[GreenKeys] Point to Point vs. Marine

[Richard Dillman]

On Sat, Dec 25, 2021 at 6:21 PM ad7i <ad7i at ad7i.net> wrote:

Richard --
>
> Thank you for this very informative explanation.
>
> Regarding....
>
> In contrast, in the marine service all operations were (and are) handled
> at the receive site.  Outgoing messages were received by *land line Morse*
> (later by teleprinter) from the CRO and placed in the message rack for
> transmission.
>
> Was that land line Morse conducted in American Morse or International
> Morse?  And at the receiving site was the land line Morse receiving
> transducer a clickly-clack sounder or tone out of a speaker/earphones
> (similar to a HF radio output)?
>
> thanks,
>
> Paul Newland, ad7i
>

Thanks Paul.  That's a critical question.

Based on the literature from that time period we believe the land line used
American Morse.  Thus the ops had to be "bilingual" in Morse, as several of
the old guard we met at the start of the project were.

We can be more certain that the land line Morse was received on a telegraph
sounder mounted in a resonator.  Look at some of the photos showing the
sounders here:

https://www.radiomarine.org/mrhs-stations/Blog%20Post%20Title%20One-hgasg

Believe it or not, the land line Morse order wire persisted up through the
1950s.  We see the dirt shadows of keys and sounders on transmitters and on
shelves in Building 2A, where the transmitters now are, which was build in
1957.

In 1972 I visited the station and toured Building 2 where the P to P
transmitters were in operation.  Asking to use the men's room I noticed a
telegraph key and telegraph sounder on the inside wall of the stall, within
easy reach when seated.  I'm sure you grasp the implications.  That's
right, there was (and is) no such thing as time off for a transmitter
technician.  I expect the messages sent from that stall were along the
lines of "for god's sake give me five minutes I'll be right there!"  I will
admit to you now that I acquired that sounder (the circuit was no longer in
service) and it now rests in our Treasure Room at the receive site in Point
Reyes.  I'll show it to you when you visit.

VY 73,

RD


Richard Dillman
Maritime Radio Historical Society
https://www.radiomarine.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20211225/aa941c85/attachment.html>