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back to article .. ..-. / -.-- --- ..- / -.-. .- -. / .-. . .- -.. / - .... .. ... then a US Navy fondleslab just put you out of a job

For over a hundred years, navies around the world have messaged each other at the speed of light – signal lamp light. Communicating using Morse code and lamps has been outpaced by modern radio and satellite transmissions, although every US Navy ship still carries one of these lights. The problem, however, is that no one is …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Reminds me of a construction article in one of the amateur radio magazines in the mid 1960s. A small box with ferrite core memory for generating Morse code from alphanumeric keys. Not sure if it could also receive. It was a wondrous thing like something from science fiction. Up to then spring-loaded "speed bugs" were the fastest mechanical aids.

    G3DML used to tell the story of his wartime training in morse code reception. He was failing to reach the required highest speed standard. So his boss sat him down for an intensive training session. He put a packet of 20 cigarettes on the table - and said they would only stop the session when John had smoked them all. He passed the test - although by the time of telling the story he had long graduated to cigars.

    2 0 Reply
  2. jdoe.700101

    When all else fails

    you can still use your eyes...in theory - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-navy-asia-exclusive-idUSKBN19H13C

    1 0 Reply
  3. tim292stro

    Vulture: .... .- --..-- / .-- .... .- - / .- / -.-. .-. --- -.-. -.- / --- ..-. / ... .... .. - . / - .... .- - / - .... . -.-- / .- .-. . / --. . - - .. -. --. / .-. .. -.. / --- ..-. / -- --- .-. ... . .-.-.- / .. / .-. . -.-. .- .-.. .-.. / .- -. / .- -. . -.-. -.. --- - . / .- -... --- ..- - / -- --- .-. ... . / -... . .. -. --. / -.-. .-. .. - .. -.-. .- .-.. / --- -. / - .... . / -... . .- -.-. .... / .-.. .- -. -.. .. -. --. / .- - / -. --- .-. -- .- -. -.. -.-- / -....- / .-. .- -.. .. --- ... / ... .... --- - / --- ..- - / .- -. -.. / .-- . - --..-- / --- -. .-.. -.-- / .... .- -.. / .- / ... .. --. -. .- .-.. / .-.. .. --. .... - / - --- / .-. .- -.. .. --- / .- .-. - .. .-.. .-.. . .-. -.-- / -.-. --- .-. .-. . -.-. - .. --- -. ... / -.--.- .- ..-. - . .-. / --- -. . / -... .- -.. / ... .... --- - / .-- .. .--. . -.. / --- ..- - / - .... . / -.-. --- -- -- .- -. -.. / ... - .- ..-. ..-. -.--.- .-.-.- / -. .. -.-. . / - .... .. -. --. / .- -... --- ..- - / -- --- .-. ... . / .. ... / - .... .- - / -.-- --- ..- / --- -. .-.. -.-- / -. . . -.. / .- / ... --- -- . - .... .. -. --. / ... .... .. -. -.-- / --- .-. / .-. . ..-. .-.. . -.-. - .. ...- . / - --- / ... . -. -.. / .. - .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- / .- -. -.. / .- / -... .-. .- .. -. / - --- / .--. .-. --- -.-. . ... ... / .. - .-.-.- / - --- --- / . -..- .--. . -. ... .. ...- . / - --- / - .-. .- .. -. / -- -.-- / .- ... ... / -....- / .. ..-. / - .... . -.-- / -.-. .- -. .----. - / - .-. .- .. -. / .--. . --- .--. .-.. . / - --- / .-.. . .- .-. -. / .- / -.. .. ..-. ..-. . .-. . -. - / .-- .- -.-- / --- ..-. / - -.-- .--. .. -. --. / - .... . / .-.. . - - . .-. ... / - .... . -.-- / .- .-.. .-. . .- -.. -.-- / ..- ... . / .-- . / .- .-. . / ..-. ..- -.-. -.- . -.. .-.-.-

    8 0 Reply
  4. -tim
    Pint

    It was a skill that some were very good with

    The WWII signalman who taught my father morse code decided he would join a typing contest run by the towns office supply place. The first prize was one of the brand new daisy wheel typewriters. The guy brought his manual typewriter and managed to out type all the local secretaries and then tried the new electronic typewriter and it couldn't keep up with him. He would routinely communicate for hours at time in the 100+ WPM bands and he could do bursts to the limits of the equipment.

    3 0 Reply
  5. razorfishsl

    you can bet GPS will be the first thing targeted during a world war.

    7 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      >you can bet GPS will be the first thing targeted during a world war.

      If WW3 happens then having a non functional satnav is going to be the least of my worries.

      10 0 Reply
  6. Demosthenes Locke

    I can lend the Navy a slide rule in case they need one.

    5 0 Reply
    1. jake Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Nothing wrong with sliderules (or Subjects^WTitles)

      I have, and use, several on a near daily basis. My .fav:

      http://sliderulemuseum.com/Hemmi/S071_Hemmi_255.jpg

      Now THAT's what I call a Sun Workstation!

      6 2 Reply
      1. Flocke Kroes Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Nothing wrong with sliderules

        Before I was a PFY, I used sliderules and log tables. I could never get them to store equations and repeat a calculation with different inputs.

        7 0 Reply
        1. jake Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Nothing wrong with sliderules

          What's your point, Flocke?

          A sliderule's more accurate than guestimating for fencing, fertilizer, seed, roofing, paint, roadbase, DG, working loads on beams and the like ... and I keep a circular slide rule in each of the aircraft and larger boats. Just to really make you think, I also use an abacus nearly daily. It's in the feed barn. I use it to calculate livestock feed & supplement needs. Electric calculators tend to die in a matter of weeks in that kind of environment.

          Horses for courses and all that ...

          2 5 Reply
  7. fixerdave

    meanwhile...

    The kids are learning Morse code on their phones so they can pocket-message each other... you know, like during a test. 2 button keyboard, vibrate on receive.

    So, a decade from now the new recruits will be showing the old timers how to do it right.

    11 0 Reply
    1. Bill Gray
      Reply Icon

      Re: meanwhile...

      Had some visiting youngsters tell me a few days back that in schools where cellphones are banned, kids set them to ring at a high frequency, such that they can hear them but annoying older people can't. I could imagine kids communicating with Morse code pitched high enough to get past teachers.

      9 0 Reply
  8. Pangasinan Philippines
    Coat

    Joke Alert

    She was only a radio operator's daughter,

    But her Da Da Did It

    8 0 Reply
  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Kids today

    In my day we would navigate by the stars and watch for sea monsters.

    4 0 Reply
  10. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    One advantage of morse

    Is that it is universal. So when your ship can't communicate with the ship next door because you have different versions of super-secret-secure-system, or they are a different navy - you can use morse.

    Except they can't read your 200wpm computer morse and your system can't cope with manual traffic

    5 0 Reply
  11. rcp27

    Modern naval warfare is a high tech business. If the ship has lost all the more advanced tech than a flashing lamp and mk1 human eyeball, pretty much the most useful thing it's going to be able to do is return to port for repairs. Beyond ... --- ... I'm not really sure what useful role in a naval warfare environment this bit of legacy kit will offer.

    1 1 Reply
    1. collinsl Bronze badge
      Reply Icon

      You don't want ...---... you want -.-. --.- -..!

      0 0 Reply
  12. Stuart Dole
    FAIL

    Fitzgerald?

    I recall that the container ship that collided with the Fitzgerald was trying to contact them with the flashing light when radio didn't work. Apparently no one on the bridge knew Morse.

    9 0 Reply
    1. ricardian
      Reply Icon

      Re: Fitzgerald?

      What a shame that they did not have a bunting tosser

      4 0 Reply
    2. John Crisp
      Reply Icon

      Re: Fitzgerald?

      If they had stuck to the Collision Regs as taught in college they wouldn't have needed to signal...

      We were always taught to use the rules and never try to communicate with another ship when it came to making decisions on avoiding collisions as comms could be misconstrued.

      Just use the rules Luke.

      8 0 Reply
  13. Milton

    Motorized shutters?

    If you're gonna do this, why not opt for LEDs? Better still, a laser, to make the beam difficult to see off-angle, e.g. from a nearby periscope?

    And if your adversary hacks into your tablet, what messages will really be sent?

    I have this nasty scenario in mind, like BSG's miniseries - western ships entering combat against Chinese or Russians, and Windows for Warships goes BSOD ...

    5 0 Reply
  14. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Always a good idea to have a fallback method for communications.

    Assuming that they will also start to offer Heliographing 101

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      "Assuming that they will also start to offer Heliographing 101"

      How do you think troops communicated in the Falklands when it turned out that the MoD hadn't considered that the new fangled radio telephones might need battery chargers?

      4 0 Reply
  15. Paul Johnston
    Megaphone

    Just you wait

    Many years ago (1979) I was doing O-Level seamanship with a view to joining the Merchant Navy.

    Just before the exam there was an incident where a ship was in trouble with no power.

    Semaphore was brought back onto the curriculum as a means of communicating without electricity.

    Luckily never needed it in the four years I worked for BP but it seemed an eminently sensible decision.

    3 0 Reply
  16. Kevin Johnston

    Almost off-topic

    The last time I passed by Shoreham airport (Brighton Hove and Worthing Joint Municipal Airport for the purists) it still had it's airport beacon light flashing it's ident code in Morse

    Ah, the good old ye Olde Days

    1 0 Reply
  17. John Crisp

    Backup

    Morse doesn't take that long to learn and they could teach it on board to save time/money.

    Sextants & celestial nav are a tad more tricky and do take longer. With a sextant I could find my position anywhere on the planet within half a mile or so (fine in the middle of the oggin, and you have land & bearings for anything closer to shore). Never did really understand figures on the plane of the rational horizon and haversine proofs though, but my nav was accurate :-)

    I have long thought that abandoning some of these systems is not always a great idea. GPS is clearly a good system to target to incapacitate your opposition so having some backup would be sensible.

    Mines the bag with the Nories tables and a Nautical Almanac

    2 0 Reply
  18. JonnyBravo

    To answer the question posed, the morse for LOL is generally .... .. .... .. for HI HI (on ham HF at least).

    0 0 Reply
  19. rgmiller1974

    Is it still flashing in Morse code?

    Is the light still flashing in Morse code? (It wasn't clear to me from the article.)

    The reason I ask is that if you're going to have electronics on both ends, then why not use them to do something useful, like encode the data with a protocol that includes error correction?

    2 0 Reply
  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The Morse Code Blues

    BENS BEST BENT WIRE

    1 0 Reply
  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Race to the bottom?

    The US Navy has no one on board who knows morse code.

    The UK Navy has a brand new aircraft carrier....with no aircraft!

    1 0 Reply
  22. DagD

    Morse Code.

    Now with Crypto Load.

    Break out your crazy eights...

    1 0 Reply
  23. wyatt

    I joined the Royal Signals in 1997, they'd stopped teaching morse but there were a number who knew it. The distance that morse could travel when voice couldn't was impressive.

    I also had a trip on HMS Illustrious. Officers there could read some morse as they didn't have to wait for the signallers to translate it for them. Orders were passed to ships during a RAS via lamp, these were course corrections so needed to be relayed quickly, I don't know if doing this via a tablet would have been achievable.

    It was pointed out that smaller ships only had HF sets, they didn't have satellite communications. If the reception was poor then data/voice wouldn't get through but morse generally would. I doubt the Royal Navy will be stopping using it soon.

    0 0 Reply
  24. Cuddles

    Trained != practiced

    The trouble with having someone who knows Morse code is that learning a skill isn't enough, you have to actually use it otherwise you'll lose it. That's even more the case for something like this as an emergency backup, since it really needs to be second nature to be useful in that kind of situation. And that means constant practice of probably hours per week just for something that will probably never be used, taking time away from work and training that is much more useful.

    In addition, humans are rather squishy. It's all very well to complain about unlikely events like EMP, but in the real world systems like this are far more likely to be used for boring reasons like a broken radio set. A rugged tablet stored in a secure locker is far less likely to be damaged by shooting, explosions and collisions than a human. And, indeed, as long as the locker is metal it won't be affected by an EMP either. A tablet controlled system could well be more robust and reliable than one that relies on a couple of squishy, out of practice meatbags.

    0 0 Reply
    1. Vic
      Reply Icon

      Re: Trained != practiced

      And that means constant practice of probably hours per week

      Only if you want to stay in the uber-proficient class...

      I've not used my Morse for over 30 years. It's nowhere near as good as it was back then - but I can still get by. And that's with *almost* no practice in the intervening years...

      Vic.

      1 0 Reply
      1. Cuddles
        Reply Icon

        Re: Trained != practiced

        "Only if you want to stay in the uber-proficient class..."

        Such as someone taking responsibility for communications during an emergency situation, quite possibly international communications during wartime? That's exactly the point; if the navy wants to use trained meatbags as their emergency backup communications system, they need to actually do it properly and take the time and effort to make sure they will be capable of functioning competently when needed. Being able to just about get by in unimportant civilian situations is not at all the same as being a critical part of an emergency response plan. Not having your communications specialists fluent and up-to-date in their language would be as insane as having your medics with no more qualifications than a 30-year-old first aid certificate.

        0 0 Reply
        1. Kiwi
          Reply Icon

          Re: Trained != practiced

          "Only if you want to stay in the uber-proficient class..."

          Such as someone taking responsibility for communications during an emergency situation, quite possibly international communications during wartime?

          Voice and data coms are down. You need to communicate.

          Do you 1) Have someone who can do a fair bit of morse at a fair rate, even if only 5wpm or 2) have nothing?

          May not be the greatest or the most reliable. Hang on a minute, if it's all you have then by definition it is the most reliable, unfortunately.

          2 1 Reply
          1. Cuddles
            Reply Icon

            Re: Trained != practiced

            "Voice and data coms are down. You need to communicate.

            Do you 1) Have someone who can do a fair bit of morse at a fair rate, even if only 5wpm or 2) have nothing?"

            Obviously neither. Instead, you go with 3) Use exactly the kind of system this article is about, which is significantly better than both 1) and 2).

            1 0 Reply
  25. StudeJeff

    Nothing really new here

    A while back I did a patent search for any patents of my grandfather and found a pair of them from the late 20's when he worked for the Western Union Telegraph Company. One was a device with a keyboard that used a rotating cylinder with a slot cut in it, a light, and a photo detector to turn typed letters into Morse, then there was the companion device which converted Morse into text.

    This is pretty much a 21st century version of the same thing... and I sure wish I could tell him about it. (never mind how I found out about his patent, that would really blow his mind!.

    0 0 Reply
  26. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    No one is very good at using Morse code these days

    "no one is very good at using Morse code these days, so the US Navy has turned to a technological fix."

    That's because some time back, the US military dropped the requirement for operators to be trained in Morse code. What happens when someone blows holes in your tablet and no one know how to sends a signal the old fashioned way.

    If you can read this then a US Navy fondleslab just put you out of a job young people today, eh?

    0 0 Reply
  27. Herby

    Remember: When all else fails...

    Morse code will get through. Easy to send, easy to receive. How fast is a matter of practice, etc...

    1 0 Reply
    1. Kiwi
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Up

      Re: Remember: When all else fails...

      Morse code will get through. Easy to send, easy to receive. How fast is a matter of practice, etc...

      Yup. Turning on/off the signal (even if the mic is stuffed), a torch, build a fire on the deck and wave a blanket in front of it.. I've always maintained it should remain, even though it is so very rarely used these days.

      Last time I used it was some 30 years ago, on a farm - me with the farm bike's headlight and the boss with the shed lights across a distance of a couple of miles at dusk. Afraid I only recall a couple of letters these days.

      0 0 Reply
  28. Jaap Aap

    Older Nokia phones (3310/6250 era) had a tone for when a SMS was received. Not sure if this was the default. Anyway, the tone went SMS in morse.

    In later years, when colour screens got introduced this message tone was changed to say MMS.

    1 0 Reply

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