[TAC] Fw: [QCWA] CW

[Kurt T. Meyers]

----- Original Message ----- 




> The following is an excerpt from an account originally published in "The
> ARC".  The news letter of the Asheville Amateur Radio Club of North
> Carolina dated August 2, 1939.  I copied it from "The Spark Gap Times",
> October 2005.
> 
> CW - LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT
> 
> 
> It seems likely that the Morse code requirement for amateur licensing
> will be eliminated.  To many it is a second language that is music to
> their ears.  Others consider it a noise and a nuisance.
> 
> 
> Old Old Timers club member Harry Robinson, W4BC - 1929 now W2AZ, says he
> was standing beside Ted McElroy as he set a new CW coping record during a
> special completion on July 2, 1939.  Harry is one or four or five
> remaining eye witnesses from that historic day.
> 
> 
> 
> The code machine had been adjusted to take high speed and the judges made
> sure the text had been sealed and was intact just as it was received from
> the FCC office in Boston.  W4HX sends a few preliminary centimeters of
> tape through the machine and the contestants adjust their 'cans'.  One
> can observe intense concentration in the faces of all the contestants. 
> W4HX glances at his stop watch and says, "Ready", pulls a switch and the
> code contest destined to make history begins.
> 
> 
> The machine is hitting up to 40 wpm and McElroy and McDonald, W4CRV and
> one or two others are transcribing effortlessly.  Then W4HX, at the
> machine, steps it up to 45 wpm.  One or two contestants sigh, and take
> off their "cans".  At 50 wpm, the staccato clicks of the typewriters at
> the far end of the table become piano, then pianissimo.  Now there are
> only two contestants left plus McElroy.
> 
> 
> At 55wpm, they increase their tempo but W4CRV slackens noticeably and
> resigns himself to the inevitable.  All the while, McElroy and McDonald
> seem to be playing a symphony with four hands, so perfectly that their
> typing seems to blend into one cacophony of sound.
> 
> 
> As the machine is stepped up to 60 wpm the silence among the spectators
> becomes almost eerie.  The machine drones on and the two contestants
> pound relentlessly.
> 
> 
> At 65 wpm, they are approaching the world's record.  Bulldog like,
> McDonald hangs on as McElroy is keeping even rhythm.  At 70 wpm there is
> discord in the typing of the two contestants.  A glance of the eye
> reveals that McDonald is losing his timing but McElroy with only a
> momentary pause to adjust, gathers more momentum,  McDonald takes off his
> 'cans' and moves a shaking hand across a perspiring brow and concedes
> victory to McElroy.
> 
> 
> Meanwhile, the machine does not stop.  At 75 wpm McElroy, having already
> eclipsed his former record of 69 wpm at Boston, Massachusetts in 1935,
> tires and slackens his speed.  At 80 wpm, he copies furiously for a
> breath or two and then halts the movement of his hands on the keyboard.
> 
> 
> Amid the silence, W4HZ stops the machine and the full impact of the
> occasion dawns upon the gallery.  There is an almost deafening volume of
> applause, a new record in receiving code has been established.
> 
> 
> Harry is also a QCWA Member.  I read somewhere that Ted McElroy could
> type 150 wpm. I wonder how fast he could have gone with an electric
> typewriter.
> 
> 
> 
> 73,
> 
> Bob N0UF
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