[MRCG] MRCG Digest, Vol 26, Issue 2 (TG-34 on TV and Sound vs INKers)

[willi6 at starpower.net]

In the earlies days of Morse Telegraphy (and even some of the original Marconi and other Wireless endeavors), the "Human Ear" was never intended as the receiving device (e.g., the Man-Machine-Interface, a/k/a "MMI" ).  The receive end was based on paper tape and an inker that made a continuous line and then "wiggled" for the length of DOTs and DASHs. 

There is some historical debate as to whether the Human Ear was introduced by ambitious and creative More Telegraph Operators, or evil villians who used the "talent" as a form of Commercial Espionage. 

At some point, the telegraph operators did notice and start to use the sound of the "Moving Pen" to read the characters.  That said, it was also not uncommon for less scupulous characters to hang around the telegrap h office desk or just outside the station window to "copy" the sound of incoming messages by ear. 

One of the early INFOSEC inventions of that era was to use a "headset" with a small sounder in the Ear Piece case to receive sensitive traffic - thus, only the designated operator could hear the Klicking and K lack ing of the inbound signals. 

The TG -34 and all the similar variations are still fairly available and not too expensive.  The commercial version is usually called "The Instructograp h" and they were advertised in QST and the ARRL Handbook.  The y came in mechanical (wind-up) and electrical (motor driven) models.  Some had built in oscillators for international morse code and some were intended to key external devices; e.g., sounders or oscillators.   Tapes are available in International and American, although they are less durable than the machines and tended to be thrown away when the ripped, etc. 

By coincidence, my 1959 ARRL Handbook has an ad for the Instructogrph.  Likewise, two pages earlier there is an advertisement for a Morse Inker Model GNT-1532.  It is manufactured by the Great Norther Telegraph Works and the advertisement emphasizes that it is the "New!  Transistorized!" tape inker.  They also have some variation of the Ink Recorders that they refer to as "Undulators"???  Somethings are slow to change. 
73,  Dave 

Dave Williams - K7HMP/4 
Stafford, Virginia 

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Subject: MRCG Digest, Vol 26, Issue 2 

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Today's Topics: 

   1. TG-34 on TV (Marc Goldman) 
   2. Re: TG-34 on TV (Steve) 
   3. Re: TG-34 on TV (Jerry Foster, AG6ER) 
   4. Re: TG-34 on TV (Mark J. Blair) 
   5. Re: TG-34 on TV (Darryl Crain via MRCG) 


---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Message: 1 
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 23:20:38 -0700 
From: Marc Goldman <marcwb6dce at sbcglobal.net> 
To: Tom Minnis WB6HYD <Tom_minnis at att.net>,        John Morrice K6MI 
        <k6mi at pacbell.net>,        John Castorina WB6AZP 
        <boatanchor at martasystems.com>,        Tim Samm N6CC <timsamm at gmail.com>, 
        Military Radio Collectors Group <mrcg at mailman.qth.net>,        Darryl Crain 
        <flyguy12D at aim.com>,        Jerry Foster AG6ER <jmfoster711 at sbcglobal.net>, 
        Derek Lyon AI6F <lyon at ai6f.com>, Steve Carmean KB8AVJ 
        <naemrac at gmail.com>,         Maritime Radio Historical Society 
        <info at radiomarine.org>,        Jim Tripp WA6DIJ <wa6dij at razzolink.com> 
Subject: [MRCG] TG-34 on TV 
Message-ID: 
        <1405059638.40385.YahooMailNeo at web184904.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 

Ha Ha Ha Ha?? Har De Har De Har... 

Gentleman: 

On the TV show? Pawn Stars this evening....? This guy brings in a TG-34? and says its a rare code reading machine? !! no tapes... well the pawn shop guy calls in this consultant guy. (I have seen him before on the program)? and he brings a brand new paper tape in the box.. no reel.. he had it in his garage..? so the bad new is it? does not decode Morse code..? it is a classroom training aid !!? i think there are a lot of them around..? there is one in a display case in a mini museum at Hollister Airport.. just saw it a few weeks back .. so not worth the $2000 he was originally asking..?? the amusing part is he still gets $200 for it at the pawn shop!!?? i think if this showed up at Foothill Swap meet ya might get $25 for it !!? 
 way way overpriced..?? if you had a bunch of tapes it could still be used for Morse code training...? but who is using Morse code these days... the subset of Ham Radio Operators that are DXers on HF....?? and identifiers for repeaters and the MRHS folks...? ?? All this box does is? send? Morse code... most likely random letters and numbers and maybe punctuation marks... and the student? writes it down with a pencil and paper.. and eventually a typewriter... 

i believe in the very early days of Morse code a machine was invented to copy it... and than it was discovered that the operator would learn the code by listening to the sounder clicks... and not need the invention. much to the consternation of its inventor !!??? i am pretty sure this was telegraph days.. before? radio.. very likely? American Morse? 

73 
Marc Goldman 
WB6DCE 
Seaside,CA 

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