[GreenKeys] Torn tape continuous transmissions

[Duncan Brown]

"and there the problem would be detected and could be remedied from 
there."  - *Maybe
*
The military and WU wanted to be sure messages got through and not lost 
- so all messages were numbered.

I am working at the AWA Museum trying to restore the last AN/TGC-1, the 
first torn-tape relay cabinet.  When I get it working, I'll put our a 
video of it.  This cabinet, and the operators of it, provided the first 
digital message router in 1944.

Have fun,

Duncan



On 7/25/2026 7:09 PM, Jim Haynes via GreenKeys wrote:
> On Fri, 24 Jul 2026, Nick England via GreenKeys wrote:
>
>> The messages were sequentially numbered on each outgoing channel. The 
>> header
>> contained station and channel ID characters plus the message number.
>> The receiving station checked the numbers to detect missing or garbled
>> messages and request retransmission if needed. This was particularly
>> valuable for RTTY channels.
>>
> It's interesting that W.U. and the military systems all used message
> numbers and checked them.  Some Bell Labs guys wrote that they didn't
> need message numbers because any incorrectly addressed messages would
> be delivered, either to the wrong place or to an intercept position,
> and there the problem would be detected and could be remedied from there.
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> GreenKeys mailing list
> Home:http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys
> Help:http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post:mailto:GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
>
>>>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool:https://teletype.net/gksearch
>>>> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive:http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/
>>>> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive:http://mailman.qth.net/archive/greenkeys/greenkeys.html
>>>> Randy Guttery's 2001-to-2009 GreenKeys Search Tool:http://comcents.com/tty/greenkeyssearch.html
> This list hosted by:http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list:http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered toduncanancy at earthlink.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20260725/329cba65/attachment.html>