I've been surprised to discover that I can trace much of my interest in Ham radio back to my childhood. Having a father in the sound engineering business certainly played a role, but when it comes to Morse code, I have my grandmother to thank. She used to teach us kids how to tap out the code, first with our fingertips on the kitchen table, and later with a heavy brass key she kept in her desk. I loved knowing a 'secret code' the other kids didn't know. Sending and receiving messages was a great way to spend a rainy Saturday.

Recently, when I took the Basic Ham test and decided I wanted to get my Morse qualification, it occurred to me to wonder… why did my grandmother even know Morse code? I think I know the answer…

My family lived in a small village near Lancaster, Pennsylvania that was settled in 1852. Around 1872, a general store was opened there, and later a brick house was built onto the old wooden structure. That's the house I grew up in. Directly across the street was another old house, which generations of the family had lived in. Growing up, we simply called the two "our house" and "grandma's house".

The man that built the country store also became the first U.S. Post Office in the area. Operating out of the general store, he began handling mail in May 1872. Near the turn of the century, the post office was moved over to my grandmother's house across the street, and she served as Postmistress for many years.

The U.S. Post Office first began in nearby Philadelphia, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1775. About 70 years later, they began operating the first public Telegraph lines in the U.S., starting in 1844 from Washington to Baltimore, and eventually extending the service to New York, Boston, Buffalo, and Philadelphia.

The electrical Telegraph had been patented in the U.S. in 1837 by Samuel Morse who, with his assistant Alfred Vail, developed the Morse code alphabet. Morse sent his first telegram on January 6, 1838, across two miles of wire at Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey. The message read: "A patient waiter is no loser."

Less then 10 years later, in 1847, the Telegraph system was privatized, except for a period during World War I when it was used for nighttime delivery of letters. Because most postal outlets in those days were also operated by private individuals like my grandmother, acting as representatives of the U.S. Post Office, naturally the postmasters also ran many of the Telegraph offices.

So my grandmother, being the village Postmistress for many years, most likely learned Morse code just because it had been so closely associated with the Postal service. Not surprisingly, they never did open a Telegraph office out in the countryside, so she never got to be an official transmitter of Morse messages. But I remember how fast her fingers were at tapping out the code as she taught us kids. I hope I can get up to her speed some day.