Ron - Sometimes I think there must have been real compitions between operators. Maybe in the military. No firsthand experience here. I put in for radio school in 1964 but they sent me to cook and baker school. I worked with a guy who had been on a ship. He said that when someone challanged him, he removed the weight completly. He may have been braging. I just read a chapter from the novel "The Nymph and the Lamp" by Thomas Raddel.(sp?) A shore station was challanged by a ship operator. When the dust settled, the best operators on both side had been called into the contest. This was full contact Morse code. I just plunk along under 20wpm but I enjoy the mechanical keys. I like being in control of what I send. Rick - K7MW
-------------------------------- That's a GREAT book, Rick. If a shore operator ran into someone who wanted to QRQ they obliged to the best of their ability. In my experience, ship operators aren't a lot different from Hams. Some were very competent and others less so. I knew a few who could barely make 10 wpm. LR's bug cable-clamp weight held his speed to just about 20 wpm. That was probably common. Most bug users do the "Farnsworth" thing to slow down, sending letters at normal speed but opening up the spacing. The early days of radio, such as "The Nymph and the Lamp" covers, were a bit different. In general operators got more rigorous and consistent schooling. At the least, the skill of every operator reflected mightily on the station manager who took great pride in his operation and would tutor or replace anyone he found lacking. Even at sea the operators all usually worked for the same company and inspectors monitored the circuits looking for LIDs. For example shipboard operators on Marconi-equipped ships were all Marconi wireless employees and all shipboard operators on Telefunken ships were Telefunken employees, etc. They were not regular ship's crew members but employees of the wireless company. Indeed, it was that confusion of loyalties, in which the operators were instructed that it was more important to move paid telegrams than to provide "convenience" messages for the Captain, that was one of the critical issues behind went on aboard the Titanic that April night. One of the changes after the Titanic sinking was that shipboard radio operators signed "articles" as regular crew members under the direct control of the Captain. You are right that there were and are commercial QRQ ops out there! In later years up into WWII and beyond many private and government circuits involved the same operators, all with high levels of training and experience, who enjoyed literally burning up the airwaves. Still the good ops at a station like KPH were no slouches! I stopped by to chat with LR one day and he wanted to introduce me to a buddy who was on duty. His buddy was busy hammering out an incoming message from a ship on his typewriter - "mill" - as we approached. I could hear the CW pounding away. His buddy jumped up and shook my hand and we chatted for perhaps the best part of a minute before he said, "'cuse me" sat down, sent an "R" and hammered away at the mill like a madman for a bit completing the copy of the message that he was reading in his head as he chatted with me! All this while the NEXT message is starting to come in, and he still had time to exchange a few words before we left him. I can hold a conversation with the XYL while in a CW QSO, although I might tell the XYL that I'm running an Elecraft K2 and tell the guy in the air that I'll pick up milk next time I go to the store... Ron AC7AC _______________________________________________ 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
