[Qcwa] WWII RTTY

[Robert & Linda Smith]

Mike,
The machines look like Model 15 KSR's or Model 19 ASR's to me.  The 
Model 15 KSR (keyboard send/recieve) was generally used on low traffic 
circuits where hand typing was used to send traffic.  They could recieve 
much faster, up to 60 to 66 wpm (words per minute) All of the machine I 
worked on in 1958 thru 1963 were 60 wpm except one NATO circuit that was 
66 wpm.  The Model 19 ASR (automatic send/recieve) was capable of 
punching the paper tape used to transmitt the message with a TD 
(transmitter/distrubitor) that was mounted just to the right of the 
keyboard.  Very expierenced operators would set the ASR to blind punch, 
they did not need to see what they were typing via the paper in the 
window, and could get the paper punch going very fast as they typed.  
One of our favorite pass times was to take some punched tape and make a 
leader over to the TD, start the TD transmitting, then start punching 
the tape by typing on the keyboard and see if we could cause a loop of 
tape to reach the floor.  Meaning we were typing and punching tape 
faster than 60 or 66 wpm.  Later in my TTY career, with the phone 
company, I was working on machines that could run 100 wpm and we could 
not make the tape loop at that speed, as least I couldn't do it.  There 
were other machines used by the military and they all had military 
designations that I don't remember.  The 19's and 15's and to lesser 
degree Model 14's were civilan designations and all I can remember now. 

Good luck in finding more information on your Dad's unit and its operation.

73 Bob Smith  WB6ODR

ka2e@att.net wrote:

>Hello All:
>
>My father was on Biak island (Dutch East Indies), 142 AACS, late in the war.  
>Dad was a "trick chief" a shift supervisor of the TTY operators.  He was 
>administrative and didn't know much about the gear and I never worked RTTY, 
>so I'd like to pose a couple of questions to the group.
>
>(A photograph of the TTY/CRYP room is at the following URL:
>http://home.att.net/~ka2e/dad/pic54.jpg)
>
>a.  Can anyone identify the TTY gear at the right?
>b.  What type/power of transmitters/receivers would have been used?
>c.  How were the TTY machines interfaced to the transmitter/receiver?
>d.  What frequencies were used?
>e.  Generally, how did the TTY machines operate? I'm told they punched a lot 
>of traffic on paper tape and sent it later.  Communication was also done 
>directly at the keyboard - how did they switch between transmit and receive?
>
>Many thanks for your help.  I feel it important to preserve as much WWII 
>history as possible because I can't forget that the comfortable lifestyle 
>that my generation enjoys was purchased by the sacrifice of the WWII 
>generation.
>
>Best 73 de KA2E.
>
>--
>Mike
>http://ka2e.home.att.net			
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