[UK-CONTEST] Contest: Test Message vs Morse

[Dave Sergeant]

On 15 May 2005 at 21:45, Dave Lawley wrote:

> A few weeks ago the story was on the news that a 93 year-old
> telegrapher in Australia had beaten a youngster in a competition to
> see which was the faster way of sending a message: SMS text or Morse
> code.
> 
> On Friday evening in the US on the Jay Leno show, a similar test was
> set up. One of the Morse guys was Chip, K7JA who some of you might
> have met at the RSGB HF Convention last October. Scott KA9FOX has put
> some recordings of that part of the show onto the web, see the email
> below from cq-contest.
> 
> Dave G4BUO
> 
> ------------------------------------------

There has been quite a lot of discussion about this on the Elecraft 
reflector, and the comments from Ken K6CTW who was at the receiving 
end in the show make interesting reading. I have copied these below.

It looks as if this was a serious effort to prove the point. But 
surely the point is that SMS entry is highly inefficient - the chap 
on the mobile apparently was a world leader who could enter 160 
characters a minute - I guess few of us can achieve even a fraction 
of that when texting! And 28wpm is pretty pedestrian compared with 
what the top CW ops can send!

All good fun...

73 Dave G3YMC

*********************
>From Elecraft Reflector:

All,

Well to answer some of the questions I have received:

1.  Ben was just getting ready to start entering the last 2 words 
when I was done. 
2. None of us had any idea of the text we would be sending, not only 
for the "show" but also for the 3 rehersals (in which we smoked em 
every time) 
3. Chip, K7JA was sending and I, Ken, K6CTW was receiving. 
4. The radios were FT-817's provided by Chip's company Yaesu and HRO. 
 Reason for that choice was that we needed the most frequency agile 
radios we could get.  When I talked to the technical folks, they 
recommended we START at 2 meters and go up because of all of the 
lower frequency noise and RFI from the other TV equipment.  When I 
got there, we took out a spectrum analyzer and studied all of the 
interference possibilities.  I ended up choosing 432.200 MHz because 
that guaranteed no RFI from their equipment and we were high enough 
not to overload their front ends either.  This was then verified and 
it was what we were using at the FT-817's lowest setting. 
5.  I already knew that 28-30 wpm would easily keep us in front of 
even the current world record holder, and also it is the fastest 
speed that I can make nice readable copy on paper with a "stick". 
6. The telegrapher "costumes" were the producer's idea but it was fun 
 for both Chip and I. 
7.  In rehersal I, K6CTW had a number of lines which would have 
really done a nice job of plugging ham radio and telegraphy however 
at our last dress rehersal, they decided to cut them out to make the 
segment "fit". (maybe next time). 
8. I decided that I would be the receiver because I'm not bothered by 
crowd noise etc.  

If you enjoyed the segment, PLEASE email, write, etc. to let "The 
Tonight Show" know about it.  That way we may have a chance for a 
bigger segment next time.  

Thanks for the kind comments from all and let's keep on having fun! 
(It is a hobby after all).  

73,

Ken, K6CTW

 ***************** 

*A few more points for clarification: When my XYL, Connie, originally 
answered the call, at my home, from the producers of the show, she 
explained that I operated both codes and that I considered myself to 
be a good but not exceptional operator. However, she is the one who 
"sold" the producers that the skit could work. She also did a VERY 
credible job of explaining Morse telegraphy and the radio code and 
its uses. (You all might think to send her a thanks too as without 
her, this would never have happened (email address deleted ) When 
they contacted me later that afternoon, I explained that my wife was 
correct, I am a competent CW and Morse operator. Your point is 
interesting in that they did try and get the fastest text messengers 
they could fly in. I did however explain that if the Tonight Show 
folks had been able to get the equivalent world record holder in CW 
to do this, it would have been at almost TRIPLE the speed we were 
going at. The reason, as I have explained before, that we worked at 
about 28 or so wpm is that this is the fastest speed that I can make 
nice readable copy with a pencil as they did not have the ability to 
let me use a typewriter for copy (and I thought they were going to do 
a camera shot of my copy for verification). Also, since we did not 
have the time to set up headphones, I just added some extra volume 
for me, had the stage folks cut my mike (to prevent feedback and 
overload) and copied off of the speaker. To re-emphasize the point, 
I'm just an average CW op who occasionally operates the CW SS QRP, 
whith my K2 of course, and really enjoys CW, and traffic handling. By 
the way, the radios used were Chip's not from Yaesu and the backup 
radios were from HRO. 
73, Ken, K6CTW *   

http://www.davesergeant.com