A stylish renaissance for Morse Code

The US Federal Communications Commission recently eliminated the 5 word-per-minute Morse Code requirement for ham radio licenses. The decision makes sense in many ways, but it also pulls amateur radio operators another step away from their roots.

Paul Saffo at Stanford University comments: "For all appearances, Morse Code is the dead language of the digital age (it was in fact the first digital language) done in by computers, satellites and the Internet. ... the ether still resonates with the conversations of ham operators ditting and dahing over High Frequency airwaves around the planet. Morse has even gained some new converts, including me. ... back in July, with full knowledge of Morse’s obsolescence, I decided to learn it well enough to be able to actually carry on a radio conversation.

To celebrate my modest progress, I ordered a top-line GHD telegraph key (the Rolls-Royce of keys) as an early Christmas present to myself. ... Freed from all pretense of practical relevance in an age of digital communications, Morse will now become the object of loving passion by radioheads, much as another “dead” Language, Latin is kept alive today by Latin-speaking enthusiasts around the world."

Morse Code - Dead Language, Bright Future [via Boing Boing]