[QCWA] Another txt vs. CW test

[Norm Gertz]

These campetitions are really not realistic "apples for apples" events.
If the person using text was using a laptop or keyboard they would prevail.
Touch typists easily excceed speed of 50 wpm and a good stenographer can 
type at 100 wpm or more.
It is gratifying however to see a couple of old CW operators defeat the "one 
finger" cell phone artists.

73   Norm   K1AA


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Wilhite" <w5jo at brightok.net>
To: "QCWA List" <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 10:31 PM
Subject: [QCWA] Another txt vs. CW test


Saw this on another reflector.  Just a different spin and another winner

Passed along by Chip, N5LTZ:

Morse Code Still Beats SMS



      It seems that morse code is still faster at sending text messages than 
using txt speak. Even when the morse code sender is 93 years old and the SMS 
challengers were teenagers!

      According to The Times , an Australian museum staged a contest that 
pitted the oldest type of electronic text messages with the newest.

       Devised by Samuel Morse in 1832, the simple combination of dots and 
dashes was the mainstay of maritime communication up until 1997.

      Not only was the technology a battle of ages, but so were the 
contestants. Tapping out the winning morse code message was 93-year-old 
telegraph operator Gordon Hill, who learnt to use the technique in 1927 when 
he joined the Australian Post Office.

      He easily defeated his 13-year-old rival, Brittany Devlin, who was 
armed with a mobile phone and a rich vocabulary of text message shorthand. 
Mr Hill, whose messages were transcribed by another telegraph veteran, Jack 
Gibson, 82, then repeated the feat against three other children and 
teenagers with mobile phones.

      In the competition, at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Mr Hill and 
his rivals were asked to transmit a line selected at random from an 
advertisement in a teenage magazine.

      It read: "Hey, girlfriend, you can text all your best pals to tell 
them where you are going and what you are wearing."

      While the telegraphist tapped out the line in full, to be deciphered 
by Mr Gibson, Miss Devlin employed text slang to save time. She keyed: "hey 
gf u can txt ur best pals 2 tel them wot u r doing, where ur going and wot u 
r wearing."

      Just 90 seconds after Mr Hill began transmitting, Mr Gibson announced 
that he had the message received and written down correctly. It took another 
18 seconds for Miss Devlin's message to reach the mobile phone belonging to 
her friend. Mr Hill said that he was impressed by modern technology, even 
though his clunky telegraph machine emerged on top in three further 
contests.

      Want to brush up your Morse Code skills? This site claims to be able 
to teach you in just a minute!: www.learnmorsecode.com



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