From: on Sun, Dec 4 2005 4:35 pm

wrote:
From: on Sat, Dec 3 2005 8:28 am
wrote:
From: on Dec 2, 5:33 pm
wrote:
From: on Tues, Nov 29 2005 3:38 am
wrote:
From: on Nov 27, 3:55 pm


Wig-wag and sempahore are not the same thing.

Can you wigwag in morse?

Yes.

[no such thing]

You are mistaken, Len. As usual, you are resistant to new
information.

"New" information? No. You did, indeed, provide a link
for OLD information that was made obsolete in ACTUAL USE
by the U.S. Army Signal Corps prior to the U.S.' entry
into World War One.

Note: I am familiar with Fort Gordon as the "home" of
the Signal Corps ever since it was known as Camp Gordon.
That is where I and other signalmen did our Basic Training
as soldiers.

http://www.gordon.army.mil/ocos/Muse...GES/wigwag.gif

For some more information on the HISTORY of the Signal
Corps, United States Army, go to:

http://www.gordon.army.mil/ocos/museum/

I've already worn the collar insignia of the United States Army
Signal Corps, a torch over two crossed signal flags.

The US Army also used wig wag signalling

Okay, they did up to 1912. ? This is 93 years later.

The U.S. Army ALSO used carrier pigeons and spark
transmitters for communications. That ended after
WW1.

The U.S. Army once used smoothbore muskets and sabers
for weaponry. That ended prior to WW1.

ONE-FLAG signaling ended in 1912...according to the
same museum source.

but you don't seem to know about that.

I know far more than you ever will about what the United States
Army Signal Corps has done in the last half century plus a lot
more. I was IN it, you were NOT.


I can never wear the insignia of the Signal Corps? You are
quite mistaken, Len.

Anyone can go purchase (or steal) some insignia and put it
on. The entertainment business has been allowed to do that
for a very long time...as COSTUMES. Play-acting. Dudly
the Imposter tries to get away with his impersonation of
"being a Marine."

Here's some more from Regimental Division, Office Chief of
Signal, United States Army Signal Center, Fort Gordon, GA:

-------------------------------------------------------------

CROSSED FLAGS

"Crossed flags" have been used by the Signal Corps since
1864, when they were prescribed for wear on the uniform coat
by enlisted ment of the Signal Corps. In 1884, a burning
torch was added to the insignia and the present design
adopted on 1 July of that year. The flags and torch are
symbolic of signaling or communication. Two signal flags
crossed, dexter flag - the flag on the right, white with red
center, the sinister flag on the left, red with white center,
staffs of gold, with a flaming torch of gold color upright
at the center of crossed flags. Branch colors: Orange
trimmings and facings were approved for the Signal Service
in 1872. The white piping was added in 1902, to conform
to the custom which prevailed of having piping of a
different color for all except the line branches.

-------------------------------------------------------------

To explain some terms: "Line" branches are those of the Army
directly involved with warfighting; i.e., infantry, artillery,
armor. Infantry uniform piping is, has been, light blue. If
memory serves, artillery had red piping. "Piping" was
principally the thin edge trimming on the soft cap (sometimes
called an "overseas cap" as well as a vulgar feminine name).
Branch COLOR is a heritage symbol, found on branch flags and,
in 1950-1960 used in an issued scarf that replaced the tie
for certain ceremonial functions. [I still have mine as a
memento]

The "crossed flags" have been a collar insignia for enlisted
signalmen for 121 years, and remains. Signal officers have
a similar collar insignia (on the lapels of coats and shirts
worn beneath the letters "U.S." in gold and with color added to
the flags. Date of adoption of that style depends on adoption
of the officer's uniform style that changed between WW1 and
WW2. Enlisted collar branch insignia has been all gold, no
other color, mounted on a disc of gold. Date of adoption of
that collar insignia style (to differentiate officers and
enlisted) unknown exactly but was done prior to WW2.

As a never-served civilian, you no doubt feel free to ridicule
the U.S. military, especially in areas of tradition, heritage,
heraldry, branch colors, and so forth. That is understood.
Having never been a part of an active military you would be
ignorant of the experience of being part of a fighting force
that was born during the "Spirit of '76."

Some other facts about the U.S. Army Signal Corps:

It is the birth-branch of the United States Air Force, having
issued the very first purchase of a heavier-than-air aircraft
in the military (for observation purposes). Note: The USAF
was once a part of the Army, the "Air Corps", but became a
separate service branch in 1948.

The ubiquitous superheterodyne receiver was born in the mind
of Major Edwin Armstrong while he was on duty with the United
States Army Signal Corps in Paris, 1918. The "superhet"
receiver has been made by the millions worldwide since then.

The first field use of balloons for observation were done
during the American Civil War, including the first "airborne"
telegraphy tried then between a lofted balloon and ground.
[that preceded the later massive lighter-than-air ship
effort of the United States Navy]

The first weather stations and their communications of
weather conditions was pioneered prior to the formation of
the "National Weather Service" that was absorbed by NOAA.

The first use of carrier pigeons on a large scale for
communications was done just prior to and during WW1.
Signal Corps developed a field-transportable pigeon coop
on a vehicle. Unfortunately, the pigeons being conscripts
did not want to cooperate fully and that was disbanded
after WW1.

The first handheld Transceiver ("handie-talkie") was the
brainchild of Galvin Manufacturing, Chicago, (legally
changed to Motorola after WW2) and the Fort Monmouth Signal
Office in 1940. Galvin designed, with Signal Corps'
enthusiastic support, the first useable backpack "walkie-
talkie" FM voice radio that saw its first baptism of fire
in the Italian campaign of 1943. [SCR-300 with its 18
tube radio the BC-1000]

The Signal Corps designed, and Galvin later made, the
first horse mobile radio that could be used by a cavalry-
man en ride ("in motion" for you non-equine humans).
The resulting "pogo stick" (for its guidon socket bottom
support pole) radio chest unit may have featured the first
use of a combined speaker-microphone; that combined
speaker-microphone is now a standard feature of public
safety manpack radios. Mounted cavalry was disbanded
during WW2 but those "pogo stick" radios remained in
service, seeing their baptism of fire on Guadalcanal,
man-carried in infantry units.

100 Watt semi-portable spark transmitters were used by
the Army Air Corps in France in 1917-1918, those lap-
held units designed by the Signal Corps. [as far as
can be determined, those were one-way transmissions, air
to ground only due to noise of open-cockpit aircraft]

The first use of regular communications satellite message
relay for military communications, Vietnam, late 1960s,
using a mobile commications van containing microwave
and multi-channel circuits, designed for the purpose by
the Signal Corps.

The first precision target acquisition and gun-tracking
radar, the SCR-584, a joint design by MIT Radiation Lab
and Signal Corps, transportable, saw service in Italy
and France during WW2. Signal Corps had already designed
and contracted out the radar that sighted the first
Japanese air attackers in Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
Signal Corps is the birthplace of the SCR-584 radar
replacement, the MA-1 fire-control system which featured
a Luneberg lens antenna. Radar set design at Fort
Monmouth was transferred to Artillery in the 1960s.

The very first moonbounce proved at Signal Corps
Engineering Laboratories (just outside Fort Monmouth)
in 1946. Proved that the moon can be a reflector of
radio waves. See "Project Diana" for more references.
That used a modified wartime radar set, including its
unmodified antenna. Those laboratories were visible
from the main road connecting Fort Monmouth with Red
Bank, NJ. [Coles, Evans, and Squire laboratories]

With the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Army provided for the
rebirth of cryptographic services in the 1930s. The
Army Signal Corps established a small agency headed
by William Friedman, a civilian, to organize an Army
cryptographic service for military intelligence
purposes. In cooperation with an equally-small unit
of the U.S. Navy (under Captain Stafford) they formed
the cryptologic nucleus for the entire U.S. government
prior to our entry into WW2. Machinists at the
Washington Navy Yard constructed a working prototype
of the Japanese "Red" and "Purple" crypto machine
work-alikes that were designed by the Army. Success
of this led to the USN victory at the Battle of Midway.
The combined service efforts resulted in a superior
"rotor" cryptographic machine that was never known to
be compromised until the physical capture of the USS
Pueblo intelligence ship. Cryptanalysts of both USA
and USN WW2 efforts later worked at the NSA (formed
officially after WW2). [for more references, see
the Fort Huachuca Military Intelligence Museum web
page...that includes some interesting bios of the
Friedmans and some pioneers in Army aircraft not
normally included in popular flying lore]

The Signal Office of the U.S. Army was the head of
the second-highest priority industry during WW2;
Production of quartz crystal units for all branches
and some allies (England, chiefly). Galvin Mfg in
Chicago was the civilian center of some 60 companies
producing a million units a month by the last three
years of WW2. The only other production program
having a higher priority then was the Manhattan
Project. Signal Corps was one of the contractor
backers to provide the first crystal growth processes
to replace small, irregular natural quartz. That
permitted much lower-cost crystal units to be used
in all electronics disciplines.

I'd like to say that the Signal Corps is responsible
for precision time-frequency sources useable over
military field environments, but that isn't strictly
true. Such is a multi-agency cooperative effort. The
USN began the GPSS with a project called NAVSTAR using
miniaturized atomic-resonance oscillators for a
precision time-frequency reference, beginning in 1970.
Theory and practical units were first done by NIST.
Improvements were done by the electronics industry.
Signal Corps concentrated on all-environment precision
quartz crystal oscillators that resulted in the
excellent frequency stability units required for the
successful SINCGARS family of jam-proof, secure
radios (quarter million R/Ts produced since 1987).
The head of IEEE Time-Frequency is (or was) John R.
Vig, one of the theory-and-practice heads at the
Central Electronics Command that was at Monmouth.
SINCGARS can check or update its precision internal
time base by connecting an AN/PSN-11 GPS receiver to
a front panel connector. True also for its Key Fill
equipment. Both got their baptism of fire in the
First Gulf War 1990-1991.

I'd like to say that the Signal Corps is responsible
for direct-select-frequency-synthesizer subsystems on
HF transceivers, especially for SSB AM transceivers,
but that would raise all sorts of hoo-haw between
Collins amateur radio fanatics and several electronics
industry companies, not to mention interservice
rivalry by real veterans of the military. The
military wasn't the first to pioneer SSB techniques
in radio, the civilian communications providers were.
USAF Strategic Air Command was the contracting agency
that led to single-channel SSB communications mini-
revolution on the amateur HF bands, resulting in SSB
AM Voice being the MOST popular mode on HF by amateurs.

USAF demands in frequency-hopping technology (and USN
in radar) led to secure communications and jam-proof
radar use. Refinements in that led to USA frequency-
hopping for field radios, extremely stable time bases
that could network frequency hoppers, the net holding
despite a hop rate of 10 carrier frequency changes
per second.

Who made vacuum tubes producible at a reasonable cost
in the USA? Look up Western Electric, the old
manufacturing arm of the Bell System (you know, the
telephone infrastructure giant that "fails during
every emergency"). Who invented the transistor? Two
scientists at Bell Labs (with help of Bill Shockley).
Signal Corps wasn't first there.

I could probably expand on all the preceding if I had
the time to do real research, provide a whole list of
end-notes and bibliography. The above I can write from
memory without looking up a thing. I was a REAL
signalman, a soldier serving in the Army of the United
States. I did REAL HF (and VHF and UHF and microwave)
communications in facilities that were real and large,
covering the entire globe long before comm sats were
aloft. Modern methods were used as well as those that
existed before WW2. I am proud of what I did and am
thankful that I can share in the heritage of the Signal
Corps both during and after my real service. I don't
have to pretend my remaining uniform sets are some
kind of "costume." When I wore it we were NOT
pretending anydamnthing.

You are welcome to take your wigwaging morse code
and shove it up your I/O port, sissy civilian.