hull. My dad was a ham and tried to convince me to get my novice license back in '84 or so. When he informed me that I'd have to learn code, I said no thanks. I was already BBS'ing by that time and it seemed extremely pointless to manually translate characters at 1 cps.

I guess there are some old-old-schoolers that still use code for fun, but there's really no point in learning it.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. There's no point in my playing guitar...

...when for $7.95 I can buy a CD of Segovia or Hendrix, either.

Fun is good enough for some people.

Respect for the Ancestors should count for something, too.

And there's a code-free HF license in the works....

73, CUL

[tridim]

9. Thanks for the info on the code-free license

That certainly interests me. Now, if my HOA would allow antennas I'd be in business. :)

[Kolesar]

8. I always wanted to build a 500 gram HF QRP rig to take backpacking &do CW

It would have to be lightweight for backpacking, or I would not take it. I figure I could "get out" even from the mountains with 5 Watts. I would carry a headphone, battery, some kind of key. If I got in trouble, I could just wait until P.M. when the MUF decreases and I could start keying SOS at 5 wpm. What do you think, is that enough power.?

I got my Novice in the 1970s but quit using it. I got a Tech license in 1999 to take a VHF rig backpacking, but discovered that I just could not hit any repeaters in the wilderness. I would have to learn code again. I got up to 10 wpm in the 1970s.