Morse code trumps SMS in head-to-head speed texting combat
posted May 6th 2005 1:45PM
Okay, the world title for fastest text messaging is
still raging in the streets. The victor in the most recent contest was a bit of a dark horse — 93-year-old telegraph
operator Gordon Hill delivered a resounding ass-whoopin' to his rival, 13-year-old Brittany Devlin, using Morse
Code. Of course, Mr. Hill does have nigh on 80 years of practice under his belt, which was enough to help him
triumph even despite Brittany's liberal use of texting slang (Mr. Hill transmitted the chosen phrase verbatim). The
showdown was sponsored by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia, and the rivals had to transmit the following
message: "Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell them where you are going and what you are wearing."
Damn straight! Screw the T9, Engadget's switching over to Morse from now on.
[Via textually]
That's awesome. I wonder how much faster those flippy phone things with the full QWERTY keyboards are. Or using a Blackberry or something like that. I wonder if morse code would still prevail.
I was always under the impression that morse code was pretty fast though. Whenever you hear it in cartoons and stuff, they're always "bip bip bipppity bip bippitty bip".
You know? :)
I've always wanted to learn morse code, but I thought it was obsolete. Well, now I have the incentive!
Heard about this a few weeks ago. The thing is that T9 is actually faster, it's just that the speed is hampered by the fact that you need to transmit it through your cell provider which takes a few seconds more. Morse on the other hand is just a straight p2p transmission.
There is something to be said for limited character sets... and a keyboard with one key!
I just tried the same phase with T9 input on my MS Smartphone and it only took me 58 seconds. Something isnt right.
---...---
but you can't moorse code while out or on the train or something like that. anywhere where you can sit to moorse code, you could IM with a real keyboard or skype to someone.
did you know the old nextel ring is morse code for SOS?
... --- ...
Re. 6. What does "OSO" stand for?
Re. 8. I think you'll find it's actually SMS, unless someone messed up on that model:
... -- ...
S.O.S. use to stand for and still does I guess 'Save Our Souls' I have my General class FCC license (HAM)and that question came up.
...and of course a great starting point for general info about Morse Code, including all the extra characters, is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code
.
if you learned morse code, why not just pick a couple of quickly enterable (is that a word?), easily distinguishable characters and let loose the dit dah fury?
here's how i would do it - set the case for all lower case - 4 and 7 are dots, 6 and 9 are dashes - space key is good - so SOS would be keyed as 474696474, and would text as pgpmwmgpg - this works quite nicely visually, where the round part of the p and g would start to look like dots, and the vertical lines of the m and w start to look like dashes - i bet a real morse coder could get the hang of it and whip things out on a phone pad just as fast as on a morse key
hm, maybe i should have patented that! i hereby release this "method of entering morse code via T9 pad as described in the paragraph above" under a creative commons license, 2005 qwepoi biotronics, some rights reserved: attribution, noncommercial, share alike
Well, I translated it into morse code and it only takes about 30 seconds for the entire message to play at 40 wpm (which is a pretty decent speed). However, a more experienced operator can use morse code at a much faster speed, probably 50+.
Well, I translated it into morse code and it only takes about 30 seconds for the entire message to play at 40 wpm (which is a pretty decent speed). However, a more experienced operator can use morse code at a much faster speed, probably 50+.
Same here, Gregg. Took me 60 seconds flat using T9.
This would be a KICK ASS contest... best photoshop of a cell phone with a morse code tapper on it ;)
RULE! Even better than that N3650 with the Rotary!
I love it when old tech proves it still packs a punch. I set up a TollFreeISP account the other day for on-the-road use with my Jornada 720 (soon to be replaced by a Zaurus C1000) and when I tested it I was astonished how fast a 56K modem can still be. WAY faster than I remember it...
Using morse code with 2 numbers sounds like a good idea so long as your friends all know morse as well (but I guess if you want to cheat phones could be programmed to translate it for you on either end).
Funny though, 'KaiBeezy', you might be on to something. Right now most teens probably wouldn't touch morse code with a 10 foot pole due to it's 'Boyscout'/Geek/HAM-outcast overtones, but if you manage to implant in their young impressionable minds that it's 'cool' and can be used for semi covert text messaging...you could probably get thousands of kids to actually sit down and learn something of their own free will. And I'm talking about the COOL/TRENDY kids. And while you're at it contrive some way to make money off the idea (always a plus). Like a phone with only 2 keys and a D-pad to show what a hardcore morse-texting savant you are. You could even make it iPod white and copy the minimalistic design of the iPod and rides it's wave of popularity. Then all you need is commerials on E and during prime time TV with Jeff Goldbloom saying:
"mPhone. When less is more."
(the 'm' of course standing for 'morse')
Dang...
I think I'll head on over to the patent office myself :)
Wish you well...
Oh, yeah, the fact that the guy was 93 simply TRIPLES the amusement factor :P
Here's an interesting aside about Morse code.
If you are a musician, typical Morse sounds like 6/8 and 9/8 time. Dash = a quarter note, dot = a quarter note. Spaces between letters = eighth rest, between words = a quarter rest (some operators use a dotted quarter).
Back when I was first learning to fly, we identified Automatic Direction Finder radios at airports by their continually broadcast Morse three-letter designator. Sebring, FL was SEF or . .-. ..-. I think- it's been awhile =)
The "melody" of each airport's ADF radio was like music to our ears!
i was thinking about learning morse code a week ago
i bet it would be good for cheating on exams... not that i do that
I like the fact the girl actually got the message wrong. She added a few words to it.
I can certainly morse faster than I can text message. I can morse with any button. Any one of the buttons on the cellphone will work. The "straight key", used since the 19th century makes it easier to do if you have to do it for more than 10 minutes or so but it is not necessary. In fact, a pair of paddles are MUCh better than a straight key.
The cool thing about morse code is that it only takes one signal wire (it's single bit binary with time encoding). You can display morse code on a single LED although it takes a bit of concentration to read it. It can also be done with a buzzer in the pocket, aka a cellphone vibrate ringer. SO, you can send it with a celphone button and receive it while it's in your pocket. Think of the advantages?
In addition, the technology to send and receive morse code by radio is 100 years old.
It's not too tough.
Something is definately not right. I tried that in T9 on my phone, and I typed it in with proper puncuation in 35 seconds. And it doesn't take 55 seconds to get to another phone.
I'm a ham radio operator. Back on the old CW morse code traffic nets it wasn't unusual to pull somewhere around 60 wpm or so, although most of us were around 40 wpm. Ususally with keyers. 25 wpm is about as fast as one can go on a hand key. There's 21 words in the phrase, so figure somewhere between 40 to 50 seconds, 30 if you're a real speed demon. At those speeds, by the by, you don't translate the letters in your head - you _hear_ them as they go flying by. _ .... ., "the", is just a blip whose sound you know.
****CAN'T WE JUST HAVE REAL DAMNED KEYS!?!?!?!?*****
Cellphone style 111 = C, 222 = D type texting is for people in prison camps who have all the time in the world to study their phone and nothing else.
How long until someone gets the balls to give us a real set of keys and we can get past this technological plateau?
Regarding granny down east's comment about morse code sounding like off-beat music, if you listen to the Rush song "YYZ" off the Moving Pictures CD, the opening riff is morse code for YYZ, which is the airport code for Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International airport. And it's a pretty cool tune too!
-.-- -.-- --..
Sorry Kristina T. that you won that RAZR V3....
First of all, I think English is one of the worst languages to text in on a phone (okay, maybe something with accents would be like French would be worse). You have to deal with spaces, apostrophes, and all sorts of stuff. Being in Japan, I usually choose to text in Japanese for a few simple reasons. One, a given phrase is usually shorter (number of characters) in Japanese than it is in English. Second, Japanese phones have an auto-fill feature. So if I started typing in the phrase "hello" (in Japanese of course), after about the 2nd or 3rd character, a whole list of options appear on the bottom of my screen that give me possible inputs to what I want to type in. The phone also remembers the last pre-stored phrase I selected, so the most frequently selected ones always appear on the top of my list. In this manner, I can usually get a text message of in less than half a minute. (Given I have good reception)
If you truly want the fastest text-ers in the world, you're looking in the wrong place. They need to come down to Japan or Korea to do some recuiting.
-.. --- . ... - .... .. ... -- . .- -. .. .... .- ...- . - --- .-. . - ..- .-. -. -- -.-- .--. .... --- -. . ..--..
doesthismeanihavetoreturnmyphone?
No, but it would help.
_... . _. ... _... . ... _ _... . _. _ .__ .. ._. .
73 and good QRM
This is a little ridiculous, since the operators are unevenly matched. This doesn't show that texting is worse than telegraphing, only that a very old telegrapher can beat some random kid with SMS:
http://elliottback.com/wp/archives/2005/05/07/texting-v-morse-code/
Screw Verizon, I just got the new Morse clicker for my v710 but they've already crippled its functionality because of the threat it poses to their text messaging revenue stream. I smell a lawsuit...
What did Mr. Hill use to send his message? The only way it would be even a remotely fair contest would be if he were required to use a straight key. Add a bug (semi-automatic keyer) or paddles and SMS is left in the dust.
I know people who could literally send and receive at over 70 WPM in Morse. I only made it up to 5 WPM. (This was back when a General license required 13 WPM.)
73 DE KE4EUJ CL
imagine how simple of a phone you could make. ive always wanted a basic cell phone simply b/c half the features are absolutely useless. it would be freakin cheap too.
It took me ~45s using a Treo with a full qwerty keyboard. I have to admit that I'm not very fast on it either.
I hate SMS/text msgs for this very reason.. its so frustrating to type 'em in... wonder who/why uses them anyway..
Morse code has been around a really long time. In fact it is still relied on today for specific purposes. During the next major emergency or disaster your going to attempt to pull out your phone, and dial a number right? Wrong. For every 10 cell users there is only one line to the world available, and that is with the best services. You might have better luck with your SMS, but still requires a connection. Ham Radio on the other hand will connect with others via point to point (AdHoc Networking) or via relays, we can get a signal around the world faster than anything else, if there is a good opening in the frequency spectrum. Also, ours will work when yours fails. "When all else fails, Amateur Radio is there!" Just a tid bit for your reading pleasure. If you would like more information check out the following link to the American Radio Relay League www.arrl.org 73's de KD7CAO
For emergency radio communications where the signal's not good enough for voice transmission, morse code (or CW) will get through. Even when a frequency has interference, you can still pick out dit-dahs.
I learned Morse Code on the PC with these freeware from amateur radio ops:
http://www.ac6v.com/morseprograms.htm
I recall a Morse conversation I had via the ionosphere on short wave frequencies with a 91 year New Zealander a couple of year back. He was quite proficient with his key. I happened to be using a kit ham radio transceiver I purchased new for $25, called the Rock Mite 20. We were over 8500 miles apart.
Jerry (N4EO in the ham radio community)
I recall a Morse conversation I had via the ionosphere on short wave frequencies with a 91 year New Zealander a couple of year back. He was quite proficient with his key. I happened to be using a kit ham radio transceiver I purchased new for $25, called the Rock Mite 20. We were over 8500 miles apart.
Jerry (N4EO in the ham radio community)
I recall a Morse conversation I had via the ionosphere on short wave frequencies with a 91 year New Zealander a couple of year back. He was quite proficient with his key. I happened to be using a kit ham radio transceiver I purchased new for $25, called the Rock Mite 20. We were over 8500 miles apart.
Jerry (N4EO in the ham radio community)
If you would like to hear the living Morse Code in full-throated roar, find a shortwave receiver that can receive SSB (or CW, the abbreviation for Morse) and tune from 14.000 to 14.100 MHz on May 28th and 29th during daylight hours. It's a worldwide Morse competition with several thousand participants all rattling away at speeds from 20 to 50 words per minute.
On a practical note, given that Morse is probably the simplest signaling methodology in use, rivalling "one if by land, two if by sea," it is an excellent backup for all kinds of emergencies. And not just radio - folks unable to speak due to illness or injury can use Morse to communicate about as fast as typing.
Anyway, Morse might be antique, but so is the airplane and the bicycle. It's really rather cool when you work your way up to conversational speed and are no longer having to mentally translate between dots and dashes and meaning.
73 (radio for "Best Regards")
Ward Silver, ham call N0AX
Nothing like gramps administering a total beatdown on a whippersnapper. *That's* the story here.
Three cheers for the nonagenarian putting the arrogant little text-turd back into her rightful place - middle school. Heehee.
In case you want to listen to REAL morse code contacts from your computer try the following link: http://hamgallery.com/dx2004/
Each link is a RealAudio file...
Enjoy and 73 de W?M
Well, I'm not proficient with CW as others are, having recently gotten my Tech liscense, but've known for a long time that CW is faster, much, much faster than regular qwerty text.
Add to the fact that I've been around both computers and radio all of my life, and it's quite enteresting the conversatiosn that you get.
But I must admit, it is fun to hear about these things.
73 de KI4JVL
You all might want to watch the Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Friday 5/13/05. My brother Ben is the kid in Utah who holds the record for SMS, and he has been invited to compete against somebody using Morse code. Should be interesting, but you all can guess who I am rooting for.
You can read the article here if you haven't seen it yet:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/8288620206451518/
Jordan, good luck to Ben and keep in mind that this "battle" is all in fun. I will definately watch the show.
The competition on the Tonight Show will help older viewers understand how the younger generation uses today's technology and will help younger viewers realize that there is another hobby out there that is fun and can be shared by all ages.
k3tvc is my FCC amateur radio license callsign
73 de k3tvc (which means "regards from k3tvc")
On last night's (5/13/05) Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the Morse code team of Chip Margelli K7JA and Ken Miller K6CTW easily beat the SMS "text messaging" team. No contest, so to speak.
73, Bruce Nolte, N1BN
What a great plug for Ham radio
That is super cool
Tom B(KD7TRN) -7 when mobile 73
The competition on The Tonight Show was great fun.
Jordan, Ben was a fine competitor, and is a fine fellow to boot. If he wants Morse Code lessons any time, I can hook him up.
;o)
Chip Margelli
Amateur Radio Callsign: K7JA
"The Sender"
I salute all y'all hams. My undying respect
73 de DJCarbon43