Lenof21 wrote:
In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

Len Over 21 wrote:

In article , Mike Coslo
writes:

So...now you've got this "instant gratification" thing going
again?

Yes sir! Just like you have your thing going again.

My "thing" has been "going" all the while...no problems. :-)

Okay, good enough.

"Good enough?" :-)

Good enough, indeed!

I wonder what Mikes "war" contributions were?

So has this ridiculous "necessity" of amateur radio to pass a
morse
test in order to "qualify" for HF privileges for over a half
century.

A mere 51 years I did not even have to pass any special test to
operate an HF transmitter outputting more power than any ham
is supposed to have (in 1953 that was 15 KW from the old Press
Wireless transmitters, went to 40 KW with the Collins rigs of
1955). No morse test needed. Didn't even have the MOS for
Fixed Station Transmitters, was MOS for microwave radio relay.

Did you just walk in off the street and operate the transmitters
with
no instruction, training, or supervision?

There were no "streets" on Tsukishima Island in Tokyo in the
1950s.
Those were eventually put in when both the USA and USAF vacated
the island by the 1960s.

Damned USAF. Always trying to find a civilized way to do sumptin.

We didn't "walk in" either since the billet was a half hour
shuttle bus
trip from the transmitter station prior to assignment.

Shush! We'll have none of this no point A, point B nonsense.

Transmitting sites are always wherever you happen to be.

Seven months of
Signal School were completed in Fort Monmouth...but that was only
on very basics of HF receivers-transmitters since the majority of
that
MOS's school was on microwave radio relay and most of those were
using pulse code modulation (principally pulse-position
modulation).

Len, dammit, none of this pulse crappola. It was either CW or it was
RTTY. Doan confuse us widda facts.

The intended microwave radio relay system hadn't arrived yet and
would not be there until the next year...and the only schooling we
got was a super-condensed two-week formal course taught by the
two General Electric field engineers stuck in their civilian
assignment.
[Army Signal Office didn't give the commercial GE equipment a
military designation until 1955] The Korean War had interrupted a
few more permanent installation intentions and this was one of
them.

When IN the military, one does what one is told to do. Period.
You
either know your basics or you don't. If you don't you get
re-assigned
and the re-assignment is not negotiable. So, us microwave types
got less than a one day of informal instruction, some real
hands-on
training by the NCOIC (Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge) and
left the rest up to the "trick chief" (team supervisor, usually
E-5, and
there were four teams on a rotating schedule). Gene Rosenbaum,
N2JTV, was assigned there about a month before I was and assigned
to another team, same duties.

There really isn't a lot of smarts necessary to tune up a 1940s
era
transmitter, whether 1 KW or 15 KW. All the finals were tube type
and it was "dip the plate, peak the grid" kind of thing after
peaking
the driver stages. Always, always, always remember to neutralize
that final...all of which seemed to be push-pull power triode
things.
We had an 833 bottle on a stand at the central control console
where failure to neutralize on a QSY caused plate overheating
which
in turn softened the glass envelope until air pushed in and caused
all the overload relay and breakers in that transmitter to trip.
Radio
circuit went dead and such outage is a definite NO-NO when the
assignment is to maintain communications 24/7.

Transmitters, per se, were not the complicated things to operate
besides being 7 feet tall with lethal voltages inside. The FSK
exciters for the RTTY radio circuits needed to be fine-tuned even
though they had quartz crystal control. That proceedure needed
the distant receiver site to tune up on the carrier and send a
zero
beat over the telephone circuit, then apply Fox Test keying and
adjust the "spread" or Space frequency for as close to 850 cycles
as possible (carrier zero beat was on Mark frequency) using an
ears-only audio beat with a standard 850 cycle loudspeaker tone.
Receivers frequency standards would then measure everything
again and put it on the order-wire (dedicated TTY loop) shared
with us and Control. If Control liked the numbers, they would
remove the Fox Test and put "traffic" on it...if not, they would
ask all to do it again. We rarely repeated anything. Each team
would do anywhere from 6 to 12 QSYs per shift (approximate) on
the RTTY circuits. We also had preset-tuned SSB transmitters
which QSYed in a minute, replacing the most cranky of SSB
stuff designed before WW2. A full QSY, from order-wire
notification
to frequency standards okay, took 3 to 4 minutes with RTTY.

At the Tuskushima Island site, primary AC power depended on
commercial Japanese 50-cycle input. That tended to be erratic
and at least one power outage happened each week. When that
happened, the single power man in the diesel generator wing had
to get at least 350 KWe supplied and the team on duty had to
check out every single "up" transmitter all over again. Frequency
standards went into a tizzy because they had to check out every
single frequency to make sure it was where it was supposed to be.
That meant an average of 30 different radio circuits with 30
different
carriers and different modulations. Control had to hop and tell
the
torn tape relay crew to reset all the p-tapes on the transmitting
distributors...which involved at least a 100 different TTY p-tape
machines. A mere 5-minute outage would result in losing over
two hours total traffic capability. NOT good...but we didn't get
chewed for something not our fault. The newer Kashiwa site had
its own 600 KWe generators and we were spared those damn
power outages.

NONE of what I described was taught in Signal School, not even
for Field Radio MOSs (which required morsemanship ability even
if it wasn't used in the field in Korea). It could all be
"taught" by
laying hands on the working equipment and doing it like the
sergeants described how to do it.

If anyone knew more than basics of electronics/radio, they got up-
graded, perhaps transferred to the VHF and UHF radio relay which
used frequency-multiplexed audio handling 4 voice channels per
radio circuit. None of that was taught to microwave MOSs so we
learned how on-the-job, verbally and by the TMs (Technical
Manuals)
which were excellent then on giving theory of How Things Work
from a practical operations perspaective. Those of us who kept
our
minds open, willing to learn, had a wonderful opportunity to see
how
the Big Time in communications of the 1950s operated and stayed
operating. When the TTY traffic is 220,000 messages a month, it
IS the big time...and the station I was assigned to was only the
3rd
largest in the Army Command and Administrative Network (ACAN).

No, we didn't just "walk in from the street" and start in. We
were
told what to do by those who actually did it, and most of those
would
explain more detail and theory if one really showed an interest.
After
three years on that assignment I had a wonderful crash course in
real HF radio plus the beginning of microwaves and wound up an E-5
doing some of the explaining of procedure and theory behind it
all.
Wouldn't have missed it for the world, even with the threat of WW3
hanging around for everyone to get nervous about.

Stoppit, dammit, stoppit!!!

I'm just sick and tired of you tellin' it like it was. The truth doan
count for sh*t aroun here anyways!

Now if you have a magazine like QST to relate real radio stories, well
then there might be sum dat lissen.

Guys like Jimmy Who dat doan know sh*t about real commitment, real
sacrifice. Only know about ENG101 and if the government loans are
going through. Forget about Fuchu and DaNang. They gots more
important tings to do so dey can tell us about how it really was.

But, in 2004, U.S. radio amateurs MUST still pass a morse test
to "qualify" for operating an amateur radio transmitter on HF.

Sadly true. Gotta makesure you not Taliban.

No
other radio service (other than certain Maritime radio
services)
require morsemanship testing.

Yes, that is pretty much the case.

Taliban welcome to FAA license.

WHY is that? There's no real reason for keeping that old test in
there.

All that morse test satisfies is the egos of the olde-tyme hammes
who will never have to take another morse test in their lives (if
they
renew on-time). THEY had to do it so everyone else MUST do so.
Ptui.

Hey, Mister!!! If the Taliban can master the Morris Code, so can you.

Only then are you worthy to wageth war on the hypocphyphal.

My whole point is that if you want to be a Ham with HF access at
this
time, that is a hoop you have to jump through.

Wonder if our Twin-Trade Tower Terrs were accomplished codesters?

Fine. Be a lemming or sheep.

I'm just advocating a change in the radio regulations. Without
any
personal needs, desires, or ego. I don't need any Titles or
Status
or a bunch of alphanumerics to "sign behind or in front of my
name.

Been there, done that a long time ago, and a little while ago
(early
this year), all without any legal requirement to pass some morse
test.


If that morse test is so absolutely "needed," then the
definition of the
ARS should be changed in Part 97 to "Archaic Radiotelegraphy
Service" for the USA.

Thot it was the Ars?

No need to fixate on the Morse code test.

Then why DO you?

indeed?

Why do you wish to CONTROL newcomers by keeping that morse
test? Folks will think you have a Hoop Holder complex, somebody
trying to be a guru or knowitall about "radio."

If someone LIKES morse code operations, fine say I let them do
their thing. But, to keep on enforcing an antiquated regulation
necessity about taking a morse test is, to me, downright stupid.

There's lots more to amateur radio than trying to recreate the
1920s
and 1930s "pioneering days" by keeping old, out-of-date tests.

Happy New Year on this last day of the 4th year into the new
millennium...



On this last day of the 4th year of the new millenium, I can only add,
"didit!"
All of the rest of amateur radio should be embarassed.

bb/N0iMD