[GreenKeys] early automatic Morse to Baudot equipment?

[Richard Knoppow]

    Shows how things have changed. The original method used by 
Morse to copy messages was a "register" or ink recorder. 
Operators transcribed this to writing visually but it pre-dated 
typewriters.  The history has it that operators soon found they 
could copy the sound of the register or relays faster than the 
tape. Eventually the registers were eliminated and ear receiving 
became standard. Again later, with high speed circuits and a 
proliferation of traffic newer types of registers, either ink or 
punched tape began to be used. Mostly ink recorders with the tape 
transcribed via typewriter became the standard method with 
punched tape being used for relay purposes. Most people who 
worked with punched tape could read it as well as the ink 
records. McElroy made mechanical Morse sending and receiving 
equipment into the 1950s but it became obsolete. For receiving 
there was a bridge which carried the inked tape across the top of 
a typewriter, the free end being pulled by a tap puller at a 
speed under control of the typist. It takes a while to learn to 
use the method but I suspect someone who knows code and knows how 
to type could learn it pretty fast. Reading by ear was not 
practical since some of these circuits ran in excess of 300 WPM.
    I think reading code via sound, either tone or sounder, is a 
remarkable achievement. I work on my code ability every day.
    I am unsure of the dates when teleprinters supplanted Morse 
but it seems to me the Associated Press began to use Teletype 
about 1915 to send material to its subscribers. Continental Morse 
continued to be used on high speed radio circuits at least 
through the 1950s.
     Loss of signal can be substantially eliminated by using 
diversity reception. Some diversity systems were quite elaborate, 
such as the ones RCA Communications used in their international 
stations. Diversity also works for Teletype and voice. As an 
example of a triple diversity receiver for Morse see the RCA DR-1 
or RDM-1, Nick has a manual for it on his Navy web site. This 
used three AR-88 receivers and three spaced antennas along with a 
combiner. Most later circuits were double diversity since they 
are cheaper and very nearly as good as the three antenna variety.
    While many think code is obsolete the fact is that you don't 
need anything else, just your ears and brain, to read it. It can 
provide communication with extremely simple and even crude 
equipment and can be used for visual as well as aural transmission.
     Its too hot in L.A. and writing distracts me.

On 9/5/2019 11:13 AM, Harold Hallikainen wrote:
> I am so used to copying CW by ear, I can't imagine reading it off a tape
> and transcribing it. I've seen an inked tape recorder at KPH in Pt. Reyes
> Station CA. Also, at the Telecom History Group here in Denver, there's an
> inked tape recorder for fire alarms.
> 
> Machine translation of Morse is interesting. The Reverse Beacon Network
> seems to do a great job. I will often get 25 or 50 hits on a single CQ
> call (like this:
> http://www.reversebeacon.net/dxsd1/dxsd1.php?f=0&t=dx&c=w6iwi ). There's
> also a Morse decoder in the KiwiSDR (like the KPH one at
> http://kphsdr.com:8074/ ), but it gets a lot of errors. Operating it, it
> looks like anything above a certain receive level is mark, and everything
> below is space. Noise often goes above the threshold (which is adjustable,
> but if you set it too high, you get errors during a fade) causing errors.
> By ear, we can tell the difference between tone and noise. It does not
> seem to be able to do this. So... need to send CW using FSK!
> 
> Harold
> 

-- 
Richard Knoppow
1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com
WB6KBL