[CW] Bugs on aircraft ?

[kzerohb at gmail.com]

DR, I’m sure that the civil aviation radiomen were fine operators.  After all, a lot of them came out of the Navy.

But I challenge the notion that “the traffic was higher than military”, or had to be “faster” than military.

Flying in P2V’s on arctic barrier patrol (submarine hunters), the single Radioman aboard generally stood “split-phone” watch on two circuits, and often had another “guard” circuit up on a speaker.

Not only did we send routine “administrative” patrol reports back to our home base, but we used a separate circuit to coordinate our search and target prosecution efforts with other airborne units, and with surface assets (generally destroyers and frigates) below.

And if you want to talk about “get it out fast”, how about FLASH precedence “contact report” traffic.  I can assure you that 25wpm was not anything special to us, it was “just another day at the office”.

73, de Hans, KØHB
"Just a boy and his radio"™
Master Chief Radioman, US Navy (Retired)

From: D.J.J. Ring, Jr.
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2017 2:34 AM
To: CW Reflector
Subject: Re: [CW] Bugs on aircraft ?

Most of the Flight Radio Officers (FRO) that I knew used bugs on the
aircraft - but these were civilian  and the traffic was higher than
military and when you had to send anything of length you had to get it
out fast.

All USA Flight Radio Officers had to take the 1st class telegraph
Morse exam of 25 wpm English and 20 groups per minute alphabet cipher
groups, so  they were of the top tier of operators.

They were all excellent operators - K2LP is one of the only FRO's that
I know who is still with us, if I am wrong, chime  in.

73
DR



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