Ham Radio Ping ListPlease Freepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.
Posted on 03/04/2006 10:23:46 AM PST by Denver Ditdat
Ham Radio Ping ListPlease Freepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.
Sad, this makes me feel old and out of place.
I was a lineman on a crew for Western Union in late 60's early 70's. We traveled through Nevada, California and Oregon all along rail lines. It was one of my most memorable jobs.
You may feel old, but your place in history is assured...all that humans can aspire to in the end...
Belated ping
Well, thanks for that!
/johnny
One of my favorite dumb blond jokes is now outdated. Wow...
Short Version:
Brunett sends a one word telegram to her blond cattle rancher partner, since that is all she can afford. The word? "COMFORTABLE"
Blond gets the telegram and message, reads telegram, "COME FOR DA BULL."
Great article!
1859 Western Union "92 Code"
& Wood's 1864 "Telegraphic Numerals" &
Comparison of Alphabetic Telegraph Codes
http://scard.buffnet.net/pages/tele/wurules1866/92code.html
I've passed the general test but I need the code segment to get the new frequency privileges or I'll be relgated to 2 meters and above for the rest of my life.
Morse didn't invent the telegraph and Marconi didn't invent wireless telegraphy. What they did do was to coalesce existing thought and technology into more or less practical systems, and exploited them in the commercial realm.
Time to take the Vibroplex out of its case again. It's a 1940s vintage Blue Racer, from The Milwaukee Electric interurban line.
A couple links that may give you a bit of help in reaching your goal: The Koch Method of CW Learning and The Art and Skill of Radio-Telegraphy.
Way back when I was convinced that I'd never be able to master CW, and had almost given up on getting licensed. The electronic theory I had down pat. While looking for a way to occupy my off-duty hours on my first Navy cruise I wandered up to the ham shack, met a couple of ops who took me under their wings, and began to work on the code again. The key for me was daily practice sessions of about 20 minutes each, and developing a willingness to skip letters that I had missed and just keep on copying. Pretty soon I wasn't dropping letters any more, and was even beginning to hear words rather then letters as my code speed increased. At the end of the six month cruise the hours of study paid off when I left the FCC field office knowing that I was now a licensed ham - what a great feeling! My first call sign was N2EBX, which didn't quite fit my Jacksonville Florida QTH at the time as my Navy mailing address was FPO NY. Despite that I liked the call for its great CW "swing".
Keep practicing. You'll get it! Even if the FCC does eventually drop the requirement for CW proficiency on the HF bands, as I expect them to, knowing CW is still great fun. Working CW is just plain relaxing, and once you've learned to copy in your head it's just as natural as talking.
In any case, this article is a keeper. It's great to know that "Radio Shack" has a more important meaning.
Radio telegraphy is also known as Continuous Wave (CW) since the radio frequency carrier isn't modulated with audio, but simply turned on and off to form the Morse characters.
One more minor nit I had to pick with the article was the reference to the HMS Titanic. HMS refers to His (or Her) Majesty's ship, and is only used to refer to warships. The Titanic was a Royal Mail Ship, making her the RMS Titanic.
The article is definitely one for the archives.
It's great to know that "Radio Shack" has a more important meaning.
<g>
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