[Milsurplus] Milan Illinois National Guard building holds secret message

[Mike Morrow]

Bob wrote:

> Just wanted to share this cool story featuring my AM buddy Dave W9WRL 
> who explains what the patterns on the new National Guard building in 
> Milan, IL mean:
>
> http://www.wqad.com/news/wqad-illinois-national-guard-milan-morse-code-secret-message-12162011,0,2308380.story

That's an interesting write-up.  I notice W9WRL has a couple of old
command set transmitters on the floor in the corner of his show room.

There was a small mis-statement that the length of one dot separated
Morse characters.  The proper spacing between characters is three
dots, although there are plenty of ham-fisted hams who send their
Morse with much less than that!

The news report claims "loyalty" and "duty" are shown on one wall
that actually shows "loyalty" and "integrity".  The wall with "respect"
and "honor" as well as the wall with "duty" appears in the video,
which claims that "all seven of the Army values" are on the building.
The remaining two of "selfless service" and "personal courage" do not
appear.  One wonders if it's true that sufficient space was found on
the one remaining side to inscribe those two in Morse code.  Army PR
guys should have simply used "service" and "courage" in their list of
Army values.  :-)

I was pleasantly surprised to see the report's mention of the other
building in town with Morse Code on a building wall.  It depicts SOS
correctly as "...---..." rather than the grossly incorrect "... --- ..." .
(SOS is sent as one character, not three.  It was chosen for its very
distinctive sound, when sent correctly.  Few Morse-using hams know
that.)  That is on the "Salute On Seventh" (SOS) bar, no less!
Excellence in unexpected places.

Entertaining story.  Thanks for pointing it out.

Mike / KK5F