As an ex-Vulcan AEO, I can confirm that morse was, shall we say, the last means of contact, given the probable nature of the HF bandwidth, if the balloon went up. I am disappointed that you call this chap a ‘Walt’, I fear that you were not on his humour bandwidth, that was the preserve of aircrew.
On another note, there is a comment regarding using the HF kit to spoof the American CB community. I fear that I did exactly that on one boring transit from Goose to Offutt. It caused quite a stir as more and more of the American CB community, wanted to get a comms with this strange English chap in Devon (allegedly!), who’s CB radio had the benefit of that old anomaly, troposcatter, little did they ever know that we were just a few miles above them!!