The Philip B. Petersen Collection Broadcast July 4, 1990

      Dahdidahdit Dahdahdidah   Dahdidahdit Dahdahdidah   Dahdidahdit Dahdahdidah   Dahdidit Dit   Didahdah Dididahdahdah Dahdidit Dahdah Dit    Dahdidah (CQ CQ CQ de W2DME go ahead)
     One of the many kinds of radio communications radio amateurs use worldwide is Morse code.  It was developed by Samuel F. B. Morse, with the assistance of Alfred Vail, during the late 1830s on the estate of Alfred Vail's father Judge Steven Vail in Morristown.  There they demonstrated that they could send electrical telegraph messages over three miles of wire.
     A few years later, on May 24, 1844, Morse received much acclaim when he was awarded a patent for his invention and sent the following message between Baltimore and Washington, DC: "What hath God wrought."  This started a whole new communications industry that grew rapidly.  Soon telegraph wires were stretched on poles along railroads and highways interconnecting cities, towns and villages into a countrywide telegraph system.
     This opened up new opportunities and many young men had adventurous lives as Morse code telegraphers on railroads and newspapers all over America.  Thomas Alva Edison, the great inventor, was one of them.
     In the 1890s, Guglielmo Marconi learned the Morse code while in his teens.  He was fascinated by the work of others such as Hertz, Maxwell and Branley.  Then in the late 1890s he developed the wireless telegraph system, now called radio.
     This was the dawn of amateur radio.  Many boys and young men were already operating small home-built telegraph systems over wire hooked up between their friends in the neighborhood.  They were eager to learn more about Marconi's wireless telegraph.  Soon they were building their own wireless sets, putting up antennas and sending Morse code messages to hundreds of radio amateur friends they never knew before.  That's how it all started in amateur radio.
     Amateurs use many other modes of communications such as voice, teletype, television and packet radio, a form of electronic mail.  However, Morse code is considered the simplest and most reliable.  International regulations with most all countries require that all radio amateurs know the Morse code to operate on the international frequencies below 30 megahertz.
     Pat Moran, W2EM, Asbury Park, a member of the Morse Telegraph Club, said that in recognition of Samuel F. B. Morse they meet each year at the Morristown location of the Morse telegraph invention and use special telegraph lines exchanging greetings with Morse telegraph operators all around the country.
     Dahdahdididit Dididitdahdah  Dit Dididit   Dahdahdahdidit Dahdahdahdidit   Dahdidit Dit   Didahdah Dididahdahdah Dahdidit Dahdah Dit   Didididahdidah   (Best regards and Love and Kisses from W2DME end)

July 4, 1990

** Broadcasts recordings preserved and presented here by Mr. Robert Buss and Mr. Bernie Ricciardi, Phil's friends and fellow Marconi Chapter 138 QCWA members **

Page updated January 12, 2004  page created June 11, 2001