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On this day in 1844, a quiet revolution in human communication took place. Samuel Morse, the American inventor, sat in the Supreme Court chamber in Washington, D.C., and tapped out a short, profound message on his experimental telegraph system. The message — “What hath God wrought?” — was sent across nearly 40 miles of wire to the B&O Railroad depot in Baltimore, Maryland, where it was received instantly by his partner, Alfred Vail.

A Historic Landmark in Maryland: “The First Telegram, What Hath God Wrought?” Location 39° 6.157′ N, 76° 50.526′ W. Marker is near Laurel, Maryland, in Prince George’s County.

The morning of May 24, 1844, stands as one of the most pivotal turning points in the history of human civilization. Before this day, information could only travel as fast as a human could ride a horse or a vessel could sail across an ocean. The physical limitations of distance dictated the speed of politics, commerce, and war. When Samuel Finley Breese Morse tapped out the message “What hath God wrought?” from the U.S. Capitol building to Baltimore, he did not just demonstrate a new machine; he permanently dismantled the tyranny of distance.

The Struggle for Recognition

Samuel Morse was not a professional scientist; he was an accomplished, world-renowned portrait painter. However, his life took a tragic turn in 1825 when, while painting a portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette in Washington, D.C., he received a letter via horseback messenger informing him that his wife was ill. By the time he returned to his home in New Haven, Connecticut, she had already died and been buried. The delayed news haunted him, sparking an obsession with finding a way to transmit information instantaneously across great distances.

For years, Morse labored in near-poverty, facing skepticism from the scientific community and indifference from Congress. He was forced to sell his paintings to fund his experiments and relied on the technical brilliance of Alfred Vail, a young machinist whose family provided the financial backing and the workshop space (the Speedwell Iron Works) necessary to refine the electromagnetic telegraph system.

The Message and Its Meaning

The phrase chosen for the demonstration, “What hath God wrought?” (Numbers 23:23), was far from arbitrary. It was proposed by Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of Henry Ellsworth, the U.S. Commissioner of Patents, who had been a staunch supporter of Morse’s application for funding. The biblical quote was an expression of wonder, a recognition that the telegraph was a divine-like power in the hands of mortal men–a tool that could bridge vast physical divides with the speed of electricity.

At 8:45 a.m., Morse sat before the apparatus in the Supreme Court chamber. When the signal reached the B&O Railroad station in Baltimore, Alfred Vail confirmed receipt immediately. The feat was so startling that even at the time, many observers found it difficult to grasp that the words were not being physically transported, but rather transformed into electrical pulses and reconstructed on the other end.

A New Era of Global Connectivity

The success of the 1844 demonstration was the catalyst for the rapid expansion of the telegraph network across the United States and eventually, the world. Within two decades, the telegraph had become the backbone of the American Civil War, allowing for the rapid coordination of troops and the dissemination of news. It also revolutionized journalism–giving birth to the “news wire” services–and changed the financial sector forever by allowing stock prices and market conditions to be synchronized across cities.

By replacing physical couriers with electrical signals, the telegraph created the first global “nervous system.” It set the stage for the invention of the telephone, the radio, and eventually the fiber-optic networks of the modern internet. When we send an instant message today, we are utilizing the same fundamental principle that Morse proved: that information can be decoupled from physical travel.

Reflection

The telegraph was the precursor to our modern digital age, proving that humanity’s greatest potential lies in our ability to connect, communicate, and share knowledge at speed. As we look back on that day in 1844, we are reminded that every monumental shift in technology starts with an attempt to solve a simple, deeply human problem–in Morse’s case, the agonizing delay of a message that arrived too late.

This video is an introduction to an international public-service and technology hobby known as ‘amateur radio’ (or ‘ham radio’).

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Amateur radio (also called ham radio) describes the use of radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communication. The term “amateur” is used to specify “a duly-authorized person interested in radioelectric practice with a purely personal aim and without pecuniary interest;” (either direct monetary or other similar rewards) and to differentiate it from commercial broadcasting, public safety (such as police and fire), or professional two-way radio services (such as maritime, aviation, taxis, etc.).

The amateur radio service (amateur service and amateur-satellite service) is established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) through the Radio Regulations. National governments regulate technical and operational characteristics of transmissions and issue individual stations licenses with an identifying call sign. Prospective amateur operators are tested for their understanding of key concepts in electronics and the host government’s radio regulations. Radio amateurs use a variety of voice, text, image, and data communications modes and have access to frequency allocations throughout the RF spectrum to enable communication across a city, region, country, continent, the world, or even into space.

Amateur radio is officially represented and coordinated by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), which is organized in three regions and has as its members the national amateur radio societies which exist in most countries. According to an estimate made in 2011 by the American Radio Relay League, two million people throughout the world are regularly involved with amateur radio. About 830,000 amateur radio stations are located in IARU Region 2 (the Americas) followed by IARU Region 3 (South and East Asia and the Pacific Ocean) with about 750,000 stations. A significantly smaller number, about 400,000, are located in IARU Region 1 (Europe, Middle East, CIS, Africa).

Activities and practices

The expansive diversity found in the amateur radio hobby attracts practitioners who have a wide range of interests. Many hams begin with a fascination of radio communication and then combine other personal interests to make the pursuit of the hobby rewarding. Some of the focal areas amateurs pursue include radio contesting, radio propagation study, public service communication, technical experimentation, and computer networking. But, that is just a sampling of interest areas found in the hobby.

Amateur radio operators use various modes of transmission to communicate. The two most common modes for voice transmissions are frequency modulation (FM) and single sideband (SSB). The FM mode offers high-quality audio signals, while SSB is better at long distance communication when bandwidth is restricted.

Modern personal computers have encouraged the use of digital modes such as radioteletype (RTTY) which previously required cumbersome mechanical equipment. Hams led the development of packet radio in the 1970s, which has employed protocols such as AX.25 and TCP/IP. Specialized digital modes such as PSK31 allow real-time, low-power communications on the shortwave bands. More robust digital modes have been invented and improved, including such modes as Olivia, JT65, and WSPR.

NASA astronaut Col. Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC, Expedition 24 flight engineer, operates the NA1SS ham radio station in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Equipment is a Kenwood TM-D700E transceiver.

Amateur radio operators, using battery- or generator-powered equipment, often provide essential communications services when regular channels are unavailable due to natural disasters or other disruptive events.

This video comes to us via Canada, and is used by permission from Bernard Bouchard – / ve2sms – The original video was published on Feb 28, 2013.- Website is https://www.ve2cwq.ca/amateur-radio-club-ve2cwq/

Voici maintenant, la version complète du documentaire «La radioamateur» d’une durée de 11 minutes. On y aborde toutes les activités sur le monde de la radioamateur. Ce vidéo a été produit par le Club Radioamateur VE2CWQ / Canwarn-Québec. Pour information: https://www.ve2cwq.ca/

Connect with me at https://NW7US.us

USA Amateur Radio information: http://ARRL.org