CQ CQ CQ DE ZSD ZSD ZSD GE.
Goodbye to Morse our trusted friend,
We've been together until the very end.
Together we covered heavy seas,
Learned to love your A.B.Cs,
What remains is only 73s.
As W/T goes silent key,
With the very final QRT,
It will be remembered by many a soul,
As it played its vital role,
For those in peril at sea.
BY TERRY HUTSON
DURBAN RADIO'S final Morse code message was transmitted in the early hours of Thursday morning April 1 (2 am local time or 24h00 UTC). The ceremonial transmission brought to an end 89 years of Morse code signalling to ships off the South African coast.
Within ten minutes both Port Elizabeth and Cape Town Radio had also transmitted their final messages in Morse. The final Morse signals were acknowledged by each other and also from several ships at sea, the first signal coming within seconds from the container ship MSC Pamela which was en route from Durban to Port Elizabeth. An era had come to an end, although the coastal radio stations will remain open, using modern communication systems.
Morse code signals have become obsolete in ship communications in recent years as more sophisticated radio equipment has taken over. Since February 1 this year, in terms of international maritime law, all ships over 300 tons have had to be fitted with the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System, which is a sophisticated radio-communication system that has replaced Morse code.
On the most modern ships today even the radio operator has become redundant, and officers of the deck now take charge of this function using instruments placed on the bridge. No more radio shacks tucked away in some dark corner.
The country's first ship to shore radio station opened in Durban in 1910. This was a 3kW spark gap transmitter with coverage of some 400 km using Morse code. In subsequent years other radio stations opened at Port Elizabeth and Cape Town and today there is a network of 38 radio stations using VHF and HF.
Some of the most recent notable occasions using Morse code for an emergency in South African waters included the sinking of the passenger ship Oceanos several years ago. The last actual emergency was with the ship Askania Nova on July 27, 1997, when the ship's engine room was flooded. With the ship drifting helplessly off the Port St John's coast the distress signal went out by Morse on the 500 kHz band and was answered by Durban Radio. Eventually the salvage tug John Ross arrived to take the stricken ship in tow to Algoa Bay, where all ended happily.
The simple and poignant final message from Durban Radio, which was written by Telkom employee Freddie Langeveld, reads as follows:
