[GreenKeys] SAQ VLF using 5-bit tape

[Harold Hallikainen]

On Sat, December 25, 2021 12:09 pm, Duncan Brown wrote:
> Henning,
>
> I believe it is a Hell Elektronischer Gerber Typ  EG 21. It reads the 5
> bit ITA2 code and converts to Morse.  If you look at the tape in the
> picture I sent, you can see the three groups of VVV: 11110 11110 11110.
>
> Messages would come into the big radio relay stations overland by
> teletypewriter, but then had to be converted to Morse to be sent out
> over the radio. At the other end, the Morse message would have to be
> converted back to land-line teletypewriter.  Rather than have an human
> operator do the conversions, machines were developed to do the Morse to
> TTY and TTY to Morse conversions.
>
> Merry Xmas & Happy New Year,
>
> Duncan
> K2OEQ

That is amazing! I could see converting TTY to Morse if there was an
operator at the other end to receive the Morse. But instead of having a
machine convert Morse back to TTY, it sure would have been simpler to just
transmit the TTY code.

There have been some interesting approaches over the years. I think KPH
used high speed Morse from punched tape and received to a tape "chart
recorder" that would then be decoded by hand.

Harold
https://w6iwi.org