created 2025-04-19, & modified, =this.modified
tags:y2025soundradiodeathcommunication
Reading about Ham radio communities. My outsider impression of Ham radio are that it’s a very passionate, aging group. With our current easy communication infrastructure, it seems obsolete.
But this isn’t really the whole picture. It’s just a different form of communication and the constraints and difficulties, along with the precise, arcane knowledge necessary make the pursuit its own kind of reward.
I noticed there’s a forum section in a larger community site for Silent Keys.
Silent Key is a term of respect for a deceased amateur radio operator. The key in the term refers to a telegraph key, the instrument that all early amateur radio operators, as well as many contemporary amateur radio operators, have used to send Morse code. The term SK is used in telegraphy to indicate an end of transmission. Today, the term is commonly used within the radio community as a sign of respect and condolence regardless of whether the deceased was an amateur radio operator.
There’s a poem on the page:
**Silent Key**
There was a time when the sounds had flowed from your radio room. A melody
to you, and to some a cantankerous noise.
But what a wonderful sound. A melodious harmony and rhythms known to a
few, but to you a symphony of your own creation. Carrying your thoughts
and feelings across town and around the world.
As times changed you picked up a microphone and shared your hours with
friends known and unknown. But you always came back to the key you
knew so well.
And now you are gone. The key knows no melody. The symphony is silent.
We remember with fondness the sounds that flowed from your room, and
we are now greeted with silence.
But now, your signals are perfect. 599 and perfect tone. Your key is now
golden. Your creator now listens to the symphony we used to enjoy and
smiles. Embraces you and shows you the heavens where your symphony
now roams.
**Matt Anderson - KAØBOJ**
There’s tremendous activity on this section, with the forum running 391 pages.