15-11-2016, 07:26 PM
As this is a radio forum, here is an extract from one of my St. Helena books on my very first use of an HF teleprinter the first morning at sea after I joined the ship in 1979:
On sailing, I conducted our initial communications in morse code as I had always done. The first evening at sea we were in the traffic list at Portishead Radio and again I received the message in the traditional manner using morse. Next morning, Captain Wyatt came along to the radio office with a telex message. That particular voyage, his wife and two young sons were sailing with us. He had brought the boys along to watch a telex message sent! How I wished I had made my first attempt the previous night in privacy. With an outward show of calm confidence, I tuned the transmitter in on the appropriate frequency for Land’s End Radio. I then set the digital receiver to the correct frequency. All was silent apart from the odd crackle and hiss from the receiver. Uttering a silent prayer, I pressed the call button on the control unit. The cricket-like pulsing sound commenced immediately and after about five seconds, a row of lights flashed on the control unit and the whirr of the teleprinter daisy wheel commenced. I pressed the “who are you” button on the keyboard and within seconds Land’s End radio’s answerback typed itself out on the machine. I replied with our answerback and typed in “Good morning, please connect with 45654 Curnow G.” “Good morning,” it replied, “please wait!”
After a few seconds, the machine typed “go ahead!” I again pressed the “Who are you?” button and “45654 Curnow G” came back. All I had to do then was press the “send” button and the punched paper tape began to chatter through the machine and a copy of the message was simultaneously printed in the Curnow office and on the ship’s teleprinter. So, after eighteen years at sea, I had made my last communication with Portishead Radio using morse code. Morse was not dead, however. It remained in common use right until the day I left the sea thirteen years later.
Bob
On sailing, I conducted our initial communications in morse code as I had always done. The first evening at sea we were in the traffic list at Portishead Radio and again I received the message in the traditional manner using morse. Next morning, Captain Wyatt came along to the radio office with a telex message. That particular voyage, his wife and two young sons were sailing with us. He had brought the boys along to watch a telex message sent! How I wished I had made my first attempt the previous night in privacy. With an outward show of calm confidence, I tuned the transmitter in on the appropriate frequency for Land’s End Radio. I then set the digital receiver to the correct frequency. All was silent apart from the odd crackle and hiss from the receiver. Uttering a silent prayer, I pressed the call button on the control unit. The cricket-like pulsing sound commenced immediately and after about five seconds, a row of lights flashed on the control unit and the whirr of the teleprinter daisy wheel commenced. I pressed the “who are you” button on the keyboard and within seconds Land’s End radio’s answerback typed itself out on the machine. I replied with our answerback and typed in “Good morning, please connect with 45654 Curnow G.” “Good morning,” it replied, “please wait!”
After a few seconds, the machine typed “go ahead!” I again pressed the “Who are you?” button and “45654 Curnow G” came back. All I had to do then was press the “send” button and the punched paper tape began to chatter through the machine and a copy of the message was simultaneously printed in the Curnow office and on the ship’s teleprinter. So, after eighteen years at sea, I had made my last communication with Portishead Radio using morse code. Morse was not dead, however. It remained in common use right until the day I left the sea thirteen years later.
Bob
