"Len Over 21" wrote in message
...
In article , "JAMES HAMPTON"
writes:

Heck, anyone who has used one of those old green machines knows how they
were. Folks should be very grateful for the modern pc. The electronics
are
far more rugged than the old teletypes. I've often stared at the 100
word
per minute mechanical beasties clanking away and wondered how they could
do
that without flying apart. Of course, they did break down now and then
....


"Green?" All the ones I've ever worked with were black (old Model
15 to 19) or different shades of Teletype Corporation gray (Model
28 or 33)... :-)

Teletype Corporation ought to get a standing ovation for some
excellent mechanical design in those old teleprinters. They were
robust performers that went on for days at a time needing only to
be fed paper and (once in a while) a new ribbon.

The old 60 WPM units were tried out at 75 WPM on a few Army
circuits in 1955. MTBF went to hell at that speed and those circuits
had very high maintenance turn-over. Restored to 60 WPM speeds,
they continued on as if nothing had happened. Used the old type
cage structure of the manual/electric typewriters.

The "stunt box" (literally a box of type) used on the newer 100
WPM models did awesome things, true, fun to watch while
waiting for a program's answer back. Never had one "lock up" in
some strange mode, though, that including the old all-caps 60
WPM machines with Caps/Figs keys.

By 1980 the matrix printer was IN for anyone needing text
throughput, honking out 300 WPM with just a polite buzz instead
of the clatter-bang of the mechanical teleprinters. My little Epson
MX-80 (purchased in 1980) is still operational but it can't be given
away in this age of inkjet printers that tosses out an entire page
of text in 5 seconds (draft mode, black and white). The only sound
from the "old" HP 722 inkjet printer is the paper-advance stepping
motor; inkjets themselves being inaudible.

But, the Archaic Radiotelegraphy Society (ARS) isn't really
interested in communications per se, is it? ARS is all about
HOW the communications is done, not the comms' content. :-)

Most Best Holiday Greetings,



Hello, Len

To some amateurs the how *is* important. Witness PSK, moonbounce, and other
stuff. Anyone can grab a microphone and talk. Somehow, a lot of folks get
caught up in the code vs no-code argument that is getting *really* old.
Seems there used to be an am vs ssb argument back in the 60s as well.

However, that *how* it is done is important if we wish to further ourselves.

Have a merry Christmas, Len, and try to come up with a new argument next
year, hear?


Best regards from Rochester, NY
Jim AA2QA

Subject: Awesome trainer!
From: "JAMES HAMPTON"
Date: 12/13/2004 11:14 AM Central Standard Time
Message-id:

Have a merry Christmas, Len, and try to come up with a new argument next
year, hear?

Scumbag Lennie couldn't "come up with" ANYthing new, even if he had a
brand new roll of toilet paper. SOS sticks to Lennie, and that's all Lennie
knows.

It comes from a lack of experience. THAT he has LOT'S of.

73 and Hurry January 2nd!

Steve, K4YZ

In article , "JAMES HAMPTON"
writes:

"Len Over 21" wrote in message
...
In article , "JAMES HAMPTON"
writes:

Heck, anyone who has used one of those old green machines knows how they
were. Folks should be very grateful for the modern pc. The electronics
are
far more rugged than the old teletypes. I've often stared at the 100
word
per minute mechanical beasties clanking away and wondered how they could
do
that without flying apart. Of course, they did break down now and then
...


"Green?" All the ones I've ever worked with were black (old Model
15 to 19) or different shades of Teletype Corporation gray (Model
28 or 33)... :-)

Teletype Corporation ought to get a standing ovation for some
excellent mechanical design in those old teleprinters. They were
robust performers that went on for days at a time needing only to
be fed paper and (once in a while) a new ribbon.

The old 60 WPM units were tried out at 75 WPM on a few Army
circuits in 1955. MTBF went to hell at that speed and those circuits
had very high maintenance turn-over. Restored to 60 WPM speeds,
they continued on as if nothing had happened. Used the old type
cage structure of the manual/electric typewriters.

The "stunt box" (literally a box of type) used on the newer 100
WPM models did awesome things, true, fun to watch while
waiting for a program's answer back. Never had one "lock up" in
some strange mode, though, that including the old all-caps 60
WPM machines with Caps/Figs keys.

By 1980 the matrix printer was IN for anyone needing text
throughput, honking out 300 WPM with just a polite buzz instead
of the clatter-bang of the mechanical teleprinters. My little Epson
MX-80 (purchased in 1980) is still operational but it can't be given
away in this age of inkjet printers that tosses out an entire page
of text in 5 seconds (draft mode, black and white). The only sound
from the "old" HP 722 inkjet printer is the paper-advance stepping
motor; inkjets themselves being inaudible.

But, the Archaic Radiotelegraphy Society (ARS) isn't really
interested in communications per se, is it? ARS is all about
HOW the communications is done, not the comms' content. :-)

Most Best Holiday Greetings,



Hello, Len

To some amateurs the how *is* important. Witness PSK, moonbounce, and other
stuff. Anyone can grab a microphone and talk.

:-) Right..."anyone can grab a microphone and talk..." but so many
forget to listen to what they are saying after they remember to push
the PTT button. :-)

The first recorded and witnessed moonbounce was done by the U.S.
Army in the 1940s. The first witnessed and recorded phase shift
keying was done a long time ago, has been done so much that it
needs deep research to find out who did it first, academia, business,
or military. Frequency shift keying is even older.

Somehow, a lot of folks get
caught up in the code vs no-code argument that is getting *really* old.

Agreed. :-) But Test Element 1 is still in the U.S. amateur regs
and many longe-tyme hamateurs are furious that anyone has the
temerity to remove that beloved code test.

Seems there used to be an am vs ssb argument back in the 60s as well.

Why? "Anyone can grab a microphone and talk..." :-)

However, that *how* it is done is important if we wish to further ourselves.

Yes, it's terribly important for all hamateurs to be the very best
kind of morseman they can be. Tradition, the glory, the honor,
being able to communicate all over the world with the same
"language" and demonstrate the "unique good will of amateurs"
to bring about world peace and stuff like that through simple
short transient "contacts" on CW.

Have a merry Christmas, Len, and try to come up with a new argument next
year, hear?

You too, Jim...all around. :-)

Right...just as soon as I go down to the technical seminar down at
the Legion Hall to get all the details on building that simple CW rig
made from recycled 1990s telebision sets that poor impovrished
third-world countries can use for communications to end their
starvation problems.

I don't think a "Tuna Tin Two" is a solution, even with the best
2N2222 transistors. Starving folks want the tuna, not the tin.

No doubt everything will be solved worldwide by using Morse Runner
to practice "radiosport" radiotelegraphy. I will stay tuned. :-)

Happy holidays,

In article , "JAMES HAMPTON"
writes:

To some amateurs the how *is* important.

I would say that nowadays that's true for *most* hams.

In most of the developed world, the average person has a wide range of
communications options. Some are relatively new (cell phones with cameras in
them), others have been around a long time (Plain Old Telephone Service).
Almost all are tending downward in cost and upward in ease of use.

It wasn't that long ago that the average person had very few affordable
communications options outside of the US mail and Ma Bell. Sure, some folks
were hooked up with precursors to the Internet, TTY machines and even mobile
telephones, but those things were pretty much out of the reach of ordinary
middle-class people. In those times, ham radio offered communications that
weren't practical or affordable any other way.

For example, from the 1970s onward it used to be common around here for entire
families to get ham licenses in order to keep in touch via the local VHF/UHF
ham repeaters. Nowadays cell phones have just about eliminated that reason.
Lots of other examples.

Witness PSK, moonbounce, and
other stuff.

Yep. Like CW!

Of course there *are* times when ham radio is still the only practical or
available method of radio communications.

Anyone can grab a microphone and talk. Somehow, a lot of folks get
caught up in the code vs no-code argument that is getting *really* old.
Seems there used to be an am vs ssb argument back in the 60s as well.

Goes back into the '50s.

However, that *how* it is done is important if we wish to further ourselves.

If all amateur radio does is to emulate what is available other ways, it will
simply die out.

What we need to keep alive are the things that make amateur radio unique.

Like Morse Code.

73 de Jim, N2EY

In article , PAMNO
(N2EY) writes:

What we need to keep alive are the things that make amateur radio unique.

Like Morse Code.

Absolutely!

And let's not forget other areas such as giving up automobiles
and going back to horsies and buggies...farmers plowing fields
behind animules...all those "XYLs" cooking from scratch on
cast-iron wood-fired stoves.

The Archaic Radiotelegraphy Society rides again! :-)