As some have suggested, Jay Leno is probably *not* trying to put in a
plug for amateur radio tonight.
However, one possible result of the "showdown" between the CW buffs and
text messengers may be a broadening of interest in Morse code. If the
Morse contingent crushes the competition, it's hard to imagine light
bulbs not going off among some hackers and tinkerers, young and old,
individual or corporate. This thought will occur to some of them: "It's
fast, can be used without even looking at it, and takes just one or two
buttons. Hmmmm ... why not provide a Morse interface as an option on a
messaging device?"
At my previous employer, a silicon-valley think tank, we evaluated
Morse as a minimalist user interface for small PDAs, and I know of at
least one other current research effort along these lines. I built an
experimental version of such a PDA, which used simple one- and
two-letter commands to input and output things like phone numbers,
notes, appointments, etc.
It worked quite well, and some day (in my copious spare time) I hope to
pack it into a keychain-sized device. This PDA would be the world's
smallest, would go with you everwhere, and would cost almost nothing
since it would need no display or keyboard. It would have a small audio
transducer so you could hold it up to your ear when using it, or an
inductively-coupled wireless link from the keychain unit to a
lightweight earbud. The rest of the device requires just one chip -- an
MCU with a lot of EEPROM and/or flash memory. (If anyone wants to help
me prototype or write firmware for this unit, let me know. I'm a bit
busy!)
We also looked at Morse as a UI for people with certain types of
disabilities. Just about any type of body movement, no matter how
slight, can allow people to communicate in this mode. Consider for
example the pillow-tapping protagonist in the famous anti-war novel
Johnny Got his Gun.
Those of us who have been using the world's simplest human-readable
digital communication for decades ought to be the principle movers
behind the effort to increase its uses and visibility. If a
Morse-capable PDA/communicator ever appears on the market, ham radio
could certainly benefit. (In fact, I'm hoping to put a tiny HF
transceiver into the keychain PDA. Just add an antenna :)
To Ken (K6CTW) and Chip (K7JA): I wish you the best of luck tonight.
Please pass along the above ideas if the opportunity arises.
73,
Wayne
N6KR
---
http://www.elecraft.com
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