ARLA/CLUSTER: The Morse telegraphy in modern times

[João Gonçalves Costa]

Nowadays, the telegraphy have its dedicated place in communication museums, being evidenced for been used particularly in the past. Despite its effectiveness in terms of reliability, radiotelegraphy has been overtaken by digital communication modes, which allow the transmission of at least the same amount of information, but which are in addition more successful dealing with weaker signals in terms of SNR.

Even in situations of traffic congestion, and thanks to a slender bandwidth of a few Hz per second, telegraphy achieve true digital prowess.

Unfortunately however, the human ear can not be as sensitive as needed to handle with a band thickness as narrow as the modern digital systems make use of.

Nevertheless, a too narrow bandwidth means very slow transmission speed, not always appropriate for certain purposes, such as rescue and emergency communications.

Such technological advances, along with the evolution of electronics and software, have led to the rejection of communications in Morse code by the official services. By ending with wireless telegraphy, they were simultaneously discarding one of the most important communication elements for over a century... the singular figure of the Morse telegraphy operators or telegraphers.

It is precisely about telegraphers and Morse code telegraphy compared to modern communication resources, that I wish to address you a few words.

My memory flees back to those old times when men and women, serving anonymously, become interfaces between two points needing some kind of communication link.

Often, such communications have saved lives and property, without anyone ever met the face of the "strongest connection" between "rescuer" and "rescued".

For nearly 200 years, these Morse code operators, either by wire or wireless telegraphy, made the world evolves and progress. They have carried good and bad news to the four corners of the world, launching distress calls but frequently bringing the good news and a cry of joy via telegraphy. This was all made in the name of assistance.... on behalf of others. They were merely single links of the chain.

Today, only Ham radio operators pay a daily tribute to them, maintaining fully functioning radiotelegraphy emissions, with the effectiveness of old times, and always prepared to assert the telegraphers unsurpassed values.

Commercial services managers, unfamiliar with the technical aspects and reliability of telegraphic communications, particularly for emergency response, had in mind other standards like exonerating expenses with employees and often trusting only on the reports of so-called experts, who were frequently sailing in a sea of monetary interests. Advised to urgently swing to "digital", unconsciously embarking on a "spiral" of "modernity" such executives forget, more and more often, the real value of the human worth.

In the name of efficiency, Morse code telegraphy systems proved to be too unsophisticated for their own survival. In addition, real skilled operators in telegraphy are needed in order to ensure an efficient and successful service.

Younger engineers, with a more modernist vision of the world, and who never has been familiar with the true virtues of telegraphy, tried to implement, at all levels, increasingly complex and automatic systems, to gradually put aside the interfering capacity of the human being as a key element of decision in many components of the communication system.

They have put together quite dependable webs, but completely unintelligible to a single operator and highly reliant on everything or everyone, on an increasingly complex arrangement. This option leads to the inevitable loss of control over the entire system.

Additionally, the chance of communication failing or even breakdown, in modern systems, is infinitely higher than in simple radiotelegraphic method used in the past. This happens because the links are no longer point to point and since the key element it is not anymore the human factor.

Nowadays, a sequence of communications between two single points, even if within walking distance, implies an enormous asset of technical arrangements, including equipment and software. It is not rare that, to establish reliable communication within one or two kilometres, through modern systems, information has to travel hundreds or more, because the management of traffic is done by means of a remote server installed at an impressive distance away, nobody knows where precisely. Repeatedly in order to cover such huge distance, the signal travels through a variety of circuits and resources such as copper wire, hertzian beams, optical fibre, etc.

Such number of technical resources in-between two communication terminals end up being points where potentially failure can arise and as each one of it becomes a "nexus" of the communication chain. This means that a single failing can become a disaster and communication breaks down.

The process of such complex systems needs skilled operators with some level of expertise and know-how, so any incorrect action, somewhere on the sequence, can seriously compromise the effectiveness of communications within these modern technologies.

Besides what have been written above, a natural disaster, or other calamity event, endangers the operation of at least some parts in the communication chain, so there is a latent high risk on being dependent of modern communications systems for the potential failure they represent under these collapse circumstances.

On the other hand, the modern communication systems, providing high-speed information are able to serve tens if not hundreds of Mbps. However, this aspect it is only interesting on the commercial point of view, where bandwidth versus amount of information is what progress the business.

The response of such system is only viable in predetermined situations, where events are all planned and predictable.

On the other side of this equation, there are a number of situations in which a large amount of information has no interest and is not even desirable.

Thinking specifically about emergency communications, rescue operations and similar situations, the messages exchange must be effective and highly reliable. This kind of information should only be essential to enable rapid decision making and unequivocal response, in order to react promptly to the seriousness of the event.

It should consist on a unambiguous and precise communication, with no delays or latencies on the interconnections, supported by single and simple structure that allows effective communication between participants in an autonomous way, without depending on intermediate systems and preferably completely controllable by human involvement.

At this particular point the radiotelegraphy with its simplest transmitters and capable radio operators (as many of us amateurs) can be a paradigm. We continue in fact showing to the world and to the "devotees of the digital age", that the Morse code and the wireless telegraphy in particular, can be a valuable resource of communication. This is in fact a uncomplicated, reliable, effective and significant communication expertise that will never disappear, no matter as much as someone try to justify the millions spent on high technology. Morse code will probably be always a part of the communications panorama, regarded as the most simple, fast, economical, reliable and effective way to communicate, even in the harshest conditions.

Yet the timeless virtues of radiotelegraphy could never become factual without the vast capacity of human brain, which is adaptable to many different listening environments, often populated by all sorts of noise, where only the experienced and attentive telegrapher can discriminate a particular very vital signal, transmitted from a far distant place, where someone needs to be heard.

These words are my reverence to all Morse code telegraphy operators, who are still operative or who were in the past, for your ability to communicate in a way as simple as effective way, but essentially for being able to use your audition and skills in order to share messages among men, for transforming the tip of your fingers in to clear signals of simple and accurate information, for the odd place you occupy in the history of communications... and for all the lives saved thanks to your transmitted signals, for the joys and sorrows you have remitted, for your selfless and anonymous work over nearly 200 years. For all of that I express my admiration and tribute as a world's mere citizen.

  

73 from 
Carlos Mourato CT4RK

Sines - Portugal

Fonte: Southgate Amateur Radio News