If so, I would assume on a much smaller scale than 20 or 30 years ago?
Navy Signalmen need to know it to send messages via signal lamp. As far as I know, it’s still required.
I doubt it’s much changed since 20 or 30 years ago, i.e. 1985-1995 vs. today. Net of navy semaphore lights it was pretty much or entirely zero then and IMO still is.
I would bet it’s changed a bunch between 1960 and 1980 though.
In aviation up through the early 1960s the more advanced civil pilot ratings required a limited ability to listen & understand, but not to send, Morse code at pretty slow speeds. I don’t recall exactly when that requirement was rescinded but I recall my Dad studying that stuff in the early 60s and I never had to when I did basic civil flying in the 70s, military flying in the 80s, or professional civil flying in the 90s and subsequent. Even now the only aerial use of Morse is the audio identifier for various radio beacons. And the charts all depict both the call letters and the dot-dash pattern, so it takes approximately zero knowledge of Morse to verify the station’s call sign.
As of the early 1980s when I was working with it, none of the command and control stuff USAF used was based on Morse. I also worked with the Army at a tactical level and all their tactical comm was voice as well. We had dedicated USAF radiomen but IIRC they didn’t have any Morse training. I recall conversations about them getting Ham licenses and the PITA of having to learn the obsolete Morse stuff.
It’s not even required for the Extra Class ham license anymore. I learnt it before the requirement was dropped and used to be fairly proficient with it. But I haven’t been on the air in the last few years and it is one of those skills that requires practice to maintain so I doubt I could copy it reliably anymore.
I was in the Army signal corp from 79 to 84, we didn’t have to know it then.
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LOL.
Cute. I had to guess a couple, but knew most of it. Sorta like playing wheel of fortune.
I sure couldn’t have done it in anything like real time though.
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awesome!
this / post / has / been / morsed / by / the / morseist / ttt
Yeah, but you guys didn’t/don’t have to send ship-to-ship.
I found the translator this afternoon. I take it worked for you guys.
About once every five years I find a use for the Morse code I learned when I got my ham license in 1980.
This was that moment.
FYI, it still has a pretty important use in that as long as you can do some sort of on and off signal, you can transmit a message–knocks, thumps, sparks, lights, mirrors, whatever. Close to the lowest common denominator for communication in a true emergency.
I remember standing on “vulture’s row” on the Nimitz (an observation balcony close to the bridge) wasting time watching flight operations when I saw another vessel signaling our ship with a signal lamp. It was cool knowing that nobody near me knew what they were saying. It wasn’t anything exciting though, just some dull formal greetings.
I actually have special software on my laptop. (BSD Games package. Classic Unix.)
That rating’s been discontinued as of 2003.