Sending and reading Morse by ear · Ceded (since 1999)

The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System becomes fully mandatory on 1 February 1999 and Morse watchkeeping ends at sea, and the last commercial American Morse station signs off on 12 July 1999.

What was ceded is carrying a message as sound, at speed, by someone trained for years to hear letters through noise. Satellite calling and digital selective calling do that now with no one listening, which is the point of the change and also its cost: the watch is gone. Operators recognised each other by hand, the rhythm of a sender being as identifiable as a voice, and they could tell that a ship was in trouble before the message said so. Amateurs keep the code in use and it still works when nothing else does, with a wire, a battery and a person who knows it.