[GreenKeys] Re: RTTY on the air, lack of

[Randy and Sherry Guttery]

jhhaynes at earthlink.net wrote:

> No offense taken at your lack of interest in ham radio traffic, but that
> is about all there is these days.  It's not like 50 years ago when there
> was a lot of news and unencrypted commercial and military traffic on HF.
> It's all gone to satellites and undersea cables.

That became painfully obvious Sunday. There were a few things - 
particularly Sunday evening, but certainly not like "the old days".

In the mid 70's - when Sherry and I were in Guam - we had a three speed 
28 KSR that ran most of the time; usually copying UPI out of Rangoon, or 
AP out of Kuala Lampur. However we also copied a lot of Ship's orders - 
both commercial and Coast Guard (Navy was encrypted, CG was in the 
clear); weather from around the Pacific; and other "stuff".

During most of 74 and into 75 we also copied the evening MARS traffic 
coming out of Viet Nam, Korea, and Japan. We'd run our Klienschmidt 
printing reperf on the Nets - then take that to the USS Proteus' HAM 
shack - where we'd transmit it on to SF. We only needed a 100W most of 
the time for them to have a solid copy on us - as we had a Rhombic that 
covered a couple of acres pointed at SF.

> Even if you can find Baudot transmissions on the air these days you need
> a machine with a gearshift - at least 45, 50, and 75 baud - to copy what's
> out there.

As noted - since we had gotten involved in relaying MARS traffic to the 
states - (and occasionally back the other way, though only once in a 
while)- Teletype Corp. gave us a three speed transmission for our 28 KSR 
- which made it easy to go from copying UPI, AP, etc. - then shift up to 
copy the Coast Guard, MARS, etc. The Klienschmidt required a gear change 
- and fortunately - it was a lot easier to change. However since we 
seldom copied (to tape) anything at the slower speeds - we left it at 
100WPM most of the time.

Having the KSR that could be easily shifted in a heartbeat was both very 
convenient - and it allowed us to get rid of the extra Klienschmidt KSR 
we had to give us "two speeds" on the fly...

IMHO the Klienschmidt reperfs (specifically the (tt-179s) were way nicer 
and more versatile than the Teletypes; but the Klienschmidt page 
printers (TT-117/FG) were "klunky and loud" compared to the TTs (also 
IMHO).

Yup. Times change... and I'm afraid that era is long past. At least in 
my case - better to just remember those times, the sounds and smells - 
and then get on with "modern life".

Thanks again to all who responded!
best regards...
-- 
randy guttery

A Tender Tale - a page dedicated to those Ships and Crews
so vital to the United States Silent Service:
http://tendertale.com