[CW] New Club for Morse Code Enthusiasts (Learning humility from an Egyptian)

Sat Jan 2 18:25:01 EST 2010

I think I posted this here before, but never hurts to "tell on yourself" 
again to prove that you're suitably humble.

"The Day I Learned Some Humility"
...      or "Don't Ever Send QRQ To SUQ"

Uncle Sam kept me busy in my youth as a Navy radioman, sending me on many 
expense-paid cruises to all manner of exciting places, including several 
cruises to the Mediterranean Sea as part of the 6th Fleet.

After a few years at sea I fancied myself a pretty hotshot Morse operator.

If any of you out there sailed in the 6th Fleet during the late 50's/early 
60's, you may remember the famous "Task Group Commanders Circuit", commonly 
called "SIXES-ALFA". This was a high speed Morse net which routinely clipped 
along at 40WPM with busy spurts somewhat faster. It was a matter of some 
pride that only holders of an official "Speed Key Certificate" were allowed 
on the circuit, and only the best of those were qualified as NCS.  (Yes, 
before you could use a Vibroplex on a Navy circuit, you had to pass a speed 
key
examination and obtain a certificate.)

Anyhow, as a qualified NCS on SIXES-ALFA, there was no doubt in my inflated 
ego that I was one of the hottest seagoing ops to ever key up a TBL. (TBL 
was a big
black 100W MF/HF CW transmitter fitted in WW-II/Cold War era destroyers.) 
Certainly there was no mere civilian radioman out there to challenge my 
skills.

In those days the US Navy maintained a small presence in the Red Sea/Persian 
Gulf called the "Mid East Force". The Commander of this force was a Rear 
Admiral who maintained his flag not on a warship, but on a seaplane tender 
USS Duxbury Bay AVP-38 (mother ship for seaplanes, which the Navy no longer 
even flew) docked at the Brit base on Bahrain. (As an aside,  at one 
time ---later than this story --- that command was held by a ham and 
contester of some note, Admiral Scott Redd, K0DQ)

Contrasting to today, "the Gulf" was a pretty low-key military backwater 
when this story unfolds. The "force" usually consisted of a couple of 
destroyers on loan from the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. These destroyers 
rotated to this duty for about 2 months by a transit of the Suez Canal.

Vessels transited the canal in convoys, northbound and southbound, which 
were coordinated to meet and pass at a "wide spot in the road" at the Great 
Bitter Lake. If there were any warships in the convoy, they were the lead 
ship, and the lead ship carried a UAR canal pilot.

Communications between the pilot and the Suez Canal Authority was via an MF 
420 Kc/s (this was before KHz had been invented) Morse circuit between the 
lead ship and the UAR station SUQ at Ismailia.

In early October of 1961, my ship, USS Henley DD762, drew the short straw 
and was sent off on Red Sea patrol.

After a last liberty port at Piraeus, Greece (remember "Fix" beer) we 
transited to Port Said and embarked our pilot for the trip through the 
canal.

The pilot had me file a departure report to SUQ and promptly at 0700 we 
started our transit. Periodically (at passing El Ferdan and Deversoir, if I 
recall correctly) he issued short progress reports which I sent to SUQ.

In due time the convoy entered Great Bitter Lake and anchored to allow 
passage of the north-bound convoy coming up from Port Suez. Prior to 
weighing anchor for the remainder of the passage, the pilot was required to 
obtain updated instructions from the Canal Authority. Turned out this 
happened just as I was due to be relieved on watch for noon chow.

Wanting to turn over a "clean" log to my relief, I was somewhat impatient 
that the operator at SUQ was operating at a rather leisurely pace (perhaps 
"only" 25WPM). Surely this lowly civilian operator could send just a bit 
faster?

So I slid the weights back to the reaR stop on my Vibroplex and sent...

"SUQ DE NHXW QRQ K"

What happened next still causes me shame and regret every time I contemplate 
that short cocky transmission. Oh that I could have called those electrons 
back! An image comes to mind of a swarthy-complexioned mustachioed Egyptian 
with a wicked gleam in his eye, chomping an unlit cigar, pulling the weights 
completely off his key, and muttering "I'll show this gob some real QRQ!"

The crisp Morse transmission which came back to me was utterly off the chart 
in terms of speed. No operator on the vaunted SIXES-ALFA had ever even 
caused me to even really concentrate, but here I was missing nearly every 
other character this fellow sent. In embarrassment, I sheepishly unplugged 
my speed key, broke in, and on the pump handle, and sent..

"SUQ DE NHXW QRX OP CHANGE QRS"

... and turned the circuit over to my relief.

Never again, and I mean NEVER again, has the opsig QRQ ever passed my
fingertips.

73, de Hans, K0HB
--
"Just a boy and his Radio"
Sea stories here ---> http://k0hb.spaces.live.com/
Request QSL at  ---> http://www.clublog.org/logsearch/K0HB
All valid QSL requests honored with old fashioned paper QSL!
LoTW participant

--------------------------------------------------
From: "David Ring" <djringjr at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 02, 2010 10:49 PM
To: "CW Reflector" <cw at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [CW] New Club for Morse Code Enthusiasts

> Thank you, Hans for this information.  Jim is a talented CW operator
> and I'm sure he has with him the best of the best.  I hope that their
> endeavor is blessed with success.
>
> It would be nice to have a world-wide organization of CW operators
> which might entail other activities than on-the-air ones.  I always
> enjoy meeting CW operators in person.  I've met some of the best over
> the years:  W1BB, W1PL, DL6TQ, KH6IJ, KV4AA, W1DDB, - I believe I've
> met hams on all continent except Africa in their own country.  I did
> meet CW operators in Africa - but they were coast station operators.
>
> There was one fellow who worked for Suez Radio in Egypt - he carried
> his bug in a violin case it seems.  Machine gun Mike they called him.
> Sounded like a teletype machine - but it was Morse - got your fingers
> working on the typewriter when he blasted messages.  Nice guy, drank
> those tiny strong cups of coffee - maybe that was the secret to CW
> that would wake any ship operator into full wakefulness. Personally I
> always swore like the bo's'n did when my typewriter jammed up when I
> hit three keys at the same time trying to copy his fast Morse.
>
> 73
>
> DR
>
> On Sat, Jan 2, 2010 at 5:21 PM, K0HB <kzerohb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> A new club has been formed among Amateur Radio operators who are Morse 
>> Code
>> (CW) enthusiasts. It is called The CW Operators' Club (CWops). CWops
>> encourages the use of CW in Amateur communications, and it promotes 
>> goodwill
>> among Amateurs around the world by planned CW activities.
>> CWops is international in scope, membership and management. Its focus is
>> the use of CW, whether for contesting, DXing or ragchewing. Moreover, it
>> promotes every form of sending -- if it's CW, CWops supports it!
>> For further information, go to www.cwops.org. There you will find
>> everything that you might want to know about CWops, including our bylaws 
>> and
>> articles of incorporation, our planned activities, an explanation of how 
>> to
>> become a member, and a list of current members.
>>
>> Jim Talens, N3JT
>> Secretary, CWops
>>
> ______________________________________________________________
> CW mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/cw
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:CW at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html 