ARLA/CLUSTER: Código Morse faz amanhã 175 anos

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

175th Anniversary of Morse Code

Newsweek reports Morse Code is 175 years old and still as useful as ever

The first message sent by Morse code’s dots and dashes across a long
distance traveled from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore on Friday, May
24, 1844 - 175 years ago. It signaled the first time in human history
that complex thoughts could be communicated at long distances almost
instantaneously. Until then, people had to have face-to-face
conversations; send coded messages through drums, smoke signals and
semaphore systems; or read printed words.

Thanks to Samuel F.B. Morse, communication changed rapidly, and has
been changing ever faster since. He invented the electric telegraph in
1832. It took six more years for him to standardize a code for
communicating over telegraph wires. In 1843, Congress gave him $30,000
to string wires between the nation’s capital and nearby Baltimore.
When the line was completed, he conducted a public demonstration of
long-distance communication.

There is a thriving community of amateur radio operators who treasure
Morse code, too. Among amateur radio operators, Morse code is a
cherished tradition tracing back to the earliest days of radio. Some
of them may have begun in the Boy Scouts, which has made learning
Morse variably optional or required over the years. The Federal
Communications Commission used to require all licensed amateur radio
operators to demonstrate proficiency in Morse code, but that ended in
2007. The FCC does still issue commercial licenses that require Morse
proficiency, but no jobs require it anymore.

Read the full story at
https://www.newsweek.com/morse-code-175-years-old-useful-1432418