Codes are everywhere. Until humans acquire the Vulcan skill of mind melding, codes are the only communication game in town. If you are reading these words you are deciphering a code. Language written and spoken is just one of many codes we come in contact with every day.
As Hams we are all
familiar with Morse Code. As consumers we are familiar with bar
codes. They are everywhere, including our club’s attendance sheet.
It may surprise you to learn that the idea of bar codes was inspired
by the Morse Code. Its inventor Norman ‘Joe’ Woodland, while
vacationing on Miami Beach, had occasion to drag his fingers through
the sand while pondering a better way to check groceries out of a
supermarket. He noticed that some of the lines left by his fingers
were fatter than others, and spaces also varied. This reminded him of
the Morse Code he learned as a Bot Scout. This was in the mid
fifties, however. His concept was way ahead of its time. Intense
light sources like lasers had not been invented, and computers were
the size of houses and hardly powerful enough to do what simple
microprocessors are capable of today. Technology advanced and by 1974
the first bar code, as we know it today, was scanned at a supermarket
checkout. It was on a pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum. That item was
chosen to demonstrate that this technology could be placed on the
smallest of packages.
The real power of
the bar code comes when it is linked to a database of related
information. Each product you purchase in the store has a bar code
containing a unique number. That number is associated with the
product’s name, its price at that store, and if it is taxable.
Once the product is scanned at the checkout, it is removed from
inventory, and is tallied up until it reaches the reorder set point.
At that point, more product is ordered from the vendor. You can
imagine how this automation saves time. Of course, it does not
eliminate human intervention altogether. It is quite possible for
product to leave the store without the benefit of scanning. This is
caught by physical inventory, and in some cases store greeters. :-)
Bar codes are a
natural for the club attendance. Each ham has a unique identifier. It
is his or her call sign. Plus, we have a well maintained and
accessible database that includes various pieces of information about
its members. So like the supermarkets, it is quite feasible to marry
the bar code read from the attendance sheet to the club’s database
to produce a report which can then be published on the blog.
As with most things,
the devil is in the detail, and there are plenty of details.
Fortunately, bar code generation software is readily available for
free, and hand held scanners have come way down in price. Database
software is also available free. From these components a system was
put together. The monthly workflow follows:
