[QCWA] Fastest CW Opr Ever???

[Norm Gertz]

Jeff....memories of an old timer who was sharing my high speed position at 
WAR.....he was able to copy the recorded slip tape at very high 
speeds.....he used to bring a lunch bucket to work and often take out the 
little thermos and I assumed he was having another coffee.  Once I was 
leaning over him to discuss some message and discovered that it was rum that 
he had in the thermos.  He was from Brazil and was probably the oldest 
person in the entire station.....he had previously worked for one of the 
commercial outfits; I seem to remember PTB .
I also remember stories about a legendary Coast Guard radioman at the Groton 
CW school who was a high speed artist.

73  Norm  K1AA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeffrey D Angus" <jangus at socal.rr.com>
To: "Discussion of QCWA" <qcwa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, April 09, 2007 12:03 PM
Subject: Re: [QCWA] Fastest CW Opr Ever???


> And speaking of fast CW ops.... Back at Signal One when they were in
> Gardena, CA back in the early '70s, I used to watch Frank W6AOA
> get into code speed contests with the others. You could always tell when
> he copied the code correctly. The other would pre-record some filthy
> comment about Frank and he would turn bright red and start sputtering.
>
> Norm Gertz wrote:
>
>> During rap sessions regarding copying speed it was commonly assumed
>> that you had to be at least partially under the influence of alcohol to 
>> be
>> able to copy at those superspeeds.
>
> A second hand story from an engineer I used to work with at TRW back in
> the mid '70s.
>
> As a young man, he was a station operator at a small rail road depot.
> He had an elderly woman who was their code operator. He said that she
> was amazing to watch. Having made the three sounders for the land line
> sound a tad different from each other. She could apparently copy all three
> at once, and maintain the required conversation with them without making
> any mistakes.
>
> One day, coming in early, he spotted her downstairs. Taking a healthy
> swig of Gin off of a bottle she'd kept hidden in a drawer. When asked,
> she replied, "How the hell do you THINK I can copy all three at once?"
>
> I miss working with him. But He'd have to be at least 95 now, and the
> woman he had for the land line operator would probably be 140.
>
> Jeff
> wa6fwi
>
>
> -- 
> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Benjamin Franklin
> "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."
> Tara Morice as Fran, from the movie "Strictly Ballroom"
>
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