Which is faster? CW or Text Message?

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Fred_Vobbe
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Which is faster? CW or Text Message?

Post by Fred_Vobbe » 05-16-2005 08:43 AM

Forwarded to me from a ham at the Detroit NBC affiliate.

http://www.vobbe.net/videos/leno.wmv
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Linnea
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Post by Linnea » 05-16-2005 09:56 AM

Fred - your link is dangerous. Crashed my browser. What is it?

About the contest on Jay Leno - between sending text msg on cell phone, or via CW - the CWers won.
:D

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Dale O Sea
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Post by Dale O Sea » 05-16-2005 12:11 PM

It didn't crash mine but my fox was spittin' up chicken feathers, heh. It says it's a wmv movie file but my browser thinks it's a text file. I think I'm going to disable it and Fred, you can repost the link when you figure out the problem. Maybe it got corrupted along the way..

I'm going to disable the parsing and leave the url..

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sayntbrigid
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Post by sayntbrigid » 05-16-2005 02:49 PM

Would somebody please explain to this here dummy what CW is?

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Post by mudwoman » 05-16-2005 02:57 PM

Linnea wrote: Fred - your link is dangerous. Crashed my browser. What is it?

About the contest on Jay Leno - between sending text msg on cell phone, or via CW - the CWers won.
:D
That is great! LOL Way to go! :D
sayntbrigid wrote: Would somebody please explain to this here dummy what CW is?

Morris code. ;)

My code is slow when I transcribe. My head is fast enough, but my hands are slow. :eek:

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Post by sayntbrigid » 05-16-2005 03:08 PM

Thank You Mudwoman

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Fred_Vobbe
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Post by Fred_Vobbe » 05-17-2005 07:10 AM

Linnea wrote: Fred - your link is dangerous. Crashed my browser. What is it?


Stange that it crashed a browser. It's just a Windows Video Media file (WMV). It works at home with IE 6 on a Win2K machine, and here at work on an XP machine.

Just a thought, but I know some browsers get crabby when they try to download big files. I have that problem when trying to download and view 720x480 AVI files on one of my machines.

Fred
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Post by Fred_Vobbe » 05-17-2005 07:18 AM

mudwoman wrote: My code is slow when I transcribe. My head is fast enough, but my hands are slow. :eek:


I wish my speed and proficiency was as good as the guys in Leno's video. I'm usually in the 12-20 WPM range, due in large part to lack of using the mode.

BTW, I use my grandfather's telegraph bug that he used when he worked at Western Union in 1910 to 1944. I also have his call via the vanity program. Unlike the keys that the guy in video used, the "bug" that I have makes the dots and dashes by mechanical means.

I find it relaxing to meet people on ham radio, although using I.R.L.P. the repeater is often more productive at times.

BTW, how many Pirates are hams? I get the feeling there are more than a few.
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Dale O Sea
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Post by Dale O Sea » 05-17-2005 10:25 AM

I got the video to work. I had to right click and save to my HD. I have no idea why it tries to load it as a teest page in Firefox. Linnea uses IE so somethings wrong there too. I'll repost the parsed link here:

Right click and save to Hard Drive:

http://www.vobbe.net/videos/leno.wmv

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Post by mudwoman » 05-17-2005 12:28 PM

Fred_Vobbe wrote: BTW, how many Pirates are hams? I get the feeling there are more than a few.

KD7WPU reporting. :)

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Post by Dale O Sea » 05-17-2005 01:16 PM

Here's the winners

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Post by Fred_Vobbe » 05-17-2005 08:00 PM

Gotta get me one of those outfits, Dale. <grin>

I don't know if any of you come to the Mecca of ham radio, otherwise known as the Dayton Hamvention, but watching the people is as interesting as looking for bargains.

Last year there were three guys in authentic military gear, 57# radio backpacks from Viet Nam era, complete with 6-foot antennas, walking around the flea market for the better part of Saturday.

Also, the guy with the miniature tower on his head, complete with blinking lights.

There was also the blind fellow who had a dog sporting a Trekker and GPS navigating the flea-market.

And who could forget the Battery Girls, a hams answer to the Budweiser Girls. They were at the booth that was selling batteries, and occasionally walked out in the flea area to advertise their booth with skin-tight plastic dresses. Darn if I can remember the company's name. <grin>

The guy that got my "thumbs up" was the one selling FRS radios that looked like Star Trek communicators. Rumor has it that he got busted for copyright issues, but in looking back it would have been cool to purchase a set of them.

Fred, W8HDU
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Post by Fred_Vobbe » 05-26-2005 06:08 AM

[Via Amateur Radio Newsline - 26 May 2005]

And finally this week, it seems that Morse code is still faster at sending text messages than using a computer and text messaging software. This, even when one of the Morse code sender is 93 years old and the text messaging challengers are teenagers or just out of their teens. And it happened twice in less than a month. Heres the story

First it was down-under where the Sidney Times says that an Australian museum recently staged a contest that pitted C-W against the latest generation of wireless text messages with the newest.

Tapping out the winning Morse code message was 93-year-old telegraph operator Gordon Hill. He first became proficient in the use of C-W in 1927 when he joined the Australian Post Office. He easily defeated his 13-year-old rival, Brittany Devlin, who was armed with a mobile phone and a rich vocabulary of text message shorthand. Hill, whose messages were transcribed by telegraph veteran, Jack Gibson, 82, then repeated the feat against three other children and teenagers with mobile phones.

While Hill tapped out the line in full, to be deciphered by Gibson, Devlin employed text slang to save time. She keyed in a shorthand version of the message that would make little sense if we tried to read it here.

The text slang did not help. Just 90 seconds after Hill began transmitting, Gibson announced that he had the message received and written down correctly. It took another 18 seconds for Devlin’s message to reach the mobile phone belonging to her friend.

But was that just a freak accident or are telegraphers really a lot better at transferring data. To find out, Tonight Show host Jay Leno decided to re-stage the same event in front of his audience at the NBC Network Center in beautiful downtown Burbank, California. It took place on Friday, May 13th and pitted United States text messaging champion Ben Cook who typed a 150 character message in 57 seconds. An associate identified as Jason would be on the other end of the hook-up receiving the message on a cellular phone.

Representing the Morse code camp were two world class DXers and contesters whose names you will all recognize. On the key was Vertex Standards own Chip Margelli, K-7-J-A, while taking it all down longhand was Ken Miller, K-6-C-T-W.

Each team was given the same message which read: “I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance.” Both teams were instructed to begin when Leno said “go.”

He did, and 20 seconds later it was all over with the team of K-7-J-A and K-6-C-T-W beating out the still typing Cook by a country mile. And while we do not know what kind of device the text messaging champ was using to send text, Margelli and Miller were equipped with a pair of Yaesu FT 817&#146;s with Chip using a paddle type key and Miller copying with a pen and pad of paper.

By the way, we understand that Miller and Margelli were recommended by Joe Drago, K-F-6-O-C-P, who happens to be the Prop Master for the show. And if we may borrow a line from Peter Allen tune, having Morse win out twice in this challenge in such a short period of time only proves that “everything old is new again.”
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