Wes Leatherock wrote:
>
>> In 1945-46 I wrote the play-by-play for University of
>> Oklahoma football games at Norman with a Morse operator
>> by my side. I type each play on the typewriter and he
>> sent it in real time looking over my shoulder as I typed
>> it. Again a very skilled professional.
>
> Sometime in the late 1950s, I visited the studios of WOW-TV
> (now WOWT) in Omaha. I noticed several telegraph keys
> scattered around the control rooms. I wondered about them,
> but I didn't say anything.
>
> Then I figured it out. The engineers (all hams) were
> communicating among themselves by Morse Code over a
> hardwired telegraphic party line. Keys and speakers were
> located near every control board, and among the equipment
> racks. Any engineer could talk to the rest of the group by
> Morse code. Of course, non-engineers could hear the
> communications, but (presumably) couldn't understand them.
>
> Neal McLain
It is said that Abraham Lincoln spent so much time in the War Department telegraph office to keep up with the war that he learned to read Morse with facility after a while and he followed it as it was received.
The Civil War (the War Between the States) was the first in which the telegraph was effectively used and allowed much more rapid operations and changes than when messagers or carrier pigeons were relied on for news, command and control.
An aside, I imagine the engineers at WOW-TV were using the International Code, as normally used by radio, rather than the Morse code. There are many similarities but also significant differences.
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com
***** Moderator's Note *****
Wes, I'm curious: I always thought that both the Amercian and Continental codes were called "Morse Code", e.g., American Morse Code or International Morse Code. Is this true?
Bill Horne Temporary Moderator