Nymfier 42 — OctoEer 1.995

fin 18505 ’fllftoona' Key

“Y“!“9.3“ Ursum EDITORIALANDMorse SUBSCRIPTIONOFFICES:

. . Morsum Magnificat. 9 Wetherby Close,t Broadstone, Dorset BH18 8113, England.ag1111 led Phone/FAX: Broadstone (01202) 658474;ISSN 0953-6426 International +44 1202 658474

MORSUM MAGNIFICAT was first published as a quarterly magazine in Holland, in l 983, bythe late Rinus HellemonsPAOBFN. Now published six times a year in Britain, it aims to provideinternational coverage of all aspects ofMorse telegraphy, past present and future. MORSUMMAGNIFICAT is for all Morse enthusiasts, amateur or professional, active or retired. It bringstogether material which would otherwise be lost to posterity, providing an invaluable source of

interest, reference and record relating to the traditions and practice ofMorse.EDITOR Geoff Arnold G3GSR

CONSULTANT EDITOR Tony Smith G4FAI(l3 Morley Road, Sheringham, Norfolk NR26 81E, England. Phone: 01263 821936)

© G C Arnold Partners 1995 Printed by Hertfordshire Display plc, Ware, HertsANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS:

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Subscribers in North America ONLY 1 For VISA or MASTERCARD orders viacan make payment in US Dollars to our 1 Wise Owl, call (310) 375-6258. Best timessubscription agents there. Wise Owl 1 to call: week-days9am to 9pm Pacific Time,Worldwide Publications, 4314 West l or week-ends9am to 6pm Pacific Time.238th Street, Torrance, CA 90505-4509, 1‘ If renewing your subscription by mail,USA. Make checks payable to Wise Owl 1 please send them the reminderyou received.Worldwide Publications. 1 [f ’phoning, tell them you are renewing.

RATES: Airmail 1 and which was the last issue you had.1 Year: $26.50 1 All subscription copies are individually2 Year: $50.00 ‘ mailed directlyfrom the UK

ON OUR FRONTCOVER‘Altoona' key, 1850's. Made by Pennsylvania Railroad at their Altoona Works in Altoona,PA. Note lack of spring adjustment which this key pre-dates. According to Louise Moreau,W3WRE, in ‘The Story of the Key' (MM7, p.19), some of the finest keys and sounders

were made at the Altoona Shops by master craftsmen. and included the latest improvementsintroduced by other manufacturers

Photo/Collection: Dave Pennes. WA3LKN—

Comment

r I 1HE LATEST NEWS in the ‘No-code’ debateappears on page 8 of this issue. It is disturbingto hear that the UK’s RadiocommunicationsAgency appears to have put a somewhat se—

lective interpretationon the results of surveys of theUK Radio Amateur population which were carriedout in 1993. The RSGB survey (carried out on behalfof the Agency), revealed thatjust 32.5% of respond-ents were in favour of a no-code licence, with 67.5%against. A second survey, carried out by the RA,revealed that most Class A licensees were in favourof retaining a Morse test, but most Class B licenseeswere not i hardly surprising, really. If you select theappropriate criteria, you can always get the answeryou want!Rathermore heartening is the news that the IARU

has established a Committee on Roaming LicenceQualifications, to examine the technical and operat—ing requirementsappropriate to the AmateurServicesof the future. The Committee’s aim is to formulateproposals for a global roaming licence which wouldbe acceptable to all countries, and which would allowradio amateurs to operate abroad with a minimum offormalities.

In the UK and, I understand, elsewhere, the vari—

ous political parties have begun to trade insults on thebasis that “Our information technology proposals arebigger and better than your information technologyproposals”. It seems more necessary than ever, inview of the hype surrounding the whole, so—calledinformation technology revolution, to stand backand take a cool, considered look not just at what ispossible, but what is desirable and likely to bebeneficial for future generations.

This is equally true regardless of whether it islooked at in the context of the world as a whole, orAmateurRadio in particular.

')

”italicCO vW’LJ

,//t: GSGSR

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

Contents1

2 News8 No-code Proposals -

an update1 1 MMBack Issues12 Operating the B2 on the

Amateur Bands15 The YTG Story16 Such Were the Sets

They Used in the Field22 A Remarkable Q8023 Wirelessfor the Warrior23 In Radio Bygones24 Showcase26 The Bug that Never Was30 Changing to a Keyer34 Info Please!36 New Book —

Wires, Wheels and Wings37 MM Bookshelf38 More Indo—China

Memories40 Reflections from

Uncle Bas — 2343 Readers’ ADs44 Your Letters

flit/eras11 FISTS CW Club23 G-QRP Club7 G4ZPY Paddle KeysInternational

29 The QRP Component Co.

1

Mm;Amateur No-code Proposals —

UpdateThere is a separate report on page 8giving the latest position in this matterat the time of going to press.

Come to the HOT Party!AGCW—DL’s annual Home—brew andOld—Time Equipment Party will be heldon Sunday, 19 November 1995, from1300 to 1500 UTC on 7.010—7.040MHz,and 1500 to 1700 UTC on 3.510—3.560MHz.

All radio amateurs are invited to jointhe party, using home—brew equipment(old or new) or commercial equipmentmore than 25 years old. Home—brew orold-time receivers may be used withmodern transmitters or vice-versa.Mode: Single op, CW only.Power input to final: Up to 100 watts.Call: ‘CQ HOT’.Classes: A — TX AND RX home-brewor older than 25 years; B — RX ORTX homevbrew or older than 25 years;C — QRP — TX not more than 10W/5W

Logs: Including a specification of thehome-brew or old-time equipment used,should be sent to — Dr Hartmut WeberDJ7ST, Schlesierweg 13, D-38228SALZGITTER,Germany, to be receivednot later than 15 December 1995.

Maritime CWAlthough the USCG has ceased CWoperation, the Canadian Coast Guardis committed to offering distress andsafety service, including CW guard on500kHz, until 1999. Some CCG coaststations are scheduled to continue tothat date. Others, especially thoselocated on inland waters, have alreadyceased CW operation.

Some stations still use CW for paidship’sbusiness and private radiotelegram

. traffic, also for government-business

input/output, either home-brew or older j

than 25 years.Exchanges: RST, serial number (start-ing with 001 on each band), and class,for example, 579/001/A.Scoring: Class A working A; A work-ing C; C working C = 3 points.Class B working A; B working C = 2points. Class B working B = 1 point.

2

traffic (clearance, carriage of dangerousgoods, etc.).

Some still transmit CW broadcasts.However, except for the safety commit—ment, there is no obligation to continuerevenue producing services, so down-sizing, privatising and cost-cutting willdetermine future changes.

It is interesting to note that follow-ing the recently much publicisedcessation of Coast Guard CW in theUSA, the USCG has turned over CWoperation to private coast stations.Whileundoubtedly CW traffic has diminished,it has not vanished and has simply been

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

farmed out to the private sector as acost-cutting exercise.

GlobeWireless, which operates KFSand WNU in the US, and VCT in Cana-da is constructing new coast stations inHawaii, New Zealand and Sweden.

(Information from Bob EldridgeVE7BS, based on an item in his ‘QUA’column in The Canadian Amateur,September 1995. )Ostende Radio/OST, the principalBelgian coast station, will cease allcommercial radio telegraphy services on1 November 1995.

(Information from Bruce Morris.)

UFT AGMThe 10th annual general meeting of theUnion Frangaise des Télégraphistes was .

held at Rheims on 30 April 1995. Therewas socialising on Saturday afternoon,including a visit to the local champagnecellars, and a dinner attended by 85guests later in the day.

The AGM on Sunday had an attend-ance of 102 members. F6DKV openedthe proceedings and noted that from theoriginal five members UFT membershiphad risen in 10 years to over 750.

F9IQ, the first president of UFT, re-called how UFT came into being as aresult of the anti—CW climate in France,and recalled highlights of the first tenyears.

The original aim was to create anindependent association which wasprepared to dissolve itself when thereexisted in France one single organisa—tion to represent radio amateurs. Thisaim has been, and remains, written intothe statutes of UFT. The option has beentaken into account in the present situa-

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

tion, and in full recognition of futureneeds.

Thanks to the efforts and partici—

pation of many members, UFT hasachieved incontestable results in raisingawareness about telegraphy and the pro—

motion of amateur radio in general. F9IQconcluded his speech, “Long live the

‘ UFT so that Telegraphy lives in peace.”F6AXX, the current president for-

mally opened the AGM which com—

menced with one minute’s silence inmemory of four members of UFT

: deceased during the last 12 months.Commenting on the health of the

association in the previous year, he saidthe most noteworthy event had been theunion of UFT with REF-Union, France’snational radio society, as an associatemember. This gave UFT the responsi—bility of being the national spokesmanfor all matters concerning CW. Further,UFT participation in the ‘Training’ and‘Publicity’ groups had begun to showconcrete results.

F3YP, president of REF-Union,expressed his pleasure at being presentat the 10th anniversary AGM of UFT.

‘ He dealt with a number of topics, in-cluding callsigns, licensing, the accept—ance of military and civil certificates,and more. He was bombarded withquestions from members but time didnot allow him to deal with them all.

The report of the Education Com-mittee, by F9IQ, recorded that as an

= integral part of REF-Union, UFT has anofficial representative on each commit-tee/group (‘education’ and ‘publicity’)with a deputy covering both in case ofneed. The publicity group has strong

‘ links with the principal object of REF-

3

Union, i.e., to bring together all (or at , gramophones and classic audio and hi-any rate the maximum possible number)of hobbyists — all of those whose inter-ests can be encompassed by the word‘radio—amateur’.

During a Question and Answer ses—sion, it was noted that La Pioche, jour-nal of UFT, was exchanged withnumerous other clubs in Europe, andoverseas; a winter contest on 160m wasto be organised by UFT; closer collabo—ration with the G-QRP club would bewelcomed; and publication of a call bookon floppy disk was under consideration.

(The above is a briefsummary ofthereport ofUFT’s 10th anniversary AGM,takenfrom La Pioche.

Thanks to Ken Quigg GI4CRQ, whotranslatedthe report in firllfor MM.)

For Your DiaryNotice of some of the radio-relatedevents in both the amateur and vintagefields being held over the next fewmonths.

On Saturday and Sunday, Novem-ber 4/5, the North Wales Radio &Computer Rally will be held at theAberconwy Conference Centre, Lland-udno. Doors open at 1000 both days,close at 1800 on Saturday, 1600 onSunday.

On Sunday, December 3, from10.30am to 5pm, The NationalVintageCommunications Fair ChristmasSpecial will be staged at the NationalExhibition Centre, Birmingham. In re-sponse to demand from traders and visi-tors alike, organiser Jonathan Hill hasagreed to stage this ‘extra’ show for thefirst time in 1995. As well as the usualrange of vintage radio, TV, telephones,

4

fi, this Christmas show will be extendedto include scientific instruments, sew—ing machines, typewriters and other elec—trical and mechanical antiques andcollectables.

The London Amateur Radio andComputing Show, which has beenstaged each March since 1990, hasgrown from an initial attendance of 2000visitors to 8000 in 1995, and now regu-larly occupies three halls at the Lee Val-ley Leisure Centre, Edmonton, London.

For next year’s show, to be stagedon March 9 and 10, the organisersRadioSport Ltd are planning to set asideone of the halls for a Vintage Soundand Vision Fair, which will be ofparticular interest to all enthusiasts foryesterday’s technology.

Any organisations or individuals‘

interested in booking table space in thevintage section of the show, availablefor either or both days, should contactRadioSport Ltd at 126 Mount PleasantLane, Bricket Wood, St Albans, HertsAL2 3XD, telephone 01923 893929,fax 01923 678870.

The MM/RB team will be in attend-ance at each of the above shows, andothers during 1996.

‘Story of the Key’ Well Received...The Story of the Key, the first of ‘TheBest of MM’ series, published earlierthis year has received good reviewsaround the world.

It was ‘This Month’s Book Choice’in May’s RadCom, journal of the RadioSociety of Great Britain. In his review,

MM42 — October 1995

John Hall, G3KVA, wrote “It is a reada-ble and interestingpotted history of send-ing instruments still used by thousandsof amateurs world-wide... The key ispart of amateur radio history and if youare interested in that then buy the book —

it’s well worth the £3.95.”Pat Hawker G3VA, writing in ‘Tech-

nical Topics’ in RadCom the followingmonth said, “interest in the design anduse of Morse keys in the early days oftelegraphy is being kept refreshinglyalive by the publishers ofMorsum Mag—nificat.”

Practical Wireless commented“Anyone interested in the history ofMorse and the history of telegraphy can’tfail to be fascinated... It’s fascinatingand highly recommended.”

Dots and Dashes, journal of theMorse Telegraph Club, said “Anyoneinterested in the history of the telegraphwill appreciate this volume.”

Tom French, WIIMQ, writing in TheVail Correspondent, describes it as themost complete history of the telegraphkey that he is aware of, and a worth-while addition to the key collector’sbookshelf.

The Old Timers’ Bulletin of the An-tique Wireless Association said “Asfriends of Lou would expect, this bookis not only very readable but also au-thoritative... This book is surely a mustbuy for any serious collector of earlykeys... even for someone... with onlyhalf a dozen keys in his museum, it is amost interesting addition to one’s li-brary”.

QST, journal of the American RadioRelay League, gave it nearly half a page,concluding “Morse code historians and

MM42 - Octalier 1995

key collectors will delight in reading TheStory of the Key, and if this volume isindicativeof the remainderof the plannedMorsum Magnificat series, start clear-ing space on your bookshelf.”

In Amateur Radio (Australia),Stephen Smith VKZSPS, in his ‘Pound-ing Brass’ column, gave it well overhalf a page, concluding “I highly recom-mend this book... as a fine referencesource, and an excellent means of keyidentification... The book makes inter-

‘ esting reading and is a must for anytelegraph book collection.”

The Story of the Key also receivedhonourable mentions in NZART’sBreak-In, the ISWL’S Monitor, RSARS’5Monitor, and RAFARS’SQRV.

Have You Got Yours?As a result of these fine reviews the

first printing of The Story of the Keysold out quite quickly. It has now been

i reprinted and is still available from theMM Bookshelf at £3.95 post free to UKaddresses or £4.25 to Europe. For therest of the world, it costs £4.25 by sur-face mail or £4.75 by airmail. Pleasenote these prices are in pounds Sterling,not US dollars as quoted in error in onereview. Payment by Sterling chequeonly, or by Visa or Mastercard credit

. card — quote your card number and expi-ry date

If you haven’t got your copy yet,send for it now before the new supplyhas sold out too. There may not be an-

. other reprint!One final thought — with Christmas

approaching, The Story ofthe Key wouldbe an ideal gift for the Morse friend whohas everything!

5

Successful ConferenceThe ‘100 Years of Radio’ conferenceheld at the IEE in Savoy Place, Londonon September 5—7 was adjudged a veryconsiderable success by those who werefortunate enough to attend.

Among the range of very interestingpapers presented, and the various sup—

porting exhibitions, a particular highlight

transmitted on what must be the world’soldest functioning radio transmitter, 21

200kW Alexanderson alternator operat-ing under the callsign SAQ on 17.2kHzand preserved at the radio station atGrimeton, near Varberg, Sweden. Thismessage was relayed to the lecturetheatre at the IEE by ISDN landlinefrom the BBC Monitoring Station at

was a surprise Morse message of greet— Caversham — a nice combination of olding to the Conference. The message was and new technology!

s

v

my»?

‘2)»;M3‘W

w,3.

Commemorative stampsThis yearmarks the centenary of Gugliel—mo Marconi’s first effective radio trans—missions, and also the 200th anniversaryof the birth of Sir Rowland Hill, who in1840 first introduced a uniform pennypostage and the first postage stamp.

The Royal Mail in Britain decided tomark both these landmarks in the evolu—tion of communications by the issue on 5

September 1995 of a set of four stamps,two devoted to each pioneer. We repro-duce above a reduced facsimile of theFirst Day Cover bearing the set of stamps.

Over the past few months, severalother countries have also issued stampsin tribute to Marconi’s work; those pro-duced by Eire are shown left.

Our appreciation to Dave Hooper of Dublin for sendingsamples of the Eire stamps.

COMML,N(CAT‘>QN3

6 MM42 — OctoEer 1995

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MEM42 — Octofier 1995

N A SURPRISE DECISION,taken against the wishes of theRadio Society of Great Britain,the UK’s Radiocommunications

Agency has decided to supportproposals for the deletion of RR2735from the Radio Regulations.

If approved by a World RadioConference, such a proposal would re-move the international mandatoryMorsetest for radio amateurs and allow theAgency to consider ‘other options’.

Even if a WRC did delete RR2735,however, the Agency says it will not bemaking any changes in the near futureto the UK national qualificationrequirements for radio amateurs withoutfurther consultation nationally and withother CEPT countries.

In the latter case, the intention wouldbe to continue to take full advantageof CEPT recommendation T/R 61-01(which allows amateur operation duringtemporary visits to other countries) andT/R 61-02 (the Harmonised AmateurRadio Examination Certificate), both ofwhich currently require a Morse qualifi-cation to obtain the highest licence class.

The RA says it has taken into ac-count the results of a survey it conduct—ed in 1993, which showed that themajority of Class A licensees wish toretain the Morse test while the majorityof Class B licensees do not.

From these conflicting views, theAgency has concluded that the UKshould not act unilaterally, but it does

8

No-code ProposalsAn Update

by Tony Smith

UK SupportsDeletion of RR 2735

consider that RR2735 is outdated andan inappropriate requirement to remainat international level.

‘

RSGB ProtestsThe Radio Society of Great Britain

says ‘we are astounded at the waythis policy decision was made, and thatour subsequent input has been totallyignored’, and has published the corres—pondence it has had with the RA onthis matter. It has protested that theAgency’s decision was made withoutconsulting the society, and that it wasbased on letters received by the RA fromindividualsAFTER a national surveyhadbeen conducted by the society at therequest of the RA.

The Agency has ignored the result of. the national survey (which showed amajority of 67.5 percent in favour ofretaining the test, see MM31, p.4. — Ed.).It has also ignored the views of theInternational Amateur Radio Union(supported by all three IARU Regions),

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

which recently decided to neitherpropose nor support any change to theinternational regulations. (The IARUreport was summarised in MM38, p.14.— Ed.)

In earlier correspondence the RSGBpointed out to the Agency the chaos thatwould result from leaving countries toset their own requirements. If any changewas to be made to the regulations, thesociety felt stronglythat proposals shouldcome from within the Amateur Serviceitself. These, it says, should be discussedand agreed by the IARU so that thepurpose and benefits of a new approachcould be agreed and a smooth and co~ordinated changeover could be made.

The RSGB points out that the RAhas continually publicised its policy of .

‘Quality of Service to our Customers’,but on the subject of the Morse coderequirement it has chosen to completelyignore the customer.

The Society has requested the RAto reconsider its position which, ‘if pur-sued will not only affect the UK, butwill undermine one of the establishedcornerstones of the Amateur Serviceworld-wide.’

G-QRP CLUB ProtestsThe G-QRP Club has written to the

Radiocommunications Agency to ex-press its concern that the RA will sup-port any proposal to remove the Morserequirement, and has asked it to reverseits decision. The club, which has some5000 members, with about 3500 holdingUK amateur licences and overseasmembership extending to some 50countries, points out the problems thatwill arise through overcrowding of the

MM42 — Octofier 1995'

HF bands if a no-code licence is intro-duced. It forecasts mode wars, a break-down in band planning and anarchy onthe bands.

It stresses the value of Morse opera-tion for those of modest means, or thosein third world countries, and points outthat the ability and willingness to buildand operate simple but effective CWequipment is a major area in what re—

mains of amateur radio home construc-tion. If CW activity is reduced, says theclub, this important technical aspect willbe killed off, bringing amateur radioseveral steps closer to being a minoradjunct to the hobby of computing.

The club feels that once the Morsetest requirement is gone it will only be aquestion of time before another cam-paign is mounted to eliminate the RadioAmateur’s examination on the groundsthat it is ‘difficult/elitist/unnecessary’. Itconcludes that the effects of ANY low-ering in amateur licence qualificationsare incalculable, and could present realdangers to the future of the hobby.

1 NZ Firms Up ProposalAs reported in MM40 (p8), it is the

intention of the New Zealand adminis—tration to propose the abolition of RR2735 at WRC-95, to be held in Genevafrom October 23 to November 17 thisyear. This move is against the expressedwishes of New Zealand’s national radiosociety, NZART. There is, however, nocertainty that the matter will be discussedat WRC—95 or, if it is, that the proposalwill be agreed.

The actual proposal is as follows(SUP means ‘suppress’, i.e., delete):

‘SUP RR2735 (825.6) Reason: This

9

provision does not mandate for specificqualifications and as such is not consid-ered appropriate in a treaty text. RR2736($25.6) additionally allows administra-tions to have in place and agree on anytechnical or operational provisions oraccords that may be deemed necessary.It is not intended that any existingreciprocal agreements that contain aMorse code component be modified asa result of this proposal, but administra-tions would be able to modify theirnational requirements if desired.’

The Hispania CW Club of Spain haswritten to the NZ authorities expressinggreat concern at the abolition proposal,and also pointing out that some veryadvanced technological agencies includ-ing NASA, the US National Aeronau—tics and Space Administration, retainMorse as a final resort for survival com—munications.

RAC to Canvass Members onMorse Test

Canada’s national radio society,Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) isto canvass its members to determinetheir views on the Morse code require-ment for radio amateurs.

Reporting this decision in TheCanadian Amateur, September 1995,Tim Ellan VE6SH, RAC First VicePresident, points out that there is nointernational regulation covering tech—

nical standards that a person must meetbefore being issued with an amateurradio licence.

Mr Ellan comments that dropping thecode requirement could mean that somecountries would be able to issue ama-teur licences to individuals who are not

10

properly qualified, simply on paymentof a fee. This could lead to increased useof the already overcrowded HF bandsand possible misuse of amateur alloca-tions by commercial interests.

He concludes, ‘The Morse code re—

quirement may eventually be eliminat-ed. The difficulty will be in replacing itwith some other form of evaluation.’

Nations Not Supporting NZIARU sources advise that the

administrations of several nations haveindicated to their IARU member socie-ties that they will not support a NewZealand proposal to suppress RR2735.These nations say they support theIARU policy established by the IARUAdministrative Council at its meetinglast year in Singapore (see MM38, p.14).These include Australia, India, Japan,Korea, Malaysia, Norway, and USA.

LATE NEWS

IARU Response to NZ ProposalThe Administrative Council (AC) of

the International Amateur Radio Unionmet in Niagara Falls, Canada, from30 September to 2 October 1995, imme—diately following the IARU Region 2Conference.

Following its meeting the Adminis-trative Council issued a press releaseoutlining the action it had taken on vari-ous matters. The following extractsrelate to the current Morse issue.‘2. The Administrative Council agreedon instructions to be given to the IARUdelegation to the 1995 World Radiocom—munication Conference (WRC-95) and

MM42 — Octofier 1995

requested that the International Secre-tariat update this material as newinformation becomes available. Thedelegation will be headed by IARUPresident Richard Baldwin, WIRU, andwill include Wojciech Nietyksza,SP5FM, and Larry Price, W4RA.‘11. An Ad Hoc Committee onRoaming License Qualifications wascreated, to prepare a report having asits ultimate objective the forming of aconsensus of the three regional organi-zations regarding the technical and op-erating qualifications that are appropriateto the Amateur Services.’

It is understood that the ACestablished the above objective afterdiscussing the Morse test issue. Such aconsensus could form the basis for aglobal roaming license, following eitherthe CEPT or CITEL models or somecombination of the two concepts. Theestablishment of a global roaming li-cense is a high priority for the IARUand for several administrations, some ofwhom have cited it as a reason for theirreluctance to consider changes to Arti-

cle 32 (i.e., the NZ proposal) at this time.A timetable set out by the AC calls

for a report to the Council within fourmonths. No more than two months laterit should be ready for submission to theIARU Region 1 conference, to be heldin Tel Aviv, Israel, in September 1996.The report will then be considered ateach subsequent regional conferenceand a world-wide consensus developedprior to WRC—99. At that time the issueof a global roaming license should beready for ITU consideration.

The AC stated that it was not desir-able for administrations to addressparticular aspects of the technical oroperational qualifications for licensingin the Amateur Services in isolation,and without having regard to the opin-ion of the amateur community as ex-pressed through the InternationalAmateur Radio Union.

Discussions are continuing regard-ing New Zealand’s proposals to WRC-95. The conference will be taking placeas this issue is published, and the out-come will be reported in MM43. MM

,,thee-[lm.“ 012511711‘ Magnifiwt

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Further information can be obtained from Geo. Longden Gazos, 119Cemetery Road, Darwen, Lancs BBa 2L2. Send an see. or two IRCs.

MM42 - OctoEer 1995 11

HE B2 RECEIVER covers thefrequency range 3.1 to 15.2MHzin three bands and can resolve

CW, SSB, and AM. Band one covers3.1 to 5.4MHZ, providing operation inthe 80m amateur band. Band two covers5.2 to 9.4MHz, providing operation inthe 40m band, and Band three, 8.7 to15.2MHz, provides operation on the 30 ‘

and 20m bands.The transmitter is a CW only crystal—

controlled unit with a power output of j

about 20 watts. It has four plug-in tankcoils to provide transmission in a fre-quency range comparable with the re-ceiver. Each crystal can be used totransmit on its fundamental, 2nd, 3rd,and 4th harmonic. So, for example, acrystal having a fundamental frequencyof 3.515MHz can provide operation at3.515, 7.030 or 14.060MHz.

Comprehensive metering is provid-ed on the transmitter. This allows theoperator to check and fault-find, as thevarious voltages and currents on bothtransmitter and receiver can be moni-tored. The metering is also used to tunethe transmitter and load the antenna.

Switching between transmit andreceive is manual. The key has about250 volts DC on it so you have to be just ‘

a bit careful where you put your otherhand!

User Friendly ModificationsIt goes without saying that any

modifications to a classic piece of equip—

12

Operating the 32on the Amateur Bands

by John Pears GOFSP

MM35 (p.8.) contained a reportby John Pears 0n theinvolvement of the DacorumAmateur Radio TransmittingSociety (DARTS) in OperationMaquis 1994, using the specialcall GBSOCR.The operatingteam hoped to use a B2clandestine radio set during theevent, and the following account,omitted from MM35 because ofspace limitations, describeshowthe B2 was modified to provideimproved performance in theamateur bands. The set wassuccessfully used a weekbeforehand, but on the weekendof Operation Maquis the40-metre band was verycongested and with regret theteam had to switch to a moderntransceiver in order toparticipate successfully

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

The 32 set, fitted in a suitcase, described in this article. The test-meteris hidden behind the tank coil, just below the headphones

ment like the B2 should not to alter theset in any way. Drilling holes in thefront cover and the like can affect theappearance and the operating character-istics of this lovely old transceiver.

All the modifications listed below aresimple add-ons that help to compensatefor the busy amateur bands of today.They cover four operating areas that canbe improved by simple modification, orby the use of ancillary operating aids.

Adding SidetoneThe first problem is the lack of

sidetone. This was overcome by the useof the KANGA RF sniffer which alsoserves as a Morse code buzzer.

This is powered by its own internal9V battery; you simply lay the 3—inch-long RF sense antenna wire next to the

MM42 — October 1995

i

tank coil to provide loudspeaker volumesidetone. You can even hear it withheadphones on, and best of all you aremonitoring the actual RF output.

No Netting FacilityThe second problem with the B2 is

the lack of a net control. The transmitterand receiver are two separate units andthere is no provision to net the receiveronto the transmitting frequency.

The HT power for the two units iscontrolled by the transmit/receive/tuneswitch on the transmitter. With the setswitched to transmit or tune, the HT tothe receiver is switched off; and with theset switched to receive the HT to thetransmitter is switched off. The valveheater circuits for the transmitter andreceiver, however, are always live.

13

Photo:

John

Pears

To overcome the problem, a smallswitch was fitted to the lid of the sparesbox. This was permissible as the sparesbox cover was not original but was madewhen the B2 was installed in a suitcase.

With the B2 switch set to ‘tune’, onlythe oscillator stage of the transmitter islive. The new switch is used to power upthe receiver at the same time and youcan then hear the transmitter in the re-ceiver headphones.The receiver can thenbe tuned to the null between the twosidebands of the transmitter, first check-ing that the BFO is set to zero.

CWFilter AddedThe third problem is the audio

frequency bandwidth of the receiver,which, as stated above, is wide enoughto resolve SSB and AM quite easily.

This was improved for Morsereception by using an external passiveCW filter as designed by Mike MichaelW3TS and featured in SPRAT, theG-QRP magazine, issue 58. This is finefor headphone use, but to provide loud—

speaker volume so the person loggingcan also hear the signals, the KANGAAF amplifier was added to the filter.

Crystal Oscillator SwitchingThe fourth and final problem is

coping with a crystal-bound transmitter.This was overcome by the use of a cir-cuit again from SPRAT, issue 77, called‘40m Fixed Capacitor XO Switching’,by Mac McNeil G3FCK.

Two crystals 7.020 and 7.025MHz,and a switching arrangement with fixedcapacitors give a frequency range from7.0198 to 7.0292MHZ in approximately700Hz steps, with a constant power

14

output of 20 watts, without retuning thetransmitter.

Trial RunOne week beforehand, the B2 was

introduced to the antenna and location‘ which was to be used for OperationMaquis. This was a useful exercise,which gave club members the oppor—tunity to familiarise themselves withthe set, and offered the opportunity to

_ check out the full station with its new‘

operating aids.As a result of this trial run the load—

ing procedure was amended. Rather than‘ load the B2 straight onto the GSRV an-tenna it was found easier to load it intothe dummy load of the ATU, and set theATU for a 1:1 SWR. Using this proce»dure, we coaxed just over 20 watts fromthe transmitter and made four contacts,the most distantbeing LA1 IE in Alesund.

Everyone who took part in Opera-tion Maquis, either operating or logging,had a great time. We were very disap—

pointed, however, at not being able touse the B2, but the weekend traffic wasjust too much for the old lady.

UpdateJohn Pears reports that he has now

obtained a proper spares box for theB2. As the box cover is now original,and to conform with the philosophyoutlined above, some work is now re-quired to resite the added netting switchonto an additional panel to ensure theappearance of the original equipment is

‘ not changed in any way.John hopes that the B2 ‘should be up

and running shortly, and back on thebands where it belongs.’ MM

Mill/[42 — OctoEer 1995

ERMANY invaded Yugo—slavia in April 1941 andKing Peter II fled to Lon-

don. But many Yugoslav troops contin-ued to fight the Nazis in the mountains.Draja Mikhailovich led the largest group— Chetniks. Eventually they became in-volved in open warfare for control of theresistance movement with another parti-san group backed by the USSR and GreatBritain and led by Josip Broz — laterknown as Marshal Tito.

The Press Wireless station on LongIsland in New York during WWII con-tinually scanned the frequency spectrumfor new or unusual signals. One day ahand—Morse signal was discovered re-peatedly and frantically calling one ofthe PW New York stations ‘WPKWPK— can you read me?’ PW answered witha ‘QTH?’ and the reply was ‘This isGeneral Mikhailovich’s press station inthe mountains of Yugoslavia and we willsign YTG. We have a big load of pressmessages for you — can we start now,please?’

PW operations were of course under .

Government surveillance and it had toinform the authorities what they had dis-covered and for approval to tell YTG togo ahead. Approval was finally granted,and PW instructed YTG to proceed.Thereupon day after day YTG wouldrun a string of long press messages tomajor American newspapers, news mag-azines and press associations. None ofthe dispatches was ever signed with a

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

by DonaldK. deNeufWA1SPM (SK)

E

E

The YTG Story E

E:E;name, but they provided vivid (and mostaccurate) reports on the activities ofGeneral Mikhailovich and his forces.

The station moved from one locationto another, staying close to the fighting.The operation sounded exciting at times,especially when YTG would stop trans—mitting and say: ‘Nazis are shelling us —

we’ve got to get out of here quickly —

see you later’ and off the air he’d go —

often not to be heard from for severaldays. Then we’d suddenly hear him tun-ing up and calling us with another bigload of press messages. Of course the‘Y’ call letter prefix has always beenassigned to Yugoslavia, but we won-dered sometimes whether the called let-ters really stood for ‘Yugoslav TravellingGuerillas’.

In listening to his transmissions Ioften had a feeling that the ‘fists’ atYTG were typically American. Not tilllong after WWII had ended did I learnthat this was actually so. The 088 hadparachuted a group of seasoned USNavy radiomen to assist Mikhailovich.

General Mikhailovich was capturedand executed in Belgrade, 17 July 1946by the Tito regime. MM

15

0 YOU KNOW F3DM —

my friend Tony? If younever hooked up with him

you are missing something, for he is anexcellent CW operator and a nice oldchap. In case you meet him, you should

I

1

brush up your French a bit because .

Tony, to his great shame, has onlysketchy schoolboy English left, fadingaway as years fly past.

His ham career began at a tender agein 1932. An adventurous young boy, heenlisted early in the French Air Force asan airborne radio operator in BomberCommand. When his service with theAir Force came to its end, in 1938, he '

started up a new career in the PoliceForce.

At the outbreak of WWII he was apolice radio operator and the fatefulyear 1940 found him, after the Battleof France, a Superintendent in Vichyin charge of reorganising radio linksbetween what was left of ‘free regions’in the ‘unoccupied zone’ south of theriver Loire. He set up communicationsas best as he could with salvaged mili—

tary sets removed from the prying eyesof German Armistice Control Commis—sions. His office was then composedof two bedrooms in a commandeeredhotel which served as the Vichy PoliceDirectorate.

Contacted by ResistanceTony, whose father served gallantly

in the trenches of WWI, was given a :

16

Such Were the SetsThey Usedin the Field

by Pierre Lorain F2WL

strict patriotic upbringing. He had not towait for too long before being contactedby discreet go-betweens asking him if

,

he would join an embryonic Resistancemovement. With a job in the very heartof the French Vichy police HQ, Tonywould make an invaluable Intelligenceagent, the more so as he dealt with radiocommunications.

Some of the first attempts at air—

supplying made by the SIS or the SOEfor the benefit of French Intelligence orResistance centres located in the freezonewere not always accurate, and morethan one container fell far off from itsintended destination. Such mishaps hadto be reported to French ‘Gendarmes’who, instead of delivering the contentsto the German Armistice Commission,handed them to Tony who stored these

'orphan radios in one of the office/bed—rooms under lock and key, after havingassessed their qualities and drawbacks.

MM42 — OctaEer 1995

He was, after some months, respon—sible for eleven SIS and SOE sets ofvarious models, from the primitivepre—war single 807 crystal-controlled‘Whaddon’ Mark I SIS transmitter, in alarge wooden box, to the sophisticated‘AP-S’ transceiver which was brilliantlydesigned for clandestine operations byPolish technicians who had found theirway to London. Though several ‘copies’were to be made in France in secret fac-

MEM42 — Octofier 1995

WYNW. MEWS

The Polish AP-5clandestinetransceiver

tories, radio sets were always a dire need.

Set SubstitutionSoon Tony got in touch with an

Intelligence Officer, belonging to theso-called ‘Action-PTT’ network, whowas desperately looking for a transceiv-er. All seized sets in working orderhad been duly sealed by Tony, withthe exception of a broken down anduseless one. It was easy to affix a new

17

seal to the piece of junk and, at the sametime, to break the seal on a good set andhand it to the grateful visitor.

So far so good, the number of setshad not changed. Such a treasure-housesoon became known to other clandes-tine agencies, notably the Gaullist ‘Ajax’net which had lost three of its radiooperators and wanted badly to resumeits links with the BCRAI HQ in London.

The Germans invaded the ‘FreeZone’ on 11 November 1942 and condi-tions suddenly became deadly for allclandestine work as the dreaded Gestapowas then free to operate anywhere inFrance. The very life of each net was atstake, notably for the French SR2 ‘Y’Service’, intercepting ‘Enigma’ signals,which had up to then maintained aconstant link with Bletchley Park froma castle located in the Rhone Valley.But that is another story...

Hidden in OvenThe problem seemed insoluble for

Tony, until he had the bright inspirationto simulate a burglary with the help ofthe vice-director of the Vichy policeforce. One night he broke the lock and‘stole’ the eleven transceivers in thedepot. The suitcases were put into alorry, stored in a safe place and trans-ported, one by one, by train to the sub-urbs of Lyons where the ‘Ajax’ HQ waslocated. Tony duly reported the burglary48 hours later.

Life was then hectic for him sincehe had to wake up at 5 in the morning,cycle 15 miles to send urgent messagesto London on one of the stolen sets, an‘AP—S’ transceiver, which he kept hid-den in the kitchen oven in an isolated

18

safe house. Afterwards he pedalled backto Vichy to be at his office at 9.

Later on, he travelled by train tooperate several ‘outstations’ around

I

Lyons. Messages were coded by the‘Ajax’ staff, retrieved from ‘dead letterboxes’ by Tony, who tapped out the5-1etter groups as fast as he could. Heused three different schedule plansfor doing so; the microfilmed planswere named after famous cinema stars —

‘Josephine Baker’, ‘Lilian Harvey’ and‘Viviane Romance’ (a striking Frenchbeauty of the time).

Mentioned in DespatchesSoon, Tony was working like mad

for several intelligence nets. The lastsix months before the invasion lookeddesperate as the Gestapo was hot on hisscent. Warned by his chief, the policevice-director, he left hurriedly andwent to Lyons on bicycle withoutproper identity papers.

Earlier he had been given a Colt.45 pistol and a Sten gun to defendhimself; later, an armed team was putat his disposal to ensure the protectionof his ever-changing addresses. Anyway,he escaped at last without having to makeuse of either of his weapons, to his greatrelief...

Mentioned in Despatches, he wasawarded a Croix de Guerre (with ver-milion Star) by General de Gaulle on5 June 1945. The citation mentions:“For bringing a great help to severalResistance movements. Radio operatorof a clandestine Intelligence agency,he took an active part in an operationwhich led to the recovery of 11 radiosets in the depot of the Police Directo-

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

rate in Vichy. He maintained the send-ing of a large number of radiograms forhis own net and for several others whichhad been deprived of communicationmeans”.

AP-5 Still ThereWhen the war was over, Tony re-

membered that he had left his ‘AP-S’ inthe kitchen oven in the safe house nearVichy. The set was still there. Nobodyhad touched it and Tony came backhome, a soldier of the shadows fromthe wars, returning with a small bundleand the ‘AP-S’. A Police Superintendentagain in the peaceful country near thePyrenees. The Polish set was put on topof a cupboard and was then forgotten for48 years!

Tony was good enough to give methe set last summer. After wiping off theaccumulated dust, I eagerly and hastilyerected a makeshift dipole, draped overa nearby Oleander, only seven feet fromthe ground, and switched on the mains.Lo and behold, after some anxious tenseconds the well-known rushing water-fall noise came through the earphones;the receiver worked as if it had beenused only the day before!

Tentative CQI plugged in a 7.025Mc/s crystal,

tuned in the transmitter settings untilthe neon tubes shone brightly, and sentout a tentative ‘CQ’. 400 miles away, onthe other side of the Channel, G3ZWHcame back with a 569 report! Anotherrock on 3.505Mc/s, new settings, andback came the aforesaid station with a559 report at the improbable time of10002.

MM42 — Octolier 1995

The ‘Free Poles’ who manufacturedthe set would have been flabbergastedhad they been told it would be in work-ing order half a century later, and stillcapable of sending and receiving mes-sages between Creuse (200 miles southof Paris) and a charming village in Kent.

The ‘tone’ was reported to be‘crystal pure’ on 3.5 and slightly chirpyon 7Mc/s. The set was not tested onl4Mc/s but the slight chirp would prob—ably have been more pronounced due tothe single valve oscillator.

,No Transmit/Receive Switch

The output power of 15 watts provedample for clandestine work with a pooraerial, the full—BK system is smoothand silent. There is no transmit/receiveswitch other than depressing the key,which is an excellent feature for fastduplex traffic though rarely found in anyother clandestine radio.

To be honest, the weak point is the"

receiver which is both much too sensi-; tive and not selective enough by far,with an average bandpass of lOkc/s ormore. Though the dial drive is smooth,the bandspread is so cramped that anangle of 2 degrees covers 50 kc/s on the4—8Mc/s band.

Because the receiver is virtuallyuseless nowadays for ham traffic in ourultra-crowded bands, we should not faultit. It was brilliantly engineered and ascompact and light as was possible at thetime, and it was designed for receivingstrong CW signals from a ‘Control’ sta—

tion using directive folded dipoles orrhombic aerials. In a given band, practi—cally the whole spectrum could be used.

‘

I did not hear that Tony complained of

19

mi<

Q:“B

EEG

~me

93

EMM42 — Octofier 199520

not copying London loud and clear withthe ‘AP-5’.

Set DetailsThe PSU (mains only), Transmitter

and Receiver are contained in a small11 x 8.5 x 4 inch metal containerweighing 12 1b. It covers from 2 to16Mc/s in three bands (2 to 4, 4 to 8and 8 to 16). The five octal metal valvesare exposed to air, their functions being:Transmitter: 6L6 crystal oscillator;Receiver: 6K8 frequency changer, 6SJ7reactive IF on 1500kc/s, 6SC7 griddetector and AF; PSU: 5Z4 rectifier.

This set is one of the many modelsmanufactured between 1941 and 1945by the Free Poles for the SIS. As canbe seen in the photograph, the receiveris housed in the lower third of thebox, together with an excellent built-inkey. Valves and transmitter settings arelocated in the middle.

PSU and aerial settings are in theupper third. AC cord and miniaturefolding headset are housed within thebox, under the lid. Aerials had to bedipoles, which were not so easy to erectas the usual random thrown out wireswhich were common with most clandes-tine sets.

The complete, ready to be fired—up,‘AP—S’ was easily slipped into a bicyclebag if you were brave enough to riskyour life in doing so on the roads ofFrance in WWII.

Abbreviations[l] BCRA. ‘Bureau Central deRenseignements etAction ’. The Gaullistcentral Intelligence agency in Londonwhich worked in close contact with theSIS and the ‘RF’ SOE Section.[2] SR. ‘Service de Renseignements’.The official pre-war French Intelligenceagency. Exclusively staffed by FrenchArmy regulars. HQ in the ‘free zone’from June 1940 until 11 November 1942.After that date, part in France andpart in Algiers. Worked in close co—

operation with the SIS and the 058.[3] SR ‘Y’ Service. Intercepts by FrenchSR military personnel of German radio‘Enigma’ traffic and of German land-lines all over France. Intercepts weredecrypted and/or sent to Bletchley Parkthrough secure Anglo-French ‘Enigma’link! This ‘Ultra’ traffic worked from1940 to the end of the war.

(Reprinted, with permission, fromMercury, journal of the Royal SignalsAmateur Radio Society, and adaptedslightly for MM. Pierre Lorain is theauthor of Secret Warfare (titled Arma-ment Clandestin in France, and Clan-destine Operations in the USA),described in MM7 by the late John I.Brown G3EUR (designer of the seriesof SOE W/I' sets which included theType A Mk.II and Mk.III, and Type BMk.II) as “the most informative bookavailable now on the SOE sets”.)

"you enjoyreading'Morsum-Magnificét,‘

Mill/[42 — October 1995

.

' ‘ please tell your friends about us j .

21

URING WWII, I servedas a Lance Corporal in a 1

special army signal corpsunit in the Afrika Korps. We interceptedthe enemy’s tactical radio communi—cations in the African war theatre andused to be Rommel’s ears.

Late afternoon on 7 May 1943, fivedays before we surrendered in Tunisia

A Remarkable 080by Jo Doering DL1RK(SK)

our company commander asked me if i the key. “QTC”, and then I made a bigI would like to communicate with theenemy. “Sure I do”, was my answer.My first thought was that it was the giveup message, the end of the fighting inAfrica. But the message to be sent wasabout a target not to be bombed.

Since the allied bombers flew infrom the west, the message had to beaddressed to the British 1st Army whooperated in this area. Therefore I chosea radio net from the HQ British FirstArmy, noted frequency and callsigns,took the message and went to the trans-

mistake by using the British 8th Army’s‘X279?’ instead of the 1st Army s

‘QRK?’.The HQ station came back with a

question mark. I started over again, butthis time with “QTC 1 QRK? K”. QRK5 was the answer. DA-DI-DA—DI—DAH,“To the headquarters allied expedition-ary forces in Africa from the HQ of theAxis Forces in Africa”. Then the guy I

i had ‘borrowed’ the call from came in:

mitter van about half a mile from our 3

receiving site.The British net was very busy that

night, and I had to wait for a long time.Meanwhile I practised with the straightkey since I had not used one for about ayear or so, sitting in front of a receivertaking down the foe’s radio traffic. Atlast the net I was tuned into had workedthrough all the traffic they had at hand.Now it was my turn.

With the 80 watt Lorenz transmittercarefully set to zero beat and with the‘borrowed’ call they had used last, I hit

22

“That’s not me, its a propaganda mes—

sage from the enemy.” But I broke inwith “It’s not propaganda, but life ordeath for your own people”. In the end

1 the HQ station told me to go ahead withmy message.

It read as I recall from memory:“Two ships are in the harbour of Tunis.One freighter with 600 allied prisonersin its holds and a hospital ship. Do notbomb those two ships to save the lives

3

of your own people.” I received “QSL”for my message and said “I will QRXtomorrow same time, same frequencyfor a possible reply.”

No reply was receivedduring the next

MM42 — October 1995

days. The event faded in my memoryduring the years that followed until in1950 I bought a book about the war inAfrica. In it I found the message I hadsent and the reaction that took place.

General Alexander, Commander ofthe British lst Army, met the capturedGerman General von Arnim andthanked him for the messagewhich saved600 of his soldiers. He agreed to send600 wounded Germans in a hospital shipto Italy. In a small way I had helped toadd some human touch in this cruel war.Therefore I call this my only worthwhileQSO ever.(From FOCUS,journal ofthe First ClassCW Operators’ Club, Winter 1991.)

The vintage_.RCIle wirelessBygones magazine,including in the current issue...

0 Eddystone 730/4 receiver' Getting the most from crystal gates- Frequency changer valves- The Philips ‘Theatrette’ receiver

Annual subscription (6 issues)£18.50 in the UK; £19.50 to Europeand £23.75 elsewhere by airmail,or send £3.25 for a sample copy

G C Arnold Partners, 9 WetherbyCloseBroadstone, Dorset BH18 8J3.Telephone/FAX: 01202 658474

i

l

Wireless for theWarrior - Volume 1

Wireless Sets No. 1-88A long—awaited book by highly re—

spected researcher Louis Meulstee,now in its final stages of preparation,and due on the MM Bookshelf at theend of November.

This technical history of radiocommunication equipment in theBritish Army contains 154 photo—graphs, 320 drawings and 130 tables.A series of appendices include aglossary of terms, quick—referencecondensed data on the sets and theirfrequency coverage, lists of access—ories used with each set, and militaryvalve codes and equivalents.

The descriptions of the sets them—selves cover the history, technicaldetails, aerials and accessories used.For reasons of space, only a summaryof data is given for some equipments,which will be dealt with in detail in asecond volume, ‘Standard Sets forWorld War II’, planned for comple-tion at the end of 1996.

Wireless for the Warrior, Volume1, contains 360 A4 pages, and will bepublished in softback. Price, includ-ing post and packing, is £27.50 toUK addresses, £28.30 by airmail toEurope or surface mail elsewhere.

ADVERTISEMENT

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a QSL bureau. Novices and SWLs welcome.

498 Manchester Road, Rochdale,large s.a.e. or two lFtCs

The G-QRP Club promotes and encourages low-power operatingon the amateur bands with activity periods, awards and trophies. Facilitiesinclude a quarterly magazine, Morse training tapes, kits, traders’ discounts and

Enquiries to Rev. George Dobbs GSRJV, St Aidan’s Vicarage,Lancs 0L11 3HE. Send a

MM42 — OctoEer 1995 23

Photos/Collection:

Dave

Pennes,

WASLKN

Box Relay KOB. Early Western Electric design. Dated 1886 on underside.Unusual key design shown in close-up below

24 MM42 — Octofier 1995

Photo/Collection:

Dave

Pennes,

WA3LKN

Vibroplex ‘Original’, about 1920.Nickelplated; after 1940plating was in chrome

‘Improved Vibroplex’ made by the A to 2 Electric NoveltyCompany of Chicago,1914. According to Louise Moreau, W3WHE, in 'The Story of the Key’ (reprint

available from the MMBookshelf), this was the most flagrant copy of the VibroplexOriginalat a time when many companies were flouting the Vibroplex patents

Collection:John ElwoodWW7P. Photo: Hay Nelligan

Featuring keys and other collectors’ items of telegraphic interest.If anyone can add to the information given please contact

Tony Smith, 13 Morley Road. Sheringham, Norfolk NR26 81E

MM42 — October 1995 25

DECIDED TO BUILD THISKEY for no particular reason ex-cept that I had enough steel plate

to make the base and it looked, on pa—

per, a straightforward project withoutany awkward machining.

I ended up with a key which is prob—

ably unique and which provided me witha lesson in making very small parts, akinto horology.

The details were derived from theUS patent and drawings which are re-produced in the Vibroplex Collector’sGuide, by Tom French. By reading thedescription and comparing the wordswith the pictures, it was fairly easy towork out how it operated, and by meas—

uring the drawings and scaling them I

was able to make the major componentswithout any problems.

Never ProducedI had already half finished the key

before I discovered, in Bill Holly’s book,The Vibroplex Co., Inc., that althoughthe patent had been granted this keywas never put into production. When I

realised this, I made sure that my modelwas as near to the drawings as possible,taking into account any limitations im-posed by the tools and machinery at mydisposal.

The main area of difficulty wasmaking, or obtaining, the taper springscontrolling the main arm. The drawingsshow two coil springs, tapered in dia—

meter along their length. One end is at-

26

The Bug thatNever Was

(Vibroplex US Patent 1042457,Oct. 29, 1912)

by Dennis Goacher G3LLZ

tached to a screw to provide adjustment‘

for pressure and the other end has an3 extension which is pushed into a holein the appropriate hinged lever to pro-

1 vide anchorage.Finding or making such springs

: proved impossible so I chose a methodI have used on other keys, namely, usinga normal coil spring with one end fittingover a short stud on the lever to hold itin place, and the other end fitting into acup which is a loose running fit over thereduced end of the adjusting screw. Apart

‘

from this variation, the key is as near to. the original drawings as is practicable.

Like Putting a Clock TogetherFrom an engineering point of view,

there are several small parts which needcareful attention to detail, especially in

‘

the arm and spring lever assembly. The‘

parts are held between two plates which

MM42 -— Octofier 1995

B. 9. MARTIN.

We 751103”ch Drums.umouxurun 1qu 1. )9".

1,042,457. Patented Oct 29, 1912.

Jig-1,

fitness“: Donna{gm' 3091.7:qu:,m fi-¥%»g7 mm...”m;1M yam/W

MM42 — Octafier 1995 27

need to be accurately drilled as a pair.These are assembled with two shoul-dered pins, Vm-inch in diameter, reducedin diameter at the ends where they en-gage in the plates. The assembly processis very much like putting a clock to—

gether. All parts are assembled dry, nooil is used in any part of the mechanism,so all movement must be free and notliable to bind when in use.

All the levers, arms, plates, pillars,

em

. BY (5.51.1.2:I. r is PAT No1643457 or ocr2.9.1912 39:35

_

‘

machinery used was a lathe, which wasessential; a milling machine, which re-duced the amount of manual work butwhich could be dispensed with; and abench drill which was very useful.

Overtaken by Model X?Most of the work was done by hand,

1 using a hacksaw and files, and the finishobtained by patiently rubbing on finegrades of wet and dry abrasive paper,

Vibroplex key to US patent 1,042,457 made by Dennis Goacher.This key was never produced by Vibroplex

etc., are made from brass. The pivot isof silver steel, the base of mild steel,stove enamelled, and the screws of mildsteel finished with gun blue. The pendu—lum spring is a short piece of clockspring, the round finger knob is turnedfrom aluminium bar and painted, andthe flat paddle is made from a scrap of .

teak, shaped using glasspaper.The total time to make the key was

around 80 hours, spread over threemonths, mainly during lunch breaks atwork, with the final finishing carriedout at home in the evenings. The power ‘

28

held down on a flat surface and using1

plenty of water. The coating used to pre—

vent oxidation was Rustins clear lac-quer.

In use, the key is a little heavy butthis could be due to the springs I had touse. I am looking for ‘softer’ springs toreplace them and will carry out testswhen I have more samples.

I have speculated as to why this keynever went into production, and wouldsuggest that as the arm assemblyrequired

continued on page 33

MM42 — Octafier 1995

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MM42 — Octolier 1.995 29

ARRY, ZLlACZ wrote tome: “Do you think there is aparticular speed where it is

advantageous to progress to a keyer? Isend differently on a straight key and akeyer. In particular I still tend (subcon-sciously) to count the dots/dashes whensending numerals on a keyer. I think it’sbecause of the lack of wrist movement,compared with a straight key. One hasto listen to the sound.”

Others ask about this. Using a keyeris different, and those long multi-dotnumerals, in particular, are difficult toform at the beginning. With experience,the mind and fingers work out what todo, and just do it. They just have to learnthe rhythm. But it is a more complexoperation. I find that I have to warm upfor a minute or two on my keyer to fine-tune my reflexes.

Last night, I heard Bill, ZL4QLcalling CQ, and called him cold. I triedseveral times to send his call correctly,but ‘4’ came out as ‘V’ or a characterwith 5 dits and a dab. It took severaltries for my fingers and brain to get theiract together.

I digress. When should you progressto a keyer? If you enjoy CW, and wantto send the nicest possible Morse, I’drecommend as soon as possible. Firstly,you’ll start to master a new sending skill,which you’ll certainly need when youcan read above 25 wpm — few of uscan send faster than that on a straightkey. Secondly, your reading speed will

30

Changing toa Keyer

by Gary Bold ZL1AN

improve, because after a while yourcomfortable sending speed will increase,and you’ll start to listen to QSOs goingfaster than you could send on a hand-key. Thirdly, your straight—key sendingwill improve.

This may seem strange, but it’sbecause just listening to your keyersending will reinforce the sound andrhythm of correct Morse in your brain.That certainly happened to me!

Some Paddle FundamentalsThe Christchurch EXPO Morse

contests and my review of the CMOSSuper Keyer have renewed interest inpaddles, which are basically just twohorizontally switches, mounted an inchor so above the table.

Conventionally, the thumb makesthe dots with one switch, the index fingerthe dashes with the other. That’s the wayHorace Martin set up his early bugs, andkeyers followed that convention. Thereason was that the index finger, clever-

EMEM42 — OctoEer 1995

er than the thumb, had to form the dash-es manually, while dots were formedautomatically by the less clever thumb.

With keyers, dashes are also formedautomatically, and there is a modernschool of thought which contends thatthe index finger should form the dots,which now require the greater manualdexterity. I don’t have strong feelings,but since I used bugs before keyers, Iuse the original convention.

But you can always turn the paddleupside down ifyou have to use one wiredfor the opposite polarity. The CMOSSuper Keyer, which I reviewed in anearlier column, can be commanded toreverse the polarity without changingthe wiring.

There are actually two types of pad-dles. The simplest, and earliest, is just asingle pole, double throw switch, whichcan only close one contact at a time.This is a ‘non—iambic’ paddle. If youhold both contacts closed, most keyerswill just send dots, as the dot logicoverrides the dash logic.

Iambic paddles have two separateswitches, and all modern keyers supportiambic operation. With these, when youhold both contacts closed, an iambicstream of alternate dots and dashesresults, starting with the element whosecontact was closed first.

This makes it possible to sendcharacters like C, K and R with a singlesqueeze. This takes a bit of practice,and some never master it. But it’s worthacquiring the skill, because sendingiambically requires much less fingermovement, and so is less tiring for longperiods. (See below. — Ed.)

In fact, that’s something you’ll be-

MM42 — Octofier 1995

gin to notice, with any sort of keyer,because the fingers are required to moveat less than half the frequency requiredfor straight key sending. My rule ofthumb is that, with practice, you canlearn to send accurately at nearly twiceyour hand-key speed with a keyer.

Modern keyers also have dot anddash memories. These ‘remember’ thenext element to be sent, if it is of theopposite type to the one currently beingsent. That is, to send ‘N’, a singlesqueeze, with the dash contact closedfirst, sends both elements, even thoughthe squeeze is released before the dot

1 begins.The exact moment at which the next

remembered element is stored by thekeyer is determined by whether itimplements what Jack Curtis definedas ‘type A’ or ‘type B’ logic. With typeA, you have to hold the next elementpaddle closed a little longer. All modernrigs I know of which have built-inkeyers implement type A, which isrecommended by Jack because there isslightly more latitude possible for the

5 finger timing.But the Accukeyer, a very popular

design evolved by James Garrett in the19705, implements type B. I used anAccukeyer for so long that the requiredtiming algorithms are indelibly stored inROM, and I won’t change now. But ifyou’re starting, it doesn’t really matter.

A point of confusion often crops up.The timing logic implemented doesn’taffect the code coming out in any way.You can’t tell, by listening, whetheryou’re hearing a type A or B keyer. Thefinger movements driving the keyerare subtly different, that’s all. So subtle,

31

that I can’t tell even if I’m watching thesender’s hand.

I can tell, immediately, if I use thekeyer myself, because I hold thememory element contact closed for theshorter time required by type B keyers.My ‘CQ’ comes out as ‘KG’ if sent ontype A devices.

Some readers, after trying the CMOSSuper Keyer, have told me that theirfingers can detect no difference betweenany of its alternative timing andmemory combinations. If this is the case,then you’re not utilising its iambic andmemory capabilities fully. I can assureyou that there is a difference, and you’llnotice it when you attempt to acquireminimum finger movement sending.

Obtaining a PaddleOften I’m asked what paddle I use,

and what do I recommend?Well, I usually use the beautiful

Brown Brothers paddle movement,mounted on a piece of scrap brass. Thiswas the paddle originally recommendedby James Garrett for use with hisfamous Accukeyer.

It’s very simple, has gold—platedcontacts, and a single spring. I preferit to all the expensive, complicatedpaddles I’ve ever tried. I like it so muchI’ve home—brewed two other paddlesto the same pattern. Maybe somebodycan tell us whether the Brown BrothersMachine Company still makes these?

I also have a zero-cost paddle madefrom a piece of bent aluminium, 7 nails,3 piece of firewood, and masking tape.Instructions are given in my August 1988column (5 minutes to make if you havethe components, I’ll repeat them if

i

32

there’s a demand). The humbling thingis that although I prefer sending withthe Brown Brother’s paddle, up to about30 wpm I don’t send Morse any betterwith it than with the junk—box one, andnobody who is listening has ever beenable to tell which one I’m using.

In fact, my observationsover 30 yearsare that the quality of the keyer MorseI hear is almost totally unrelated tothe cost of the paddle in use. A nice,expensive, gleaming paddle will lookgreat and make you feel better, but itwon’t magically improve your Morse.So if you’re starting out, don’t buy anexpensive paddle until you’ re sure you’regoing to like keyers. Not everybodydoes.

You can also home—brew paddleswith microswitches, back-to-back, hori—zontally mounted cheap straight keys,and converted bug movements — I knowoperators who use all of these. Thereare even touch-sensitive paddles, withcapacitive or leakage current sensing,which have no moving parts. I havenever liked these, as there’s no tactilefeedback. My fingers need to sense asmall movement to tell them the con—

tacts are closed. Using a paddle effi-ciently with minimum finger movementis an art. You have to practise, like apianist on scales.

Learning to Send IambicallywithaKeyer

I know several old—time operatorswho dislike keyer—sent Morse, and afew who even refuse to talk to anybodysending with a computer. They saythat the Morse lacks ‘character’ and‘individuality’, and so is sterile andimpersonal. On a straight key, or even

MM42 — Octofier 1995

a bug, everyone has a distinctive ‘fist’which can be recognised instantly.Some purposely cultivate a distinctivestyle, often very eccentric, and it iswell known that different ‘dialects’ ofMorse have always existed.

With a keyer, the fist is submerged,and everybody tends to send like every-body else. Nevertheless, after sendingwith just about everything over theyears, I’m a firm believer in keyers, andparticularly iambic memory keyers, forreasons I’ll come to.

Many who now use iambic dot-dashmemory keyers, having convertedeither from bugs or the early simplekeyers, rarely or never take advantageof the reduced finger movement madepossible by the iambic action. That is,when sending ‘C’, they make 4 finger ‘

movements, one for each element.But using an iambic keyer, you

can do it with one squeeze, by closingthe dah contact a little before the dit,and releasing it first. Similarly, ‘Q’ canbe formed by holding the dah contactclosed throughout, and inserting the ditat the right time with a quick tap ofthe thumb.

This means that ‘CQ’ can be sentwith just 4 movements, instead of the 7required on a simple keyer, or 8 on abug. If you’ve never programmed yourfingers to do this, it takes time for it tobecome automatic, but it’s well worththe trouble since the reduced movementmakes sending for long periods muchless tiring, and at higher speeds, makessending more accurate. The other lettersyou can form iambically are those whereone element is surrounded by two of

l

the opposite type — F, K, L, R, and Y.

MM42 — Octofier 1995

The down side of using a keyer, ofcourse, is that you will never be able touse a bug accurately again, because thedashes now form automatically, andthe fingers rapidly get used to morerelaxed timing. Sadly, that means thatalthough I was once a snappy bug oper—ator, I can no longer use the beautifulVibroplex I now keep in trust, donatedto my Department by a retired techni-cian who had been a seagoing operator.

It is said that some people havetrained one hand to send with a keyer,the other with the bug. Each hand re-

‘ members its own skills, and can do itsown thing. Others have learned to sendwith their LEFT hand, leaving the rightfree for writing contest exchanges, orfilling in the log. Can you do this? Writeand tell us about it!

(Extracted and adapted for MMfromGary Bold ’s ‘The Morseman’ column in

3Break—In, journal ofNZART).

The Bug that Never Wascontinued from page 28

some dexterity in putting it together,this could have caused the productionpeople at Vibroplex to rethink its intro-

. duction when the Model X was soon tomake its appearance. MM

An exploded drawing ofthe arm ofthis key is available for anyone

interested. Contact Dennis GoacherG3LLZ, 27 Glevum Road, Swindon,

Wilts SN3 4AA, for details.

33

Unknown(presumed) French key, with terminals marked Fl, 0, T.funher informationplease

Photo/Collection:Christian Chefnay F9WT

Unknownkey marked 8.H. D. E. SERIAL No. R013, with hinged coverPhoto/Collection:Nigel AcklandGOllK

34 MM42 — Octolier 1995

‘Spy key’ believed to beof US manufacture.Travel and tensionscrews replaced.Originals had slottedround heads. Basehome-brew. Anyinformationplease?Photo/Collection:Robert W. Butt

NtKPFl

H.....;.4-.W -

Unknownkey. Woodbase, aluminiumkey. No markings. Anyinformationwelcomed

Photo/Collection:HenriJacob F66TC

Readers require further information on the keys, etc., featured here.Please write to Tony Smith, 13 Morley Road, Sheringham, Norfolk NR26 81Eifyou can help.

All useful information received will be published in MM in a later issue

Mill/[42 — October 1995’ 35

HE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK,Harry Reddin, was born in York—

shire in 1914. He developed atypical childhood passion for motortransport, which remained with himthroughout his life. He joined the familyhardware business in Thirsk from schoolto work as a wireless engineer, markingthe beginning of a lifetime’s involve—

ment in the radio industry.The author invites the reader to

relive the golden age of the Britishwireless industry and gives an insightinto the work of the RAF Signals BranchduringWorld War 11. Crystal sets, ‘Mur-phy Madness’, the first Public Addresssystems and the early years of televisionare all remembered with fondness.

Returning to civilian life afterWWII,he found that things were changingin the radio industry, and not generallyfor the better! His last years beforeretirement were spent in the salesorganisation of Radiospares Ltd, nowRS Components.

With a lifelong passion for all thingsmechanical, Harry Reddin is able to tellthe story of the last eight decades froman engineer’s point of view, keepingup a lively commentary on a variety ofsubjects, from the changes he has seenin the British motor industry to the per-ils of submarine—hunting in the Mediter-ranean. The result is a marvellouslyentertaining memoir, packed withamusing stories and authentic perioddetail — an unashamed feast of nostalgia

36

t

\x’am. Whack m Wingsl

:\ “021;": Mun-1mmDuo 1

Wires,Wheelsand WingsA WirelessMechanic’s Diary

A BookReview by Geoff Arnold

for anyone who grew up in the 1930s. Italso forms a worthy tribute to the tech-nicians and ground crew of the RAF,who were among the unsung heroes ofBritain’s war effort.

This book, first published in 1994,was drawn to my attention by a readerof Radio Bygones, who termed it abso-lutely ‘unputdownable’, a description

‘ confirmed by his wife who complainedthat she had been unable to get a wordout of him until he finished it! Havingnow had the pleasure of reading it formyself, I must confess that I was simi-larly ‘hooked’, and would thoroughlyrecommend it to anyone with an interestin the fields described.

Wires, Wheels and Wings by HarryReddin, ISBN 1-85821—128—X, is ahardback of 370 pages measuring 6V4

x 91/2in (158 x 240mm). It is availablethrough the MM ‘Bookshelf’ service bymail order (see facing page ) or fromthe MM/RB stand at rallies andexhibitions, etc. MM

MM42 — Octafier 1995

T THE BEGINNING ofmy first tour of duty, inHanoi, certain nets were

rather casual, for example the link withSaigon. That wasn’t so with the othercircuits, however, and later the trafficdid nothing but increase. There was onesolitary woman in Hanoi’s central radiooffice at that time (1948). They madeher work Saigon and she could usuallyget to bed before midnight, the balanceof the traffic then being taken bysomeone else.

Later, things were different. Severalfemale operators arrived, the traffic in—

creased and the problems started. Youcould no longer allow several people togo for a sleep. Sometimes it was just theopposite, it was necessary to search outextra operators, wake them up and setthem to work even if it wasn’t their shift.

UnhappyHowever, you didn’t wake up the

female ops, there were enough problemsjust having them on normal night duty.Some were taking drugs to keep awake,and it was useless telling them this wouldonly result in their being taken to hospi—tal, which did happen several times.

I was a duty officer when theyarrived. In the circumstances, I wasnot happy about their being there, andfound it impossible to have confidencein them in such difficult and strainedconditions. You had to be on your toesall the time, including making them pay

38

More lndo-ChinaMemories

by Francis MarinescoF6EQC

In MM26 (p.18), the authorrecalled some of his experiencesin the French Army in what wasthen Indo-China (now Vietnam).Here, he describes a few more ofthe problems he experienced,working at pressure underdifficult and often chaotic

conditions

attention to priority work and the timeof handing in telegrams, which reallyshould have been second nature tothem. If they lost contact in QSB Icouldn’t rely on any initiative on theirpart. If they lost the signal they wereunable to say if it was because of poorcopy, receiver problems, or whatever...

Remote-controlled TXThe work of a duty officer at that

time was pretty rough. The service wasmaintained by only three people, whenthere should be four; it was necessary tokeep an eye on everything; no telegramcould be delayed; and official reports ofthe traffic had to be written up to relievethe overworked operators.

MEM42 — OctoEer 1995

It was necessary to record allincidents for the following morning’sreport to the centre head, explainingthe reasons for delays along the routeof each urgent message (and that waspractically every one); to arrange relieffor those operators having a call ofnature; and facilitate the flow of ‘flash’telegrams directly to the secure frequen-cies of the different correspondents.

The latter created considerableproblems. The watch frequencies werenominal, so it was necessary to call5kHz up and down around a nominalfrequency. The transmitter was remote—controlled, so you can see the problem.You needed to agree a code with theduty technician, using the telephonebell, to go up and down in frequency,eventually achieving zero beat on thestation you were listening to.

I skip the best, like doubling or tri-pling a link because of the tremendoustraffic flow.

TransferIn the mornings, at shift change-over,

it was necessary to make a verbal reportto the centre head, write it into the watchlog, then brief whoever was taking over.I rarely finished all this in under an hour,even after preparing it all in advance;and during this time the telegramscontinued to pile up.

Finally, I became fed up being headof watch, and asked for a transfer to amobile unit. I got it, but not withoutdifficulty. There, at last, I could breathea little and be happy with my work as anoperator. It is true there were other in-conveniences, but a change is as good asa rest.

MM42 — Octolier 1995

l

l

l

Supermen ofSaigonAfter that, I found myself in the

centre of Haiphong as head of the cen-tral radio office. There were no femalestaff, and there were too few operatorsto have watch chiefs. Since the trafficwas less important than at Hanoi, thatwas OK provided you pulled yourweight and knocked the Vietnamesepersonnel into shape — some of whom,by chance, were very capable.

I trained them for high speed opera-tion just so they could thumb their nosesat Saigon where the operators consid-ered themselves to be the champions.My Viets succeeded completely intaking on the ‘supermen’ of FLZ andbringing them down a peg or two!

MagnificentRASLater, I was transferred to Tien-Yen,

a small centre not functioning very well,and not far from the frontier with China.All the operators were Vietnamese, andit took less than a month to put thingsinto order.

The officer in charge of transmis-sions said to me, “We’ll see from themonthly report ifyou’re such a big shot.”The results spoke for themselves. Thereports from Hanoi and Haiphong ar-rived with a magnificent ‘RAS’ (rien asignaller, i.e. a clean report) coveringour work, which was repeated later. Mypredecessor never had the ability to geton well with the Vietnamese.

On the other hand, I had somerun-ins with the assistant officer incharge of transmissions who couldn’tstand my presence. An ignorant little

continued on page 48

39

HE GRAVEST BLUNDER Inearly made as a radio officer willforever stay in my mind. Thanks

to an old Greek boatswain, however,whohad more sense in his little finger than Ihad under my skull, my act of stupiditydid not have disastrous consequences.

In 1956 I had been radio officer on aNorwegian freighter, the ss Sun Ingrid,for three years and was getting restless.Again and again we made the same portsof call, the same voyages. Above all Ihad been in the same radio cabin, withits obsolete TDE transmitter, and itseven more antique BC-348 for all thattime.

The freighter was chartered byNORGULF in NewYork and it was veryunlikely that the situation would changein the near future. Every port on the eastcoast of theUSA, and nearly every coun-try in South and Central America wasvisited with boring regularity. The itin-erary was like a bus timetable, and youcould set your watch by it. I was youngand adventurous, I wanted a change.

ResignationOne breezy winter morning in the

Atlantic I told the captain I wanted toresign. Obviously this could not happenstraight away. We were at sea and ournext port of call was still a few thousandmiles away. For the captain, Eigil Vesti,there was an even greater problem, sincein those days radio officers were hard tocome by.

40

Reflections fromUncle Bas - 23

My Gravest Blunder

by Bastian van Es PAURTW

Not surprisinglythe old man was veryunhappy about the situation and tried topersuade me to stay on for just anotherperiod. He even mentioned court rulesand nonsense like that. He knew as wellas I did that this was ridiculous, but hetried it nevertheless, and I quite admiredhim for it.

Finally we agreed that if the ownerin Oslo could find a replacement I wouldbe discharged in New York. After send-ing several cables to Stabekk, the cap-tain received confirmation a week laterthat a new sparks had been found andwas on his way on a plane to New York.

Unemployed in ManhattanOn reaching New York, I said good-

bye to the captain and various crewmembers, picked up my bags and leftthe ship in which I had, despite thetedium, served for several happy years.

MEM42 — OctaEer 1995

The first thing I did on solidground was look for a single room, and Iquickly found board and lodgings nearBattery Place more or less on a day-to—day basis. I also found myself aloneand unemployed on the streets of LowerManhattan.

The immigration authorities gaveme a shore permit for three months, onthe understanding that after that period ‘

I had to leave the US pronto. I had nointention to stay that long, because fromthe very first moment I arrived in NewYork I was shivering with cold. As iswell known, winter temperatures in thatcity often drop to 20°C below zero.

New JobTo find a new job I had to walk

for hours on end in snow-covered streets,going from oneshipping officeto another. 7After a few v , / ehours of this,it felt like I

was at the 0

North Pole. Istarted dream-ing of the oldSun Ingrid onits way tosunny Cubaand cursed the _:_‘- .1day I decided toleave that tropi—cal paradise.

Fortunately, after a couple of weeks,I was able to sign on as a radio operatorin another ship. The procedure took placein the office of the Greek consul. The

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

. . .7115: T5 @Rs‘wme‘. , . .

pay was acceptable, and the ship’s desti-nation was Hamburg. Apart from theowner’s name (Greek) and the flag ofthe ship (Liberian) the Greek officialcould not give me any information aboutthe vessel or its crew.

I was told to get on board as soon aspossible, but to reach the location wherethe ship was discharging I had to travelhalf a day by bus and complete the lastfew kilometres by taxi.

Warm WelcomeFirst impressions of the rusty WWII

Liberty-ship did not put my mind atease. The reception by the captain, hiswife and little son was overwhelming,and they greeted me as if I were theirlong—lost son.

The radio gearappeared to bea little betterthan in the oldSun Ingrid, butonly a little.My predeces—sor had beentaken to hos-pital with acomplicatedbone fracture,so the captainwas over-joyed to havea replacement

))

(1")

on board.Shortly after

my arrival, thesteam engine started turning and wesailed slowly down river on our wayto Norfolk, Virginia, to load coal forHamburg. From the very first day I had

41

no problem whatsoever with the radio 1

equipment. It was just my ‘cup of tea’,but on board the ss Georgios Sidderatosdinner was another story.

Greek Foodl

During the first few days in the mess-room I felt like closing my eyes andkeeping my teeth clamped together.However, hunger prevailed! Ground l

beans mixed with bones and pieces of‘

mutton, covered with a spinach—like 1

soup, is a bit different from dinner at 1

home, but lookinground the mess,seeing everyoneelse eating totheir hearts’ con-tent persuadedme it could notbe all that bad.

In fact, it wasdelicious and af-ter a week it tast-ed lovely indeed!The names of thedishes I cannotrecollect, noteven the ingredi-ents. My knowl-edge of the Greeklanguage never gotbeyond alpha, beta, ome—ga, and you’ll agree this is not sufficient 1

for a serious conversation, let alone dis-‘

cussing the intricacies of the kitchen.

Family ConcernAfter a few days I realised that the

entire crew belonged to the same fami— }

ly. The first mate was the father of the l

captain and the latter was main share—

42

ovv l‘l’UNYIOUSENlP/N PDq..t?

holder of the ship, the second mate wasa nephew and the engineers were relatedin some incomprehensible way to thecaptain’s wife. I never ventured to ask

1 for more details since apart fromthe captain and the boatswain nobodyspoke English.

At Norfolk we had to wait our turnbecause there were quite a few shipswaiting to be loaded. After many thou-sands of tons of coal had been droppedin the holds, the decks were cleared andsecured, the entire upper structure was

hosed down, and weset sail for Europe.

The weatherwas beautiful,almost no windand the temper-ature just a fewdegrees below0°C, and itpromised to bean outstandingvoyage home.

PoorAerialPeople call

me a curious ladand that is quitetrue. During the

first days on boardI inspected the draw-

ers and cabinets in the radio cabin andfound immeasurable amounts of ‘spares’.However many of them proved to beeither obsolete, broken or from oldequipment that had been dumped some—where on shore and replaced by newequipment. Among many other articles,I stumbled on a huge spool of redcopper aerial wire. I thought this might

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

come in handy, because the first day onboard I had noticed that the aerial strungbetween the masts was of a very poorquality and needed replacing.

In the Atlantic Ocean, somewherenear Newfoundland the weather startedto change. A heavy fog drifted in ourdirection and within a couple of hoursthe entire ship was lost in a big cloud.Visibility was next to nothing, at bestseveral feet. The captain gave the order‘Half speed’ but the situation remainedtreacherous, despite the blowing of theship’s horn at regular intervals.

Red In The FaceIn fact, the thunderous sound of

the ship’s horn increased the feeling ofinsecurity. Far away, there were moreships blowing their horns, obviously inan identical situation. On deck on theother hand, between times, it was ex—

tremely quiet, silent in fact, as if nobodydare venture in the open.

Due to the engines going at ‘HalfSpeed’, and with no wind at all, the shipwas almost motionless and I thoughtthis a perfect opportunity to renew themain aerial. When I talked to the boat-swain about giving me a hand for thisinnocent job he gave me a dubious lookand told me that before doing anythinghe wanted to have a word with thecaptain. I considered this silly and askedhim to get it over with on the double.Then he said to me in his peculiar ‘In—

gleesh’: “Mister Sparks, how you sendin fog without aerial SOS?”

Like a naughty little boy, I crept backto the radio cabin. When I think about itnow, forty years later, I still become redin the face. MM

Mil/[42 — Octofier 1995

,

1

Readers 2‘42):WANTEDMORSE SOUNDER in working order, togain experience in reading code from asounder. Phil Beckley GW6CDO,Church Farm House, Bettws Hill, Newport,Gwent, NP9 6AD, Wales.Phone: 01633-853906.MORSE PRACTICE OSCILLATOR,1-valve or 2-valve, as marketed by WebbsRadio, London, in the 1940s. Jim Dennis,16 The Ridge, Yatton, Bristol, B519 4DQ.Phone: 01934-833265.SPECIAL TELEGRAPH EQUIPMENT.Single needle; Baudot; Hughes... AlsoMarconi multiple tuner. Can be collected inthe UK. Exchange items (telegraphy,telephony, radio) also available.Fons Vanden Berghen, Lenniksesteenweg462/22, B—1500 Halle, Belgium.Tel: Office +32.16.38.27.21.Late evening: +32.2.356.05.56.

FOR SALETELEGRAPH SET TG-5-A.Serial No. 1958. Designed at Signal CorpsLaboratories, New Jersey. Order No.18475—NY-39. Date 4-7-39. Made byKollogg Switchboard & Supply Co,Chicago, Illinois. £50 plus p+p.Kenneth Wikberg, Bildradiogaten 14,S—421 34 Vastra Frolunda, Sweden.

EXCHANGESEVERAL CHINESE KEYS and ZA/CANBRO937 KEYS offered to swap for goodmilitary keys like ZA 34835 (WWII SOE),Clansman RT320, RAF Type 51,Marconi Type 365, 971, andAustralian Lifeboat key.Raymond Lee VR2UW, PO Box 62316,Kwun Tong Post Office, Hong Kong.FAX: +852-2757-8383.

43

yourLettersHeaders’ letters on any Morse subjectare always welcome, butmay be edited when space is limited.When more than one subjectis covered, letters may be divided into single subjects in order to bring

comments on various matters together for easy reference

New Exclamation Mark?When I learned the Morse code back inthe late ’503, the exclamation mark was------ and I still use this character.I have asked other amateurs with long-standing knowledge of the code, andthere is overwhelming agreement withme.

I am aware that ------ is nowused as a comma, so perhaps it wouldbe a good idea to adopt the suggestionby AGCW—DL (MM41, p.41), that---------- be used, as this reallydoes sound like an exclamation mark!

George Eddowes G3NOHEaling, London

(There is no dispute that ------ usedto be the exclamation mark. It was de—

letedfrom International Morse, and thesignal reassigned as ‘comma’, by theCairo revision, 1938, ofthe Internation—al Radio Communications Regulations.As happened with other changes overthe years, many operators continued touse the old meaning long after the offi-cial change tookplace. — Ed.)

There can be no Swedes reading yourinteresting magazine, or least none ofthem seem to have reacted to AGCW-DL’s proposal to use ----------for the exclamation mark.

44

I doubt that this proposal can haveits origins in Scandinavia as we alreadyhave a signal for the exclamation mark,i.e., ----- and have had it for a verylong time.

Anders ‘Andy’ NybergEA8CN/SM5CUN

Los Relejos, Tenerife, Spain(Andy enclosed a list of Morse codesignals published by FdreningenSveriges Sa‘ndareamato'rer whichincludes the signal ----- for theexclamation mark.

As a matter of interest, we do havereaders in Sweden, also in Austria,Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France,Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spainand Switzerland, as well as Australia,Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Israel,Japan, New Zealand, Oman, Singapore,South Africa, Uruguay, USA andZambia! — Ed.)

MisunderstoodI had a good laugh at the story about‘GS’ (‘Sorry Grace’, MM40, p.41). Itreminded me of an embarrassing mis—

take I made on 3.553 some years ago. Ihad several QSOs with a G—YL stationand in our first contactI mentioned some—

thing I regretted. I stressed this by sig—

EMM42 — October 1995

nalling ‘sob sob’, intending to mean‘weep’ or ‘I’m sad about it’.

Only later did I learn this expressioncould have been misunderstood as‘s.o.b.’, and my ears burned with em-barrassment! I never received a QSL cardfrom her for this or any other contact. Iapologise to her and to any shocked lis—

teners who may even today associatemy call with such inappropriate lan-guage. I honestly didn’t realise how itcould be misinterpreted.

Monika Pouw-Arnold PA3FBFMijdrecht, Holland

Taking Down Code i

I was interested that ZLZASK could ‘

only copy Morse in block letters at 13‘

wpm (MM41, p.31). He was obviouslynever instructed in copying code usingthe least number of strokes per letter.

During WWII the military turned outthousands of radio operators with a min-imum speed of 20 wpm. I’m enclosing apage from a US War Department Manu-al on the proper way to print in blockletters. It’s from ‘Instructions for Learn-ing International Morse Characters’, dat-ed June 2, 1943. Note that the last strokealways ends up going to the right.

Incidentally the same manual, under‘Visual Signalling’, reads: ‘After pass—ing twelve words per minute, you willbe given instruction in reading blinkersignals.

‘You will work in pairs, alternatingbetween calling the letters as they areflashed from the blinker and writing them

. down as your partner reads them. Youwill continue practice until you are able

‘ to read the blinker at a speed of 10 wordsper minute.’

John Elwood WW7P

a B (C: D E Phoenix, Arizona,I

E USA

.4._‘_.3E._. N -l J’ ll<<2 L Reading VisualSignalling

Following the recent2

x19? correspondence on visualsignalling speeds, I was dis-appointed that no ex-Navy

X2 signaller came forward togive us an authoritativeopinion on real—life work-2

, ing speeds, rather than leav-4 ing us to rely on dubious

meem‘iggc?

2LEE?

to], Q

(0)\llle

Q Qtheoretical guesses (my

/ 2 letter MM40, p.46).So I ’phoned the Scot-

US Signal Corps Lettering Guide

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

E .. . . tish maritime headquartersand asked for the Signals

45

Office. The helpful people there foundme a signaller to speak to, and he toldme that he could work at 10 to 12 wordsper minute.

Three days later, when I guessed thatthe shifts would have changed, I ’phonedagain and got a different signaller, whoclaimed that 14 wpm was his absolutemaximum.

Bill Lord GMSNUEdinburgh, Scotland

(See also the information contained inJohn Elwood’s letter ‘Taking DownCode’from a 1943 US military signalsinstruction manual, above. ~ Ed.)

‘Understand’After reading recent correspondenceabout the use of ----- given as SNbut always known to me EVE, theletter from Gerald Stancey G3MCK(MM40, p.40) rang a loud bell.

As an RAF Y Service operator copy—ing German military Morse for over fouryears, I can confirm that V_E appeared tobe almost standard usage by Germanoperators as an acknowledgement andend of message signal, i.e., ‘R \WE EC.We often used it when working our D/F .

outstations by key — it sounded muchslicker than the usual ‘OK’.

Jack BarkerSurbiton, Surrey

TOPSI can confirm Peter Lumb’s version(MM40, p.43) of the origin of the nameTOPS. ‘The ops’ in dialect equals‘T’ops’. Phil Evans told me this yearsago when I asked him about the title.

Vic Reynolds G3COY (TOPS 309)Hartshill, Stoke-on-Trent

46

I remember reading somewhere, in thelate ’40s, that the name was a shortenedform of THE OPERATORS as spokenby a Yorkshireman, i.e., T’OPS.

John St. Leger G3VDLThrowleigh, Devon

Media CWI was interested in Monika Pouw-Arnold’s report on Morse signals onGerman and Dutch TV (MM41, p.40).

The Spanish radio network ‘CadenaSer’ has been usingMorse code for more

. than 30 years to announce football goalsscored during their Saturday and Sun—

: day Sports programmes.They have journalists at every match

and when any team scores a goal theysuperimpose on the current commentarya continuous signal in Morse code, ‘GOLGOL GOL’ (that’s ‘goal’ in Spanish),until the station can switch over to thematch in question for details about whoscored, when, how, etc.

Not everyone realises it is Morsecode, but as football is so important inSpain I guess that if you sent GOL witha key and buzzer, and mentioned Sun—

day afternoon, most Spaniards would tellyou that it meant ‘a football goal’.

Dr. Jon Iza EAZSNVitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Overdoing It

I think some operators are overdoingtheir knowledge on the air, sending, forinstance, the apostrophe in ‘don’t’ in—

stead of ‘do not’ (or why not just ‘dont’).After all, it’s only a question of beingeffective, isn’t it?

And what about these question marksflying around the amateur bands? Many

MM42 — OctoEer 1995

times (and I mean MANY) when I callCQ I get a -- - in reply. Havingbeen QRT for 23 years this was new tome and I fell into the trap of responding.In most cases this means no QSO sincethe guy at the other end doesn’t wanta contact. I ignore them now, but theycertainly create QRM.

Anders ‘Andy’ NybergEA8CN/SM5CUN

Los Relejos, Tenerife, Spain(I have heard ‘DNT’ used as an abbre—viation for ‘do not’, although it doesn’t 3

seem to feature in any of the publishedlists.

Unnecessary punctuation can bejustas ofl-putting t0 the receiving operatoras non-standard abbreviations, especial-ly where understanding depends verymuch on how conversant the otheroperator is with your language. — Ed.)

Code-free LicencesOn the issue of code-free amateur radiolicences, I have to admit I am distinctlyuneasy about continuing to insist on theneed for a Morse test as a prerequisite toHF band operating.

I would however, retain a mandatoryMorse test for those wishing to usethe mode. We could then continue toevangelise the joys and benefits of CWwithout being accused of having adog-in—the-manger attitude, or worse.

My greatest disquiet in respect ofMorse operations is the likelihood oflosing spectrum space for the mode,which is already under pressure fromthe various data transmissions.

A code—free licence can only serveto increase this pressure — but I feelthe onus is upon the CW user to fight

MM42 — October 1995

t

l

E

I

l

l

l

l

l

l

l

l

‘positively’, rather than by the indirectand rather negative means of insistingon the retention of the Morse test.

Chris Rees G3TUXHaslemere, Surrey

CW TonesOn the ham bands in the fifties, therewere three qualities of tone coming fromthe largely home-built rigs of the day.

Group A were signals of much lessthan T9 quality. Group B were the nor-mal T9 signals, and Group C were sig—

nals of beautiful purity, comparable tothe T9x notes from quartz crystal oscil-lators.

The three groupings remain today,but in different proportions. Group Bhas become by far the largest, producingthe acceptable but not exceptional quali-ty signals that come from today’s com-mercial rigs. Group A has happily beenmuch reduced, consistent with better ac-cess to suitable components, but whathas happened to Group C?

This group is now very small indeed.It is rare to hear a T9x tone on the bandsapart from those from low power home-brew crystal controlled transmitters.

My own valve variable frequencyoscillator — which I still have! — was aColpitts derivation. Its fundamental wason 320 metres into a cathode followerand buffer amplifier, before a doubler to160 metres.

This was my Top Band rig and alsothe drive source for the ‘Big Rig’, as themain station transmitter was commonlycalled. Much care was taken in the de-sign and its physical and electrical con—struction. Not least, this was to ensurethat in screen grid keying the doubler

47

there was nil, or minimal, pull on theoscillator.

Also, provision was made for vary—ing the time constants to match differentkeying speeds — all controlled by a5—position switch on the front panel.Happy days!

So what went wrong? Why cannotthe output from today’s oscillators andfrequency synthesisersmatch yesterday’sdegree of purity? Is it really somethingto do with oscillator noise? I have oftenasked the question but have never reallybeen given a satisfactory answer.

There is inherent ‘noise’ in a valvedue to random emission of electrons and‘noise’ in bipolar transistors from strayinternal voltages. But FETs, accordingto research by Walter Schreuer,KlYZW,are quieter than valves! So why do nottoday’s commercial rigs, although im-proving all the time, match the possibleperformance of their valved ancestors?

A T9x note will stand out in 21 DXpile-up even against stronger signals.Contesters take note!

Mike Whitaker G3IGWHipperholme, West Yorkshire

Corset BugIn response to the editor’s note at theend of my letter about CommanderMeade’s Method (MM39, p.44) allowme to give the following explanationabout the semi—automatic keys madefrom corset steel inserts which I men-tioned in that letter.

Over fifty years ago, a young RAFwireless operator, exhausted from eighthours of copying German high speedMorse staggered over the threshold ofhis civilian billet to be confronted by his

43

middle-aged twenty—two stone landlady,waving her outsize corset above her headand shouting ‘come upstairs darlin’ andpick the bones out of this lot!’

Not wishing to cause offence, he ac—

cepted this generous offer. Wonderinglater how the gift could best be usedto speed the war effort, the idea of theCorset Key took shape.

Production of the key was strictlylimited due to two factors:(a) the stamina of the W/Op concernedand(b) the need to avoid ruining the corsetfor its proper use by removing too manysteel ‘bones’.

As a result, only two or three CorsetBugs were actually made, and if foundthey would now be collectors’ items ofgreat value.

I trust this clarifies the matter.Jack Barker

Surbiton, Surrey(What amazing things happened inthose days in the interest of the warefi‘ort/ — Ed.)

More Indo-China Memories

continued from page 39sub—lieutenant who understood nothingand issued stupid orders. He believed,for instance, that by increasing thepower at Tien-Yen you could hear theinaudible stations better. It gave memore worries and another transfer...

(Article based in correspondencebetween Francis Marinesco, F6EQC,and Dominique Bourcart, FEIOEB,translated by Ken Quigg, GI4CRQ, andedited by MM.)

MIA/[42 — October 1995

Morse @5leM

A series of reproductions of QSL cards with a Morse theme

.«r 5.4% r050 WITH

V5 785ON 1030 METERS

AT GMT

UR SIGS RST

050 NR

73 and 11/ Ta,“Elvin: cmilara

0TH: 28 Maple Lane.New Hyde Park.L.l_,N_Y,11040

NASSAU COUNTY

K

.0 FAison PalcmTelegraphKey

.'so7 Y‘ 7 - A].

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0.. \~~... ~~

I..~15514 Ensenada Dr. ‘DAVID A. JOHNSON

Houston, TX 77083Ft. Bend County - USA - Grld EL-29

‘You’d be amazedat the DX work Idowith these phones ”

" ln 'l7 and 'lB when things were I bitthick I ueed Eritrean (Briiish) Telephones—whenthe setting of I sign-l meant ' link or lwim'.On the P boat: Ind Q bout: when, wirelmewaking. we lud to mind our p's and q'l.lcovered unbelievable disunceI—weather andaubmnrine warnings. plus a little press fromMPD at tliree to four thousand miles on our3“ crystals. No wonder My Lords madeBritish Ericsson Telephones standard 'wly beckin l l

" In these piping days of peace they erewonderful receivers—they've been m muchimproved. Good value. too. in three resist-ences (I20. 21X”. 4,000)

Write Io-dau [or inform!“ ml Um.

THE BRITISH LM. ERICSSON MFG. C0.. LTD.,67/73 Kinnwny. London, W.C.2.

Be sure to look [or “ Ericnon "mu each ear irce. If absent.

they are continental "imitations. (BRITISH)

TelephonesAn advertisement from the 1925 edition of theAdmiralty Handbook of Wireless Telegraphy