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