[CW] Ham Code Speed vs. Commercial Code Speed

[David J. Ring, Jr.]

Fred Joy, W0RSW, Barney Norris (SK) - he was a W3, and probably Jan Edwards,
W5EV could all copy 55 wpm solid on paper.

TRT (Tropical Radio Telegraph) which evolved out of United Fruit Company had
a company policy of hiring operators who copied at a MINIMUM 45 wpm solid.

The seagoing United Fruit operators - they were the cream of the seagoing
operators - the "Great White Fleet" operators - had to copy a minimum of 35
wpm, although most could do more.  These guys were the best in the business.

RCA required 35 wpm code speed at their coast stations according to the
employment appications I filled out.

TRT also had a point-to-point line (the last one was the New Orleans -
Havana, Cuba line) that was high speed CW.  The line had just been replaced
with radioteletype around 1980 and several of the operators at WNU (TRT's
station there) had been transferred to the "Marine Department" of WNU.
According to what I know, that radio link is still in existance, and is the
ONLY communications link between Cuba and the United States.

73

DR

73

DR
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: N7DC@cs.com
  To: n1ea@arrl.net ; N2EY@aol.com ; cprstn54@att.net ; cw@mailman.qth.net
  Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 6:01 PM
  Subject: Re: [CW] Ham Code Speed vs. Commercial Code Speed


  David, when you say there are operators who copy at 55, is that really
copying, or just getting the gist of things?  To me, copying means putting
it 100% perfect, on paper.  I copied 50 wpm circuits for short periods of
times, but it sure wears on one.  My buddies across the hall were copying at
100wpm, with paper tape running thru a machine and showing dashes/dots which
then had to be copied out to a mill.  Now, that was FAST code in those days.