[Milsurplus] Emergency Keyer Morse SOS Error (AN/ARA-26)

[Scott Johnson]

It was also used with the 618-T in C-130A and B models, The keyer was
de-activated in the early eighties.  BTW, if you have a spare keyer, I would
be interested in one.

73,
Scott
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Morrow" <kk5f at earthlink.net>
To: <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 5:33 PM
Subject: [Milsurplus] Emergency Keyer Morse SOS Error (AN/ARA-26)


> I've been examining an interesting little unit, a KY-65/ARA-26.  It was
used
> with AN/ARC-8, -21, -65, and -58 HF sets on USAF aircraft to automatically
> send combinations of long dashes, SOS's, and/or the last four digits of
the
> aircraft's serial number in emergency situations.  Motor-driven mechanical
> code wheels are used to actuate keyer contacts.
>
> All who have a basic or better understanding of Morse practices knows that
> SOS is always sent as one character, not as separate S, O, S characters.
> But guess what...the KY-65 sends S O S (separate characters, not the
correct
> single character).   That's a pretty odd mistake to be designed into such
a
> unit.
>
> I don't have the BC-778 or AN/CRT-3 lifeboat sets, but I wonder if their
> mechanical code wheels also reflect this error.  Maybe the mechanical
design
> people had seen too many movies, where the SOS prosign is almost
universally
> incorrectly sent.  (I've only seen one movie, made 25 years ago about the
> Titanic, that got it correct, and included a pretty good representation of
> the sound of a spark-gap transmitter to boot.)
>
> 73,
> Mike / KK5F
>
>
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