[GreenKeys] Re: FAA dates

[Don Robert House]

Whenever I look over a typing unit, I always check and lubricate the 
function clutch first.   If the stuntbox chart was still in the base 
of the machine recoding was not that bad, it just took a very long 
time.  We were supposed to get all our trouble cases repaired in two 
hours or less.  If it was a Long Lines circuit some supervisor would 
keep calling and asking how much longer is it going to take?  My 
answer was "a lot less time if you would stop calling and let me 
work!"

Don




At 12:54 PM +0000 11/04/2003, wa2hwj@att.net wrote:
>We had a message center on Long Island that calculated
>freight and fuel loads (from what I could gather). It had a
>lot of 28RO's/ASR's and one high-speed BRPE. When the tape
>shot out of the BRPE, it went out almost three feet
>horizontally before gravity took hold.
>As far as a "message rejector": when certain guys in our
>TTY gang worked on a slective calling 28, they turned
>it into a "message rejector". It wouldn't copy anything!
>It is a heart-stopping situation when you open up the
>28 and find all of the tines from the function bars
>on the bottom of the machine. A bad clutch would just rip off
>every tine on the stuntbox...recoding was a nightmare.
>
>Jack WA2HWJ
>
>NNNN
>>  I've been trying to get around to answering this question.
>>
>>  The C.A.A., forerunner of the F.A.A. was into Teletype quite early for
>>  aviation weather reports.  I don't have a starting date.  In the 1940s
>>  they improved the system with ASID - Automatic Station Identification
>>  Device.  This was a box of relays, not made by Teletype, that worked with
>>  a modified Teletype XD that had the ability to run the distributor without
>>  feeding tape and had the tape sensing contacts and the distributor
>>  segments brought out separately.  I believe a very similar XD was used
>>  with the 81D1 and some other switching systems, at originating stations.
>>  (An originating station is usually a station for originating messages
>>  right at the switching center, so you aren't limited to the single wire
>>  line between the center and the station.)
>>
>>  ASID allowed the operator to turn on his tape reader anytime during the
>>  transmission from the previous station in turn.  When the line went idle
>
>>  it would start the distributor, send the station identification letters
>>  from relays, and then send the tape containing the weather report.
>>
>>  I have a manual dated 1948 on Teletype Sequential Control (SECO) for
>>  the C.A.A.  SECO provided for a tape for polling the outlying stations.
>>  At each outlying station there was a SOTUS to detect the polling and
>>  send the weather tape.  Some arrangemently locally engineered by the
>>  C.A.A. provided for copying selected messages from one area circuit to
>>  another, using FRXD machines controlled by the SOTUS.
>>
>>  Then about 1959 the F.A.A. contracted with Teletype for a replacement
>>  weather system called ADIS, Automatic Data Interchange System.  This was
>>  a major project, brought on partly by the arrival of jet airliners and
>>  hence the need to get transcontinental weather data shipped around faster.
>>  Principal features of ADIS:
>>    area circuits upgraded to 100 WPM using Model 28 equipment (and the
>>      Model 28 stuntbox replacing the SOTUS)
>
>>    area circuits are polled by a stepping-switch unit (not made by
>>      Teletype) called APULS, Automatic Programming Unit, Low Speed
>  >   a 600 wpm national backbone circuit linking all the area circuits.
>>    traffic from the area circuits goes on to the backbone at
>>      interchange centers using low-to-high speed converters,
>>      consisting of Model 28 reperforators and BX high speed readers
>>      (and big reels for the tape supply and takeup)
>>    interchange centers are polled to transmit by a stepping switch
>>      APUHS, Automatic Programming Unit, High Speed
>>    traffic on the backbone is selectively copied on to high-to-low
>>      speed converters at the interchange centers, consisting of BRPE
>>      high speed punches and LBXD readers
>>    a magnetic core rope decoder at the interchange center recognizes
>>      the station identification letters in the backbone traffic.  A
>>      big plugboard with diode plugs turns on selected high-to-low
>>      converters to copy traffic from the backbone and repeat it into
>
>>      the area circuits
>>
>>  Following installation of ADIS the F.A.A. contracted with Teletype for
>>  a message switching system called BDIS.  BDIS is sort of a pun on ADIS.
>>  ADIS was for the weather service, called Service A, and BDIS was for the
>>  flight plan and message system called Service B.  BDIS used a similar
>>  architecture to ADIS, a high speed backbone and low speed area circuits.
>>  The high speed part was spiffed up with DRPE tuned-reed punches and CX
>>  tape readers.  Since messages in BDIS are point-to-point the Model 28
>>  stuntbox is used to suppress printing on messages not needed at a
>>  particular station.  There were some things called message rejectors;
>>  and I haven't been able so far to find out what they did.  A guess is
>>  that they prevented messages from going on to the backbone if they
>>  didn't need to, such as messages where the origin and destination are
>>  on the same area circuit.
>>
>>  Then there was to be a system called CODIS, of similar architecture for
>
>>  Service C and Service O.  This system was cancelled during development
>>  as the F.A.A. chose instead to use a computer-technology switcher.  I
>>  think they used a Collins C-8400 computer.
>>  --
>>
>>  jhaynes at alumni dot uark dot edu
>>
>>