subject: pittsburgh Misspelled In Flashing Light Morse Code [print this page] In 1927 the city of Pittsburgh built an office building designed by architect Henry Hornbostel. It has 40 floors and was built of limestone and brick. It is called the Grant building and the most interesting feature is at the top of the building. There is a beacon, which at the time was the largest in the world. This beacon spells out the name of the city Pittsburgh in flashing light Morse code. The beacon is so bright it can be seen for 100 miles.
Pittsburgh resident and HAM operator, Tom Stapleton N7JKJ, noticed a problem with the signal broadcast while casually watching the beacon. Tom realized that the beacon had broadcast the letter K. There is no K in Pittsburgh so he de-coded the entire message and realized that it was actually spelling Pitetsbkrrh. Tom contacted the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to inform them of the Morse code error and the story was run July 12, 2009. Owners of the tower have no idea how long it has been misspelled but without the expertise of someone who knows Morse code and flashing light Morse, the problem may never have been identified. One can only wonder why no ham radio operators had discovered the problem earlier?
Flashing light Morse code has been used as a communication mode during hostilities, as a way to maintain radio silence. Seasoned operators can copy up to 14 Words Per Minute while radiomen can decode at 25-35 auditory words per minute. Although the speed of transmission in order to be deciphered must be slower than with sound, flashing light even from a source as small as a flashlight or a mirror can be read for great distances and requires no power grid. Who knows how many rescues have take place from flashing car lights or flashlights in blizzard situations. The author heard a story about a hunter lost from his party on a cold winter night who was rescued by flashing an SOS with his flashlight.
In a Dear Abby column, Dots and Dashes in Tennessee states, Im a female in my mid-30s. One night a few years ago, my cousin and I were driving through Oklahoma on a lonely dark stretch of road. When I ran out of gas, I turned on my emergency flashers, but nobody stopped. After approximately an hour I flashed SOS to several big trucks going by, and within 10 minutes, a state trooper pulled up. He said several had called and reported seeing SOS. (Nobody called about the emergency blinkers!) Her kind of preparation may also save your life.
Most radio operators have never learned to decipher flashing light, but the characters remain the same as for international Morse code. With a little effort, a person adept at auditory code can often pick up enough flashing light to be able to send and receive in as little as a few days. The secret to copying Flashing Light Morse code is to locate a consistently spaced signal and practice turning the flashes into code dahs and dits or sound-alikes in your mind. Some amazing software is available for this purpose. It is a skill well worth your time to master.
