[GreenKeys] Oddities in the Tape Relay World

[David F]

All:


When I worked the Army's tape relays, I was usually assigned to a 
Signal Corps unit, i.e. a Signal Company or a Signal Battalion which
operated such. Most Army Signal units used the same basic equipments:
Kleinschmidt teletype gear and Collins radio equipment in fixed stations.
There were always a few exceptions, such as some Siemens or Lorenz
gear in some of the tribs and in one relay in Frankfurt, Germany in the
1960s. In years prior, we also had some OD colored tape relay gear,
probably AN/FGC-35s which we called "Coke Machines" becuase they
looked a lot like the old Coca Cola Machines of the era. Most of these
were eventually replaced by AN/TGC-5s and later, AN/FGC-70s which
were light gray Kleinschmidt machines.


Not all assigments were to Signal units though. A few times, I drew
assigments to ASA units - US Army Security Agency folks who worked
primarily for the NSA programs on the "Y" side or DSSCS.


ASA, unlike the Signal Corps was an entirely different ball game. Their
equipment was considered "non standard issue" which mean that ASA
procured thier own equipment based on NSA directives. They too had
tape relays, but they were called Primary Criticom Relay Stations, or
PCRS.


The equipment in those kinds of relays was vastly different from what
the Signal Corps used which was "standard issue" for the Army. 


ASA used AN/FGC-38s and AN/FGC-39s as their primary tape relay
gear. Their radio's were mostly Watkins-Johnson. 


For a guy who had been used to standard Army protocols, it was a
real eye opener.....even their messaging formats were different from
the rest of the world......


The only that that was "common" between the two groups was the
crypto gear. "In station" operations were essentially the same, except 
that most ASA tape relays did not have tape printing capabilty, so you
had to really learn how to read tape quickly! In ASA units, Model 28 ASRs
were common; in the "regular Army" Signal units, Model 28 ASRs were
far and few in between. We used KLI AN/FGC-25X ASRs, along with
TT-98s. 


In tactical units, both Signal units and ASA used common, standard issue
teletype gear by KLI.


The two groups in the Army did not talk to each other and barely even
recognized each others existence! In the 60s, ASA was considered 
to be a "spook outfit"....and thier facilities were located away from the
rest of the Army units at the time. In later years this would change as
both types of CommCenters would be merged into a common "R/Y"
facility and ASA went away and was integrated into regular Army 
fixed and tactical units (INSCOM (fixed) and CEWI (tactical)).


Dave


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Dave


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