[GreenKeys] Inside a Torn Tape Relay Center - a novel

[Nick England]

Outgoing messages were also recorded onto tape in the monitor cabinets
which had multiple reperfs and tape winders.

More on tape relay equipment here
https://www.navy-radio.com/tty-relay-equip.htm
And photos of a Navy torn tape relay here
https://www.navy-radio.com/tty-relay.htm

Nick England K4NYW
www.navy-radio.com


On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 10:52 AM Duncan Brown <duncanancy at earthlink.net>
wrote:

> Jeff,
>
> We have a Waterfall at the AWA Museum.  My experience in the Army (mostly
> at the company level, not relay) was that messages came in, were printed
> directly, and then delivered.
>
> I couldn't understand why messages would come in, be printed, and then be
> directly archived after viewing (with the waterfalls).  Outgoing messages
> in the Army tape relays were archived on tape, which would take up less
> room than printed copies.
>
> But printing out incoming messages that are going to be relayed on tape
> makes sense now.
>
> Duncan
> K2OEQ
>
> On 19-Feb-24 10:40, Jeff G wrote:
>
> The waterfalls have paper reels inside that collect the printed paper. I
> think they were basically considered monitoring/logging - you can read the
> print but once it scrolls past its basically "archived".
>
> Jeff kC3GJX
>
> On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 9:46 AM Duncan Brown <duncanancy at earthlink.net>
> wrote:
>
> Nick,
>>
>> Finally got a chance to read "Huh? Whadya Say?" - it seemed to be a good
>> description of life in a torn-tape relay center in their heyday. I was
>> never in one (I was in Army tactical TTY and then moved over into
>> electronic communications repair), but am familiar with the equipment &
>> jargon.
>>
>> The story answered one question I have had: how was the "Waterfall" (3-4
>> M28 printers in a cabinet) used?  According to Guy, they were using the
>> printers to monitor the incoming messages that would also be punched into
>> tape for relaying.  If there was any garble on an incoming tape, it would
>> normally not be noticed and just be relayed on to the next station. By
>> having the message printed out, it could be quickly scanned for quality
>> before the garbled taped message was relayed on.
>>
>> But as Guy tells, they were pretty busy pulling & pushing tape and I
>> don't think they would have much time to look at print outs at the same
>> time!
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Duncan
>> K2OEQ
>>
>>
>> On 04-Feb-24 13:34, Nick England wrote:
>>
>>    I unexpectedly came across "Huh? Whadya Say?: Inside a Torn Tape Relay
>> Center" by Guy Thompson.
>>    I really enjoyed reading this short novel about life in a Torn Tape
>> Relay (NAVCOMMSTA Philippines Vietnam era). It seems like a well-written
>> authentic story portraying the constant workload in a major relay and fleet
>> support center.
>>    It's a quick (71 pages) but very interesting read - $1 on Kindle or $5
>> for the paperback
>>         https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073V3ZGRB/
>>
>> No relation to author, etc.
>> Nick England K4NYW
>> www.navy-radio.com
>>
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