The Overhead

Terry Pratchett was a fantastic and prolific writer who's works take up an entire shelf in my library. In his fantasy flat earth an elevated semaphore system, the Clacks, served as their advanced telecom much as long-haul HF radio once did for us. Clacks operators sent messages back and forth much as telegraphers would do but some of the messages are about Clacks operation and the general news and info they called the Overhead.

Pratchett maintained that when a Clacksman died his name was added to the Overhead since no man is forgotten while his name is still spoken which I think is a wonderful idea and, like all great legends, only the truth.

My version of the Clacks is Morse Code, we call it CW, on the low HF bands of ham radio. At night I can hear friends chatting with other friends they may or may not ever meet in countries they may or may not ever visit. During the recent unpleasantness in Ukraine I found the best way to get the real story was to simply call CQ KYIV and talk to someone who's there, as opposed to watching the news which nearly always told me a very different story.

Now I have, and in some cases had, friends in Ukraine.

While tuning around on 40 meters I heard a fellow operator calling to a series of stations that didn't answer. I recognized a few of them, knew why they would never answer, and realized Pratchett's Overhead had landed in my real world of tubes and antennas. When we lose a CW operator to age, bad luck, or war we says he's a Silent Key since his Morse key sits quietly next to a radio that has no master. He wasn't calling to stations he knew would never reply, he was sending their callsigns out into the ether so that their names would be remembered.

It's a matter of physics that a wavefront will propagate forever and, although weakened by distance, will eventually reach the edge of our universe, the most distant stars, star systems, and possibly other radio operators. Be it sentimental, theosophical, or just respectful, these ops will be remembered.

If you tune in on 7.020 MHz, the CW portion of the 40 meter band, on the solstice, you'll hear me doing it too. Life imitates art if the art is good enough. Sir Terry had it right. DE N4RYW.