No, it's not a political protest thread.

Just a description of what it took to be a radio operator at radio station WAR
back in WW2. Copied from a Yahoo reflector:

This from an article in Radio News of November '42 regarding the radio station
WAR.

"...The average person thinks of a highly trained radio operator a man who can
send radiograms with very little confusion and at a fair rate of speed....say
the messages are actually handled at around fifteen or even twenty words a
minute for a short period of time.

The radio operator on duty at WAR must send or receive or both at a rate of
more than fifty words a minute during the eight hours of his tour of duty. He
must understand the delicate equipment such as teletypwriters, radio types and
siphon recording equipment. He must be able to read manual signals at more
than thirty words a minute and to handle traffic at this speed if necessary.
He must be able to read from recording tape at more than fifty words a minute
and he must be able to operate a teletype machine..."

From [the author's] recollection in 1942 when WAR operators were tested they
had to touchtype at 100 wpm, use a Kleinschmidt perforator at a high rate of
speed and copy recorded slip tape at 100 wpm as well as sending and receiving
manually when the automatic systems would not function.

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB, W0US
and others.

In article , PAMNO
(N2EY) writes:

No, it's not a political protest thread.

Of course it is...the POLITICS of trying to keep U.S. amateur radio
stuck with a morse code test forever and ever because you came
upon an OLD bit a data on the 'net and you refuse to give in on that
test despite the WRC-03 decision.

Just a description of what it took to be a radio operator at radio station
WAR back in WW2. Copied from a Yahoo reflector:

This from an article in Radio News of November '42 regarding the radio
station WAR.

Ahem...1942 was SIXTY-TWO YEARS AGO.

A few things changed at Washington Army Radio (WAR) in the next
few years. In 6 years they would come over from the dark side of
the modulation force and do TTY like the rest of the ACAN. By 10
years after 1952 they would start running automatic TTY relay that
could read address preambles on messages and do the switch-over
to another circuit without needing human intervention. It was a sort
of test-bed for the AUTOVON and AUTODIN to come.

While little ADA in Tokyo (3rd rank in number of messages handled
in ACAN) did a mere 220K messages a month, Washington Army
Radio did about 1200K messages a month, the rate due to auto-
switching of addresses.

"...The average person thinks of a highly trained radio operator a man who can
send radiograms with very little confusion and at a fair rate of speed....say
the messages are actually handled at around fifteen or even twenty words a
minute for a short period of time.

I'm sure "the average person" thought so SIXTY-TWO YEARS AGO.
Uh huh... Morsemanship was real high-tech...62 years ago.

You were there talking to "the average persons," right? You got the
stats from a League poll?

The radio operator on duty at WAR must send or receive or both at a rate of
more than fifty words a minute during the eight hours of his tour of duty. He
must understand the delicate equipment such as teletypwriters, radio types and
siphon recording equipment. He must be able to read manual signals at more
than thirty words a minute and to handle traffic at this speed if necessary.
He must be able to read from recording tape at more than fifty words a minute
and he must be able to operate a teletype machine..."

A TTY by Teletype Corporation is a "delicate equipment?!?!?" :-) :-)

"Delicate?!?" A Model 15 or 19?!? Hay-soose, they can crank along
at 60 WPM for days on end as long as someone feeds it paper and
ribbon...and in temperature extremes that will send a human on sick
call! Go try and lift a little Model 15 in its transit case...one-handed.

"Siphon recording equipment?" Don't siphons suck? :-)

From [the author's] recollection in 1942 when WAR operators were tested they
had to touchtype at 100 wpm, use a Kleinschmidt perforator at a high rate of
speed and copy recorded slip tape at 100 wpm as well as sending and receiving
manually when the automatic systems would not function.

Yeah, right..."touchtype at 100 WPM" on a 60 WPM machine?
Not likely...the keyboard kicks back and refuses to accept too fast
a keypress.

"When the automatic systems would not function?!?!?" HAR! HAR!

WHAT "automatic systems" in 1942? You mean the Teletype
Corporations' perf receivers and sending distributors used throughout
ACAN? Sending distributors had two read heads...would sense p-tape
run-out and automatically switch over to the other head. Very
"delicate?" Only if the manual relay person forgot to load the next
message...:-) In that case it would be "delicatessen" instead of
"delicate." The duty officer would enjoy chewing on a deli sandwich
made of butt of TTY relayer...:-)

That's riiiight...the automatic TTY switch-relay wasn't there in 1942!

I'll bet you think that Washington Army Radio just creaked along for
the ten-year interval with all-manual touchtypers creaking away at
100 words a minute on their mills, eyeshades pulled low on the
forehead, listening to sounders, clickering of the bugs as they sent
mighty morse signals over the globe when the Cold War was just
ignited.

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB, W0US
and others.

I hope they had fun operating all that "delicate" equipment weighing
hundreds of pounds per rack-full. Oh, yeah, and playing with the
"siphon."

Yeah, right, a Press Wireless PW-15 is "real delicate." Eighth-inch thick
steel panels on that puppy are "very fragile," too! :-) Probably
consider 15 KW RF output to be "QRP," I'll bet... :-) :-) :-)

I was an actual part of the whole of ACAN, Rev. Jimmie...for three years.
Were you in ACAN or there at Washington Army Radio? Or was it too
"delicate" for you?

Let's hear it for all those Sparkies winning the Great War through
morsemanship. In 1918, maybe. By 1948, NOT.

LHA / WMD

"N2EY" wrote in message
...
No, it's not a political protest thread.

Just a description of what it took to be a radio operator at radio station
WAR
back in WW2. Copied from a Yahoo reflector:

This from an article in Radio News of November '42 regarding the radio
station
WAR.

"...The average person thinks of a highly trained radio operator a man who
can
send radiograms with very little confusion and at a fair rate of
speed....say
the messages are actually handled at around fifteen or even twenty words a
minute for a short period of time.

The radio operator on duty at WAR must send or receive or both at a rate
of
more than fifty words a minute during the eight hours of his tour of duty.
He
must understand the delicate equipment such as teletypwriters, radio types
and
siphon recording equipment. He must be able to read manual signals at
more
than thirty words a minute and to handle traffic at this speed if
necessary.
He must be able to read from recording tape at more than fifty words a
minute
and he must be able to operate a teletype machine..."

From [the author's] recollection in 1942 when WAR operators were tested
they
had to touchtype at 100 wpm, use a Kleinschmidt perforator at a high rate
of
speed and copy recorded slip tape at 100 wpm as well as sending and
receiving
manually when the automatic systems would not function.

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB,
W0US
and others.



Real hams. Not these wanabees we have today.

Dan/W4NTI

In article .net, "Dan/W4NTI"
w4nti@get rid of this mindspring.com writes:

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB,
W0US
and others.

Real hams. Not these wanabees we have today.

Go for it, Dan boy, "real" hams even if SK by now. :-)

In all fairness, Washington Army Radio was an old, small effort using
old-fashioned (for its time, not ours) up until about the summer of
1942. Quite inadequate to mount a worldwide war effort. The largest
real communications network was maintained by the US Navy back
then (they had already introduced TTY to warships of cruiser size
and above by 1940, the Sigaba real-time encryption cut in in 1941).

The U.S. Army Signal Corps of the beginning 1942 times was, and
their historians grudgingly admit it, not up to the herculean task
ahead. Prior to the Japanese striking Pearl Harbor on the morning
of 7 December 1941, the warning message to the Army commander
on Pearl was sent by RCA commercial-carrier message, not over
any Army radio circuit.

The very first HT (a Motorola design) was operational in 1941, even
used by FDR's Secret Service personnel, but in limited quantities.
The backpack walkie-talkie was still in the design phase in the
summer of 1942, as was the Hallicrafters conversion of their
commercial HF transmitter to the BC-610 military model. High-
power HF transmitters in the military of early '42 were largely
off-the-shelf commercial models or the antiquated 1 KW BC-339
and its big brother, the 10 KW BC-340. ACAN, Army Command
and Administrative Network, was a rather sorry lot in the middle
of 1942, mostly the left-overs of the 20s and 30s sparky days
hardly more than amateur efforts with uniforms. That would change
remarkably in the next year, taking at least two plateau jumps in
both equipment type and quantity...field tested in North Africa and
Italy and over the enormous spans of the Pacific as that island-
by-island campaign began...the Army long-distance radio comms
greatly helped by the USN in the Pacific.

What had been a picayune effort by the Army up to about the
middle of 1942 ended by 1943. By then there was less reliance on
commercial radio carriers for long-distance communications and a
tremendous growth of INTEGRATED wire and radio, truly networked
to enable the excellent logistics capability of the US military
demonstrated in WW2. The era of copying the sparky methods of
the USN for land use was ending...the Army was expanding in
technology of radio and electronics much like the end product of
the Manhattan Project.

The second-highest national priority level (behind only the A-bomb
project) of WW2 was the production of quartz crystals for radios.
In the last three years of WW2, quartz crystal unit production
averaged 1 million units per month from over 30 companies in the
USA! Not any sort of "amateur" effort." Galvin (later Motorola) was
the production Hq for the quartz crystals in a time when artificial
quartz blank growth was not yet known. The vast majority of those
crystal units was intended for non-morse-code radios used on land
and in the air and on landing craft.

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

In article .net,
w4nti@get says...

"N2EY" wrote in message
...
No, it's not a political protest thread.

Just a description of what it took to be a radio operator at radio station
WAR
back in WW2. Copied from a Yahoo reflector:

This from an article in Radio News of November '42 regarding the radio
station
WAR.

"...The average person thinks of a highly trained radio operator a man who
can
send radiograms with very little confusion and at a fair rate of
speed....say
the messages are actually handled at around fifteen or even twenty words a
minute for a short period of time.

The radio operator on duty at WAR must send or receive or both at a rate
of
more than fifty words a minute during the eight hours of his tour of duty.
He
must understand the delicate equipment such as teletypwriters, radio types
and
siphon recording equipment. He must be able to read manual signals at
more
than thirty words a minute and to handle traffic at this speed if
necessary.
He must be able to read from recording tape at more than fifty words a
minute
and he must be able to operate a teletype machine..."

From [the author's] recollection in 1942 when WAR operators were tested
they
had to touchtype at 100 wpm, use a Kleinschmidt perforator at a high rate
of
speed and copy recorded slip tape at 100 wpm as well as sending and
receiving
manually when the automatic systems would not function.

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB,
W0US
and others.



Real hams. Not these wanabees we have today.

Dan/W4NTI

Yes indeed - I'm still irked about having to pass the 20WPM code for my
extra while a friend of mine skated through when they started lowering
the code standards.

Have I taken soldering iron, cutters, etc. to gear? Sure I have. But
right now I really don't have the time to homebrew gear.

PAMNO (N2EY) wrote in message ...
No, it's not a political protest thread.

Just a description of what it took to be a radio operator at radio station WAR
back in WW2. Copied from a Yahoo reflector:

This from an article in Radio News of November '42 regarding the radio station
WAR.

"...The average person thinks of a highly trained radio operator a man who can
send radiograms with very little confusion and at a fair rate of speed....say
the messages are actually handled at around fifteen or even twenty words a
minute for a short period of time.

The radio operator on duty at WAR must send or receive or both at a rate of
more than fifty words a minute during the eight hours of his tour of duty. He
must understand the delicate equipment such as teletypwriters, radio types and
siphon recording equipment. He must be able to read manual signals at more
than thirty words a minute and to handle traffic at this speed if necessary.
He must be able to read from recording tape at more than fifty words a minute
and he must be able to operate a teletype machine..."

From [the author's] recollection in 1942 when WAR operators were tested they
had to touchtype at 100 wpm, use a Kleinschmidt perforator at a high rate of
speed and copy recorded slip tape at 100 wpm as well as sending and receiving
manually when the automatic systems would not function.

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB, W0US
and others.

Nice trip down mammary lane, but what has this to do with amateur radio?

"Dan/W4NTI" w4nti@get rid of this mindspring.com wrote in message hlink.net...
"N2EY" wrote in message
...
No, it's not a political protest thread.

Just a description of what it took to be a radio operator at radio station
WAR
back in WW2. Copied from a Yahoo reflector:

This from an article in Radio News of November '42 regarding the radio
station
WAR.

"...The average person thinks of a highly trained radio operator a man who
can
send radiograms with very little confusion and at a fair rate of
speed....say
the messages are actually handled at around fifteen or even twenty words a
minute for a short period of time.

The radio operator on duty at WAR must send or receive or both at a rate
of
more than fifty words a minute during the eight hours of his tour of duty.
He
must understand the delicate equipment such as teletypwriters, radio types
and
siphon recording equipment. He must be able to read manual signals at
more
than thirty words a minute and to handle traffic at this speed if
necessary.
He must be able to read from recording tape at more than fifty words a
minute
and he must be able to operate a teletype machine..."

From [the author's] recollection in 1942 when WAR operators were tested
they
had to touchtype at 100 wpm, use a Kleinschmidt perforator at a high rate
of
speed and copy recorded slip tape at 100 wpm as well as sending and
receiving
manually when the automatic systems would not function.

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB,
W0US
and others.



Real hams. Not these wanabees we have today.

Dan/W4NTI

Not real hams. Amateur Radio was suspended at the time, unless you
consider a real ham to be one without operating priveleges.

And hopefully they weren't operating WAR using W3GRF, W0DX,
W9BRD/VA3ZBB, W0US, or other callsigns.

William wrote:


Nice trip down mammary lane, but what has this to do with amateur radio?

Excellent work netdeputy. Poster is off-topic and I do believe the
clever title, despite his disclaimer, shows his true colors as a
lily-livered peacenik terrorsymp THREAT. I say we both turn him in, and
split the 500 Patriot Points we'll revceive for bagging this traitor.

--
It Came From C. L. Smith's Unclaimed Mysteries.
http://www.unclaimedmysteries.net

"Religion isn't the opiate of the masses. When
properly used, religion is the methamphetamine
of the masses." - nu-monet v6.0 in alt.slack

In article ,
(William) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
...
No, it's not a political protest thread.

Just a description of what it took to be a radio operator at radio station
WAR
back in WW2. Copied from a Yahoo reflector:

This from an article in Radio News of November '42 regarding the radio
station
WAR.

"...The average person thinks of a highly trained radio operator a man who
can
send radiograms with very little confusion and at a fair rate of
speed....say
the messages are actually handled at around fifteen or even twenty words a
minute for a short period of time.

The radio operator on duty at WAR must send or receive or both at a rate of
more than fifty words a minute during the eight hours of his tour of duty.
He
must understand the delicate equipment such as teletypwriters, radio types
and
siphon recording equipment. He must be able to read manual signals at more
than thirty words a minute and to handle traffic at this speed if necessary.

He must be able to read from recording tape at more than fifty words a
minute
and he must be able to operate a teletype machine..."

From [the author's] recollection in 1942 when WAR operators were tested they
had to touchtype at 100 wpm, use a Kleinschmidt perforator at a high rate of
speed and copy recorded slip tape at 100 wpm as well as sending and
receiving
manually when the automatic systems would not function.

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB,
W0US
and others.

Nice trip down mammary lane, but what has this to do with amateur radio?

TAFKARJ is trying to "prove" something by connecting SK hams
with the U.S. Army and Washington Army Radio of early 1942.

He "proves" absolutely nothing other than vainly trying to promote
old, old ways to do things as those for the now and future of amateur
radio. Very silly effort considering the actual recorded history of the
U.S. and military radio communications.

It's worse than that considering TAFKARJ was never in the U.S.
military and has no experience in any era of military radio. All he has
is Faith in His Calling To The Code...therefore all must Believe as He
Believes. Poor guy is stuck forever in ancient radio of before his time
and can't get back into the reality of today. All must remain in the
standards and practices of before his birth.

In one way I can't blame him. No experience with the military forces
him to rely on anecdotal stories and tales from others who weren't
there, either. But, those websites with anecdotal stories and tales
are sufficiently tangible that they are used as references for His
version of the Truth.

His False Belief is that the U.S. military "still uses morse code" and
that is almost unshakable because He champions morse code,
therefore all the righteous must be using his Favorite Mode. Reality is
that the U.S. military gave up on morse modes some time ago, all
branches. The last branch to "use" it was the Coast Guard in their
monitoring of the 500 KHz International Maritime Disaster Frequency.
That went away after the maritime community cut in the GMDSS; the
system that the maritime community itself proposed. The USCG
stopped monitoring. End of an era, but not of the many good services
performed by the USCG.

Jimmie will probably try ten kinds of wordplay to reinforce His Belief
by saying "the U.S. military still uses morse code" since Fort Huachuca
still has morse code classes. By selectively omitting that such training
is for intelligence-gathering by message intercepts, he thinks he is
winning some kind of point. He doesn't. Interception of messages is
NOT communications by radio, just more of the many kinds of
intelligence gathering done by the major powers through both military
and government intelligence community personnel.

ARRL has long been waving the U.S. flag with stock propaganda
phrases about "hams serving the country in time of need" and so forth
to "illustrate" something. Such propaganda (self-serving) does nothing
more than show the ARRL itself hasn't "served" anyone but themselves.
Military radio communications prior to 1942 MAY have been somewhat
close to amateur radio practice (amateurs did not then nor later send
five-letter groups in encyphered messages as the militaries did), but
that changed radically once WW2 staffing and stocking went into
overdrive after the USA commitment to the war effort.

Washington Army Radio of 1944 was so radically different from what
it had been in 1941 that there is no real comparison. By 1944 it had
organized into the beginning of an INTEGRATED communications
hub, a center for all Army networks. Ten or twenty amateur NTSs
wouldn't have been near enough to serve the nation's needs then.

Washington Army Radio of 1954 was again so different from 1944
that it can't be explained adequately in words. It needs pictures,
indeed a whole book to show enough. Yes, there were amateur
radio licensees serving but they were NOT using any amateur
practices. Everyone did the professional thing to "Get the message
through." The messages got through...by the millions, annually.

The era of network centers is diminishing and has been since
AUTOVON and AUTODIN began...to eventually be replaced by the
DSN or Digital Switched Network, "the government's own Internet."
DSN serves telephones, facsimiles, PCs, workstations, PBXs, and
can use HF radio as 2nd or 3rd contingency plan. Normally it uses
high-rate fiber cable and satellite relay plus commercial leased
communications services. DSN can be as secure as mid-level
security allows courtesy of the tremendous advances in Information
Theory and methods of cryptology opened from that. By tradition
the U.S. Army handles operation-maintenance of the DSN on land
with help from the USAF where their bases tie in. The Army has
battalions and brigades organized and equipped to provide mobile
telephone/data/FAX/image communications in the same spirit.
The messages get through. Morse code isn't used, isn't wanted,
is too slow, is too insecure, is too full of potential errors to trust.

Code lovers can't accept that, may never accept it since it spoils
their self-image of important communicators. They bitterly resent
removal of the "tested at twenty" old top level rank-status-privilege
in their "service." To ease their bitterness they resort to the imagery
of some kind of Tolkien-like Middle Earth to attempt stressing the
"importance" of good radiotelegraphy through old tales and anecdotes
of long ago. None apply now in any radio service but they cannot
give up...all must capitulate to Them and Their Beliefs.

LHA / WMD

(Len Over 21) wrote in message ...
In article ,
(William) writes:

(N2EY) wrote in message
...
No, it's not a political protest thread.

Just a description of what it took to be a radio operator at radio station
WAR
back in WW2. Copied from a Yahoo reflector:

This from an article in Radio News of November '42 regarding the radio
station
WAR.

"...The average person thinks of a highly trained radio operator a man who
can
send radiograms with very little confusion and at a fair rate of
speed....say
the messages are actually handled at around fifteen or even twenty words a
minute for a short period of time.
snip

Operators there at that time included W3GRF(sk), W0DX (sk) W9BRD/VA3ZBB,
W0US
and others.

Nice trip down mammary lane, but what has this to do with amateur radio?

TAFKARJ is trying to "prove" something by connecting SK hams
with the U.S. Army and Washington Army Radio of early 1942.

You know, Len, when you want to talk Army radio, its considered
completely irrelevant. Its just NOT Amateur Radio!

When TAFKARJ wants to talk Army radio, it is wholesome and wunnerful,
and has everything to do with amateur radio somehow, even though
amateur radio was OUTLAWED at the time he speaks of.

I don't think these guys are complete fools, but there edging their
way over.

billy