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#1
February 25th 04, 01:06 AM
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WAR! What is it good for?
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. |
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#2
February 25th 04, 02:39 AM
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#4
February 25th 04, 07:19 PM
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"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 |
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#5
February 25th 04, 09:04 PM
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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 |
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#6
February 29th 04, 06:08 AM
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#7
February 29th 04, 12:59 PM
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ospam (Larry Roll K3LT) wrote in message ...
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. Some Snippage Your credibility is zero. 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. Leonard H. Anderson has never had a problem with misrepresenting the truth even when the evidence to the contrary was plentiful and well known to all concerned. That he feels compelled to continue to make a mockery of his "character" and humiliate his family name so readily in a public forum should be adequate evidence that this old man is NOT dealing with a full deck. He's ill. That's all there is to it. OK. You hate CW. We get it. There's no need to make a barefaced liar out of yourself to prove your point. Ooooooops! Too late! 73 Steve, K4YZ |
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#8
March 4th 04, 12:41 AM
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(Steve Robeson, K4CAP) wrote in message . com...
ospam (Larry Roll K3LT) wrote in message ... 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. Some Snippage Your credibility is zero. 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. Leonard H. Anderson has never had a problem with misrepresenting the truth even when the evidence to the contrary was plentiful and well known to all concerned. That he feels compelled to continue to make a mockery of his "character" and humiliate his family name so readily in a public forum should be adequate evidence that this old man is NOT dealing with a full deck. He's ill. That's all there is to it. OK. You hate CW. We get it. There's no need to make a barefaced liar out of yourself to prove your point. Ooooooops! Too late! 73 Steve, K4YZ Steve, now that you and Larry are tailending each other, why not ask him about his mode always saving the day. He has multiple scenarios, so you won't get bored. |
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#9
February 29th 04, 08:35 PM
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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 |
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#10
February 25th 04, 09:28 PM
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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. |
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