END OF THE FIRST DIGITAL SIGNALLING SYSTEM

At midnight on December 31st 1997, Morse code ceased to be the international language of distress signals. It will be replaced by GMDSS, the Global Maritime Distress & Safety System, which is an automatic position signalling system routed through satellites with built in two-way radio. Morse code was invented 165 years ago by an American painter, Samuel Morse, and first used on May 18th 1844. It took the world's total telecommunications bandwidth from 0 to about 25 bits per second. The code led directly to the development of the Telegraph and within 20 years helped by Marconi's Wireless, girdled the globe. The demise of Morse has been forecast for the last 50 years or so, and it has now largely disappeared from commercial use. However it lives on in cheerful coexistence with other communication methods as an important, much loved system of personal contact for many of the world's radio amateurs. At the height of it's use Morse was taken for granted as a means of communicating news, messages, commerce reports etc, worldwide. The public knew of Morse code from its more dramatic uses such as the DIT DIT DIT DAH of the V for Victory signal said to have kept up the morale of people in Nazi occupied Europe during WWII, and the DIT DIT DIT DAH DAH DAH DIT DIT DIT of the SOS signal sent out by those in distress. Thousands of ships including The Titanic have sent out the SOS call and thousands of people owe their lives to it. When the chips are down, including the silicon ones, Morse can still get the message through with an absolute minimum of technology provided someone knows the code. Try telling the crew from a fire-gutted Pacific islands trading vessel who signalled "WE'RE OK" with a torch from their life raft, and the pilot of a Quantas jet that flashed back "HELP IN ONE DAY" using the aircraft's landing lights, that Morse Code is finished!