In torn tape relays, the military always made tape copies of
everything that was sent out. But I was (initially) surprised that
the Navy was using printers as monitors, also.
But at the Navy torn-tape relays, most of the messages were being
transmitted & received by radio. Even with double or triple
diversity, you could get a deep fade occasionally that would destroy
part of the message. If a relay station were just to blindly relay a
received tape, the fact that there was garble in the message would
not be noticed until the message got to the end recipient and the
message was printed out. By having the relay station monitor a print
out of the message to be relayed, garble could be l seen and a
request for retransmission made as soon as the garbled message was
received.
Duncan
K2OEQ
On 19-Feb-24 10:59, Jeff G wrote:
I guess the thought was accountability and tracking -
meaning if someone sent a message to a torn-tape relay, and
later determined the message was never delivered, the printed
logs could prove that a message was received and perhaps sent
from the relay. I do this today with email; I have a log on an
email system that I can search to find out if an email was
received and/or sent if need be.
Jeff
On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at
10:52 AM Duncan Brown <[email protected]>
wrote:
Jeff,
We have a Waterfall at the AWA Museum. My experience in the
Army (mostly at the company level, not relay) was that
messages came in, were printed directly, and then
delivered.
I couldn't understand why messages would come in, be
printed, and then be directly archived after viewing (with
the waterfalls). Outgoing messages in the Army tape relays
were archived on tape, which would take up less room than
printed copies.
But printing out incoming messages that are going to be
relayed on tape makes sense now.
Duncan
K2OEQ
On 19-Feb-24 10:40, Jeff G wrote:
The waterfalls have paper reels inside that collect
the printed paper. I think they were basically
considered monitoring/logging - you can read the print
but once it scrolls past its basically "archived".
Jeff kC3GJX
On Mon, Feb 19, 2024
at 9:46 AM Duncan Brown <[email protected]>
wrote:
Nick,
Finally got a chance to read "Huh? Whadya Say?" - it
seemed to be a good description of life in a
torn-tape relay center in their heyday. I was never
in one (I was in Army tactical TTY and then moved
over into electronic communications repair), but am
familiar with the equipment & jargon.
The story answered one question I have had: how was
the "Waterfall" (3-4 M28 printers in a cabinet)
used? According to Guy, they were using the
printers to monitor the incoming messages that would
also be punched into tape for relaying. If there
was any garble on an incoming tape, it would
normally not be noticed and just be relayed on to
the next station. By having the message printed out,
it could be quickly scanned for quality before the
garbled taped message was relayed on.
But as Guy tells, they were pretty busy pulling
& pushing tape and I don't think they would have
much time to look at print outs at the same time!
Thanks,
Duncan
K2OEQ
On 04-Feb-24 13:34, Nick England wrote:
I unexpectedly came across "Huh? Whadya
Say?: Inside a Torn Tape Relay Center" by Guy
Thompson.
I really enjoyed reading this short novel
about life in a Torn Tape Relay (NAVCOMMSTA
Philippines Vietnam era). It seems like a
well-written authentic story portraying the
constant workload in a major relay and fleet
support center.
It's a quick (71 pages) but very
interesting read - $1 on Kindle or $5 for the
paperback