posted on Fri, 9 Nov 2007 10:12:59 EST:

On Nov 9, 6:57 am, "Jeff" wrote:

Another neat RTTY trick involved paper tape.

"Trick?" TTY p-tape was standard practice among the big guns
in communications of the 1940s. Back then it was 60 WPM on
a 24/7 basis...just keep them fed with paper, ink, and once in a
while, some lubricant. Teletype Corporation made a fine piece
of goods.



Of course since it took several characters to make one letter, the
effective speed on a 60 wpm machine was about 15-20 wpm. And
there was no going back if you made a mistake. But the effect could
be impressive to the uninitiated.

TTY p-tape makes it possible to do an immediate re-send of the
SAME message if a wire or radio circuit is blitzed by something.
During WWII and afterwards it was the standard way at big hubs
of networks that spread around the globe...be they military or
commercial, the 'torn tape relay' rooms were big and efficient.


...remembering the smell of hot machine oil in the W3ABT room...

I can easily remember an entire second floor at ADA's control
center tape relay room of the early 1950s. Over 200 teleprinter
machines busy working away 24/7. Impressive all by itself. And
that was only the third-largest hub (RUAP) in the Army network
then.

73, Len AF6AY