Friggin' Code!

The BBQ Pit
1

You sir have just committed the ultimate sin of ignorance, assumption and attempted belittlement, combined.

As an “Extra” class license holder, and a CWer for more than 45 years, I will offer without reservation that your need to deliver that tripe is nothing more than an attempt to make you feel better about yourself, and appear as if you are far more “savvy” than you and I both know is the truth!

I am too old for much of what I type to be anything more than a method of bringing up old and fond memories, so (“no brag, just fact”) let me say this:

I have contacted every country on this rock with an available keyer whether they were a national or not. Further, This was done under the classic rules of “…it must all fit inside a toilet paper tube, including battery, except for the antenna and earpiece…”

QSO aknowledgement cards from every (read it slowly) country on this rock!

I can and still regularly cause my high speed twitch muscles to generate 30 WPM…on a straight key. I can “hear” and understand 40 WPM…still.

I can key any random 8 or so word phrase and a rather large community will instantly recognise my “fist” and identify me.

The seemingly uncontrollable need for some to post out of arrogance, ignorance and ego is always sad, but intriguing.

My post was nothing more than an erroneous attempt to toss in a little something light and airy as a distraction from some of the routine intensity.

With the quick and clever mind you so freely give of, please provide me with a URL pointed at a location that will run dits and dahs in both directions as mine for (.)s and (-)es did.

Redeem yourself oh typeby sniper, convince me that you’re not another of the many Eviscerati.

Tell me tales of your early experiences in Cub Scouts and the life-long if even somewhat diminished interest in amateur radio. Tell me of your extremely low wattage conquests. Inform me of the location of your accolades so that I may read them and rejoice in the belief that the ARRL finds you more enlightening than I did.

Is there a moderate degree of eloquence to your post…yes.

Does your syntax suggest you have at least average if not greater intelligence…yes.

At this point, if you have nothing else to add, then I have nothing but compassion and sorrow for you.

Go forth good fellow, but consider that thorough thought ought to preceed running your fingers so rudely.
Just a thought: Why not let this remain between JTR and me? Seems logical.

2

Huh? I’m not sure if you’re actually refuting or even debating anything in my post.

Let me ask you this: When you communicated with your buddies, did you send them e-mails and/or letters with written sequences of dots and dashes? Or, on the other hand, did you hammer away with your key and then LISTEN to their responses?

Here are my credentials: Morse code was my specialty in the Marines—I was a so-called “Manual Morse Intercept Operator” for seven years. My official duties didn’t require me to handle a key (although I could and did occasionally), but they did require me to listen to Morse eight hours a day all over the world for defense and security reasons. Judging from my own experiences, I grant you everything you say about your own experiences. Yes, I too could listen to Morse even faster than I could type it. And I could recognize the “fingerprints” of the different operators at small stations as they switched off shifts.

I don’t take away anything from you as an amateur. You clearly know your stuff. But the fact remains: Communicating by dots and dashes on a written page via a software interpreter is comparable to “using Morse code” in just the same way that having Babelfish translate your posts into Russian is the equivalent of “speaking Russian.”

And as far as my exposure to written dots and dashes goes, I dealt with them exactly two days in my life: It was the two days I was learning the Morse alphabet in military training school in Pensacola. Otherwise, on the extremely rare occasions when we Morse operators wanted to write out code on paper for some esoteric reason, we tended to spell it out, out of common courtesy. It’s just a pain in the ass to read to read dots and dashes.

Having said all that, let me get to the real gist of your response (as I read it):

Yes, I realize full well that I’m playing the role of the insufferable, priggish, unlikable curmudgeon when I attack a light-hearted exchange of posts and use my professional credentials to thumb my nose at the posters and say, “Cut that out, children.”

But what the hell—that’s what the Pit is for. It’s for posters to rant about pet peeves and to raise hell about the pettiest and silliest personal points of pride. Generally speaking, few big issues are resolved in the Pit. Very few big principles are debated here. Personally, by nature, I tend to let a lot of water go under the bridge, so I don’t end up initiating a good rant here very often. A Morse code thread finally gave me the opportunity to pull up my suspenders, dust off my old professional credentials, and loudly proclaim to all within hearing a loud “HARRUMPH!”

You shouldn’t fail to notice the tongue-in-cheek potential of my rant (or of many of the other rants in the Pit). As I typed, half of me was saying “A thread where people use a software conversion program to relay Morse in written dots and dashes—how fucking silly is that!” And half of me was chuckling and saying “So just how injured can I appear over the silliest of misdemeanors committed by my fellow posters? How fiercely can I excoriate my fellow posters for the tiniest of nits without appearing totally over the top?”

In other words, don’t take it too seriously. It’s a Pit rant.

I do insist that the original Morse code thread seems totally ridiculous from my point of view. I stand by that, no matter what your own opinion on the subject. I still say it ain’t Morse code if it consists of written dits and dahs using a software conversion program. And since I was posting to the Pit, I felt no need to moderate the way I expressed myself.

If you want to cite your own credentials to justify a light-hearted use of Morse code for entertainment purposes, that’s fine with me. We can agree to disagree. And if you want to rant at me for being a pissant curmudgeon who thunders and cavils at the slightest quibbles, then I’ll plead guilty as charged. It was fun, and I don’t do it nearly enough. :smiley:

3

Damn you, damn you to a place that prevents the enjoyment of your favorite vices, and woman. May this bleak condemnation leave you gasping for mercy after 27 hours of abstinence.

You acquit yourself so fully and stylishly that my gaseous bit of intestinology seems pointless now.

As an obstreperous curmudgeon myself, I salute your pissantliness, and fold.

Cheers good fellow.

4

:smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

And all the best to you!

5

Hmmm. This has taken a distinctly un-pitlike tone.

6

[sub]Anybody want to discuss no-code Tech class?[/sub]

::slam! scamper, scamper, scamper [sub]pant pant pant[/sub]::

7

No code tech…NO CODE TECH…NO CODE TECHNICIAN!!! awwkkk, errumph, gassppp, sputtterrr, where’s my nitro?

Any, ah sez any waze y’all chooses ta joins the radgeo wayv bandwagon is copacetic by me. There are some old farts who have such a narrow view of the natural progression of things that code became the rallying cry of a dying breed.

Change can be good.

Beat the same note long and loud enough and no one listens anymore!

8

Hey I was staying out of this, but I’m glad you came to an amicable agreement. ;). Basic and 12WPM endorsement in Canada. They will be allowing everyone up here wwith 5 WPM access to all hf bands… Oh well, I’m glad I learned CW even though I never use it.
Keith
VE5KIS