Shortly before 4am I jumped out of a strong dream. It had to do with someone gifting me several boxes of electronic gadgets and musical things from a HAM RADIO operator who went Silent Key.
Background:
In the 1930's, Samuel Morse was credited for development of the electrical telegraph system. He didn't do it alone, but his name stands out because of the language 'Morse Code' that he devised. It uses a series of electric pulses making up the alphabet along with numbers. The operator used a 'telegraph key' to tap out the messages that were sent through wires that connected each telegraph office.
Represented as dots and dashes, to signify the duration of sounds of his code.
The dot ( . ) has a dit sound and the dash ( - ) has a dah sound.
The letter 'a' is written as .- and sounds like dit dah
The letter 'b' is -... that sounds like dah dit dit dit
You probably know that SOS is the universal distress signal
The letter 's' is ... that sounds like dit dit dit
The letter 'o' is --- sounding like dah dah dah
The wired telegraph later became wireless using the same alphabet (Morse) code.
Learning Morse code was mandatory to obtain an Amateur Radio Operators license and it was used for many years as the only method of world-wide communication. With just a simple transmitter with a few watts, keyer and a single wire antenna, those series of dots and dashes could be picked up on a receiver thousands of miles away!
To signify the end of a message, the operator would use the letters SK.
Silent Key now means the radio operator has passed on.
Enough background... on to the dream!
I remember driving up to the house and my father was in the front with an old car he was tinkering with. The strange thing is my father passed away many years ago.
Inside the house (the same house I've been living in until recent) were the boxes I had received, but I only had time to scan through their contents and not thoroughly inspect what each box contained.
Mentioning some of these items in a blog or chat room, another member (who is also an amateur radio operator) showed some interest and asked if he could stop by to see the collection.
He said his name was Ray and oddly, he made it from New York City to Miami just to see some old ham radio gear.
SK
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