On Jan 9, 9:41�am, wrote:
On Jan 9, 10:50 am, Steve Bonine wrote:
Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.moderated
From:
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 2010 12:41:09 EST
Local: Sat, Jan 9 2010 9:41 am
Subject: New club for Morse enthusiasts

Unlike commercial services, amateurs are almost all self-funded, self-
trained and unpaid. Most amateurs don't have large amounts of time-
sensitive communications to get from A to B (and maybe C, D, E, etc.)
Things like size, weight, cost, power consumption, complexity, etc.,
can be major factors to the amateur.

The FCC specifically defines the amateur radio service as being unpaid
("without pecuniary interest" in more legalistic terms).

Your statement about "time-sensitive communications" is unclear.

Big-time amateur contesters sometimes spend $10,000 to $20,000 total for
a large tower and beam antennas for HF. That would buy 5 to 10 Model 28
8-level TTYs new from Teletype Corporation.

Since RTTY seems to be the subject, recall that amateurs have been
using RTTY since at least 1948.

Various teleprinter signals were transmitted by radio in 1928 in other
radio services.

But for many amateurs RTTY didn't do the job "better". A teleprinter
cost thousands of dollars new - almost all amateurs used surplus
machines, often obtained through MARS channels. They required paper,
inked ribbons and oil, and not just any would do. Worst of all, they
required additional electronics and a higher-quality receiver and
transmitter.

"Additional electronics" consisted only of two subsystems, an FM
demodulator and an interface driver for the TTY loop circuits (60 mA
maximum if memory is correct). That commercial or military equipment is
built for very long 24/7 life is a requirement there. That is not a
requirement for amateur operation.

To properly use an NTS CW message delivery requires the official ARRL
Radiogram form, inked ribbons for the typewriter, oil for the
typewriter, perhaps an eyeshade and sleeve garters...:-) shrug

The US Army Signal Corps did moon-radar experiments as early as 1946

Successful experiment. Done as "Project Diana"...in one of the three
laboratories just outside of Fort Monmouth, NJ. I saw all three labs in
1952 while assigned to the Fort Monmouth Signal School.

and there was a military EME communications system in operation by 1960
or 61.

I was unaware of that. In that time-frame, the US Army was engaged in
trying out Troposcatter methods for the end purpose of making
specifications for contract bidding on Troposcatter using low
microwaves. Troposcatter uses literal scattering of radio waves within
the Tropopause of the atmosphere and has no direct radio path from Tx to
Rx. Position of the lunar orbit makes no impact on Troposcatter.

In the time of 1960 through 1970 (approximately), the NSA was
experimenting with its use for both passive intercepts and to active
links for covert operations, on HF through VHF. There are two references
(non-fiction books not about amateur radio) which mention
those. Apparently it was unsuccessful for constant use since no other
books about the CIA, NSA, or DIA mention anything further. Obviously
lunar orbit positions matter to EME.

btw, a lot of the people involved in the 1946 moon-radar were
hams).

1946 was only 1 year after the end of World War II. There was a
considerable number of technical and engineering people still hard at
work doing advanced projects from WWII end through 1946. Project Diana
was a research project for possible military use, to find out if such
moon-bounce methods (the FIRST one done) were consistent and repeatable
according to theory.

Yet amateurs continue to pursue EME, right now, today. Yes, there's no
separate EME test, but there are a significant number of EME questions
on the license exams.

A quick trip to www.ncvec.org will show that current exams (valid until
end of June 2010) have only 6 questions in only the Amateur Extra test.
Those are E3A03 through E3A08. Since there are 738 Questions in the
Extra pool, those EME questions comprise 0.82% of those 738. Doesn't
seem a "significant" number to me. Others' mileage may vary...

The current Question pool has 738 questions for Extra, minimum required
being 500. There are 484 in the General pool, minimum required is 350.
There are 392 in Technician, minimum required is 350. To do all three
tests in one test session is legal but a "memorization" would require
remembering a minimum of 1614 questions having 6456 answers or 8070
total.

73, Len K6LHA