Morse Code

Morse Code

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Morse Code

Morse code is a language created by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail to be used with the telegraph. Each letter of the alphabet is made of dots and dashes that were originally sent over telegraph wires or by radio waves from one place to another. It was the only way to rapidly communicate over very long distances before telephones and two-way radios were able to do the job better.

Perhaps the most famous “word” in Morse Code is SOS. Contrary to popular belief, SOS does not mean “save our ship,” although it often did just that. Rather, it was chosen as the international Morse code distress signal, because the three dots for S and the three dashes for O (... --- ...) make a clear and distinct signal. Before SOS became the standard radio distress signal, there were others. CQ (“seek you”) was a general call to any station. D was internationally recognized in telegraph cable traffic to precede urgent messages, thus CQD (-.-. --.- -..) meant “urgent message to any station.”

At the First Congress of Wireless Telegraphy in 1903, the Italians suggested SSSDDD (... ... ... -.. -.. -..) to combine the distinct three dots of the S with the urgency of the D. German radio operators used SOE (... --- .) but quickly realized that the single dot of the E could get easily lost in the static. For that reason they had already shifted to SOS by the time of its adoption at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention of 1906. The United States did not adopt SOS until after the Titanic disaster in 1912.

In 1995, the United States Coast Guard ended the use of Morse Code transmissions in its maritime communications service, signaling the end of an era in the history of communications.

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