Howard wrote: >... I can only imagine what it must have been like copying >code on the China Clippers with early radios...
The long-route airline aircraft of the era often had a radio operator on board. He had to be licensed the same as a merchant marine radio officer, with at least a Second Class Radiotelegraph License (20 wpm plain language, 16 wpm code groups), PLUS he had to have the Aircraft Radiotelegraph Endorsement (25 wpm plain language, 20 wpm code groups) on his license. One of the continuing controversies about the last Amelia Earhart flight revolves around whether she, or Fred Noonan, had adequate knowledge about the radio gear they chose and carried. There have been some reports that Noonan held a commercial radiotelegraph license. The FCC was still carrying the Aircraft Radiotelegraph Endorsement in their system of commercial operator licenses and exams as late as about 25 years ago when I first got my second class telegraph license, though I'd guess the last commercial airline radiotelegraph operator positions had disappeared decades earlier. Up to the early 1960s, many airlines had their own staff of land-based HF radiotelegraph operators used to communicate scheduling and other info between operation centers for the airline. Though the individual operators may have had decades of experience and could often copy above 50 wpm, few ever advanced to the first class radiotelegraph operator license because the traffic that their station handled was not "public correspondence" as was required in the experience qualifications for the first class ticket. I never heard any machine-sent news/sports broadcasts on the maritime CW bands being sent at speeds higher than about 35 wpm. More critical safety-related broadcasts (weather, notice to mariners, etc.) were generally sent at about 25 wpm. The long-range military aircraft crews of WWII appear to have rarely conducted their Morse communications above about 12 wpm. In fact, many of the WWII-era aircraft radio sets could not be keyed any faster due to keying relay operation times. Many on this list will remember the WWII surplus "command sets" (ATA/ARA, SCR-274-N, AN/ARC-5) that got many hams on the air in the 20 years following WWII. In their original military installations, they could not be keyed faster than about 14 wpm. If you like Morse, it's hard not to like the old sets that were used when HF radio Morse was in it's commercial heyday. But for power-, weight-, and performance-critical portable operation today, I'll take a solid-state microprocessor-controlled rig anytime. 73, Mike / KK5F (Military Boatanchor Addict) _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
