RadioBanter - View Single Post

Ian White GM3SEK · February 18th 07, 10:23 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.homebrew

wrote:

Also as sent over the land line the operator had
to listen for the gap between clicks NOT the sound of the clicks! Try
that folks!

Irrelevant as to what any telegraph operator did prior to
1900...except for historical notation.

On the contrary, the 'clicker' persisted in some parts of the US
railroad system into at least the 1930s. My wife's father had been a
telegrapher with the Delaware & Hudson, and on joining the US Army for
WW2 he was re-trained to International Morse. He spent the rest of the
war still pounding brass, just doing it differently than before.

However, he didn't go back to the D&H in 1945, so others must determine
exactly when the clicker did die out.

None of the participants
of any newsgroups were alive then and therefore none can be
"witnesses" to corroborate methods of early telegraph reception.

Call the surprise witness...

Witness relates that sometime around 1962, she visited Knott's Berry
Farm with her Dad, Mom and sister. This was back when it was a working
fruit farm, which had expanded into serving home style chicken dinners
and berry pies.

The family made a reservation for a chicken dinner, and because these
were so popular, the Farm had to give visitors something to do while
they were waiting for the second sitting. They hit on the idea of
re-creating an authentic Western ghost town, correct in every detail.

So it came to pass that the whole family wandered into the office at the
railroad station. There was the telegraph, clicking away... Dad froze
in intense concentration, and then doubled over with laughter! When he
got his breath back, he told Mom and the girls what the clicks were
saying:

"Eat chicken dinners"

"Eat chicken dinners"

"Eat chicken dinners"

"Eat chicken dinners"

Witness personally affirms that the message was delivered through the
clicking of the telegraph sounder.

Witness is now MM3YNW, and is standing watching me type this. Don't you
all think she should learn Morse to continue the family tradition?

--

73 from Ian GM3SEK