Harold,
Nick gives a lot of references for Ton-tape systems. The AWA
video was my idea and I was the one who got the M28 RT working,
but the video was put together and narrated by our video guru,
Mark, AE2EA.
To answer some of your specific questions:
On 1/22/2026 12:55 PM, Harold
Hallikainen via GreenKeys wrote:
On torn tape relay, I THINK there was a reperf on each incoming line, and
a TD on each outgoing line (and these may be the same wires through
duplexing techniques).
Yes, but no duplexing of TX & RX on same
line.
So, did one person watch several reperfs for end of
message, tear the tape, and take it to the appropriate TD?
Yes
Was the TD sitting there idle?
Depends on how much message traffic there
was. Could be idle at times, and other times have a big backlog
of messages.
Perhaps new torn tape would be spliced to the existing torn tape waiting
to be sent. Or, the whole thing could be automated entirely
electromechanically.
As Nick's demonstration shows, there were
typically two tape readers per circuit. Individual messages were
loaded into each one and when one finished, the next one would
start automatically.
Each message would have a series of routing codes at
the beginning of the message. The receiving unit would decode the first
routing code (possibly using a distributor and a bunch of relays), then
pass the remaining message (with more routing codes) on to a reperf that
is continuously feeding a TD on an outgoing line. The reperf/TD would be
an electromechanical FIFO buffer.
In the manual systems, routing information was
read by and the tape physically routed by an operator (aka "Tape
ape"). In the automatic systems (which there were very few of) the
message would be buffered (on tape) while the routing information
was read and a path to an outgoing tape reader was set up.
So... how did relaying work, and what was its history?
The torn tape relay system was used from about
1944 up into the 1980s, by US Military, Government, Western Union
& others.
Hope this helps,
Have fun,
Duncan
K2OEQ