[GreenKeys] Re Teleprinter Collecting - Letter from new subscriber

[Grizzly]

Post Office Box 977

Slacks Creek 4127

28 September 2004



The President,

Greenkeys.



Hi, my name is Richard YOUL and I live 15 miles south of Brisbane Australia.



I first heard about your organization some months ago through Larry Rice of 
Perth, and more recently have been in contact with Jim Haynes, including by 
telephone. I have been interested in Teleprinter and to some degree 
switching systems on and off for over 30 years.



I would be interested in knowing what is required to join Greenkeys, so this 
is a little of my background.



In 1968 I attended the Postal Training School in Sydney. As well as learning 
general Post Office counter duties, we had to learn to touch type for 
sending telegrams.



There were about 20 Creed teleprinters in the classroom, and the noise was 
thunderous when all were running together. The Creeds have a pretty horrible 
keyboard, but if you can get up a rhythm on a Creed, you will fly with 
anything else. Anyway these machines caught my attention. I had no idea they 
existed before that.



About 5 years later when living about 50 miles south of Sydney, I found a 
Creed on the ground at a local scrap yard. I think he wanted $7 for it, and 
I could not get it home quick enough, and had it working locally within an 
hour or two. That was just the start of my collection, which really took off 
once I moved to Brisbane and became involved with the Telecommunication 
museums here and in Sydney.



I now have around 20 machines, keyboard as well as reperforators and 
transmitters from a variety of manufacturers. All but one is connected and 
ready to run, either back to back with other machines or to other 
teleprinter collectors, via modems over the phone lines.



There is a network of around 100 former post office telegraphists who are 
set up with Morse sets and modems at home and they can call each other up 
(or museums similarly equipped) for Morse conversations. Nearly all worked 
for the post office, the last Morse line being replaced by teleprinter in 
1962 (most were replaced with teleprinters in 1959 using a system based on 
Western Union principles). Anyway with some guidance from other people, I 
adapted or devised interfaces which would allow either single current (make 
and break) or double current (polar) teleprinters to work with modems of the 
same type as the Morsecodians use. Later I adapted a combiner or hub circuit 
used by Morse people to have 3 and 4 way conversations (using several phone 
lines into the hub location), and this allows me to operate single current 
and double current printers back to back, as well as into the modem at the 
same time.



Ultimately there were around a dozen people or museums fitted up for printer 
modem use, but unfortunately most rarely bother to use them.



A longtime friend Barry Neilsen now lives a few doors up the road from me. 
His career path and hobby interest is extremely similar to mine. The main 
difference is he started earlier in the post office and did a lot more 
telegram transmission than I did (unfortunately for me).



I am now Secretary of the Telstra (phone company) Museum in Brisbane, and 
until we were given a new computer system a few weeks ago, I had never had 
any experience with E-mails, and still have never browsed the web myself. 
Mostly there are more interesting things to do than waste hours trying to 
get a computer to work. My museum duties dictate I check and send E-mails, 
so I have now to learn, want to or not!



If I can get this onto disc, then put it into an E-mail I'll send this 
tomorrow (Wednesday, and normal museum day) from the museum. Barry has 
internet at home, and we hope to check out Greenkeys site on Thursday night.



Very sincerely,

Richard YOUL



P.S. I could not get the disc to work but another neighbour has assisted 
with this. for the monent, Barry's E-mail address has been quoted for 
correspondence.  Thanks