One had assumed that Morse code's last hurrah (that's ···· ··- ·-· ... oh, life's just too short) had been in about 1944. But one had assumed wrong. The writer Alan Sillitoe, who trained as a wireless operator in the second world war, this week revealed that he still practises taking Morse every day, listening to chatter across the airwaves, including a French station that broadcasts poetry in Morse.

So how much Morse, in iambic pentameters or otherwise, is out there? "Radio amateurs are still using Morse code worldwide," says Carlos Eavis, amateur radio manager at the Radio Society of Great Britain. "It's something that every radio amateur needs to learn." Eavis points to several advantages Morse, which has been around since the 1840s, has over its modern rivals. There is no language barrier - the dots and dashes are the Esperanto of the airwaves; you don't need an expensive computer, so the four-fifths of the world that doesn't have internet access can still communicate; the simplicity of the signal means it can be easily picked up, even when reception is poor; and only the most rudimentary transmitter is needed to send messages.

Morse can't compete with computer-based systems in sending long messages - though tests have proved it is faster than text messaging on mobile phones - and most military services have abandoned it. But the SAS is still believed to teach Morse, in case its soldiers need to rig up a simple transmitter in a remote location and send a distress call. It also comes in useful in prisons, where prisoners can tap out messages to each other on pipes. "Morse will continue to be used," says Eavis, "because of its simplicity. You don't need anything hi-tech - it will just work." Samuel Morse's name will live on, which, says Eavis, is unfair on Alfred Vail, who actually invented the code. Morse just financed it. Dash it!

*I'm not dead yet