Dominie - Morse Code - Cranwell

[TEEEJ]

Are AEOs (WSOs) still trained in Morse? Up until the 90's the Dominie used to be heard regular on HF and logged by radio hams out of Cranwell. Does the Dominie still carry the key?

[Razor61]

Still hear them on HF but haven't heard any CW.

[Onan the Clumsy]

Not that it's relevent, but I believe the US Coast Guard gave it up about four years ago.

[BigGrecian]

AEOs are actually WSOps not WSOs - WSO is the officer equivilant.

WSOs have to do a morse course test and identify a few nav aids etc from tape - with a morse decode as detailed on the back of the red book of knowledge.

[Ray Dahvectac]

AEOs are actually WSOs. (Comissioned Officers.)
AEOps are actually WSOps. (Non Commissioned Aircrew.)

<Pedant mode off.> :rolleyes:

[teeteringhead]

Ah ... Morse and clever staff officers...

Many years ago, the RAF were tinkering with primary training - plus ca change . As part of tinkering, young APO Teeters and some chums were dispatched to fly Chipmunks with the Navy (who flew 75 hrs rather than the RAF's 30).

Ah! said clever staff officers - they do morse in the navy - best you lot go and learn some. Teeters and chums off to Topcliffe for 2 or 3 weeks intensive lines and spots, with the aim of reaching the alleged RN input standard of (IIRC) 12 wpm on a key and 6 wpm on an Aldis lamp! Not the most fun we'd ever had....

... arrived with RN keen to show our expertise with "best bent wire" to be told "Oh, the FAA stopped doing that with pilots 3 years ago":rolleyes:

[airborne_artist]

Teeters

Plus ca change mais ...

I can't give you accurate start/finsish dates, but you'll be amused to hear than RN EFTS while based at Leeming in the 70s/80s (I went through in 79), deployed daily to Topcliffe, to keep the tyro naval aviators out of the way of the grown-ups.

We did study Morse at BRNC, but not to 12 wpm - more like 5 I'd guess ...

[AllTrimDoubt]

We were taught morse and expected to read @ 5wpm during flying training. Remember once frontline being tested during FOF3 inspection whilst on a Flight - told to hover by bridge whilst mssg flashed at us - neither of us had a clue what it said (I used excuse had to maintain scan therefore missed bits) but when the bod doing the flashing disappeared in a hurry we wondered where he'd gone and so nipped over to the other side of the boat to see if he'd reappear.

You guessed it - mssg read to move to hover on opposite side of boat - we were the only crew to get top marks!!!

:ok:

[teeteringhead]

airborne_artist

Topcliffe when I was there (1968??) was the RAF's siggy school, and we subsequently flew with the ancestor of RN EFTS called the HSP (Helicopter Specialist Pilots?) Course. 'Twas based at Linton then, which was mostly RN (I think No1 RAF course was just in residence), but the Chippies did their flying mostly from Rufforth (now an industrial estate I gather) which was whence I first slipped the surly bonds without a grown up with me, with the help of Chipmunk WG 308......

[FJ2ME]

Still get taught Morse (and tested on receiving it) at EFT pilot groundschool. (Or at least were last I heard)

[airborne_artist]

Teeters

Mr Morse got me in the end though - in a subsequent existence (take my suffix and think TA - the prefix is also a clue) I got to 18 wpm on the key on HF SSB.

[Spacer]

IIRC on EFT groundschool at Cranwell, you get a test on a tape recording, with a decode sheet for all the letters... all you have to do is say whether the identifiers on the sheet match the dots and dashes being played to you.

[Judge Rembrandt]

In answer to TEEEJ's Qs:
As with all aircrew, WSOps are still taught morse to ident beacons but certainly not to the old standards of 25 wpm :sad: (thankfully). And yes, the key is still there...... lurking!!
JR

:ok:

[zedder]

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[Razor61]

Put some spaces in there somewhere ;-)
I give up, who does ident beacons?

[Dave Allen]

Where are the beacons 'ANY' and 'WAY' ?;)

We (144 AEOp(R)) had a morse instructor who was convinced he was a bit of a part time trick cyclist. He was sure that the reason anyone in the class couldn't distinguish between an 'H' and a 9 was because they were abused as a child!
We also had one guy chopped off the course because he was convinced that magnets were black magic...happy days!
144 cse where are you now?

[Dimmer Switch]

Hi Dave,

Bob the Morse was around a LONG time before 144 Cse, and his "methods" were the same back in "my" day !

As you say - simple, happy days - one enemy, a bazillion aeroplanes, more Commands than you could shake a stick at, no glossy magazines to tell you what the Air Force was, and you could communicate highly complex messages with a handful of 3-letter groups !!! Baaaah !

[circle kay]

The Morse key is still on the Nimrod MR2, but at best only two and most probably only one Op on each crew CW trained. Spec phase Morse stopped for dry Ops in 2000ish. The next problem is finding someone on the ground to talk dada dadada dedade dedede de to. I know one Op tried CW in the last two weeks to find no one at the PPFI centre of excellence near Betty’s tea room CW qualified!

[Dave Allen]

DS, good to hear you mate. Of course there will be a morse key on the MRA4 won't there?

Who was the other instructor who was fine before lunch but if you got him after lunch he would Tx at about 50wpm!!

[Razor61]

I can see 10 pages of CW coming on this thread.... thank goodness for CW converters!!! :ok:

[Dave Allen]

Mike, you have got to get out more!
I think this is the only time I have used morse since Finningley (ahh Doncaster / Gatehouse / ...happy days) ;)

[circle kay]

Best bent wire somehow doesn’t sound so good out of a computer. Mind you, it didn't sound that good when I sent it come to think of it

Perhaps getting rid of Morse and getting rid of Finningly are conected. Perhaps if we bring back morse we will bring back.... I\'ll get my coat

[Phoney Tony]

TOP SECRET


The RAF stopped teaching morse code when it was discovered that the Irish had cracked it!

.- .-.

[J.A.F.O.]

It was great fun joining up the Navs dots on his chart to make dashes and watching them sweat as they tried to ident beacons before they had to ask the knocker for help.

:E

PS Davey Allen - Another 20% of 144(R) is right here. You're not talking about Dinty Moore are you? I think he often had a rather liquid lunch. Then there was Flash Gordon Dearlove and Tam Rae - the holy trinity of comms. And I thought that my memory had gone.

[sparkie]

Mike Jen

The other instructor was probably me.

I joined up as a WoP in 62 and passed out of Compton Bassett with 25WPM. Various postings all over the then huge RAF!"! Iremember my first encounter with c/w on air/ground comms, it was a Beverley out of Seletar (34sqn?)...ruddy Air Sig had a bug key and me as green as grass couldnt hack the speed!

Wonderful days when comms with a 'kite' on c/w felt like an achievement....shacks/brittanias/hastings/beverleys/valettas/argosy/ etc etc then it all went downhill fast when H/F SSB came along and killed c/w almost stone dead.

In the 80's had the odd Nimrod siggy who, feeling brave, would zap out a QTH on c/w but the norm was SSB...in fact come to think of it the last real c/w comms on air/ground for me was probably the Shack.

C/W became 'tertiary' means of communications in early 90's. By then it was all Upavon/Architect etc etc and nowadays I suppose its all computer downlinks and GPS reports.

Saddo that I am I still have a battery operated key to drive er indoors daft with at times, and often QAP the airwaves searching for some c/w...which appears to be mainly confined to the former soviet block countries.

best bent wires may be best but bug keys are better by far

:ok:

[TEEEJ]

circle kay wrote:

The Morse key is still on the Nimrod MR2, but at best only two and most probably only one Op on each crew CW trained. Spec phase Morse stopped for dry Ops in 2000ish. The next problem is finding someone on the ground to talk dada dadada dedade dedede de to. I know one Op tried CW in the last two weeks to find no one at the PPFI centre of excellence near Betty’s tea room CW qualified!

Many thanks to those who have taken the time to reply to my question. The demise of Morse from the Dominie was noted by those radio enthusiasts who take an interest in such things. The link should bring back a few memories for those on the Dominie?!

http://www.wunclub.com/cgi-bin/wunarchsrch.cgi?sstring=bt9p

[Widger]

Three dots, Four dots, Two dots Dah.

[weeny]

Morse was taken off the syllabus at Cranwell late 1998. I know this as at the time I was staring at the 'pretend' key they give you to take home and practise dit-dahing on, when it was suddenly whisked away with the announcement that Morse was obsolete.. They filled in the gaps in my already planned program of abuse with extra typing...Hours and hours of it! And I still type with two fingers!!!

Hi to all :ok:

[teeteringhead]

airborne_artist

I catch the drift whilst rifling through of your clues.....;)

[Mike_Oxlarge]

Morse, eh!!
I used to like his old red Jaguar, and his geordie sidekick Lewis.

[markerboy]

Weeny

You must have been around 189/190 course, as I was one of the last ones to do it in '98. Otherwise would propably have ended up being the a wetman remf. 6 hrs of watching bar codes scroll down the screen. :yuk:

[weeny]

Pretty close to the mark dude!

[Charlie Luncher]

Dark distant images of whole body shaking trying to keep up the tx speed, nights off in the HF(Love) Shack:bored: . Dimmer me old chum is the truth not that, you were first taught morse on a smoky fire with a blanket by Claudius.
Marker Boy scared of the dark art are we :8 ?
Charlie sends

[engineer(retard)]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1571664,00.html

Tappers beat texters

[buoy15]

Hello chaps

You were obviously lucky not to have been at Topcliffe in the very early 70's with Mr Morris and Joe French

Audio touch typing with machines that resembled manual cash registers ( at 30 wpm!)
Audio hand copy for the exam at 25wpm to achieve the standard SAR comms standard of 18wpm

The "Shanwick" radio shack C/S was PR7W

Morse is definitely like riding a bike - you never forget it

Doh!

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