You guys are missing something in the timing. Sending an SMS message
requires far more than just keying in the receiver's phone number and
the text itself. Once all this is keyed in and the send button is
pressed, the cell system takes over. Much like the email system we
are now using, the SMS message is forwarded into the SMS gateway,
which is most likely located at some central point in the cellphone
company's system. There are amazingly few of these due to the vast
amount of bandwidth inside the phone companies. The next time the
system services outgoing messages, the server will start checking for
delivery parameters, such as if the receiving phone is available and
ready to accept a message. When all these gates have been cleared,
the message is forwarded to the receiver. Only then does the message
come up for display. This can happen quickly (hundreds of
milliseconds), or rather slowly (minutes or more) depending on the
loading of the SMS system and the overall cell system.
Note that this is very much unlike the CW system which is very much
point-to-point.
So, even if the sender could key in the information as fast as the CW
guys, it is doubtful if the SMS system could get the job done
quickly. As are emails, SMS messaging is anything but a real-time
system.
It still feels great to see the guys smoke the phone kids, though...
On May 14, 2005, at 1:04 PM, EricJ wrote:
I posted the math here based on the Guinness sentence that the text
messenger had to send for his world record, but I'm too lazy to
look for it
now. The official text is 160 characters INCLUDING spaces, 136
without. But
SMS requires that spaces be keyed in where Morse does not. So SMS
is at a
throughput disadvantage from the beginning.
Ben Cook set the text messenger record with 160 characters in 57.75
seconds.
That works out to 29 wpm (5.5 wpm) for 160 characters or about 24 wpm
without. Actually quite unbelievably fast for anyone who has
entered an
address or note on their cell phone. So to beat him, it only required
sending Morse at >24 wpm. My guess is Chip was sending at better
than 25,
but less than 30 wpm.
It doesn't so much speak to the efficiency of Morse as it speaks to
the
unbearably pathetic human interface that is SMS. However, it takes
less than
5 minutes to learn SMS, and probably that many days or even weeks
to reach a
comparable speed in Morse. AND, the receiver already has the skills
necessary to read SMS where Morse requires a trained operator at
both ends.
Not to apologize for Ben Cook, but he probably practiced the
Guinness script
every waking moment before his record attempt. He was seeing the
Tonight
Show text for the first time.
So what do we have? I'd say 3:06 minutes of light television
entertainment.
That's good enough.
Eric
KE6US
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of
Kevin Rock
Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 11:27 AM
To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Morse on the Tonight Show, Tonight, Friday
the 13th
I did a little arithmetic to determine the skills necessary for this
'competition'. It appears the text only folks never stood a chance.
Using the standard word PARIS here is the run down.
PARIS * 20 wpm = 100 chars/minute
100 chars/60 seconds = 1.67 chars/second
At 27 wpm => 2.25 chars/sec
At 30 wpm => 2.5 chars/sec.
Having never used text messaging, since cell phones do not work
where I
live, I cannot truly measure the dexterity required to pass this
bit of
traffic.
Since I am a touch typist at a moderate rate of 60 wpm I know I
could beat
most CW ops if given the chance to type the message on a QWERTY
keyboard and
send it via one of the digital modes. But on a little cellphone's
keypad I
do believe I would be severely hampered by its user interface.
They are pretty much a two finger input device as far as I can
tell. My dad
was pretty good at two finger typing (40 wpm) but that method has its
inherent difficulties.
I don't think this was a valid test of different user interfaces
but it
makes for a fine joke. Now if those folks using the cellphones
would have
had Wayne's two button (dot/dash) user input device they would have
been on
the same footing. But even then there would have been the use of
repeaters
and landline circuits to transfer their message. This would have
slowed the
information exchange by just enough to get themselves smoked by the
simplex
transfer of data by the '817 to '817 connection.
The contest would have been more fair however.
Imagine if our very own Chicken Fat Operator N0SS had been the
keying op?
The poor cell op would truly have had egg on his face ;)
Long live CW!!
73,
Kevin. KD5ONS
Should truly be called the "Vail Code" but I digress.
KJR
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