One of our favorite pursuits at OnAllBands is discovering ham radio and Morse code references that have found their way into television, movies, books, and music—everything from Paul McCartney’s inspiration for the song “Morse Moose and the Grey Goose” to the plaintive transmission at the end of Orson Welles’ “War of the Worlds” broadcast. We’re pleased to report, despite multiple posts on the subject, that the tank isn’t dry when it comes to our favorite hobby and popular culture. Here’s the latest we’ve found:
0DFx
Also known as Zero Defex, this Akron, Ohio, hardcore punk band used the very first Morse code transmission, “What hath God wrought?” in their song “Target Earth.”
The message—sent May 24, 1844 by Samuel F. B. Morse in Washington, D.C. to Alfred Vail forty miles away in Baltimore—can be heard at the beginning and ending of the 58-second scorcher. The biblical quote (Numbers 23:23) was handed to Morse by Annie Ellsworth, the daughter of a close friend, who had written down the line as suggested by her mother.
John M. Harris wrote on the Tippecanoe County Historical Association blog, “Quickly Morse sent the words using the dot and dash code which bears his name. It was received in Baltimore and repeated back. As the words were decoded in Washington, the room erupted with cheers.”
We reached out to 0DFX drummer Mickey Hurray about why the band chose this seminal moment in communications history for their song:
“We included the first telegraph message in our song ‘Target Earth’ because Morse code was essentially the seed to the advent of whole Earth mass communication. As the seed blossoms the answer to that question (What hath God wrought?) is revealing itself globally every day. Stand by for the exciting conclusion.”
“Thunderstruck”
Erik Larson, master of page-turning nonfiction, followed up his gruesomely captivating 2003 book “The Devil in the White City” with the story of Guglielmo Marconi’s development of wireless juxtaposed against the saga of one of Britain’s most infamous criminals—Hawley Harvey Crippen.
Marconi’s and Crippen’s stories run parallel in the book, finally merging to reveal how Marconi’s work played a role in the chase to apprehend the unlikely villain, who had done away with his wife and fled. In interviews, Larson has called the two stories “an amazing confluence of invention and murder.” Amateurs will certainly enjoy the technical details in the Marconi chapters.
“Thunderstruck” comes highly recommended by my lovely YL, who, like Scotland Yard from the story, is in hot pursuit of something that takes dogged effort to achieve—in her case, a Technician license.
“NCIS“
Premiering September 2003, “NCIS” is still going strong. In April, the military police procedural and CBS high-ratings staple was renewed for its 22nd season. With more than 460 episodes under its well-armored belt, you would think that Morse code and ham radio may have been written into a script or two. And you would be correct!
However, as we’ve mentioned in this column before, sometimes ham radio and Hollywood can offer up a mixed bag.
In the “NCIS” episode 6 “Trapped” from Season 15, an investigation into a murder on a golf course leads senior field agent Timothy McGee and special agent Nicholas Torres to discover a ham radio setup in the victim’s home. On the good end of the spectrum, the episode includes mentions of the value of ham radio in emergencies—the “if all else fails, ham radio is there” scenario that has saved countless lives. For some viewers—many of them longtime fans of “NCIS”—that’s where the “good” ended.
While ham radio is used to solve the murder, many operators were not pleased at all the things the show got wrong.
The general sentiment: If you’re going to focus an entire episode on a service that’s been around since the early 1900s, take a few hours and do your research. Objections included the stereotyped portrayal of hams as socially awkward loners, display of a “data only” band on the Yaesu rig used in the episode, the operator’s powerful HF setup being only able to reach “80 square miles,” and, most egregious to many, a not-even-close-to-correct callsign that included a “handle.”
You can find the episode on YouTube and judge for yourself. Next time we’ll look at “NCIS” and how the show handled Morse code.
