V-force emergency communications?
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by EXDAC
There are quite few amateur radio operators who "rag chew" at over 40 wpm. I'm not one of them. CW contest speeds are typically in the range 25-30 wpm but some stations will run at closer to 40 wpm. It's all keyboard sending and keyboard copy.
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Originally Posted by ACW599
Not all of it. Some of us still take copy the the hard way -- by ear
Originally Posted by SASless
How were you taught Morse Code?
It must have been a very tedious task, On day one we had di dah dah dit (P) three times at about 20wpm but with longish pauses in between.and he then wrote a P on the blackboard.It took about ten weeks to learn the alphabet etc.
It was taught by Charlie Wilcox at Topcliffe and he'd taught Morse some 20 years earlier in the Tram Sheds at Blackpool to WOp/AGs
Originally Posted by NRU74
Originally Posted by SASless
How were you taught Morse Code?
It must have been a very tedious task, On day one we had di dah dah dit (P) three times at about 20wpm but with longish pauses in between.and he then wrote a P on the blackboard.It took about ten weeks to learn the alphabet etc.
It was taught by Charlie Wilcox at Topcliffe and he'd taught Morse some 20 years earlier in the Tram Sheds at Blackpool to WOp/AGs
Last edited by cynicalint; 24th Nov 2022 at 20:20.
Interesting indeed. In the late 1970s I learnt Morse code listening to pre-recorded cassette tapes out on the tractor using headphones (it was a very noisy tractor). The tapes were produced by one of the NSW radio clubs. I used CW for quite a few years, and my speed came up to somewhere around 16+ WPM. Other modes were attractive, and so the key got pushed to the back of the desk. More recently I have taken to listening again, and find I can copy plain text at about 15wpm again - for a short time. I've discovered that my concentration lapses very quickly at my age, and I can't keep my mind focused on the task for more than about a minute or so.
There are a lot of amateurs out there who are still using CW - indeed I think the number has probably increased since the Morse test was no longer a requirement for gaining the qualification to operate on the HF bands. Some of them rattle away at some pretty impressive speeds. I know of a few who refused to have anything to do with Morse when it was mandatory, but went ahead and learnt it anyway once the requirement was dropped - and went on to use it on air - sometimes to the exclusion of other modes.
I once had a phone contact on 20 metres with someone (pax) who had been invited up to the front of a B-747 transiting across the northern part of central Australia at the time - he was using the A/C HF radio with the blessing of the captain. Very strange - even more so as I was using my amateur HF station on the tractor. As you can comprehend, it was quite a while ago. I also had a couple of very brief contacts on 2 metres from the tractor with Musa Manarov in the very early days of the MIR spacecraft.
Interesting things can happen in the hobby that is amateur radio.
Apologies for the digression ...
73
FOR (not my callsign)
There are a lot of amateurs out there who are still using CW - indeed I think the number has probably increased since the Morse test was no longer a requirement for gaining the qualification to operate on the HF bands. Some of them rattle away at some pretty impressive speeds. I know of a few who refused to have anything to do with Morse when it was mandatory, but went ahead and learnt it anyway once the requirement was dropped - and went on to use it on air - sometimes to the exclusion of other modes.
I once had a phone contact on 20 metres with someone (pax) who had been invited up to the front of a B-747 transiting across the northern part of central Australia at the time - he was using the A/C HF radio with the blessing of the captain. Very strange - even more so as I was using my amateur HF station on the tractor. As you can comprehend, it was quite a while ago. I also had a couple of very brief contacts on 2 metres from the tractor with Musa Manarov in the very early days of the MIR spacecraft.
Interesting things can happen in the hobby that is amateur radio.
Apologies for the digression ...
73
FOR (not my callsign)
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
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[QUOTE=cynicalint;11336746]
And learning words with the same syllables as the sound, ie q - God save the Queen, - - .- L = to hell with it .-.. f- fetch a fireman --.- h - Piccadilly .... d - Dad did it -.. w = you wank*er ,-- C - Charlie Charlie.-.-. 3- trinity car park ...-- 4- I'm a phuking four ....- etc. 18 WPM minimum pass, ended with about 22 WPM receiving and 27 WPM sending. Our instructor, joined as National Service and was still serving as a MAEop in 1982. He could send a lot faster on a semi-automatic key, which moved to the left gave dits and to the right gave dahs. Thank you MAEop D Murga****d!
I remember Mr M taking our newly warranted lead wet under instruction on how a master aircrewman should behave.
There was mention here a couple of years back that Mr Murgatroyd had moved on to a better place. RIP
Originally Posted by NRU74
And learning words with the same syllables as the sound, ie q - God save the Queen, - - .- L = to hell with it .-.. f- fetch a fireman --.- h - Piccadilly .... d - Dad did it -.. w = you wank*er ,-- C - Charlie Charlie.-.-. 3- trinity car park ...-- 4- I'm a phuking four ....- etc. 18 WPM minimum pass, ended with about 22 WPM receiving and 27 WPM sending. Our instructor, joined as National Service and was still serving as a MAEop in 1982. He could send a lot faster on a semi-automatic key, which moved to the left gave dits and to the right gave dahs. Thank you MAEop D Murga****d!
There was mention here a couple of years back that Mr Murgatroyd had moved on to a better place. RIP
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Back in the early 1950s, an RAF aircraft went missing and there was an appeal on the Home Service (Radio 4 today!) as it then was for radio amateurs to listen for it. I don't think anyone heard anything, but there was certainly a procedure in place where by 'if all else failed' they could call in an amateur band. A friend who is licenced ended hi RAF days in the driver's seat recounts how in a Varsity flying over Italy - presumably on his way to somewhere like Cyprus - in the early 1960s they had a power failure and he went down the back and fired up the T1154 and R1155 and called Speedbird control (BOAC in those days)in London to pass messages. Another amateur - long dead now - was an airborne 'WOP' in the mid to late 1940s and in a Dakota, flying in the Far East had the main tx fail. Using the low power Command tx he called on Morse and explained 'Main tx u/s'. Now a Command transmitters (SCR 274series) were a low power short range HF equipment and Morse transmission was every much an afterthought and they could not be keyed at any speed above about 12 words per minute. So Martin's message that 'Main tx u/s' should not have been copied as it was as 'Main tanks u/s' which triggered a major SAR operation. As one can imagine, when the Dak arrived at its destination and on time, the brown stuff flew around!.
At BRNC in the 60s we did Morse by buzzer and lamp ... the latter standing around the Parade Ground perimeter with a lamp on the mast. ISTR we had to get to 8 wpm, but we were never taught any techniques ... we just had to sort ourselves out somehow!
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by radeng
Back in the early 1950s, an RAF aircraft went missing and there was an appeal on the Home Service (Radio 4 today!) as it then was for radio amateurs to listen for it. I don't think anyone heard anything, but there was certainly a procedure in place where by 'if all else failed' they could call in an amateur band.
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The main problems are
If they didn't think he had a licence they couldn't legally communicate with him
If they did it would be to criticise his morse, aerial and impure CW tone
As others have said, CB might be a better way to pass the last minutes before Armageddon (if stuck in an aircraft)
If they didn't think he had a licence they couldn't legally communicate with him
If they did it would be to criticise his morse, aerial and impure CW tone
As others have said, CB might be a better way to pass the last minutes before Armageddon (if stuck in an aircraft)
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Originally Posted by Jetstream67
If they didn't think he had a licence they couldn't legally communicate with him
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How were you taught Morse Code?
The method of teaching was PRT (Pattern Recognition Technique) [again, IIRC!] I think the standard to achieve was 12wpm transmit, and 14wpm receive, but happy to be corrected. As an aside, does the P8 Poseidon have morse capability?
