Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Did you know?

From: Marcelrf <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 10:49:18 -0500

-------- Original Message --------
   From: "Penn McClatchey" <[email-masked]>
Subject: Did you know?

 The 160-year-old communication system now has a new character to denote
the "@" symbol used in e-mail addresses.

In December, the International Telecommunications Union, which oversees
the entire frequency spectrum, from amateur radio to satellites, voted
to add the new character.

The new sign, which will be known as a "commat," consists of the signals
for "A" (dot-dash) and "C" (dash-dot-dash-dot), with no space between
them.

The new sign is the first in at least several decades, and possibly much
longer. Among ITU officials and Morse code aficionados, no one could
remember any other addition.

"It's a pretty big deal," said Paul Rinaldo, chief technical officer for
the American Radio Relay League, the national association for
amateur-radio operators. "There certainly hasn't been any change since
before World War II."

The change will allow ham-radio operators to exchange e-mail more
easily. That's because — in an irony of the digital age — they often use
Morse to initiate conversations over the Internet.

"People trade their e-mail addresses a lot," said Nick Yocanovich, a
Morse-code enthusiast who lives in Arnold, Md.

Morse code uses two audible electrical signals — short "dots" and
slightly longer "dashes" — to form letters, numbers and punctuation
marks. Created in the 1830s by Samuel F.B. Morse, who invented the
telegraph, the electronic signaling system spread across the world.
Until the past few decades, it was used widely by the public, industry
and government.
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