[GreenKeys] Re: GreenKeys Digest, Vol 13, Issue 5

[Randy and Sherry Guttery]

Eugene Hertz Asked:

> Been reading about autostart nets and was very curious about something. 
> How successful were these autostart nets with unattended receiving?

Back in the day (850 cycle shift) - a decent receiver could hold stable 
copy for days on end without being touched.

(Warning Sea Story):
Back in the mid 70's, I was stationed aboard USS PROTEUS (AS 19) sitting 
at Apra Harbor, Guam (tending boomers and other subs). As this was a 
permanent station, the married sailors could bring their wives over - so 
Sherry and I lived in Navy Housing on the Naval Station, Agana. One day 
we had a general recall, all liberty, leave, etc. was canceled and we 
were restricted on board the ship - which was on high alert.

NOBODY had a clue what was happening, all we knew was that we were on 
high alert - even the 52's at Anderson were on alert.

After a few hours - Sherry called and told me what was going on - seems 
Israel and Egypt were having one of their "incidents"... and not knowing 
how things were to play out - the Pentagon had put all of the U.S. 
Military on high alert..

My Division Officer told the Department Head, who told the Captain. The 
Captain the called COMNAVMARIANAS and told him. Needless to say - when 
they found out that a swab's wife knew what was going on before "the 
word" came down "official channels" - you know what hit the fan.  Sherry 
had a couple of officers "move in" with her for a while - they sat and 
watched UPI Rangoon as it relayed the "activities".

Point of the story - this was an R-390A feeding a URA-8 keying a model 
28 - with good copy for three days - nary a touch to the dials (Rangoon 
was a 1000+ miles - so there were the occasional glitch due to 
atmospherics). The R-390A is very stable - and the URA-8 very forgiving 
- and that 28 (which I have kicked myself MANY times for letting go of 
it) was in like new condition - even had a three-speed transmission 
(which of course had nothing to do with solid copy - but much to do with 
my foot firmly applied to my backside!).

There's a picture of the setup as it was then here (identified as the 
"home entertainment center"):

http://www.mississippi.net/~comcents/tendertale.com/tti/tti-42.html

what's left of that first message (I think the rest is still here 
somewhere - it is, after all - nearly 30 years old!). You can still see 
the reference to the submarine tender - that is (was) PROTEUS:

http://www.mississippi.net/~comcents/alert.jpg

Just a little history - as received via RTTY...

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