And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Sunday, March 29, 2026
Like driving a stick, how many people nowadays could understand Morse Code?
This item is a vintage pocket knife manufactured around 1955 by the Colonial Knife Company, featuring a green handle printed with the International Morse Code chart. Item Type: Vintage folding jack knife. Design: Features a chart of letters and corresponding dots and dashes on the reverse side. Manufacturing: Produced in the USA by Colonial. Usage: Marketed as a functional tool, often paired with themed graphics like "Rusty" or space ships.
3.5” long plus belt loop made c. 1955 by “Colonial.” Front grip pictures Rusty with facsimile autograph as well as Rin Tin Tin with facsimile paw print. Reverse has chart specifying letters of the alphabet and corresponding dots and dashes under the title “International Morse Code.” Contains knife blade and screwdriver which are essentially Mint. White areas on the grips have darkened somewhat but no spotting. As typical, top front rivet has split the plastic covering a little with 2 tiny slivers of plastic actually missing. Still displays glossy and VF.
Not all of them, but there are ham licenses with no code requirement.
Trying to learn code from something like that is the worst possible way. It's fun to look at, but you need to learn it by sound not by counting dots and dashes and turning those dots and dashes into the sounds you hear, which are more like dit and dah...
I had a novice license in the late 50's. Enjoyed late nights trying to contact other late night people with limited power. Somehow HS brought it to an end. Best contact was Australia. I still know my license id in code. Something like my service number. Burned into memory.
My BoyScout knife had morse on it, just like the one above, except it was red, our Scout Master had a whole box of them, he gave us free, loved that knife, eventually lost it out in the woods.
My Scoutmaster and most of the adult leaders worked at the US Army Signal School. We built a keypad, learned Morse code, then built a radio, and antennae. A scout could get the Ground Radio course and have a working radio in 3 years. I haven't used it in years but I can still call BS when a telegraph is used in a movie.
I had to learn it as a Boy Scout in the late 1950's. I remember "SOS"...
ReplyDeleteSame
DeleteI never had to, but my dad knew it inside out .., he was an Army radio operator in the Pacific during WW2. Passed away in 2022.
ReplyDeleteI'll get up off of 100 of my favorite legal tenders for that knife right now.
ReplyDelete200 if it's mint.
This item is a vintage pocket knife manufactured around 1955 by the Colonial Knife Company, featuring a green handle printed with the International Morse Code chart.
ReplyDeleteItem Type: Vintage folding jack knife.
Design: Features a chart of letters and corresponding dots and dashes on the reverse side.
Manufacturing: Produced in the USA by Colonial.
Usage: Marketed as a functional tool, often paired with themed graphics like "Rusty" or space ships.
3.5” long plus belt loop made c. 1955 by “Colonial.” Front grip pictures Rusty with facsimile autograph as well as Rin Tin Tin with facsimile paw print. Reverse has chart specifying letters of the alphabet and corresponding dots and dashes under the title “International Morse Code.” Contains knife blade and screwdriver which are essentially Mint. White areas on the grips have darkened somewhat but no spotting. As typical, top front rivet has split the plastic covering a little with 2 tiny slivers of plastic actually missing. Still displays glossy and VF.
https://payment.hakes.com/auction/ItemDetail/56073/RUSTY-AND-RIN-TIN-TIN-POCKET-KNIFE-WITH-MORSE-CODE#:~:text=1955%20by%20%E2%80%9CColonial.%E2%80%9D%20Front%20grip%20pictures%20Rusty,blade%20and%20screwdriver%20which%20are%20essentially%20Mint.
I had to memorize it in the military back in the day. Can't remember it a bit, sadly.
ReplyDeleteYeh, sixty or so years ago, now suffer from CRS.
DeleteNemo
Still have to know it for a USCG masters license
ReplyDeleteA lot more people can drive stick than understand Morse code....but both are a dying skill.
ReplyDeleteLearned Morse 48 years ago. Used it professionally for 10 years or so. Still know it. There's lots of folks around that are CW proficient.
ReplyDeleteShould have put numbers on the reverse side.
ReplyDeleteDidn't the FCC remove the requirement to learn Morse Code to get a Ham License?
ReplyDeleteNot all of them, but there are ham licenses with no code requirement.
DeleteTrying to learn code from something like that is the worst possible way. It's fun to look at, but you need to learn it by sound not by counting dots and dashes and turning those dots and dashes into the sounds you hear, which are more like dit and dah...
Why? The code separates the sheep from the goats.
ReplyDeleteK2RDL
I had a novice license in the late 50's. Enjoyed late nights trying to contact other late night people with limited power. Somehow HS brought it to an end. Best contact was Australia. I still know my license id in code. Something like my service number. Burned into memory.
ReplyDeleteMy BoyScout knife had morse on it, just like the one above, except it was red, our Scout Master had a whole box of them, he gave us free, loved that knife, eventually lost it out in the woods.
ReplyDeleteLearned in the Navy! Used it a lot when I went over to the Coast Guard 26 years served! kind of rusty now LOL!
ReplyDelete9 months at Fort Devens MA to learn High speed intercept 1968. Impossible to forget
ReplyDeleteI learned it in the 60s in the scouts but haven't used it since.
ReplyDeleteat A 4:19 - ASA all the way
ReplyDeleteIs there a blade with a telegraph key on it?
ReplyDeleteHad to learn that and Semaphore Code in the scouts in the '60s.
ReplyDeleteMy Scoutmaster and most of the adult leaders worked at the US Army Signal School. We built a keypad, learned Morse code, then built a radio, and antennae. A scout could get the Ground Radio course and have a working radio in 3 years. I haven't used it in years but I can still call BS when a telegraph is used in a movie.
ReplyDelete