Actually, I think they were called "mils"--only 1 "L". They were much like
a standard typewriter, but only had capital letters--no switching from lower
to upper case. They looked a lot like the old Underwoods you often see. I
used them quite a bit in the Army. There may have been a shift key for some
punctuation (I honestly can't remember), but I think standard punctuation
was available on separate keys. Although typing was not a skill we taught
in radio school, most of the CW operators rapidly acquired a reasonable
dexterity with a mil, even if it was "two fingered". Fortunately, I took
typing in high school, so using a mil was not difficult for me. We required
a mil to be used for copying messages in the Berlin radio room so that the
message would be readable (we didn't teach penmanship either!). Since the
advent of computers, these have surely become relics. However, you will see
one advertised for sale now and then.
Dave W7AQK
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Jensen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Elecraft Reflector" <elecraft@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 10:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] "Real" CW
Ron D'Eau Claire wrote:
And lastly, that is a pre-computer state-of-the-art manual message
printing
system the operator uses to create hard copy. We called 'em
"typewriters".
Some of us called them "mills." Passed up a chance to get one ... too
many kids in the house at the time so not enough money :-( The KSM story
is at www.radiomarine.org
73,
Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2009 Cal QSO Party 3-4 Oct 2008
- www.cqp.org
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