Signaling in Scouting

[willysjeep]

Ok all, for all of the 1990's while I was in scouting the semaphore flag code and morse code were all still in the handbook. I guess they were sort of an institution in scouting for a long time. However....it seems that hardly anybody in scouting teaches morse code, hand signals, or semaphore any more. I understand that cell phones and 2 way radios have mostly replaced flags for signaling, but when did they? I remember talking to an old scouter who said he never got his first class because when he was a youth there was a signaling requirement for first class, and his scoutmaster made everybody do the morse code part of it, the semaphor part being too "easy". So I guess my question is, do any of you ever remember using morse code, wigwag, hand signals, or Semaphore code while you were scouts (or scouters)? Is it just some romantic notion I have that they were important or were they something that seemed useful but sort of flopped after a while?

[hops_scout]

I have never used them. But then again, I'm just 14 so;). I only use a whistle, 2 way radio, or mirror.

[scoutingagain]

Yes. Since on another thread we've admitted our ages I can say that for my First Class signaling requirement, I learned the morse code and the Wig Wag Flag method of sending and recieving it. Don't ask for much beyond SOS now though.

 

I remember this only because it was right around a district or council jamboree and one of the patrol competition stations was a signaling station. Our Patrol Leader was into Ham Radio and knew Morse by heart. I'll admit I memorized enough to pass a fairly tough test the week before at a troop meeting. This was a tough station. Anyway, most patrols in the competition used Semaphore Flags. We were the only patrol in the competition that used Morse Code. Few patrols scored high in this skill over the weekend. We were also one of the highest scoring Patrols in signaling getting a 49 points out of a possible 50. I missed one letter.

 

This would have been 1969. Later that summer, men would land on the moon, the Mets did not finish in last place and I began to work on merit badges and Star that summer in summer camp.

 

Thanks for digging up a fond Scout Memory Willy.

 

SA

 

[NJCubScouter]

I remember learning semaphore (though alas, I do not remember semaphore itself) for First Class. This would have been 1972 or so... actually it was right after the "new handbook" came out and I believe signalling was not a requirement in that handbook at all. As I recall, you were allowed to complete whatever rank you were working on in the old handbook and then switch to the new one for your next rank. But as I said, I am pretty sure that signalling was taken out of the handbook at that time, so if it was in there during the 90's, they must have put it back in at some point. I know it is not a requirement now, though.

 

As for why they are no longer required, I was recently talking with someone about this, who sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He said the usefulness of these "codes" has really decreased, for example, you no longer need Morse code for Ham radio operation. Whether they still use it in the Navy, I'm not sure. They were still using it in the "Hunt for Red October" and that was about 15 years ago. (I know, that was fiction, but in its details I think it was pretty realistic. Actually in the movie the American sub captain says he's pretty rusty in his Morse code, I don't know if that was just because that would be the job of the lower ranks, or because the American Navy was no longer using it but the Soviet sub was.)

[willysjeep]

I also "inherited" a set of morse code keys when my summer camp cleaned out it's quartermaster shed. The buzzers were all shot, but the keys were fine. I am thinking about making a set of good buzzers to wire together with cheap speaker wire or doorbell wire. I am also pretty handy with a sewing machine so a set of wigwag and semaphore flags. Mabey I could even get some other folks in my troop excited about signaling. Might be fun on canoe trips or at summer camp.

[Bob White]

Signaling was removed from the handbooks in the Mid 70's when the program bowed to some strong social pressures that insisted we needed to be appealing to inner-city populations in order to survive. Remember everyone was nuts in the mid 70's (for proof enter "Leisure Suit" in a Google search.).

 

What we learned was, don't bow to social pressure or vocal minorities. In the early 1980s Bill Hillcourt was made the editor of the new book and he put signaling back in along with many other of the traditional skills, but it was an option for advancement not a required skill.

 

By the end of the 90's signaling was no longer a feasible skill. Just as Morse and railroads replaced the Pony Express. The technology for of cell phones and walkie-talkies have become so compact, inexpensive , effective and widespread that the need and usefulness of Morse and semaphore disappeared. The greatest drawback of them being that not only do you need to know the code but it requires that another person with the same skill be close enough to see you.

 

I had to know Morse Code as a scout and still know it pretty well. Outside of some Klondike Derbies as a scout I have used it exactly....NEVER.

 

You cant keep everything the same and still grow. This is one skill that has seen its usefulness come to an end. Scouting has done a better job of keeping current than Morse did.

 

[NWScouter]

Signaling delayed me from getting first class back in the mid sixties. I was not around when they pulled it out in for a while in the seventies but when my son became a scout in the mid eighties it was a option in the Communication Skill Award. In the 90 Handbook and rework of the requirements it again had no role in the requirements, this is when they got rid of Skill Awards and introduced the New Scout Patrol, Troop Guides and First Class in the First Year Emphasis. Signaling Merit Badge held on until about 91 ( I founded it in the 87-89 but not the 93-95 Requirement book

[eisely]

I had to learn both for First Class, but like all unused skills, both are lost to me now for many decades.

 

One of the footnotes of interest about Hollywood regards the recent Tom Cruise movie, "The Last Samurai". In the final battle the bad guys are shown using the semaphore flags to communicate on the battlefield. Semaphore flags and heliographs (signal mirrors), along with Morse code, were vitally important means to communication in the military before there were field telephones and reliable radios. If I am not mistaken, the navy still uses signal lamps between ships when radio silence is required.

[NJCubScouter]

The only current "practical" use of semaphore of which I am aware is if you were looking at the cover of the Beatles' "Help!" album (or CD) and wanted to know what they are signalling.

 

(No, not the obvious answer, which would put 4 Beatles plus 4 letters in "Help" and come up with the wrong answer. Although I have never verified this myself, since I don't know semaphore anymore and probably didn't have the album while I did know it, supposedly the Beatles are signalling the letters "LPUS" ('elp us.)

[scoutingagain]

NJ,

 

That's one of the most amazing pieces of trivia I've ever encountered. Do you make this stuff up?

 

SA

[NJCubScouter]

Do you make this stuff up?

 

Nah. The truth is strange enough without making anything up.

 

[NJCubScouter]

Bob, I don't think there was anything wrong with "appealing to inner-city populations," it's just that they took it too far. For example, it was good that for the first time, the adults and Scouts pictured in the Scout Handbook relected a bit of diversity instead of being 100 percent white as in previous handbooks. Whether they needed to add first aid for rat bites to the section on dog bites is somewhat more questionable. (When my father is doing some reminiscing about Scouting Past he will mention the "rat bite handbook" and I know exactly what he is talking about.) I believe it is also at that time that, for example, they introduced things like "communications" in a more modern way. On one hand you could say they could have left all the old stuff in together with the new stuff; on the other hand they couldn't let the book be 2,000 pages so they had to make some decisions, and as I said, they went too far in taking out some of the old stuff. On the third hand, it wouldn't have taken up any extra pages to leave "Camping" as an Eagle-required MB. (That mistake was one of the things that was corrected at the end of the 70's but I was not around to see it.)

[matuawarrior]

I remember doing Semaphore as part of one of my badges but I'm not sure if its for Communication Skill Award or the Signalling MB. I know it was fun and it led me to pick communications as my field when I joined the military in the mid 80's.

 

Technology may have outpaced the Semaphore and the Morse Code but what happens when Technology fails.

 

Last Fall Camporee, We had Semaphore and Morse Code as part of the patrol competition. Of Course, units were given a 2 months heads up on what to expect. The young Scouts loved it. It was exciting to see Scouts spell out a message that only they and a select few Scouters could understand.

 

It was alot of fun and I enjoyed seeing the Scouts succeed in something that is no longer required. Who knows it may make a come back. One never knows.

 

Matua

[Region 7 Voyageur]

As I remember things with rose colored glasses, signaling was the most dreaded requirement for First Class. I became a First Class Scout in 1971. All of the scouts that I knew went for the semaphore option of the requirement. I had seen older scouts being ribbed for not remembering their semaphore after earning their First Class Rank. I did not want anyone to be able to criticize me for not retaining all of the skills required for my First Class Tests. I hatched a plan. If I passed the requirement doing Morse code no one would ever know if I later forgot the Morse code because no one else knew Morse Code! I bought an official Boy Scout Morse Code Kit and I studied hard. When I was ready I found a Life Scout that was willing to test me. He had to use a printed sheet of Morse code to test me because he did not know the code. I passed and have never used Morse code again. On to edible plants!

[willysjeep]

Oops! No, no scout needs to know edible plants anymore. IIRC the official stance in the Wilderness Survival pamphlet says something like

 

1) you'll probably poison yourself

2) food uses up water, you can go a long time without food

3) you probably can't tell what is safe, see No 1

 

Funny how prioritys change huh? At one time the wilderness survival book talked about knapping arrow points and building wikiups and figure 4 deadfalls. Now it tells you to not eat any wild foods. Change ain't allways that great.