Re: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
From: Mike Morrow [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 12:25:51 -0600 Howard wrote: ... I can only imagine what it must have been like copying code on the China Clippers with early radios... The long-route airline aircraft of the era often had a radio operator on board. He had to be licensed the same as a merchant marine radio officer, with at least a Second Class Radiotelegraph License (20 wpm plain language, 16 wpm code groups), PLUS he had to have the Aircraft Radiotelegraph Endorsement (25 wpm plain language, 20 wpm code groups) on his license. If you're interested in fiction about some of this, I highly recommend _The Lost Flying Boat_ by Alan Sillitoe. This is fiction, but as a former radio operator himself, and a fine writer, he communicates the magic of Morse very nicely. After he became a successful writer, he bought a shortwave receiver so he could just listen in becuase he enjoyed it so much. 73, doug ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
Doug wrote: If you're interested in fiction about some of this, I highly recommend _The Lost Flying Boat_ by Alan Sillitoe. This is fiction, but as a former radio operator himself, and a fine writer, he communicates the magic of Morse very nicely. Thanks! I've not read that one. A great novel about the early days of maritime shore station operations is The Nymph and the Lamp by Thomas H. Raddall. It was published in 1950 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, USA. It's still available through used book dealers on the internet. Ron AC7AC ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
Hello All, The most incredible aviation story of all, is the round-the-world-flight of the Pacific Clipper at the start of WWII. It is the subject of two books, the first written by Pan Am Radio Officer Ed Dover: 73, Bruce WA8TNC *** The Long Way Home: Captain Ford's Epic Journey - Ed Dover Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December, 1941, a giant four-engined Pan American Airways Boeing flying boat, registered as NC18602, under the command of Captain Robert Ford, embarked on a remarkable journey. In one sense, it was the earthly 1940s equivalent of the first Apollo lunar missions in that it ventured into unknown territory and returned home safely in the face of overwhelming odds. Caught en route over the South Pacific at the time of the Japanese attack, Captain Ford and his crew were forced into a flight plan that none of them had anticipated when they left San Francisco on 1st December for what was to have been a routine round trip commercial flight to Auckland, New Zealand. Faced with the threat of interception by Japanese forces, they were ordered to take their strategically valuable aircraft on a globe-girdling, 31,500 mile, six-week odyssey, heading westward mostly across territory that had never been flown over before by such a large commercial aircraft. With no suitable navigation charts, no certainty of obtaining fuel or servicing, and under a total veil of secrecy and radio blackout, they threaded their way across the war zones of the Far East, the Middle East, Africa, the South Atlantic, Brazil, and the Caribbean, to bring their aircraft home safely to New York. This is the story of that historic flight as related to me in person by Captain Robert Ford. Escape of the Pacific Clipper by George L. Flynn The Escape of Pan Am's Pacific Clipper on its maiden voyage is a true story of adventure and suspense. In 1941, the Pacific Clipper was a technological marvel and the finest commercial plane in the air. Not only did Japan and Germany seek the capture of such desirable prize, but our Allies and friends looked for ways of laying claim to her. Trapped in New Zealand after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, with all their Pacific bases under attack or captured, the valiant crew of eleven men challenged the Imperial Japanese navy, 30,000 miles of uncharted waters, and the German Luftwaffe to try for a safe landing in America. With courage and skill, the crew of the Pacific Clipper eluded the pursuing Japanese through Australia, Indonesia, Ceylon, and India. In Iran, the Germans took up the chase through Egypt, the Congo, and Brazil. After a final stop at Trinidad, the heroic crew brought the Clipper home to New York and the final showdown. Lead by Captain Robert Ford, the Pacific Clipper and its crew flew across continents landing on lakes and rivers that had never seen a flying boat. Without arms, money or proper maintenance facilities, and under strict radio silence, they succeeded where most would have given up or failed. Their gripping tale and magnificent odyssey is captured by George Flynn and illustrated with maps, schematics, and technical data on the revolutionary monowing seaplane. === Doug wrote: If you're interested in fiction about some of this, I highly recommend _The Lost Flying Boat_ by Alan Sillitoe. This is fiction, but as a former radio operator himself, and a fine writer, he communicates the magic of Morse very nicely. ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
AGC - was [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
I was at VO2AAA in Labrador City for CQ WW CW with K2/100 #850 and an AL-1200. We were next to a residential area with a very high line noise and precipitation static. On 80 and 160 meters with the AF gain about 3/4 way up and riding the RF gain and DSP with noise reduction made some of the second third tier stations copyable. Sometimes you have to be really fast on reducing the RF gain to save your ears! I don't really like the sound that I get out of my K2 with the DSP, but when you are digging stations out of the noise the NR and the DSP filter #1 really helped. The K2 as the run station was good for about 3000 Q's, the mult station for a couple hundred. And 3.4M points. Think I remember working a couple calls from this list! 73HankK8DD At 12/11/2004 07:45 PM, W3FPR - Don Wilhelm wrote: Ron and all, Are you aware that reducing the RF gain will reduce the AGC action as well. Folks who want to try it may be surprised how well copy can be made under QRM conditions with the AF gain at full and the overall gain controlled by the RF gain. With this technique, the residual AGC provides some 'limiting' protection for the ears while allowing one to dig for really weak signals - this is applicable at any bandwidth, but more so for wider ones. 73, Don W3FPR - Original Message - To this day I still prefer a wide filter, even with moderate QRM. With my K2 on CW, I use the SSB filter more than any other. I love being able to keep track of what's going on around the frequency I'm using. The trick of course, is to turn off the AGC so stronger signals in the passband won't depress the receiver gain. One of these days I'll add a hard limiter to protect my ears. The dynamic range of the K2 allows really huge peaks to come through without the AGC. ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
Howard wrote: ... I can only imagine what it must have been like copying code on the China Clippers with early radios... The long-route airline aircraft of the era often had a radio operator on board. He had to be licensed the same as a merchant marine radio officer, with at least a Second Class Radiotelegraph License (20 wpm plain language, 16 wpm code groups), PLUS he had to have the Aircraft Radiotelegraph Endorsement (25 wpm plain language, 20 wpm code groups) on his license. One of the continuing controversies about the last Amelia Earhart flight revolves around whether she, or Fred Noonan, had adequate knowledge about the radio gear they chose and carried. There have been some reports that Noonan held a commercial radiotelegraph license. The FCC was still carrying the Aircraft Radiotelegraph Endorsement in their system of commercial operator licenses and exams as late as about 25 years ago when I first got my second class telegraph license, though I'd guess the last commercial airline radiotelegraph operator positions had disappeared decades earlier. Up to the early 1960s, many airlines had their own staff of land-based HF radiotelegraph operators used to communicate scheduling and other info between operation centers for the airline. Though the individual operators may have had decades of experience and could often copy above 50 wpm, few ever advanced to the first class radiotelegraph operator license because the traffic that their station handled was not public correspondence as was required in the experience qualifications for the first class ticket. I never heard any machine-sent news/sports broadcasts on the maritime CW bands being sent at speeds higher than about 35 wpm. More critical safety-related broadcasts (weather, notice to mariners, etc.) were generally sent at about 25 wpm. The long-range military aircraft crews of WWII appear to have rarely conducted their Morse communications above about 12 wpm. In fact, many of the WWII-era aircraft radio sets could not be keyed any faster due to keying relay operation times. Many on this list will remember the WWII surplus command sets (ATA/ARA, SCR-274-N, AN/ARC-5) that got many hams on the air in the 20 years following WWII. In their original military installations, they could not be keyed faster than about 14 wpm. If you like Morse, it's hard not to like the old sets that were used when HF radio Morse was in it's commercial heyday. But for power-, weight-, and performance-critical portable operation today, I'll take a solid-state microprocessor-controlled rig anytime. 73, Mike / KK5F (Military Boatanchor Addict) ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
I used to copy press off the air in the 50's. As the lone Flight Test ground controller for Lockheed Aircraft Service, it helped fill in the time between condition checks with planes aloft and preparing meteorological reports. We used both HF AM and CW in those days. The press was sent from punched paper tape, I believe. It ran at a very steady 20 wpm. In my experience, High speed (20 wpm) was ONLY used between a relatively few stations in which the same ops communicated with each other constantly. From what I've read, some of those ops really screamed, but they were the exception. They were usually government or military circuits and, before teletype become common after WWII, occasionally between shore stations moving traffic to where it could be passed onto the proper ship by a coastal station. On any open circuit intended for general consumption - like a press broadcast - 20 wpm or even less was run. After all, all ops had to copy without fills and the ops were only required to be able to copy 20 wpm. International stuff going from shore stations to ships at sea was often much slower - 15 wpm or less. Indeed, some commercial stations welded the weights on the operator's bugs in place to hold the speeds down at all times. They wanted absolutely consistent speed, no matter which operator might be on the shift, and chose a speed that they felt every operator on any ship or station could copy, no matter how green. Radio station KPH on the US west coast (north of San Francisco) is regularly put on the air thanks to a dedicated group of hams/ex station operators. When the station is active, they often send a press tape that hams can copy on the short wave and medium frequency (600 meter) band. Check http://tinyurl.com/3fvgz for more information about them. They often put the old station on the air on New Year's eve. I don't know what this year's plans are. A really fun book documenting the adventures of Sparks - marine radio operators - is Sparks What's Going On? It's a 300 page compendium of anecdotes and reminiscences by radio operators who sailed the high seas in the heyday of CW communications. It's filled with personal notes and stories of humorous encounters such as the time the ship Queen Elizabeth passed Gibraltar one night. A Morse blinker on the rock flashed out, What ship? The QE replied, What rock? Sparks What's Going On? was published by Sylvester Focking, DH4PB. For more information see: http://tinyurl.com/4yewb Sylvester also published some CD's containing actual examples of CW on the High Seas between ships and ships and shore stations. It includes an actual SOS call that, to this day, still produces a chill when I hear it. Ron AC7AC ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
Ron wrote: The press was sent from punched paper tape, I believe. It ran at a very steady 20 wpm. Hi Ron, Coast Station WCC in the 1970s sent a nightly news/sports/financial broadcast in the 1970s at somewhere around 30 wpm. It was great practice, and interesting too. Coast station NAM during the same era was sending weather and NAVAREA/HYDROLANT broadcasts, intended primarily for Naval Sealift Command civilian-manned vessels, at a consistent 25 wpm that was very easy to copy due to the perfect machine-sent nature of the keying. I have to figure that, even though the second class telegraph license didn't require speed greater than 20 wpm, most candidates copied well above that before setting for the exam. I found the random code group exam at a paltry 16 wpm to be far more difficult to pass, since at least 80 consecutive random characters had to be copied without error during the five minute run. Five errors spaced just right would send you down. A really fun book documenting the adventures of Sparks - marine radio operators - is Sparks What's Going On Sounds like a great book. I'll have to track that one down. It's so aggravating dealing with the foreign currency issue, though. The RSGB a few years ago was selling a memoir of a British radio officer of the 1970s and 80s. I don't remember the title, but it was well worth reading as a description of the late soon-to-be-gone era of commercial Morse. In the very early 1990s, a lot of commercial telegraph license holders were sent a solicitation from one of the radio officer unions looking for candidates to filll open billets. I guess there hadn't been too many new recruits to an obviously dead-end career! Sylvester also published some CD's containing actual examples of CW on the High Seas between ships and ships and shore stations. It includes an actual SOS call that, to this day, still produces a chill when I hear it. That would be very interesting! I've talked to merchant radio officers who completed lengthy careers without ever hearing a real SOS. Was it sent ...---... or ... --- ... ? It's surprising how many have the misconception that it's sent with a space between the S, O, and S, rather than the proper method of sending it all as *one* character. In fact, even the USAF's automatic emergency code keyers (AN/ARA-26) that were attached to most USAF airborne HF sets in the 1950s and 1960s were designed to send SOS incorrectly as three separate characters! 73, Mike / KK5F ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
Mike wrote: I've talked to merchant radio officers who completed lengthy careers without ever hearing a real SOS. Was it sent ...---... or ... --- ... ? --- SOS was a prosign, as you point out, sent correctly as one character: ...---... But any error is possible and at times probable. The world of civilian ops from all countries on the marine band was quite different from the military channels! Focking's CDs of marine band activity is a good reminder about how (not so) fast many marine stations were and how rough *some* of those fists were - even some shore ops! To me, the Ham bands today filled with keyer-generated CW sound very little like the old marine frequencies where half or more of the fists were on straight keys. I bet a LOT of those ops would have loved to have a K2 for the keyer and, at times the filters. The 500 calling frequency was often a cacophony of signals all on top of one another in the passband of receivers of the day. To this day I still prefer a wide filter, even with moderate QRM. With my K2 on CW, I use the SSB filter more than any other. I love being able to keep track of what's going on around the frequency I'm using. The trick of course, is to turn off the AGC so stronger signals in the passband won't depress the receiver gain. One of these days I'll add a hard limiter to protect my ears. The dynamic range of the K2 allows really huge peaks to come through without the AGC. Ron AC7AC ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
Ron and all, Are you aware that reducing the RF gain will reduce the AGC action as well. Folks who want to try it may be surprised how well copy can be made under QRM conditions with the AF gain at full and the overall gain controlled by the RF gain. With this technique, the residual AGC provides some 'limiting' protection for the ears while allowing one to dig for really weak signals - this is applicable at any bandwidth, but more so for wider ones. 73, Don W3FPR - Original Message - To this day I still prefer a wide filter, even with moderate QRM. With my K2 on CW, I use the SSB filter more than any other. I love being able to keep track of what's going on around the frequency I'm using. The trick of course, is to turn off the AGC so stronger signals in the passband won't depress the receiver gain. One of these days I'll add a hard limiter to protect my ears. The dynamic range of the K2 allows really huge peaks to come through without the AGC. ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
RE: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
Don W3FPR wrote: Are you aware that reducing the RF gain will reduce the AGC action as well. Folks who want to try it may be surprised how well copy can be made under QRM conditions with the AF gain at full and the overall gain controlled by the RF gain. With this technique, the residual AGC provides some 'limiting' protection for the ears while allowing one to dig for really weak signals - this is applicable at any bandwidth, but more so for wider ones. Good point, Don. Yes, that's what I do with the K2 quite a bit. It's worked well enough that I've put off fixing up a limiter. The problem comes up when I need to run the gains up for a very weak station and suddenly a huge signal in the passband keys the rig. The AGC kicks in and the weak signal disappears! Saves my ears, more or less, but kills the copy. With a hard limiter, if I've got the weak signal up right where the limiter is starting to clip, a much stronger signal is no louder. It's just rougher sounding thanks to the higher degree of clipping it gets. Ron AC7AC ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
Re: [Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
Well, YMMV ... but I'm sort of with Ron. I like to know what's going on around me, and if I want to really dig in and pull someone out of the noise, I know I can do it (well, sometimes!). I retired from communications engineering, and I accept all the theory for channels subjected to noise and possible throughput as a result, but we're not Point-To-Point folks. I'm not totally sure that it applies to the operation of a ham radio station. Fred K6DGW Auburn CA CM98lw W3FPR - Don Wilhelm wrote: Ron and all, Are you aware that reducing the RF gain will reduce the AGC action as well. Folks who want to try it may be surprised how well copy can be made under QRM conditions with the AF gain at full and the overall gain controlled by the RF gain. With this technique, the residual AGC provides some 'limiting' protection for the ears while allowing one to dig for really weak signals - this is applicable at any bandwidth, but more so for wider ones. 73, Don W3FPR - Original Message - To this day I still prefer a wide filter, even with moderate QRM. With my K2 on CW, I use the SSB filter more than any other. I love being able to keep track of what's going on around the frequency I'm using. The trick of course, is to turn off the AGC so stronger signals in the passband won't depress the receiver gain. One of these days I'll add a hard limiter to protect my ears. The dynamic range of the K2 allows really huge peaks to come through without the AGC. ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
[Elecraft] OT-Preserving CW memories
From time to time I make a post reminding folks that there's a web site where the content comes from a submarine radio operator (www.zerobeat.net/submarine) . I'd love to do a similar site with the memories and stories of folks who made their living pounding brass, whether aboard ship, at a Coast Station, Police Communications, Railroard or other venues. Yep...it appears that hardly anyone does any of the above now, and I'd like to preserve your memories on the web so that those of use that use and enjoy cw have a frame of reference other than amateur radiowhen you're not around, you'll take those memories with you. If ya have a mind to, drop me an emailI'll be happy to turn it into HTML and devote as much space on the server as it takes to tell the story of the magical music. 73,Thom-k3hrn www.zerobeat.net Home of QRP Web Ring, Drakelist home page, Free Classified Ads for amateur radio, QRP IRC channel Elecraft Owners Database www.tlchost.net/ Web Hosting as low as 3.49/month ___ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
