RadioBanter - View Single Post

February 29th 04, 07:35 PM

In article , ospam
(Larry Roll K3LT) writes:

In article ,
(Len Over 21) writes:

The core of network messaging in the military of WW2 was the
teleprinter, principally the militarized models from the Teletype
Corporation headquartered in Chicago...as were Hallicrafters and
Motorola. Teleprinters were ideal for integrated communications,
operating well over both wirelines and radio, capable of 60 words
per minute continuously, needing only to be fed paper and ribbons
and some occasional oil.

The image of the lone morseman with headphones and hunched
over his code key saving the nation was only that...an image...no
relation to reality. That image is UNreal.

LHA / WMD

Loonie:

Er, I mean, "Lennie." Sorry. How come the "image of the lone morseman
with headphones" is so predominant, if it is not true? In virtually every
depiction
of WWII-Era military communications, the mode being used is Morse/CW.

If all you see is a code key and all you hear is beeping morse, then
all that can be "depicted to you" is the lone morseman valiantly
serving his country heroically through his skill at morsemanship. :-)

I didn't invent the blinders you are wearing and certainly wouldn't wear
the blunders you make as a "communications veteran of the military."

You've never served the USAF in any capacity as a communicator on
radio or wirelines and certainly NOT before 1956. You just don't know
anything but what you've read or seen in stories told by others.

I know had have known many WWII-Era military radio operators, and they
were all able to use Morse/CW conversationally at speeds in excess of
50 WPM. They told tales of pulling duty watches in which they spent the
entire time with headphones on listening for message traffic in CW.

You know damn few if any at all.

World War 2 ENDED almost 59 years ago. Well before your time.

While
they have also spoken of the use of radioteletype, for the most part, that
was used only for the most routine, non-secure message traffic, and mainly
within the CONUS between military installations and defense manufacturing
facilities (which were on a landline net).

Poor baby...still trying to foist the "depictions" thing again when you've
had NO possible experience in anything military before 1956.

Teleprinter - with or without encryption ("Sigaba") - was begun in the
USN in 1940 on ships of cruiser and heavier class. The HIGHEST
security level required encrypted teleprinter...on ships that meant
radioteleprinter. How did you think the decrypted "Purple code"
messages were forwarded? By bicycle messenger, hand carried?
How do you think the Battle of Midway was coordinated in order to
surprise the Japanese fleet? Encrypted teleprinter is the answer.

Do you think the M-209 Code Converter was used solely for morse
communications? Little unit, non-electrical device for lower-level
cryptographic purposes, made by the thousands by typewriter
companies during WW2. Museum artifact now just as morse keys
are relics everywhere but in amateur radio.

You want to hold the OLD image of Washington Army Radio in your
mind because it is safe, secure, and understandable and that you
want to be a Big Man because you have tested at higher morse rates
as an AMATEUR. You have NO concept of W-A-R as it grew after
the USA involvement with war became increased. You have NO real
concept of military radio during WW2 other than third- and fourth-hand
tales and the selective histories of amateur radio publications.

Your credibility is zero.

Only in your imagination. I BEGAN in radio communications IN the
military in 1953 and remained at that assignment for three years.
HF radio transmission 24/7 trans-Pacific at the 3rd largest ACAN
station (first was W-A-R) in terms of messages handled. I've been
involved with military communications methods, concentrating on
design concerning them full-time and in a consulting basis. That's
through the plateau jumps in technology over a half century that
includes the demise of the vacuum tube and into the era of the large-
scale integrated circuits of solid-state electronics. Hands-on all the
way. Can you say the same after thumbing through old ham mags?

You've never carried an AN/PRC-6 or AN/PRC-10 or hand-cranked an
AN/GRC-9 or spoken over an AN/GRC-26 in its little hut on the bed
of a deuce and a half. [the -6 and -10 are/were VHF and voice, the
-9 was CW/voice and the -26 RTTY/Voice] That was just IN the
military. You've never carried an AN/PRC-119 SINCGARS on your
back and have no real idea of what it is even though a quarter million
of them have been produced. It worked 30 to 88 MHz where you fear
to tread as a morse purist. You've never even had an AN/PRC-104
on your back either even though it IS an HF radio...it's mode is voice
or data like the -119. You've never had to control the mobile and
ground variants based on the R/Ts. You've never used the AN/ARCs
of the USAF or the radionav equipment and probably couldn't define
"station" location in an aircraft. You've never used a TTY terminal
order-wire and certainly not a KL-7 ancient machine (whose details
made WO Walker some money once).

As a USAF "twenty" veteran you had all your military experience
behind a DESK filling out FORMS. You have NO communications
experience while in the military or out of it other than amateur
radio. You show NO sign of being familiar with any military radios
by nomenclature or familiar name nor do you know any non-military
radios other than those featured in ads of ham magazines. You
don't show any signs of wanting to know...even though you could go
to the USAF ACAS website and download a free book of USAF
radio history. I doubt you ever used a KY-nn of any kind during your
desk-jockey air days of communicating over a handset (I include
the jelly unless you were into a hand set).

You claim that Morse/CW was essentially
unheard of as a primary military communications mode, when, in fact, all
of the evidence is that exactly the opposite is true.

[expletive deleted] sweetums. From 1948 onwards W-A-R and all of
ACAN made on-off keying morsemanship downsized to nothing for
all fixed-point to fixed-point circuits that bore the brunt of military
messaging. The USN did the same from about 1960 onwards and the
USAF did it in between USA and USN.

There's all kinds of documentary PROOF that is for public
dissemination and has been for years. You can start at the USAF
AFCC at Scott Field and work outward. "Radio" works by the
same physics regardless of an administration's label of type or
kind. Download "From Flares to Satellites" for an overview, a
good history of communications in the USAF...although a bit too
condensed at only about 90 pages with only a few illustrations.

You can put on your blinders and pump up your morsemanship
all you want. Such will appeal to PCTAs who long for "good old
days" that, like you, they never really experienced in their lifetimes.
You will, of course, demand that reality is like your imaginings and
refuse to believe anyone who was actually IN military
communications. If you have the chutzpah you can call such
as "liars" in a grande job of snowmanship newsgroup poker which
only proves that YOU are the massive LIAR in here.

LHA / WMD