Email - 3 Telecommunications

Hi Col,
I have not long finished reading a book titled “The Eavesdroppers” by Jack Bleakley. It provides a really good insight into the development of Australia’s Sigint organisation during WWII. It goes into great detail on how Australian Siginters provided valuable intelligence to Gen MacArthur and how they greatly assisted the war effort against the Japanese in the pacific.
I strongly recommend the book as a really good read. Unfortunately, copies are hard to come by and you may have to go though your local library to borrow a copy, however I’m sure that you will find that it is worth the effort.
It may be worthwhile posting this on the website.
Regards
Ian Simper

From today’s The Advertiser (Monday 31 October 2016)
Is Morse Code still used in radio communication? – D.A. (Findon)
In 1999, Morse Code was officially replaced as the international standard for maritime distress by the Global Maritime Distress Safety System, which includes such components as the Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB), Navigation Telex, search-and-rescue transponders and Digital Selective Calling.
The final Morse Code message sent by the French Navy was: “Calling all. Thus is our last cry before our eternal silence’.
The final message sent by the US Navy recalled the first transmission, made by inventor Samuel Morse in 1844, “What hath God wrought SK” (SK denoting ‘silencing key’, being a common end-of-contact turn-over prosign).
Ten people a year are still trained in Morse Code in the US Air Force and both the US Navy and the Coast Guard still use signal lamps to communicate through Morse Code.
There are amateur radio enthusiast clubs around the world which are, among other things, dedicated to keeping the communication style alive. However, it is no longer necessary to be proficient in it to obtain an amateur radio licence.
The context in which Morse Code is most commonly used these days is in the aviation and aeronautical fields, due to the fact radio navigation tools such as VHF Omnidirectional Range and Non-Directional Beacons still identify in it.
The code has also been used as a form of communication by people who are disabled, or impaired due to strokes, heart attacks or paralysis. Paralysis sufferers, for instance, have been able to communicate in Morse via use of their eyelids in the form of long and quick blinks in lieu of dots and dashes.
So there ya go.
830