[CW] Fwd: Continued transcription per your request...

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Lake Trump <Telegraph1851 at outlook.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 18, 2025, 6:10 PM
Subject: Re: Continued transcription per your request...
To: D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <djringjr at gmail.com>


Dave... Here is the balance of what is on tape one, side two that you sent
me the recordings of:

------------------------------
*From:* D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <djringjr at gmail.com>
*Sent:* Tuesday, September 9, 2025 11:11 PM
*To:* L. E. 'Ed' Trump AL7N ex-WKR Alaska <al7n at arrl.net>; L. E. 'Ed' Trump
AL7N ex-WKR Alaska <telegraph1851 at outlook.com>
*Subject:* Al7N de N1EA

Lake,

Would you transcribe these recordings?

Could someone translate this please

Hi, I am brand new to reddit and really struggling to upload any images,
files or links. Let's see if it works this time!

My grandfather was a traveling telegrapher in the 1930's and later joined
the army and became a
cryptographer. He recorded a series of audio tapes to be listened to long
after he was gone. Most of them are him telling stories about his life or
talking to me and my sisters when we are toddlers.

I am in the process of digitizing these cassettes and when I started this
tape I thought something was wrong with it...until I realized what it was.
I believe that he recorded himself typing out a message in morse code, the
tape says it's a Christmas card.

I would love it if someone could translate this for me, and I would also be
interested to know if there is anything else you can infer from the
recording. Thanks in advance!

Side one: https://vimeo.com/1117293093

Side two: https://vimeo.com/1117293297

The original link is on Reddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/morsecode/s/LCAeZ3GF8t

Of course, if you translate it, I'll give you credit.

Give me a very short synopsis of your American Morse experience.

I or you can add the WKN experience.

It was WKN wasn't it?

73
David Ring N1EA
Tape one side two 01:53-2:00  blank
2.:01
"AM SENDING YOU TWO TAPES.   I HOPE YOU PLAY THIS ONE FIRST. THE OTHER IS
ONE MADE BY BAILEY WHO WAS WORKING AT OCALA RELAY OFFICE WHEN THE RELATED
ACCIDENT HAPPENED THAT HE DESCRIBES SO WELL. WE HOPE YOU HAVE A NICE
HOLIDAY SEASON AND ALL THAT. COME TO SEE US AND IF POSSIBLE IN THE MEANTIME
MAKE ME A TAPE.  ID SURELY LIKE THAT.  SG  TOMMY   AND END OF TAPE"    04:21

Okay, that completes the transcription of the American Morse sent on this
tape.

You asked for a brief synopsis of my Morse experience.

  I have been interested in landline telegraphy since I was about age 10
(1952).  I had been accompanying my Dad who was a Ranch Foreman to the CB&Q
Railroad depot inWyola, MT a little NW of Sheridan, WY, when he went there
to send and receive telegrams related to the ranch's business.  We lived on
the ranch about 15 miles south of Wyola, right on the Wyoming Line.
I was fascinated by the Morse keys and relays on the depot office table and
the clicking of the Morse sounders there.  I "just had to" learn all about
it.  This learning went on all through my grade school, high school and
College days.

I collected instruments, wired them up and practiced with them constantly
whenever I could do it. I visited RR and WU telegraph offices wherever we
went, and tried hard to learn to read the Morse wires...I even got run off
from the City WU office in Ft. Collins, CO (circa 1957) when I used to sit
on a bench just outside the door at a pool hall there and listen in ..The
WU office manager, a good looking middle aged Lady (probably a WW2 hire)
noticed me doing this and came out one day and told me to "Git the Hell out
of here "...I did.

I went on to my College studies and graduated BSEE in early 1965, proceeded
directly to the D&RGW head office in Denver and hired out as a "Telecomm
Engineer Trainee".  I was hired immediately and put on the RR Telegraph
linegang working east out of Grand Jct. CO. In the DeBeque Canyon area.
The Boss (Supt of Communcations) wanted me to learn "from the ground up" as
he put it.  I did.

I dug holes with a banjo and spoon, and finally was awarded a climbing belt
and hooks and learned the Lineman's trade by doing and working with the
other linemen. This went on for nearly a year, and finally in fall of
1966,, I was called back into the Head office and given actual engineering
work assignments, mostly outside plant stuff, open wire poleline
relocations, material ordering for the linegang and that sort of thing.  I
later did extensive work using a Fairmont track motorcar and doing
pole-line inspections all over the Colorado end of the D&RGW RR,

I enjoyed this work immensely and of course visited every telegraph office
I could all over the pike and got to do lots of work on the telegraph
testboards at the main offices in Denver, Grand Jct, and Pueblo, CO. There
were still many Morse wires in use at the time, not only on the D&RGW, but
on the Mo-Pac, AT&SF, Rock Island, Colorado & Southern, etc. which we
connected with.  I listened a lot to any and all Morse I could.  I had a
telegraph sounder on my desk that I could cut in on any wire that went thru
the board there in Denver....A ham's heaven, so to speak....Boss didn't
like it because he never could learn to telegraph, but what the hell....

In the course of all this, and the traveling around, which I enjoyed very
much, I got to know many of the old time 1920-1930 hire telegraphers still
working there pretty well.  I soaked up the Lore like a sponge and
eventually actually learned to "read" a Morse wire working at speed.   It
happened in a kind of odd way...I was sitting in the telegraph office in
Salida , CO one day waiting to catch a cab ride on an eastbound freight to
ride home to Pueblo and then to Denver, and yakking with the operator on
duty...
The Morse wire came alive, Buena Vista, up the line to the west called
Salida " S  S  BV" and after Salida answered, I heard these words come from
the sounder:  "WHAT TIME DID RCW LEAVE SALIDA?"  This came as a complete
shock to me and it was the FIRST time I ever could actually "read" what was
coming over the wire almost without effort.

What this was, the Opr at BV had an eastbound  freight in the hole there
and wanted to know what time the Trainmaster (R C Williams) had left
Salida...RCW was known to go out along the line and hide and watch train
operations for rules violations by the crews, and such.  The op at BV
probably wanted to tip off the crew waiting there about this.

Anyway, from that day on, I have been able to read a Morse wire using
American Morse.....even at the higher working speeds the ops sent who used
bugs.  Still can at age 82.

So there you are .

Yes, Nome's Callsign at the Coastal Station was WKR.....WKN was the station
down southeast at Ketchikan.  Nome was a fun job, I hated to see it go when
they closed it out from under me in 1984.

73 my friend..

Ed  FB
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/cw/attachments/20250923/25c2ddce/attachment.html>