Reject Morse code?...

1996/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Komunikazioak

Radio amateurs are revolutionized lately. Today, radio amateurs around the world have to pass an examination on the morse code to use the field of radio frequencies for fans. Apparently, the governments of Britain and New Zealand do not see validity to the knowledge of the Morse code and have expressed their desire to withdraw it, which has generated great confusion.

The useful code invented by Samuel Mors in 1830 may seem obsolete to both governments, but for radio amateurs the telegraph code still has advantages, since the devices for sending and receiving messages are very cheap and the morse system needs little space in the radio spectrum. Thanks to these facilities, today sixty million radio amateurs use this code to send messages over long distances.

On the occasion of the new proposal, voices for and against radio amateurs have been raised. Some believe that if they removed the mors test, nine bands with HF (high frequency) would overflow, as they will share the same number of bands among more radio amateurs.