The Downton Abbey Morse Code

http://blog.jgc.org/2011/11/downton-abbey-series-1-episode-1-morse.html

by jgrahamc • 15 years ago

31 8 15 years ago

blog.jgc.org

It hadn't occurred to me to check that. It's nice when shows take the time to get it right, or mostly so.

jgrahamc• 15 years ago

It's also nice that the radio amateur who did this, G3YXZ, used period equipment as well. He was using a circa 1900 British Post Office Morse key.

grandalf2• 15 years ago

Don't underestimate the more modern equipment... I just ordered one of these: http://www.i2rtf.com/html/pearl.html

atomical• 15 years ago

My girlfriend and I are in love with this show. It surprised me to see a reference to it on HN this morning.

mattdeboard• 15 years ago

Ha, ditto on all counts. I am man enough to admit I love me a well-made British period drama.

grandalf2• 15 years ago

As a kid I got my ham radio license. Recently the FCC removed the requirement to learn morse code. Yet it's becoming more popular than ever.

It's an extremely efficient way to communicate (a watt or two is all that is often necessary to communicate across the country or even the world).

WalterBright• 15 years ago

What I find amusing is all the modern schemes to try to communicate with one button (such as you see on a cell phone), whereas morse code does the job very well.

The neato things about morse:

1. you can key in the message without needing to look at the phone display

2. disabled people enter it efficiently if all they can do is tap (it just kills me to see them, like in Breaking Bad, using a bell while an aide moves a finger along an alphabet board)

3. one doesn't need to read morse code, a computer can ably decode it

jdietrich• 15 years ago

Along similar lines, the theme tune to Inspector Morse includes the repeated word "TTORSE"[1] - the initial M (--) is inadvertently split into two Ts (-), possibly because the different rhythm sounded better to the composer.

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tuRIciN8B0

The Downton Abbey Morse Code

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