[GreenKeys] Why this stuff matters

[Jim Cooper]

On 11 Sep 2019 at 23:58, Jeffrey Angus wrote:

> Trivia #3. I have way too much free time.

LOL and haha ha !!  You said it, not us   ;))

However, your last post was excellent .... 

These are things I had to learn at age 15 
back in the late 50s when deeply involved 
with RTTY ... 

Most of the surplus Western Union equipment 
was all 66wpm and we had to make it work with 
the standart Teletypes that most people had ... 

skewing the range finder was the best, although 
brute force, method of doing it.  No UARTs 
back then !!   Some elites had "regnerative 
repeaters" that could have different input and 
output speeds -- but if those speeds were more 
than slightly different, then you needed STORAGE 
if you were going from fast speed to slower speed. 

No such thing as RAM back then ...  that's one of 
the many reasons for punched paper tape.   The 
Model 28 series actually had very large "cabinets" 
with what were called RTs ... Reperf/Transmitters, 
with a giant tape storage bin between them .... 

Signals could come in at 100wpm (75 baud), accumulate 
tape in the bin, and be stepped out at 50 baud or 
45 baud.  In fact, some of the overseas circuits I worked
on with Mackay Radio/ITT World Comm. had "half speed" 
and "quarter speed" trans-oceanic cable circuits ... all 
we did was pulse the outgoing TD at the sub-rate !! 

Such nostalgia ... those were my hey-days ... in my mid 
20s and getting paid to work on stuff I'd been doing 
as a hobby for almost ten years before. 

Thanks to everyone in this group for stirring up 
those fond memories ...  isn't it really amazing 
how the human brain can retain such detailed 
memories for 50+ years? 

w2jc