Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!samsung!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!cornell!rochester!pt.cs.cmu.edu!o.gp.cs.cmu.edu!netnews.srv.cs.cmu.edu!mack From: mack@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu (Clark McDonald) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Re: morse code Message-ID: Date: 14 Dec 90 20:24:55 GMT Sender: netnews@cs.cmu.edu (USENET News Group Software) Reply-To: mack@frc2.frc.ri.cmu.edu (Clark McDonald) Distribution: sci.electronics,rec.ham-radio Organization: Field Robotics Center, CMU Lines: 36 > Say, why do people use morse nowadays anyway? 1) Because it allows the ability to send/receive intelligence from almost anywhere to almost anywhere with a minimum of equipment. Never know when you might need to do just that. Back when the students were protesting in China, some of the only *real* inside information to get out of the country was done with simple (below 30 mHz) Morse equipment. 2) Morse is *fun*. folks who have never sat up all night long pounding the key on a flea power rig have trouble with this one. (just ask mah XYL er, uh, wife.... :-) ) 3) Simplicity has many virtues, one of them being low cost. I for one would never have learned much about radio electronics in my youth if Amateur Radio gear cost then (late '50s, early '60s) what it does today. There's so much knowledge gained in "rolling your own" equipment. Code is cheap. Code is cool. --mack Disclaimer: Claim 'er? I don't even *know* 'er! -- Clark (Mack) McDonald ARPA: mack@frc.ri.cmu.edu Field Robotics Center Carnegie Mellon University (412) 268-6555 Pittsburgh, PA 15213