Numfier 80 — 54prif2002

‘Wiison 231g “Key

I I I I I I I IThe International Journal of Morse Telegraphy

CommentIncluded in this issue is Part 1 of a two palt article on The Omnigraph by David

Pennes. This must be the definitive work on The Omnigraph and every seriouscollector will want this article on their reference book shelf.

MM is helping to promote William G, Pierpont‘s book, The Art and Skill ofRadioTelegraphy. This is a majorwork on learning and using Morse and Bill Pieipontmakes it available free on a number of web sites. It is now available in book fonn andsold on a not-for—profit basis by the Radio Amateur Education Society in Canada (seepage 41).

ZygNilski, G30KD

Contents2 News8 John George (Jack) Phillips by John Young (Godalming Museum)10 A Nodal Point in International Communications:

- Dover and the History of the Telegraph by E. Geoffrey Walsh, GM-lFH18 The Elecraft Kl CW Transceiver by Dr Gaiy Bold, ZLIAN22 MM Bookshelf24 Showcase26 A Technique to Straighten Bent Pivot

Pins on Keys by Chris Bisail/imz, VE3CBK29 The Omnigraph Instruments — Palt 1 by David R. Pennes, M.D., WA3LKN40 The Titanic Wireless System by W. P. Jones42 Info Please!44 Your Letters4 7 Readers Ads

Myers6 Morse Enthusiasts Group, Scotland36 Fists CW Club — The International Morse Preservation Society36 The Radio Officers Association41 Radio Bygones41 The Art & Skill of Radio Telegraphy — book by William G. Pieipont.

NQHFF41 G-QRP Clubmango - apnf2002 1

NewsGodalming Ruled the Air

WavesTitanic Weekend

Godalming, Siiirey. ruled the world‘s airwaves on Saturday 13th and Sunday l4thApril when 2685 radio amateurs in over100 countries used Morse to workGB9QMGY set up to honour thememoryoflocalhe1‘o,JackPhillips.ChiefWirelessTelegraphist on the Titanic which sankon her maiden voyage 90 years ago withthe loss of 1500 lives. MGY was theTitanic's callsign.

The liner stayed afloat for 2 hoursand 40 minutes after striking an iceberg.Jack stayed at his post sendingout distressmessages until losing his life when theship went down. Answering his calls theCarpathia saved over 700 lives.

The special radio station wasoperated by 20 local members of theTitanicWireless Commemorative Groupwho were on the air from 10.30 am onSaturday until 5.47 GMT on Monday15th April precisely 90 years after the lastsignal was received.

“We believed that to exchangegreetings with radio stations worldwide.using Morse like Jack would be a fittingtribute to his heroism. but the resultsexceeded our hopes by far". said Brian

2

Grist. Chairman ofthe Group.The radio link-up was launched

on the evening of Friday 12th April byBroadcasting Consultant. Ralph Barrett.who gave a talk on the early use of radio

: to summon help and played tapedinterviews with Titanic survivors.

The radio station was run in co-operation with Godalming Museumwhere an exhibition on the life and timesofJack Phillips continues until Saturday25th May. Included is a display ofhistoricMarconi equipment.For further information please contactthe Titanic Wireless Commemorative

. Group:Michael Shortland. GQEFO: Tel:+44(O)l483 574996:consult@dial.pipexcomOr Godalming Museum: Derek Watson.

111521-

Publicity Officer: Tel (home)+44(0)l4834l4673Museum: Tel +44t0)l483426510:Email: museum@godalming.ndo.co.uk

New Morse TeachingProgram

Dr Gary Bold. ZLlAN has recentlyreleased his new Morse teachingcomputer program for Windows. It‘ssimplicity itself and candownloadedfromwww.nzait.org.nz(lliflN'ma/‘ion: David Scar/c, GM8WNY/2L3)

Mat/[80 - ‘lerzf2002

Code Cube Announced

Palm Radio Gemtany have produced the'Code Cube', a full-featured electronicmemory keyer that plugs into any Palm ,

Mini Paddle with no external wiringneeded. It measures a mere 25 x 25 x 34mm and for those who prefer a differentpaddle, therewill be a stand—aloneversionofthe 'CodeCube' with a black aluminumhousing. The 'Code Cube' utilizes thepopular Jackson Harbor Press PK3 chip.It is powered by the readily available,long lasting (200 mAh) CR2032 3VLithium Cell which is included.

The 'Code Cube' keying speed is‘

adjustable from 5 to 39 wpm via a handythumbwheel. The preferred speed rangecan be selected with a trim pot on thebottom of the PCB. There is also anintegrated sidetone oscillator whichdrives a built-in piezo buzzer for codepracticing and programming, as well asside-tone if your receiver doesn’t have it.The tone frequency can be adjusted from

500 Hz to about 7KHz, covering theresonant frequency of the piezo buzzer ofabout4 KHz. SMDparts are usedto realizethis miniature keyer.

The ‘Code Cube' has two 50—pluscharacter memories making it usable formost contest exchanges. It also featuresstorage of the station callsign andautomatic CQ. The unit will be availablein black or grey color options for theplastic parts: buttons, wheel, and housingto match either your paddles or rig.

For more information visit thePalm Radio web pages at http://www.palm-radio.de

RSGB Morse Test Service16th Anniversary

Weekend

CountyMorse test teams will again be onthe air during the 16th anniversaryweekend ofthe 1 1th & 12th of May 2002.

For ease ofJew Speed

‘all‘fv' -buttnn

MCafe,

Tlfl‘dF-hJfiflfi identification, allstations will use aspecial event GBGprefix, followed bythe county codesuffix;e.g.theIsleofWight will use thecallsign GBflIOWand LondonGBQLDN.The ChiefMorseExaminerwilluseGBQCWandtheDeputy Chief MorseExaminerGBQMTS.There will be a

'_DWI thiUN Erli

it F'icm Pruner

W80 — fllprzf2002- minimum of 27

j

stations active and a Morse Test 16thanniversary certificate will be availableto any amateurwhomakes contactwith atleast 10 ofthe GB stations. The costofthecertificate is £2.50 (chequeorpostal order .

made out to RSGB). $5 or 6 lRCs.Applications should be sent to the ChiefMorse Examiner. David Waterworth.G4HNF. 116 Reading Road. Woodley.Reading Berks. RGS JAD. QSLcards arenot required to claim the award, which isalso available to listeners.

Activity will be concentrated inthe 80 and 40 metre bands and in order toencourage newcomers to apply for theaward each team will spend some timecalling slowly in the Novice CW sectionof the 80 metre band. above 3560 KHz.The event is not a contest and examinerswill be happy to reply at any preferredcalling speed. There are no restrictionson the type of Morse key used. all arewelcome to call in and enjoy thefriendship.(David l'VarcHrorI/z G4HNF, RSGBC/zichorse Examiner)

GACW 25th Anniversary

Albeno U. Silva (LU 1 DZ), Co-ordinator‘

of GACW. CWGroup of Argentina withabout 600 memberswill be usinga specialcallsign — AYlDZ until the end of theyear. This is part ofthe celebrations ofthe25‘h anniversary of the formation of theGroup. Celebration include “AmateurRadio — A Safe Way for our Children" aprogrammewhichinvolves amateurradiostations of Argentina‘s high schools.4

Alberto will be uploading his logevery week into eQSLcc via the GACWweb site at http://wwwgeocities.com/gacwar/

If you need a paper QSL. pleasesend one IRC to: AY 1 DZ. Obligado 1 175.1846 — Adrogue. Buenos Aires.ARGENTINA

There are some other GACWmembers using special prefixes too forthe “Amateur Radio. a Safe Way for ourChildren“ including Radio Club UshuaiaAY8XW (LUSXW) located in thesouthern-most city in the world at Tierradel Fuego.(’[IlfiN‘HICIinIL‘ Alberto U. Silva, GACWCo-ordinamr)

500 kHz Log from NMC

Eric Simmons. KB6YNO/l. is currentlystationed with the US. Coast Guard inSouth Portland. Maine. U.S.A. and wasone of two operators that sent the finalbroadcast on 500 kHz fromCAMSPAC (Communications AreaMaster Station Pacific) in Point Reyes,California, back on July 31st. 1993.

He recently came across copies of thefinal log thatwaskept for this eventwhilstreorganizing his personal files andhas scanned them onto a computer.More information on the original event

is available from the CAMSPACweb siteat http://www.uscg.mil/pacarea/camspac/unit/history.html.Eric Simmons, KBGYNO/I, e-mai/skl)6yna@main€.Nimitz website: lmp://\t'n'n'.(ls/.Izcr/kbdva

571491480 - flpri[2002

Abwehr Enigma MachineReturned

On April 1S! 2000, a rareAbwehr four-rotaEnigmamachinewasstolenfroma displayat Bletchley Park, the M16 codes andcyphers centre during WWII and knownas Station X. At its peak. 12000 peoplewere employed at

Enigma to Bletchley Park and formallyopened a new exhibition, ‘Hide & Secret‘in which the machine is a central feature.The Abwehr Enigma was taken on AprilFool' s Dayprecisely twoyearspreviouslyand is one of only three known to havesurvived.

The ‘Hide & Secret‘ exhibitioncharts the Abwehr Enigma's history and

Bletchley Park and manyothers at the Y—interceptlistening stations locatedaroundthe UK. Thousandsof intercepted Morsemessages were deliveredto Station X for analysisby landline or dispatch-rider.

In October 2000,the stolen Abwehrmachine. minus the rotorswas mailed anonymouslyto BBC TV ‘Newsnight'presenter.JeremyPaxman.Since then one personimplicated in the theft hasbeen successfullyprosecuted.

On Easter MondayAplil lst. 2002 the BBCNewsnight anchormanreturned the fully restored

THE MORSE ENTHUSIASTS GROUP SCOTLANDMEGS was formed in 1991 to encourage the use of Morse. especially bynewcomers. Regular skeds are held using our callsign ‘GMORSE' each Monday andThursday from 7 until 9 p.111. (local time) around 3.530MHz. Among other services.we offer Morse practice tapes free of charge. other than postage. This offer is nowalso available to MM readers. Membership is open worldwide. the ‘Scotland‘ in ourtitle simply shows place of origin. Lifetime membership £1.00.Details from Secretary: G.l\1. Allan GM-SHYF. 22 Tynwald Avenue.Rutherglen. Glasgow G73 4RN. Scotland.

{Mm/[80 - fllprif2002

the amazing tale of its recovery. TheAbwehr was the Intelligence Department 3

oftheGerman Armed Forces responsiblefor running overseas agents. BrilliantAbwehr Enigma codebreaking work byBletchley Park‘s Dillwyn (‘Dilly") Knoxenabled British spy chiefs to controlGennan agents who landed in Britain.“Hide & Secret' tells their incrediblestories. Mavis Batey, who workedalongside Dilly Knox, has advised on theexhibition.

JeremyPaxmanwas given a guidedtour of the surviving buildings whichcontain many code-breaking exhibits anddemonstrations including the rebuildproject of Colossus, the world‘s firstprogrammable electronic computer. AnEnigma machine is available for visitorsto try.

Prior to its use as a code—breakingcentre. Bletchley Park was used by theDiplomatic Wireless Service and theWirelessTelegraphyHut (openweekendsonly) includes many interesting exhibitsof histon'c equipment from the Morse ‘

days. Weekend visitors can also enjoycollections and exhibitions belonging toa variety of other specialist interestgroups, including Airborne Command:The US ArmyAirborneHistoricalDisplayGroup, BombeRebuild Project, ColossusRebuild Project, Communications

‘

Electronic Museum Trust, GBZBPAmateurRadio Station, 65ste Nachrichten j

Albteilung (German Signals Battalion)and US Re-enactment Group 1941- 45 —

and many more.

£M9Vf80 — flprfl2002

Please mention Morsum Magnificat when contacting contributors

Bletchley Park now operates as aTrust and is open to the public. Weekendopening is 10.30 am - 5.00 pm. (lastadmission3.30pm) and weekdayopeningis from 1.30 pm - 5.00pm for a guidedtouronly. The tour starts at 2.00 pm. It isclosed on Tuesday 4 June, 2002 for oneday.

More information on visits,lectures, special events, a virtual tour etc.is available on the web site at:http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ ore—mail inf0@bletchlevparkoraukTelephone +44 (0)1908 631129.Location: Bletchley Park. Bletchley,Milton Keynes. Buckinghamshire.

GACW Cyber DXMembership

DX radio amateurs are invited to becomeCyber DX members of the GACW, theCW Group of Argentina to support theirpromotion of ethical operating,sportmanship and CW solidarity.

CyberDX Members will be free touse the GACW name and logo in anypersonal correspondence and/0r QSLcards. Membership is free.

To findoutmore and complete theon-linemembershipform go to the GACWweb site at :

http://www.geocities.c0m/gacwar

\1

John George (Jack) Phillipsl

l

by John Young(Godalming Museum)

or the 90th anniversary of the lossof the Titanic. in April 2002.Godalming Town council are

refurbishing the grave of Jack Phillipsand the Phillips family containing Jack‘sfather. George, mother, Ann and twinsisters Elsie and Ethel. in the OldCemetery.NightingaleRoad. In the centreof a six foot square curb, all in whitemarble. is an obelisk in the shape of aniceberg. a fitting memorial to theGodalming hero.

Jack Phillips was born inGodalming. Surrey. at 11 FarncombeStreet.on 11 April 1887. As ayoung boy.Jack sang in the Choir at the ParishChurchof St John the Evangelist, where there isa brassmemorial plaque.He was educatedat the Godalming Grammar School. Onleaving he worked at the local Post Officeas a telegraphist. where he learned hisMorse code.

In 1906 Jack joined the Marconitraining school at Liverpool and. oncompletion ofthe course. headed the listof successfulcandidates in the PostmasterGeneral examinations.

Jack was considered a seriousyoung man who stood high in theconfidenceof his supeliors in the MarconiMarineCompany. He progressed steadilyto the top of his chosen profession andserved on the ocean-going liners8

Teutonic. Lusitania. Mauritania.Campania. Oceanic. Corsican. Canada.Victoria. Danube. Pretorian and Adriatic.He spent three years at Clifden. theMarconi high powered transmittingstation on the West coast of Ireland.

Jackwas appointedChiefWirelessTelegraphist on the new, “unsinkable”luxury liner RMS Titanic. with HaroldBride as hisjunior operator. The wirelessequipment on board was the mostmodernand most powerful of any merchant shipthen afloat. It had a range of 250 - 400miles in daytime and at night. whenconditions for transmitting and receivingwere more favourable. it occasionallyspanned 2.000 miles. It is recorded thatJack had confided in a friend that whilehe was proud to be chosen to serve 011 theTitanic he would have prefen‘eda smallervessel. Jack also expressed a dread oficebergs.

In the 24 hours preceding thefateful collision with an iceberg on 14April. 1912. the two wireless operatorshad been busy repairing a fault in thetransmitter. As a consequence. Jack hadvery little sleep before commencing hiswatch from 8.00pm to 2.00am. It was inthe hours preceding the collision that theliner achieved its highest speed of 22.5knots. Thus. on impact. the iceberginflicted considerable damage to many

MWfSO - flprzf2002

Courtesy

of

Marconi

plc

JackPhillips

of the ‘wateltight' compartments,causingit to sink at the bow.

Jack was still sending personalmessages from the passengersto America.This was his job with Marconi when hewas first instructed by the captain toadvise other vessels in the area of thecollision with the berg. Due to the muchpublicised and widely believed claimthat the Titanic was an unsinkable shipalmost all on board carried on as beforeand other ships receiving this messagedid not immediately prepare to head forthe given position of the stricken liner.

However, it was soon realized thatthe Titanic was sinking and Jack wasinstructed by Captain Edward Smith tosend out the SOS messages requestingimmediate assistance from all vessels inthe area.

From this time onwards Jackstayed at his post, sending out the distressMateo — ‘flpn'l2002

calls, advising on the latest position ofthe Titanic, urging and convincing otherships to assist in the rescue of those takingto the boats. Jack even stayed at thetransmitter while Harold Bride put alifejacket on him after the Captain gavethe instruction: "Every man for himself"and had personally thanked the twowireless operators for their perseverance.

Bride was sent off by Phillips tosave himself, while Jack continuedtransmitting. It was as a consequence ofthis total devotion to duty that JackPhillips lost his life and has since becomewidely admired. It was this bravery andpersistence which reduced the magnitudeof the disaster in respect of lives lost.Jack’s last message was picked up at 2. l 7am and the ship foundered at 2.20 am.

The Phillips Memorial inGodalming, a garden designed byGertrude Jekyll, with a magnificentbrick Cloister 80 feet square designed byHugh Thackeray Turner, was laid out,built and opened exactly two years to theday after the sinking. The memorial issituated between the River Way andGodalming Parish Church. Within theCloister, the Wireless and TelegraphCompany commissioned and haderecteda memorial stone tablet to the perpetualhonour of this brave young man, whodied four days after his 25th birthday,leaving behind a lasting example ofputting the lives of others before one‘sown. MM(An Exhibition entitled ‘Jack Phillipsand the Titanic' is at the GodalmingMuseum until Saturday 25’“ May, 2002.Forfiu'ther information theMuseumcanbe contacted on +44(0)1483426510; ore-mail: museum@godalmiug.nd0.co. uk)

9

OVER. the 'Lock and Key ofEngland' and the nearest port toFrance. sitting on the busiest

shipping lane in the world. has long beena main communication link. The Romansset up a lighthouse on the cliffs. theNormans a substantial castle but therewas no navy and defence of the realm atsea was by an obligation laid on Dover.Sandwich. Hythe. Romney and Hastingsto provide ships and men. These fivetowns were known as the 'Cinqzm Ports. '

The word 'telegraph' means'writingat a distance‘ and the firsteffectivedevices were optical not electrical. Thebest known, Chappe's. used a pole andmoveable arms to send 192 differentsignals: observations by telescopes alonga chain of stations allowed for messagesto be relayed fromParis to Lille. A similarscheme of Lord George Murray in 1795was approved by the admiralty to linkLondon and Dover. Vision at a distanceis erratic. On expecting important newsfrom Spain the admiralty once receivedfrom Portsmouth. a more important linkthan that from Dover. the message'll’el/ingtmz defeated. but mist haddescended and the full text should havebeen 'Wc/lingz‘mz defeated the French. .. '.

Early Electric TelegraphsCharlesWheatstone.renownedfor

his inventions. proposed to Parliament in1840 that a submarine cable be laid acrossthe English Channel. The project wassuggested to Robert Peel in 1845 but was

10

ltl

1

Dover and the History of the

A Nodal Point inInternational

Communications:

Telegraph

(With notes on Personal, Medical andScottish Associations).

by E. Geoffrey WalshGM4FH*

rejected by Louis Phillippe and latersupportedby LouisNapoleon Bonaparte.

Rubber perishes in seawater andthe projectbecame viablewith the findingthat gutta percha was a satisfactoryinsulator. This almost non-elasticsubstance. the latex of a tropical tree.becomes plastic on heating and retainsthe shape given to it then when cooled. Itis a polymer of isoprene. differing fromrubber by having trans- instead of cis-isomerization.

A telegraph line was laid in 1845along railway track between London andDover. By 18—19 many places in Britainwereconnectedto the CentralTelegraphicStation in London but the Dover lineremained independent. A two needlesystem was used. Handles were used toreverse cun‘ent direction and so causeneedle deflections to the right or left.

Mat/[80 - ,aprzf2002

‘LEFT RIGHT

‘RIGHT LEFT

1 A 1 o ; N 1 o

1

B 2 0‘

o 2 o. c 3 o l P 3 o

D 4 o g Q 4 oE 1 1

iR 1 1

F 1 2 s 2 1

G 1 3 T 3 1

H 2 1 U 1 21 2 2 1 v 2 2-J 2 3

‘

w 3 2K 3 1 1 x 1 3L 3 2 1 Y 2 3M 4 1 Y z 1 4

Table 1. A telegraph code used with a needleinstrument (Wilson 1852). Samuel Morse '5 codewas more efficient forhis knowledge ofprintingmade him aware of the significance of letterfrequency.

Originally used to signal whether therailway line was Clear for another train, 1

the two needle system.with its threewiresseparated messages from 'up' and 'down'stations. An example

and weather.A needle system with a single

operatorwas slowedby the need to glancerepeatedly from the instrument to thepaper and vice versa. At London therewere two clerks, one to read thedeflections, the other to mate the letters:a cab waited to rush the completedmessage to the newspaper office. Forsending the text at Dover; the clerk usedboth hands to operate the two levers.Later, withMorse sounders, one operatorsufficed both for sending and forreceiving.

Submarine Cable ConnectionOn January 10‘“ 1849 a ship,

anchored off Folkestone a town close toDover. was connected by an underwatercable 2 miles long with the telegraphwires of the South—Eastern railway andmessages were successfully exchangedwith London.

of a code used isshown in Table l.

Calais andPariswereconnectedby the eighteenfifties; to bridge thechannel messageswere sent by canierpigeons or ships.NewsfromParis sentat mid—day needed tobe in the hands oftheeditor of 'The Times'at 3am the nextmorning. The time ofarrivalof the dispatchfrom France by boatdepended on wind

iMiil/[SO - fiprtf2002

‘ik'iil‘d.

Figure 1. A jubilant and veryrotund John Bull is celebrating the

newte/egraphic connection.

1]

Figure 2. Lead weightas attachedto the first cableto France. Bright 1898.

The first cable to France was laidon 28‘" August 1850.

plotted by buoys. The ship leavingDoverand in mid-channel is depicted in Figures3 & 4. During the voyagecommunicationwas established with the shore. byevening a signal read ‘We are all safe atCape Grisnez' (Figure 5 ). As the Duke ofWellington left the town a 32 pound gunwas fired by an electric cun‘ent fromFrance.

The Morse code was not used:there wereproblemswithan earlyprintingtelegraph capable ofrunning at 15 wordsper hour (Figures 6 & 7) As an exampleperhaps of 'spin', the instnnnents weredecorous but in the event proved uselessand a simple single needle instrument

There was a centralcopper wire of No 14

Birmingham WireGauge (0.085 in)covered by 1/2 inthickness of guttapercha: it was made in100 yards lengths,jointed by twisting andsoldering.A leadweightattached every 100yards sank it to thebottom (Figure 2).

A horsebox atDover served as atemporary office; wireled through a leadenpipe to below the low-watermark.Thesteamerstarted with 25 miles ofwireweighing 5 tons ona reel 15' x 7' which wasunwound at 4 mph. as

./ u 4/?" a "x _a,it passed over a roller atthe stern; the route was12W80 - flerJ2002

Figure4.} Thie'rnassive re& Wireless Limited)

:51 oiwireon theGoliah. (Picture:courtesyofCab/e

Figure 3. Thecable layingship, the Goliah,is in the background being accompanied byan HMSpacketonleaving Do verharbor. ’lllustratedLondon News ', Sept7 1850.

Figure 5, The electric wire can be seen running up the cliff at Cape Grisnez on the French side.‘lllustratedLondonNews‘,Sept7 1850.

Figure 6. Elaborate ‘House& Brett’ instrument, with Figure 7. The decorated faoade ofthe ‘House& Brett’a keyboard andindicatingdial. Bright 1898. printer. 'lllustrated LondonNews ’ Sept7 1850.W80 —flprif2002 if

Figure 8. The 18520ab/e(Bright 1898).

was used in a bathing machine on theFrench shore.

It was the first significantsubmarine cable but failed after a fewhours. According to one account afisherman had trawled up apiece. This heexhibited in Boulogne and thought it tobe a new kind of brown kelp with gold inits centre. It is believed that this 'pescatoreignobile' returned again and again tosearch for further specimens (Russell1865). Many believed that the failurefully justified their views that the projectwas a mad hoax or gigantic swindle,indulged in only by wild minds.

A more robust cable. weighing180 tons, was laid nearby in the autumnof 1851 to run between South Forelandnear Dover and Sangatte close to Calais.It had four wires instead of merely oneand each, of No. 18 Birmingham WireGauge (0.65 in. diameter). was separatelycoated with gutta percha (Figure 8). Asimilar coating covered the four and itwas also bound by yarn dipped in meltedtar and tallow. As protection the cablehad a tight spiral sheathing of tengalvanized iron wires each of No. 1

Birmingham Wire Gauge (0.3 in.diameter): they eventually corroded. 1t

14

was laid too rapidly. and there was notenough to reach France, an extramile hadto be joined on. At first it was used onlyfor stock market news but on November21st 'The Times' was promptly gettingnews from Paris: by 1852 London wasconnectedto most of the 1m jorcontinentalcities (Dodd 1867).

OnwardConnectionsConnections through continental

Europe had reached Turkey in time for acable 340miles long under the Black Seato allow signals from London to be sentto British forces fighting in the Crimeanwar (1853—1856). For many years theconnections to France through Doverplayed a major role in world history. Inthe Edwardian period some of the trafficfrom Dover to the continent is likely tohave been handled by my uncle, Jim W.Simmons, then a telegraphist in the postoffice.

Long distance working had manyproblems as Preece & Sivewright ( 1876)made clear:-

‘Different portions of the earth...are frequently at different potentials.When these ...are connected together bywire we have earth currents. The currents

MM80 - J7lpri[2002

vary in strength and duration duringdifferent periods of the day and year, andat certain seasons they acquire suchmagnitudeas to be called "electricstorms”They then intemtpt the circuits to such anextent as to render working difficult andeven impracticable. On long cables theyare specially prevalent, and become ofsuch strength as to endanger the safety ofthe cable. They are to be guarded againstin two ways lst, by dispensing with theearth andusing a secondwire as the returnwire, working, as it is called, in a metalliccircuit. 2nd, by using condensers andworking with a broken or interruptedcircuit. . .The first method is used chieflyon land lines because it can be easily andrapidly resorted to, and on cables whenthere are wires available; but the secondmethod is that which is principally usedon cables, and it is very effective.’

Telegraphs in IndiaA licentiate of the Royal College

of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1829,

William Brooke O'Shaughnessy, willhave studied anatomy with cadaversprovided by the notorious Burke andHare murderersand will havebeen a fellowstudentwithCharles Darwinwho studiedmedicine forjust a year. O'Shaughnessy,introduced cannabis to the West, madeimportantstudiesof the use of intravenousinfusions to replace the water lost incholera and went to India as an assistantsurgeon. Being especially interested inelectrical matters, he was spotted by,arguablythe best, Govemor—General ever,a Scottish noble, Lord Dalhousie, whogave priority to communications.

O'Shaughnessy set up in theBotanical Gardens of Calcutta anexperimental line of No 14 BWG ironwire running backwards and forwards forcompactnesson 42 rowsofbamboopoles;the lengthwas30miles ! His firstidea wasto use induction shocks to be perceivedby the operator at the far end! He laid acable under the Hoogly river and blew upa wreckedshipusing an undem‘atercable.

Figure9. The sturdy coppersu/phate battery extensively usedfor telegraphy in India. PreeceandSivewright. 1876.

Marten — rpm2002 15

Dalhousie. considering the observationspromising. sentO'Shaughnessy to Britainwith a letter to the Directors of the EastIndia Company requesting support forintroducing telegraphs. O'Shaughnessy.appointed Director of Telegraphs forIndia, became in charge of an office at thePresidency and through his efforts themajorcities were linked by 4.000miles ofcable. The lines. erected by unskilledlabour, had to pass through jungle andspan wide rivers without bridges.Lighteningstn'kes killedbirdson the wiresand sometimes destroyed telegraphicinstruments: wildbuffalos nibbed againstand at times knocked down telegraphposts. 322 miles of the Madras line weresupported on granite obelisks. Someequipment O‘Shaughnessy himself devisedusing local materials; Morse equipment. notused initially. was orderedin 1856

A suitable battery for India was

the 'Minotto'. A glazed jar with a copperplate at the bottom as one electrode wasfilled with copper sulphate. liver waterand sand was caped with a zinc electrode(Figure 9). The copper sulphate wasreadily available in local bazaars becauseit was believed to have medicinalproperties. It was 1879 before a generatorwas used: L. Schwendler passed cuirentfrom a lighting generator in Aliporethrough 850 miles of telegraphic linebetween Agra and Calcutta. Telegramswere successfully sent and no changewasnoticed in the brightness of the electriclight. for the proportion of the cun'entconducted away was only about .0043 ofthe total current.‘ (Higgs 1884).

London to IndiaOn 24th March 1854 the first

telegraphic message between Agra andCalcutta. 800miles. was passed. A cable

Figure 10. Landing of the cable in the mud at Fao on the Persian Gulf. Illustrated LondonNews.

16 Margo — flprzf2002

underthe PersianGulfconnected through toKarachi so by 1855Londonwas in rapportwith Calcutta and theneed to connect withIndia had beenachieved: thedifficulties canscarcely be imagined(Figures 10 & 11). By1856 all major parts ofIndia were linked.Signals to India fromBritain may all havepassed through Doverand played a majorrole in the militarymanagement of theIndian Mutiny in1857. Manywires were cut but a messagereached the Punjabbefore the telegraphistin Delhi was murdered, guards on riverferries disarmed most of the Bengalimutineers; British and loyal Punjabiforces retook Delhi and the tide turned.My great grandfather, Sergeant MichaelWalsh ofthe 75‘h Foot', was in this actionand received the Distinguished ServiceMedal for gallantry in defending theOutlook Tower on the DelhiRidge whereEuropean women and children weresheltering. He retired to Dover andworked as a stores clerk in the Castle.

Often now derided, British ruleachieved unity in the sub-continent forthe first time and the tragic rifts followingpartition are now, alas, all too apparent.On returning to Britain O'ShaughnessybecameaKnightCommander of the Bath,Dalhousie was appointed 'I/Varden oft/2eCinque Ports’. a final twist to the story!

M1430 — leprlf2002

Figure 1 1. Erectionofa telegraphpole in theEast. Goldsmid1874.

Sources:Bridge J. A. (1998) ”Sir William Brooke0’Slzanglmessy.... ‘Notes Rec. R. Soc. Lond.52(1), 103—120.

Bright Sir Charles (1898) ‘Submarinetelegraplls: their History, Construction andWorking‘. London: Crosby Lockwood.Dodd G. (1867) ‘Railways Steamers andTelegraphs. ' London: Chambers.GoldsmidF. J. ( 1874) ‘Telegraphand Travel '.London: MacMillan.HiggsP. (Ed) ‘MagnetoandDynamo-ElectricMar‘lzines.’ L0ndon:SymonsMoon I. B. (1967) ‘Sir William BrookeO’Shaughnessy — the foundations of fluidtherapy and the Indian telegraph service.‘ 1‘ airEngland Journal ofMet/ieine. 276, 283-284.Preece W. H. & Sivewright J. (1876)‘Telegraphy‘. LondonzLongmansWilson G. ( 1852) ‘Eleetrieitvaml the ElectricTelegraph. ‘London:Longmans.

*6—1, Liberton Drive. Edinburgh. EH16 6NWEmail: Geoffrev.Walsh@ed.ac.uk MW

1/—

FEWDEDICATEDconstructorsstill delight in building their owngear. I wishmore would do so. as

the act of communicating usingsomething that contains something ofyou is deep and satisfying. Ron.ZL l AJP.is one of these. He recently built anElecraft Kl kit. A lot of people havepraised this rig. so I induced him to writea review. Here's what he says:

The K1 was released not longbefore last Christmas, and I have number575. which gives some indication of itspopularity! A smaller version of the K2.it is a two band. 7 wattmaximum. microprocessor controlledQRP. CW—only rig with an LCDdisplay.

The kitset airives in a small box.This appears to contain mostly a nicebound manual. and lots of bubblepacking! But this hides several bags. eachlabeled to indicate the section they relateto. and the hardware (case sides. and PCboards) wrapped in brown paper.

Assembling as detailed in the veryprecise instruction book, the set rapidlystarts looking like a radio. The resistorsare doneup in ”bandoliers"foreach stage.all arranged in the order laid out in theassembly instructions. A very nice touch!The first module constructed is the"Filter Board”. containingallthe pre-mix.Band pass low pass filters. It also has thePIC controller and a couple of crystals.

Once that section is completed.the front panel is made up, and anothernice touch is a simple spacer supplied to

18

The Elecraft K1 CWTransceiver

Portable at Easter

by Dr Gary Bold ZL1AN

enable all the push buttons to be mountedat the same level above the pc board. Afewmore components are added. then thelarge display driver chip. followed bythe LED display. The completed unit isput to one side. The RF board is alsopretty straightforward, and after a coupleof pages of components, the set is readyto be fired up. It took me 16 hours to puttogether. One massive 12 hour stint(couldn't put it down) and 4 hours tofinish off the next morning (early!)

At this point I found the onlyinstruction I wasn‘t entirely happy with!This states ”turn on S l. Ifyou see orsmellsmoke. or a component feels hot to thetouch.disconnectthe power source". NowI find that a wee bit basic. Surely someindication of what sort of currentyou might expect would be nicer? Fromthere, construction consists of addingsections. plugging the boards togetherand using the LCD display to verify thateach section is working correctly.

Alignmentwas easy. I used a weaksignal source to align the filters, whichtune very sharply. The same coils are

MM80 -aprirzooz

W

used for transmit and receive. It was timeto check it out on air. It didn't take longto work out all the menu functions and setit up to suit me.

Kl FeaturesThe completed kit is shown in figure 1.The receiver covers either 80 or 150 kHz(preset during construction), tuned via a10 turn pot. There's a 4 pole crystal filterwith3 selectablefilter widths,a selectableattenuator, "S" meter, RIT, and XIT.Sensitivity is quoted as being 0.15uv for10 db (S+N)/N. Band-changing is madeby "double tapping" a button. Bandfrequencies are selected when you order.There is a choice ofany two from a selectionof six available bands. The built-in keyerruns from 8 to 50 wpm, with selectableiambicmodesA or B, and adjustableQSKtiming.

A menu allows 16 other functionsto be adjusted/changed. These include

W80 —flprzf2002

sidetone pitch and volume level, poweroutput (from0.1 to 7 watts), bandwidth ofeach of the three Xtal filter settings, andoptionally turningLED'son/off forpowersaving.

Another smaller menu selects "5"meter on/off, provides a battery voltagereading, and provides a 6 digit frequencyreadout froma 3 digitLCDdisplay!Whenthe button is depressed quickly, thereadout might show, for example 14, then014, then 14.9, meaning a frequency of14.0149 MHZ. Normally, the readoutwould just show "14.9" the last threedigits. It may sound strange, but is easy toget used to.

Being a simpler rig than the K2,the K1 uses a VFO which is varactortuned, but which is very well designed,with very little drift. Elecraft claim <ZOOHZ per hour after 5 minutes at 25°C. For a set measuring only 2.2" x 5.2" x5.6" there are a mighty lot of features! To

19

complement the basic kit. a built inautomatic ATU and noise blanker arealso available.

OperationTheK1 draws700 - 800 mA at 14V

011 transmit. typically 50 mA on receive.I power it from a 12 amp/hr Gel cell.floating on a charger. However. it wouldprobably last me for a week's operatingon the battery alone. The receiver is verylively. and stations tune easily. A callor two soon produced results. and aUTZDX was the first call in the set's logbook.

My first coupleofweeksoperationincluding a stint at the beach as a /Pstation. I used an 80m dipole with myYaesu FC-QOI tuner to tune up on 20111.

The book says "Load tolerance: An SWRof211 orbetter is recommended.However.it will survive high SWR operation."

The K1 was an absolute gem touse! It was hard to find fault. but I did findthat the "thump" made by the AGCcapacitorinitially charging up on a strongsignal was a bit annoying. However. asimple mod was posted which slows thecharge-up time. and this eliminatesthe thump. I have also now installed theKNB I noise blanker. This is quite a trickypiece of circuitry with 3 stages ofamplification. AGC. bandpass filter.noise gate. and thresholdcontrol. controlled by a PIC chip. Thereare two settings. HI and L0. The manualsays. "With HI selected,only strongnoisepulses will activate the blanker. howeverin manycasesthe LO settingwill be moreeffective" (whatever that means).

To check this out. I took it up tothe WhangareiClubrooms to try it against

20

the resident electric fence. It was great! Itcompletely removed the fence pulses onthe HI setting.

The kit is available direct fromElectraft. Their service is first class. butthe way our dollar rates against the USdollarmakes the price, $US 260 + postagea bit depressing. Start saving those “greenstamps" from your QSLs! For orderingdetails. see the web sitewww.Elecraft.com"

I've nowworkedRon several timeswith his Kl. It sounds fine. and he hasbeen pulling in the DX. Everybody whohas this kit seems to like it. And with agoodantenna and a ZLcallsign. the worldwants to talk to you. regardless of yourpower! See later.

Portable at EasterI took the T5505 up north to my

sister's farm for a few days. I operateportable from the tailgate of the wagon.in the open air. powered by a gel-cell. Ifthere are trees around I often use my end—

fedrandom wire. But this time I wanted toexperiment with a new configurationfor my Trident mobile whip. I've nevermounted this permanently. I simplyclamped the base—plate on which it'sbolted to the roof-rackofmy Commodorestation wagon. This always worked fine.and gave a rapidly—deployable. non-invasive setup which grounded theantenna firmly to the vehicle roof. Butnow the Commodore has left me for theplace to which all faithfulold Commodores go. and I have a muchnewer Toyota Camry wagon.

But the Camry has no roof—rack.Rather than having one fitted. I decidedto try non-ohmic. capacitive coupling

M91180 — :aprif2002

between the baseplate and roof. Thealuminium whip baseplate is 48 cm by 8cm. and I'd fashioned a wooden frame,padded with foam, to position it with amean spacing of about 2 cm above theroof. This gives a plate—to—roofcapacitance of only about 17 pF.For added sanitization I connected thebaseplate to the tow—bar with a batteryjumper cable.

On the Commodore, the whip hadalways loaded OK connected directly tothe rig on 40. 20 and 15 metres, with anSWR of 1.5 or less in the CW bands. ButI usually inserted my MFJ 945Dtransmatchanyway.to get an exactmatch,and enable operation in the SSB portionsas well.

Not surprisingly, the SWR on thecoax to the whip was much higher now.Nevertheless, the transmatch stillbrought it down to 1:1 on 20 metres.although I had to use a larger thannormal inductance, with the inputcapacitor nearly at minimum. (Thismeans that the transmatch characteristicimpedance was high. implying a veryreactive feed point impedance. I'llexplain that in a forthcoming article onunbalanced transmatches).

My sister's house is on a high.treeless hill. an excellent DX location.away from the Auckland RF noise. Atsunset. my first 50 watt CQ generated apile—up from all over Europe, whichgrew steadily more cacophonous. I

worked non—stop for an hour, getting andgiving reports of 559 to 599. The pile-upwas still growing when my gel-cell ranlow. I promised to return in 24 hours.

Next night, the pile—up was evenlarger thanbefore. In fact. several stationsM91480 — flpnf2002

who had missed out the first night werewaitingforme, and thankedme forcomingback. Again, I worked DX non-stop untilthe gel-cell ran down.

For interest. I asked everybodywhat power and antenna theywere using.The answers ranged from "25 watts intoan inverted vee", to "700 watts into a 4element monobander". Most were using100 watts into dipoles or simple beams.The signalreports I gavedidn't vary much.It's propagation conditions that are thecontrolling factor in my experience, andI was only picking off the strong ones.

So using tenuous capacitivecoupling between the whip and the roofobviously worked, although a largerbaseplate.moulded to the roof-shapewithonly a thin paint-protecting foam layerwould be better still. Has anyone elsedone anything like this? Tell us about it.Two observations ocun‘ed to me. Firstly,when 20 metres is open. from anyreasonable locationZLs canworkendlessCW DX. with only battery power and amobile whip. And (as I have observedmany times before) you only have to callCQ once to generate a pileup.

Secondly, the interest myappearance raises every time I do thisindicates howrarewe are perceived to be.Everybodywants to talk to us! In fact, I'vejust received a couple of lettersfrom recently qualified ops who havemarginal antennas and/or locations. Theyhad little success with DX SSB. so withsome trepidation. tried CW. Both wereastonished at the difference. One said,"They told me that CWwas dying. but thereare hundredsof stations out there! I had towork abit to get my speed up to 15 - 18 wpm,but then. it was so easy!" MM

21

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PRICES INCLUDE POST & PACKING AND ALL EU/‘VORLD ORDERS ARESHIPPED BY PRIORITY/AIRMAIL UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

The Singing Line by Alice Thompson

An inspired chronicle by the great—great-granddaughter of Charles Toddwho constructed the trans—Australia telegraph with 400 men in the 1860s(and named Alice Springs after his wife). Alice Thompson describes howshe traced his footsteps from Adelaide across thousands of miles ofdesert. outback. swamp and mountain when he constricted part of thetelegraph link between Australia and Great Britain. Softback. 291 pages.5 X 73/3 i118. 39 PhOlOS- £9.50 UK - £10.00 EU - £11.00 World

AWA Review (USA) Vol. 14, 2001

llll \\\\R I‘DIL“ Includes an 84 page article on Spark Keys. including 119 photos. Also a 57

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£20.00 UK - £21.50 EU - £23.00 World

American Telegraphy & Encyclopedia of the Telegraph by William Maver Jr.

Facsiruile by Lindsay Publications of the 700 page illustrated 1912 encyclopedia(5111 Edition) but carries copyrights that go back to 1892. This is a classicencyclopedia of telegraphy with S—l-l illustrations of equipment. circuits.procedures and installation methods. A must have for collectors & historians.6 x 9in (15.5 x 23.5 cm). Gold-blocked hardcover.

£39.00 UK - £40.00 EU - £43.50 World

UK EU WORLD

History of Telegraphy by Ken Beauchamp £60.00 £61.00 £63.00Published by the IEE, a thoroughly researched book on the history of telegraphy.Faszination Morsetasten by Gregor Ulsamer £20.00 £22.80 £23.30German Telegraph Keys Collector's Guide.

Vibroplex Collector’s Guide by Tom French £15.00 £15.80 £17.60Now in print again.

Marconi's Atlantic Leap by Gordon Bussey £7.00 £7.20 £7.50Hardback, illustrated with 71 archive photos. 96pp - centennial edition.

American Telegraphy & Encyclopedia of the Telegraph by William Maver Jr.£39.00 £40.00 £43.50Facsimile of the 700 page illustrated 1912 encyclopedia (5th Edition)of equipment. circuits. and procedures of the telegraph - a classic.

22 WEI/[80 - filprifZOOZ

Photo:

Wyn

Davies

Photo:

Neal

McEwen

,

K5RW

ShowcaseReaders are invited to contribute any additional information and stories. no matter how minor, to the Editor.Morsum Magnificati There have been thousands of designs of keys & telegraphy instuments. Information will

be lost unless it is compiled in one place and shared with other readers,

The GamagesTrainer

Neal McEwen found this photo in the drawer while cleaning up. This is a Peerlessbug made by PeerlessMfg. Co. ofFordson, Mich. Mostare unmarked: some ha ve a simulated woodgrain top. There are variationson this design. He usedto have two of these but traded them awayin weakmoment longbefore realising thatthey were Peerlessbugs.24 Mai/[80 - filprif2002

Photo/Collection:

David

Westwood

Photo/Collection:

Jack

Barker

A Great Find forJack Barker: Ha ving just read the excellent article on the Titanicby Dr Ken Jones - lookwhat turned up at a localjunk stall! -A MarconiManipulatingKey. It was in a terriblestate when foundandwas minus a knob, side lever andnameplate. Thebrasswork was black and the base was covered in thickdirt andverdigris from the brass. It tookthree days hard going to clean up. Jackonlyrecognised ltafterseeingthe photo on the frontof the A WA Review.

Space-ageMorse: A 1950s/605 two-way Morse training set. Note that key has a pivoted arm andnotof strap construction as is often the case.

W80 —flprfl2002 25

ECENTLY, I ACQUIREDa niceRoyalCanadian Air Forcehandkey with the designation

lOF/556. Two problems were noticedimmediately. The pivot pins werenoticeably bent (see Figure 1) indicatingthat the lever arm had received a forcefrom the front of the key. A replaced diskunder the knob. of the inco1rect diameter,further indicated that the key had receivedsome sort of trauma. I thought about how

Figure 1 - Bent pivot pins.

1 could bend the pivot arms backinto alignment without the risk ofbreaking them off. If I had usedpliers. it would have been hard totell when I had achieved alignment.Here is the technique that I

successfully applied.I loosened the retaining nuts

and removedthe leverarm as shownin Figure 2. A small length (about

A Technique toStraighten Bent

Pivot Pins on HandKeys

by Chris Bisaillion, VE3CBK(Whiskeytown Wireless Collection)

thread for use as a standoff. Anadvantage of brass is that it is softerthan steel. and is unlikely to leavemarks. An aluminium rod could havebeen used with similar results. Thediameter of the pivot pin was carefullymeasured with callipers. and a drillsize selected thatwasjust smaller thanthe measured diameter. The drill sizeselected was 9/64" (0.1406").

5 1/2") of 1A" diameter brass rod wasobtained. It already had an internal

26

Figure2 - Lever arm removed.

M91480 - apnf2002

The next size up was too large 5/32" (0.1563”). The tools required areshown in Figure 3. The brass rod wasdrilled out with the 9/64" drill. A small

Figure 3 - Toolsrequired.

jewellers file was usedto carefullyenlargethe hole until the brass rod fit snugly overthe bent pivot pin as shown in Figure 4.

steadypressure, the pivotpinwasbroughtback into alignment as shown in Figure 6.The process was repeated for the other

i

side of the pivot pin.The lever arm wasremounted usingthe retaining nuts.Theimprovementisapparent in Figure 7andFigureS showingthe alignment of thecontacts.

A f t e rreplacing the diskunder the knobwiththe correct type, therestored key isshown in Figure 9.The satisfaction ofcrafting a simpletool, for perhaps a

one-time use. was well worth the effort.I am sure that other readers would

like to hear of your special techniques torestore keys. MM

Figure 4 - Brass rod snugly fits pivot.

The lever armwas clamped in a vice, andthe misalignment of about 5 degrees wasvery apparent due to the parallel lines ofthe vice as shown in Figure 5. The brassrodwas grippedby hand and, by applying

{MA/[80— aprir2002Figure 5 - Themisalignment.

Below:Figure 7 -

lmprovementvr's/b/e.

uunaududvblx‘

Right: Figure 8 - Contactsnowalr‘gned.

Figure 9 - The restoredkey.

28 MMSO - filprlf2002

TUDENTS LEARNING MORSEcode have had a variety of commer-cially made practice instruments

available to them over the years to assistin their studies. Such devices includedpurely mechanical sounders that simu—

lated the audio of a working sounder(Figure l), inexpensively made sounder/keycombination sets identical in function tothe more robust instmments for commer-cial use. a variety of perforated tape de—

vices such as the lnstructograph,Teleplex,AA Transmitter. and others. a rotatingpainted cylinder device called the‘Natrometer' (Figure

The OmnigraphInstruments

- Part 1-

by David R. Pennes, M.D.WA3LKN

2). as well as a variety l

of 78 RPM and later33 RPM records andtapes. Cun‘ent gen-eration Morse codepractice instlumentsemploymicroproces-sor-controlled ran-dom character gen-erators capable of al-most any sendingspeed. PC basedsoft-ware programs forlearning Morse codeare alsowidely avail-able.

Among themost unusual Morsecode practicedeviceswere those manufac-tured by TheOmnigraph Manu-

Mma — apza2002

Figure 1: "No. 1 Mechanical Telegraph lnstrument”is the name forth/s devicein the 1912J.H, Bunnellcatalogue. Bunne/lmade anothervarietyofmechahica/sounder,andanumberofothermanufacturers alsomade suchpurelymechanica/instruments including Manhattan Electrical Supply Company, and Britishcompanies.

29

\w“

Roebuck, J. H.Bunnell, Manhat-tan Electric SupplyCompany, andWholesale RadioService Company(New York City).The factory occu-pied several differ-ent New York Cityaddresses over the30+ year span of thecompany existence,judging fromthe ad-dresses listed in thenumerous adver-tisements duringthis time period.The 1914 and 1919US. Department of

Flgure2:Natrometer. AclockmotordrlvesarotatingalumlnumdrumpalntedlnC o m m e 1- c edielectric(lnsulatlng)palnt. Theunpalntedsurtacelsintheshapeofcont/nenta/ rulebooks statedcode characters. A stylus in contact with the surface of the drum automaticallytravels from one line ofMorse code to the nexthigherllne andthen back down thelines otcode.

facturing Company in New York Citybetween 1900‘ and 19313. As best as canbe determined, the Omnigraph companynever produced anything other thanMorse code practice devices, and did notproduce commercial devices such as tel—

egraph keys or sounders of any sort.Omnigraphadvenisements were featuredin numerous telegraph, radio and electri-cal publications of the day includingQST. lee llr’irelessAge,ModernElectrics,The Electrical Erperimenter, Journal ofthe Telegraph, Radio, Electrician andMeclzanicfl and probably others.Omni graphswerealsomarketedbymajorretailers of the day including Sears and30

thatcommercialandamateur radio licenseexaminees undergoa code test that:

“shall consist of messageswith call letters and regularpreambles, conventionalsignals and abbreviations,and shall in no case consistof simple, connectedreading matter. The testwill be conductedby meansof the Omnigraph or otherautomatic instrumentwherever possible”.

The demise of the company andits unique instruments was undoubtedlyrelated in pan to the superior capabilities,

W80 - flprif2002

versatility. and reliability of perforatedtape devices such as the Instructograph.As dazzling as Omnigraphswere to watchin use, they were finicky andtemperamental instruments to use. Themulti-discOmni graphdevices(see below)although ingenious in design, allowedfor, at best. pseudo-random codegeneration, limiting overall utility.Although company advertisementsboasted a 45 minute running time on asingle winding. a properly functioningand adjusted instrument would begin toslow noticeably after about 20 minutesrunning time5.

ThelnstrumentsThe company manufactured a

number of instruments of varyingcomplexity, all of which had rotatingaluminum discs with Morse codecharacters incised into the edges of thediscs as raised teeth. As the disc rotated.a tracking stylus in contact with the teethwas displaced by the raised teeth, andallowed an electrical

Some instruments included keys.sounders, or buzzers integral to thedevices, although the company also sold‘stand-alone‘ sounders. buzzers.batteries, and hookup wire produced byother manufacturers as accompanimentsto their instruments. A student couldpurchase the Omnigraph instrumentalone. however for a few dollarsmore. thestudent could obtain a package thatincluded a learner's manual. a battery, asounder or buzzer. some wire. and astraight key.

Although the companyadvertisements described 5 models ofOmnigraphs, (Table 1), in reality, at least15 distinct instruments were advertisedor produced over the years.

The instruments weremounted onwooden bases, which on most modelsmeasured 5" X 10-1/2". Many but not allinstruments bore a companyidentification label. Some were decalsapplied to the wooden bases while otherswere metal tags attached by small pins

contact to make and. _

COMPANY DESCRIPTION VARIATIONSbreak a c1rcult, DESIGNATION

producing the Morse No.1 Omnigraph Transmitter only or Two versions(figs. 6,8)" transmitter/K08code characters. The combinationinstruments variedonly in whether thediscs turned by use ofa hand crank or were

No. 2.0mnigraph 5 and 15 disc versions 5 disc model-tour types (Ilgs. 10,11,12,13).

15 disc model-six types (figs.17-22.)

motor-driven. and inthe numbers of discsthat could be stacked,necessitating a cam

No. 3 Omnigraph Single disc One version (Figure 7). Similartransmittermodel with to No. 1 but larger size woodenhand crank. base.

No. 4 Omnigraph 5 disc model with key, Two versions, (Included In No. 2~ buzzer, and provision variations, above). (figs. 11,13)

tor headphonesmechanism which No.5 Omnigraphraisedand loweredthe -

Single disc modelwith hand crank andclock motor

Two versions (figs. 9,10)

tracking stylus in the ‘

multi-disc models.

Margo — .‘7lpri[2002

Table 1: Omnigraph Company Instrument designations

2’]

hammered into the wooden bases.The company supplied

Omnigraphs to others who affixed theirnames to the instmments including theNational Wireless Institute (a study-at—home c01respondence school) in NewYork City, and A. W. Gamage, Ltd.,London.

Most Omnigraphs have thenotation ‘Patented' or ‘Pat.’ embossedinto the wooden bases. A circa-1910Omnigraph catalogue has a diagram of aNo. 5 instrument bearing the patent dateOct. 25, 1903. The only instiument witha patent date encountered by the authorwas a 5—discinstrumentbearing the patentdate of Oct. 23, 1904. To the best of theauthor‘s knowledge. there has been noresearch on the patents held by thecompany nor on the individuals whodesigned instruments.

DiscsThe unique feature of the

Omnigraph instmments is the use ofrotating aluminumdiscs with raised teethon the edge in the shape of the actualMorse code characters(Figures 3-5). Discswere of at least 3 different types (Figures3—5) and a fourth type that appeared in anadvertisement (Figure 6a) but which hasnever been seen by the author.

The discs were all 3—1/8" indiameter and were either thin (1/32”) orthick( 1/16”). Thindiscswere usedon thesingle disc instruments. and had a singlecentral hole for the spindle, whereasthicker discs were used on the multidiscinstruments. and had alignment holes inaddition to the central spindle hole

Discs were available for bothAmerican Morse and Continental code.

32

Figure3: A typicaldisc from a multidiscinstrument.Notice the5 concentricholes in addition to thecentralspindlehole. In use, besides thecentralspindlepost,a secondpostmustbe fitted into one of the 5 holesto align all the discs in the stack in a uniform mannerto allow for coherent messages that were spreadover more than a single disc. This disc is marked9-0, representing the 15’” disc of the 9-series ofdiscs. (The/etter‘O’is the 15mletterofthealphabet).Transcription of the Continental code reads: “SEESILAS FLA HEY ABOUT5 AND 35 SIG W LEE"

Figure 4: A typical disc used on a single discOmnlgraphinstrument. A single central spindle holeholds thedisconto the rotatingplatter. This particulardisc is marked “6". Transcription of the AmericanMorse reads: “HR STMHFM NEW YORK 21 TOADH. YES SIG LH"

Margo - leprleOOZ

Figure5: An unusual disc. with a centralspindle holeand two alignment holes. This disc is one of acomplete set of 15 foundon the instrumentsho wn in

Figure 23. This disc is the last disc (‘0') from theseries. and bore no numerical designation. Thecharacter consisting of 4 short dashes atapproximately the 2:00 position on the disc is theMorse characterdenotinganewparagraplr“ Translationof the Morse message reads: "ON SALECAN YOU SEE? ANSWER SIG L RICHARDS"

The number of characters on anyindividual disc vaiied from 12 to 364 withthe lower number of characters allowingfor slower code speed in the beginninglessons and the closer spaced charactersfor more advanced lessons. The speed ofrotation of the discs. of course was usermodifiable. allowing funher control ofsending speed. Code was sent using the‘Farnsworth Method‘ indicating that theindividual Morse code characters wereuniform in dot and dash length andspacingwithslowercode speedsachievedsimply allowing more time betweenindividual characters. The thicker discscould be used on the single discinstruments but the thinner discs werephysically incompatible with the multi-discmechanism.which required a second

W80 — Flprzf2002

7-A III SS AS HOOKER OFF LB NJ SEPT15 TOT

7-8 BROWNS OPR STR BRITTON VIOLENTRAIN AND

7-C WIND STM RAGED AT ASBURY SE OFUS THIS MNG

7-D DAMAGED THE TOWN AVON. 2 LIVESIN PER/L

7-E BY FIRE ON SHIP KENNEDYBEACHED HERE. B

7-F GEO DENTY KEY ESCEBETTS FRANKR. MILLERS t

7-G JOE TEER JOHN Z. WORTONSAMUEL T. CORBIN

7-H NAMES FM POCKET OF ROB BENTLYSAVED.

7-I TURKISH HUSSARS ARRESTEDWHILE AT SCUTAR/

7-J MAN. 0 HIGGINS ON STEAMSH/P XEMEYER.

7-K RECD FM HATTARAS WED. 5 AMSEVENTEEN HUNDRED

7-L WT IS ZN HOPING FOR 7 8 FORD ISA VYGD

7M . IT WAS STATED IN ADV/CE S.MURAD WAS PUT

7-N TO DEATH D'S NO IS 496 ADSMEAT370N SEA-AIR AVE 7 AM {SIG CHAROLD EBLIN.

Table 2: Transcription of the full disc series ofContinental code for the 7-series of discs.(Transcription courtesy of Mr. Lynn Bur/ingameN7CFO).

if

Figure 6:(a) Above- A versionofthe "Omnlgraph No. 2 Improved”witha differenttypeofcammechanism and aprovisionforhand cranking the instrument. Noticethe differentstyle discs with large holes. Theauthorhasneverseenthesediscs such as these andwonders if they were ever produced.(b) Below - Hand crank instrument with no clock drive. This unique instrument was neveradvertised to thebestofthe authors knowledge. andcontained 30Morse discs with 15in use and 15 spares. This instrumentcontained the unique discs shown in (Figure 5). (Photo courtesy ofMr. Mike FeherN4FS).

34 W80 - flprtf2002

alignment hole. Practice sessionsincluded code groups, randomcharacters,numbers. punctuation, and shortmessages (Table 2).

Discs that were used on multidiscinstruments (5 or 15 disc models) weredesignated with an alphanumericnumbeiing systemconsistingof anumberfollowed by a letter between A and Oaccounting for the 15 discs in the series.Other discs (Figure 5) were designatedsimply by a number. A set of 15 discsexists that is labeled A through 0 with nonumber designation (Figure 6b).

It is not known with certainty butit is suspected that the discs for single-disc instruments were numberedwhereasthe discs for instruments employingmultiple stacked discs bore thealphanumeric designations.

Alphanumeric discs are knownup the ‘9‘ series however it is unknown ifmore than 9 sets ofdiscs exist. The lowestnumbered series of discs (series 1 and 2for example) had simple code groupswhereas the highest numbered series (8and 9) had more complex messagesincluding numbers and punctuationcharacters.

Nine sets of 15 discs may exist forboth Morse and continental code for atotal of 135 discs for each code. Thehighest numbered disc encountered bythe author is ‘19‘, suggesting that at least19 numbered discs exist.

Morse discs were identical inappearance to Continental code discsand the company made no attempt todifferentiate one from the other based onappearance. The only way to tell Morsefrom Continental discs is to visuallyinspect the discs. looking for the{Ma/[80 _ aprimooz

characteristic Morse Characters that weredistinct form the continental codecharacters.

In addition to the discs that wereincluded with the initial purchase of theinstmment. additional discs could beobtained at modest cost. T h ecompany also permitted students toexchange theirdiscs for different ones fora 2 cent per disc postage and handlingfee. Ifone ordered5 extradiscs fora 5 discinstrument. it is suspected that the studentwould receive the first, second. or thirdset of 5 discs of a 15 disc sequence.

Transcription of the discs hasdemonstrated that sometimes thecompany mislabeled the discs. A 7-Ldisc owned by a collector is the same asa 7-1 disc in the author's collection. Othercollectors have other discs with the samemessages on discs with differentalphanumeric designations suggestingincon‘ect labeling. The authorhas severalalphanumeric discswith the lettercrossedout and another letter stamped next to itas a c011‘ection. Anotherdisc has the letterdesignation on the disc upside down.The findingofinconsistent and elroneouslabeling of discs suggests that disclabeling was not automated. and thathuman errors were not rare in labelingdiscs.

The author's experience and theanecdotal experience of other collectorsis that most discs encountered are thethicker discs used in the multidiscinstruments.The 6 thin discs in the author‘ spossession are all American Morse.

The Clock MotorsAnother feature of some of the

Omnigraphs is their use of a spring-driven215'

Price $2.50Figure 8: “OmingraphTransmitterNo. 3" is the same instrument on a larger wooden base.Froma c. 1915Omnigraph Company catalogue,

EXTEMPORIZED FIVE TOW BAGS,which incorporates all 26 letters of thealphabet into one sentence. No numeralsor punctuation were included. Aninstluction booklet “HowTo Become AnExcellent Operator" was included withpurchase of the device. Additional discscould be purchased for 5 cents each.

The same device on a larger basewas known as “The Omnigraph #3” in ac. 1910 catalog (Figure 8).

Bunnell. (Figure 9). There was noseparate model number for this de—

vice, and it was regarded as a versionof “The Omnigraph Transmitter No. 1.”

Single Disc Omnigraph with HandCrank andMotor

Due to the inconvenience ofhaving one individual hand crank aninstrument while another listens to the

Omnigraph KOBA device

similar to the sim—

plest Omnigraph(above) incorpo—rated an inexpen—sive sounder andkey identical tothe J.H. Bunnell“Morse Learners‘Outfit” advertisedin the 1900Bunnell Cata-logue, and wereundoubtedly

“w

supplied toOmnigraph by

Mao — aprit2002

Figure9: Omnigraph transmitter with integralkeyandsounder. This instrumentis missing the handcrank used to turn the platter containing the disc.

3/"

that allowed bothfor hand crankingand motorizeddiscrotation (Figure10). The logicbehind supplyingsuch an instmmentis unclear,inasmuch as thehand-crankedmechanism wouldseem completelysuperfluous in theface of theconvenience ofmotorized use.

Despite theease of having

Figure 10: “OmnigraphNo. 5"is the company designation forthis model At87 around 1915, it came with a total 01‘3 discs anda learner's manual. Thisinstrument is also missing the handcrank as is Figure 9.

automated discturning, the userwas still limited to

code, (or even worse, trying to crank it a single disc at a time, and by having toyourself while attempting to copyMorse change the disc after every use. It mustcode), the company supplied a device have been very tedious for the student to

38

c

Fig 1 1: "OmnigraphNo. 5"on a smallerbasewith more compactdesign than Figure 10.

listen to the samedisc overand over, and to have tochangeeverydiscby hand.It is speculative, butundoubtedly at least somestudents thought to turnthe disc over, thus playingthe disc backwards,generatingnew characters.The letter A (' —) forexample would thenbecomeN(— -). Ac. 1930company catalogueillustrated a slightlydifferent version of thisinstmmenton a smallerbaseand with a more compactdesign (Figure 11).

{NM/[80 - flprzf2002

Notes and References

IJ

An Onutigraph catalogue c. 1930 listed thecompany as ‘Established 1900‘. The firstOmnigraph advertisement the author couldlocate was from a J.H. Bunnell cataloguefrom 1900.No advertisements for Omnigraphs were

found after 1931 suggesting this year for thedemise of the company.Numerous radio and electrical publicationsand equipment catalogues frotn 1900-1931were employed as reference materials and aretoo numerous to mention individuallyFriedman. Neil D. A Clockwork Onmigraph:CQ Magazine Feb. 1981 p. 7-9.Martin. Fredric W. Personal communication.Friedman. Neil D. Omnigraph Disc Codes:Old Timer‘s Bulletin of the Antique WirelessAssociation. Vol. 35. issue one (Feb. 1994).p. 54Reinke. Roger W. I‘ll Never Forget That OldWhatchamacallit: Old Timers Bulletin of theAntique Wireless Association. (Feb. 1996).p. 39.

TO BE CONTINUED

8 'Parks Code Wheel‘: Parks ElectronicsLaboratories Rt. 2 Box 35. Beavenon. OR.Qfl May 1963.

., Elwood. Johncommunication.

(WW7P). Personal

AcknowledgementsThe author wishes to acknowledge the kindassistance of Mr. Lynn Burlingame (N7CFO).Mr. Mike Felter (N-lFS). Mr. Neil Friedman(N3DF). and Mr. John Casale (\V'ZNI). Mr. JohnElwood (WW7P). Mr. Fredric W. Martin(KI6YN) and Mr. Roger Reinke for providingreferences. photographs and historical materials.and Mr. Edward Gable (KZMP) of the AntiqueWireless Association for his assistance accessingthe AWA database.

The AuthorDavid R. Pennes. M.D. (WA3LKN) is anadvanced class amateur radio operator anddiagnostic radiologist living in Indianapolis.Dr. Pennes collects and restores bugs and landlinekeys.

Mill

FISTS CW Club —The InternationalMorse Preservation Society

traders.

FISTS exists to promote amateur CW activity. it welcomes members with alllevels of Morse proficiency, and especially newcomers to the key.

The club has awards, nets (including a beginners' net), dial-a-sked forbeginners, straight key activities,QSL bureau, newsletter, and discounts from

Further information can be obtained from Geo. Longden 6.3208, 119Cemetery Road, Darwen, Lancs BBS 2L2. Send an s.a.e. or two lRCs.

The Radio Officers AssociationMembership is open primarily to former MN radio officers but is also open to anyone who has had anassociation with maritime communications or is interested in the subject. Members receive the quarterlynewsletter 030 and its associatedamateurcomponent QRZ. There is an annual reunion and AGM. 2001

sees the meeting taking place in Bristol. Forfurtherdetailsand information please contact the MembershipSecretan/ - John Russell. 21 Landcross Drive, Northampton, NN3 3LR.

Wanted - articles and tips on making and restoring keys - contact MM

MM80 — aprir2002 -739

The Titanic Wireless System

by W. R Jones

he article, Signals fromthe Titanicby Dr Gary Bold in MM78 set meoff delving into my notes about

the methods that were available then todetect the spark transmissions. The threetypes that Marconi—equipped ships hadfitted at the time of the Titanic were themagnetic detector, the valve diodereceiver or the crystal receiver. Themagneticdetectorhad held sway for manyyears before the valve detector wasdeveloped.

There were two devices whichhandled the signal that emerged from themutual inductor; the first was thetelephone condenser.This condenser wasdivided into three groups of 0.55, 0.11and 0.22 microfarads. Three brass plugsenabled 7 different combinations ofcondenser to be obtained. By variationsthis was used to sharpen the tone of thesignals in the headphone to improvereception.

The second instrument was themultiple tuner which contains variableinductances and condensers forthe aerialreceiving circuit. It had 4 ranges. whichcovered 80 to 150 metres, 150 to 1600metres, 1600 to 2000 metres and 2000 to2600 metres.

When the ship was not incommunication with another station thesafe watch-keeping channel was40

monitored with the multi tuner in the'stand-by’ position with the aerialcondenser shorted and no inductance incircuit.Duringcommunications the multituner was brought in to play to tune theaerial for maximum signal strength.

As regards the asymmetricmountings of the magnets in Dr. Bold‘sfigure 2 schematic, there were only twopositions for the magnets with respect tothe mutual inductorcoils. The first wouldbe with poles S-N / N-S (normal position)with this position it will be seen that likepoles are together this produced a hissingsound in the headphones when the bandwas moving.

In the second position the magnethas less influence on the mutual inductorand the hiss is eliminated. This breathingaffect interfered with and made weaksignals difficult to read - it was a matterofoperator choice. The re—arrangementwould entail removal of the bracket,which holds the magnets. The secondarrangement would reduce the receiver‘5sensitivity. With the Hissing present itwas indicative that the band was stillmoving. The clockwork when fullywound would drive the band forapproximately 100 minutes and it ransilently.

The standard 1.5 kW wirelesstransmitter. used on many ships at the

M91480 — flpri[2002

time, was designed to transmit on allwavelengthsbetween220and 800metres. WThere was a changeover switch so thatrapid changes could be made from450 to BygU} 1E8600or 800 metres. It was a double switch,which altered the primary circuit while the Vintage Wireless magazmethe other arm alters the aerial tuning Annual subscription (6 issues):. d L. I b . bi k . bl: UK - £18.50; Europe - £19.50; Rest11] UCIflllCE. lit 66 omte 0C SSlllIZl ) Offlle World £23.75.engraved 300. 450. 600 and 800 metres Or send £3.25 for a sample copywere fitted into the spiral inductance of Forfurtherdetails, contactthe primary. The 5 kW set used on the Wimborne Publishing LimitedTitantic and her sister ships. some times 408 Wimborne Road East. Ferndowndescribed as “battleship" covered Dorset BH22 9ND England

transmittmg wavelengths of 300 metres Phone: +44 (0) 1202 873872{0 1000 metres. and 1200, 1800 01‘ 4500 Fax: +44 (0) 01202 874562metres. The spark frequency was 400 to E-mail: radiobygones@wimborne.co.uk700 per second. MM [‘—7u n www.radiobygones.com ;VISA—

The Art & Skill of Radio Telegraphyby William G. Pierpont, NQHFF

A comprehensive manual tor learning. using. mastering, improving ad enjoying International MorseCode. Pub.Radio Amateur Educational Society (RAES) of Canada, 236 pp. 5.5 x 8.5 inches (14x 21.5 cm) with coil binding.

PRICES - ALL SHIPPED FROM CANADA816.00 USD Continental USA Delivery (48) $19.50 USD International Delivery825.25 CDN Canadian Delivery £13.40 GBP UK Delivery~21.65 EUR European Delivery $35.85 AUD Australian Delivery

$43.30 NZD New Zealand DeliveryPLEASE ORDER DIRECT FROM RAES, CANADA

Send orders to: Dave Clarke, VE6LX, RAES, 8607 - 34A Avenue, Edmonton. Alberta, Canada - T6KOBQ. Cheques or money orders made payable to Dave Clarke. E-mail: raes@sas.ab.caFurther information is also available on the RAES web site at http://www.raes.ab,ca/book/index.html

G-QRP ClubThe G-QRP Club promotes and encourages low-power operatingon the amateur bands with activity periods, awards and trophies. Facilitiesinclude a quarterly magazine, Morse training tapes, kits, traders‘ discountsand a QSL bureau. Novices and SWLs welcome.Enquiries to Rev. George Dobbs G3RJV, St Aidan‘s Vicarage,498 Manchester Road, Rochdale, Lancs OL11 3HE. Send alarge s.a.e. or two IRCs

MM80 — :aprzf2002 41

Znfi)TéasdReaders are invited to contribute any additional information and stories, no matter how minor, to the Editor,Morsum Magnificat. There have been thousands of designs of keys & telegraphy instuments. information will

be lost unless it is compiled in one place and shared with other readers.~ ; w;

E « f -

VE

g 1 There is nothing to

5;1 identifythe makerof

a; this strapkeybutits3 1 use is unknown. itS

1 couldhavebeen forg 1 electrophysiologicalg 1 observations. AnyE . information wouldbeé welcome.

Photo/Collection:Apostolos

Bourousis,

SV1EDY

whiten as >

www.cn-ermmrw-mmmwwas.“ _ A w.

This key was obtained recently by Apostolos Bourousis. SVIEDY. Cananyone provide informationabout it?

42 Mango - flprif2002

Photo/Collection:

Jim

Phillipson,

G4BEZ

JimPhi/lipsonwasgiven this keyabout35yearsago andit hassince been somewhatmodified.Hehas also seena straightkey built on the samehea vy cast-iron base andwas informed thatthe keys weremade by TheNorthamptonPlating00. Does anyone have anymore informationon the key or the maker?

Photo:

Don

Breen

Some friends sent Don Breen this picture of a very interesting key from museumexhibitionin Olten, Switzerland. Very little information is given about the key. Canany readers help?

MM80 — flprif2002 43

DourLettersReaders’ letters on any Morse subject are always welcome. but may be edited when space ls limited. Whenmore than one subject is covered. letters may be divided into single subjects in order to bring comments onvarious matters together for easy reference. Please note that the views in readers letters are not necessarilythose of MM,

Info Please MM79 AWA Key

Last year in September. I asked an oldfriend in Melbourne, Doug Twigg if heknew the history of the AWAManipulating key. I owned one yearsago. with a slightly different operatingknob to that on page 32 of MM79. Dougcameback and this is a précis ofhis reply:

Yes, I know this key very well; it has beenaround in a lot of radio stations inAustralia as long as [have been in radiocomnumicatt’ons. at least since WWII.ntaybe earlier/l

[first saw them in use at the RAN(Royal Australian Navy) shore stations,atHar/nan(Canberra) etal. Then in DCA(Dept ofCivilAviation) aeradio stations,especially theolderoneslikeMelbourne,Mildura, Launceston and Hobart.

As you know AWA used to operateall coastal and aeradio stations inAustralia before WWII. before the OTC(Overseas TelecommunicationsConunission)andtheDCA took overtheiroperations, but the older stations werebuilt by AWA and the radio equipmentinstallationswerentanufacturedbyAWA,including the Morse keys - everything/f

AWA also installed the radioequipment in most oft/1e slzipsflying the

44

Australian flag, also Australianregistered aircraft. They also providedthe radio staff to operate and maintainthem.

Well so muchfor the history. butthere were a lot ofAWA manipulatingkeys around, particularlythe type in thepicture you sent to me. Later Clipsalstartedmanufacturing Morse keys alongwith other electrical hardware. Thesebecame common in the 50's and 60 's, asAWA withdrewfi'onz this type ofmarket.

Doug was Principal RadioTechnical Officer for the AustralianAntarcticDivisionformanyyears. servedas a radio officer. and an officer in chargeof Antarctic stations as well. As ayoungster. he was trained by the RAN asa radio telegraphist. He can read bothradio CW and sounder Morse.

Allan tVIoore VKIALBerlin, Germany

Just a few comments on the AWAkey onpage 32 of MM79. The key on page 46 inMM57 and this one are not identical.There are at least two versions ofthis keywith minor differences.

The MM57 key has a halfcentimetre higher lower contact support(fixed to the base) and therefore a

Mfllé’ti - lepril2002

correspondingly higher fulcrum than theMM79 key. The labels differ from eachother and the MM79 key has distinctivegrooved washers under the two outerterminal screws.

The knobs seem to varyconsiderably - maybe from laterreplacements by owners or perhapswhateverwas availableduringWWII. wasused. However I believe the knob showninMM79is the correctone for this version.The other version seems to have mainlycarried a 'WT 8 AMP‘ type of knob withno skirt. I have seen others with a largerflatter type with a skirt beneath. Maybeone versionwasmade for civilian use andthe other military.

I think the vintage would be late1930s to early 1940s and were made forthe military for use in radio sets. AWA(Amalgamated Wireless Australasia)made a varietyofelectrical items — radios,TVs, refrigerators etc amongst otherthings.

I have recently contacted the firmand was told the company is no longer amanufacturer and in an entirely differentbusiness. They had no records pertainingto Morse keys. This may be of someinterest to readers.

Ron McMuIIenNSW, Australia

Info Please MM79 p33

Just a note to say I havejustreceived myMM and I noticed Dave Pennes queryinga key which he thinks is British.

The 'Musonic‘ BuzzerBox is verysimilar to the buzzer on my GamagesKey. 1 have searched the internet andMargo — apnf2002

‘Musonic' are still trading, ifin fact theyare one and the same company(www.Musonic.c0.uk) They sell Hi-Fiparts, record sleeves, stylus bits andpieces.

They say that they have beentrading for over forty years which makesme think theyare the samepeople.Maybethey have records of who they suppliedwith buzzers in the good old days!

RichardPutnam, GQILNEast Sussex, UK

History of the AustralianTelegraph

I‘ ve embarkedon the taskofwriting aboutthe beginnings of the telegraph inAustralia and I wonderif any readers haveknowledge of the beginnings of theelectric telegraph in Victoria.

MuchhasbeenwrittenaboutToddbut almost nothing about SamuelMcGowan the pioneer whobegan it all in1853/4 in Melbourne, Victoria. I havelearned a lot about the actual spread ofthe system in Victoria, the promotion ofthe idea by the Argus newspaper,McGowan‘s reports to parliament and alittle from a centenary publication ofKorowaCEGirl‘sSchool. Howeverl‘veyet to find any significant primarysources, e.g. letters, diary etc..

I believe that some of the familymay be still live in Ontario fromwhere hecame and members of the family of hiswifeAnnieBensonmay still live here andin Canada. No one has written anysignificant piece on the man himself.

45

Firstly are any readers aware ofletters, diaries, archives etc thatmaybe ofhelp or descendants

Secondly has anyone any adviceand can you point me towards historiansetc., who may be able to give me someguidance.

1 would appreciateany assistance.The State Library and National Libraryhere don’t seem to have more (that theyknow of). The Australian archives haslittle. My address is 23 PalmAv., Bendigo3550, Australia.Telephone+61 (o3)54433655. E-mail: nelsonpe@impulse.net.au

PeterNelson

Army Signallers

I came across an old photo of what I thinkare BritishArmysignallers. Howeveronthe reverse of the card are the words“CARTE POSTAL” which suggests aFrench connection — prhaps WWI.

If you look carefully the Morsekeys can just be seen on top of the smallsignalling lamps. The men look veryproficient with their semaphore flags.These were the days when flags, lampsand wire telegraphs were the mainmeansof military communication.

I would be very interested to hearform anyone who can provide furtherinformation; date, regiment, place etc.

Bill JonesSouth Shields, UK

Channel IslandsEnigma Machine

For readers planning to visit Jersey thisyear, there is an Enigma machine ondisplay at the German UndergroundHospital.

Ken GrigorPlymouth, UK

a»?MMao — flprll2002

Key Notes

Merrick VerticalBugWith reference to the photo of the

Merrick Vertical Bug on the front coverof MM77. two other keys made by JohnB. Mem'ck.VE3AWAhave beenfeaturedin MM. The first is a semi—automatic key,featured on page 25 of MM46 and thesecond is the Mini Bug. featured on page58 of MMSO.

Tinsley Key MM78 p24A similar key appearted in MM37

p21, whichwasmarked “H. TINSLEY &Co. LONDON SE25. TYPE 1202 No.29357.

Replica Marconi KeyThe replica Marconi key used at

the Lizard station and featured in MM76p19 appears to be the sameas the keyusedby Marconi in his experiments at theHaven Hotel. Poole. (see also MM75 p8& p9.

Signal Electric Key l\Il\/I77 p22The Type can be determined by

the contact size. QST, September, 1940p92 lists the following:TYPE CONTACTS CODE LIST

WORD PRICER—62 3/16" SENCU $3.50R-63 1/4" SENCV $3.60R-64 3/8” SEMCW $3.85

The net weight and shipping weight ofeach model is listed as 3A lb and 2 lbrespectively

MMSO — fllprif2002

John Elwood, WW7PPhoenix, Arizona 3

feer/MReaders advertisements are free to MMsubscribers The number of insertions should bespecified. otherwise it will be assumed that it isrequired in the next issue only. Non-subscribersare welcome to advertise in the Classified Adssection. Please contact MM tor styles availableand rates.Ads can include one photo free of charge

FOR SALE

MINT COPY of MM19 Spring 1991Morse Bicentennial Issue. £5 inc p&p(UK only. overseasextra).Contact BiuceM01ris,GW4XXF +44 (0) 1654 710741email: biuce@gwdrxxf.free—online.co.uk

HUGE 11 YEAR Telegraph Surplus tobe whittledaway. Wireless. landline.codebooks, & other books/paper, leamingmachines, U.S., foreign. military, parts.etc. - Specific enquiries invited - can sende-mail. pics etc.. Dr. Joe Jacobs, 5Yorktown Place. Nonhpon NY 11768.U.S.A.Fone:+1-631-261—1576.Fax:+1-631-754—4616. E—mail: joekey@aol.com

THE MM Q & Z CODEBOOK, a com-prehensive 82-page list of the Q-codesand Z-codes, including a one-page listof the original Q-codes of 1912. Avail-able from Dick Kraayyeld PA3ALM,Merellaan 209. 3145 EH Maassluis, Hol—land. Price £5 UK, or US$10.00 outsideUK, including postage in both cases.Payment accepted in cash only.

4’7

fairy/“(flEXCHANGE & WANTED

WANTED: TELEGRAPHY. I amlooking for somewhat special apparatus:Double— and SingleNeedle.Wheatstone.Morse etc. Buy or swap. I can swap.amongst others. for early electricity (e.g.tubes from Crookes. Geissler. Rntgen:Ruhmkorff coils: Wimshurst: Tesla;..),radio (e.g. Philips bakelites. heavy!transmitter tubes), some early Marconiitems. some telephones and of coursetelegraphy (a lot). Who else collectstelegraphy‘? Contact: Fons VandenBerghen (author of "Classics ofCommunication"), Lenniksesteenweg462/22. B—1500 HALLE. Belgium. Tel:+32/2/356-05-56.fons.vandenberghen@pandora.be(NEWEMAILaddress).

I AM A KEY COLLECTORwith over300 different keys from 20 countries andhave 50 keys available for swapping.Write to Henri Heraud,F6AUO.9Avenuede Bellevue. 91130 RIS ORANGIS,FRANCE.\VANTED TO BUY: Telegraphic CodeBooks. as used to reduce the costs oftelegrams by replacing common phraseswith codewords. Would be interested inboth originals of photocopies. I am ahobbyist in Cryptography and amfacinated in different ways data is andhas been represented for differentpurposes (e.g. speed. economy,confidentiality etc.) Also interested inrelated items. Letters to Mark Darling.48

132 Knowlands. Highworth. SN6 7NE.United Kingdom ordarling@patrol.i-way.co.uk

e—mail:

WANTED: Marconi 365Aor B key withroller bearings. Will pay going price andit will end up as propertyofRadioOfficersAssociation as an addition to theequipment held. Contact David Barlow.G3PLE. Pine. Churchtown, Cury. NrHelston.Cornwall.TRl2 7BW.UK. Tel:+44 (0) 1326 240738. e—mail:dbarlow@lizardwirelessorg

WANTED: CANDLER’S AuxilliaryCourse. Contact G.Lizee. VE2ZK. 666Lamaire.La Prain'e. QC, Canada15R 1M6.

\VANTED TO BUY: BackissuesofMMnos. 6. 9 to 22 inclusive. Also 1960sNATO Navy key (5805-99-580-8558‘).Please contact Stephen Parry. G4LJZ. E—mail: stephen@keying.co.uk

\VANTED TO BUY: Old largecommercial Morse key such as H. White1918, or GPO double-current type keys.with or without the metal/metal-glass

‘

cover. Would consider exchanging myold Air Ministry Morse Key Type B1.Ref: 10F/7839inas new condition.Lettersto: D. Johnson WSFZ. 15514 EnsenadaDrive. Houston, TX 77083-5008. Texas.USA. OrEmail: fulleiphone@ yahoo.com

WANTED: Early paddles such as theNikey. Autronic. Ham—key HKl & HK2.Ray Bullock. 40 Little Harlescott Lane.Shrewsbury SYl 3PY.England. Tel: +44(0) 1743 245896.

MM80 - .qprifzom

TheTelegraphHotel, GreatOrme '5Head, Llandudno.NorthWaleslate-19" cenmry/eanyzo" century. ltlooksas though it was buvltamundone of the early 19" century Murraysemaphore towers, a chain ofwhichlinkedAnglesey toLiverpoolto reportshipping heading lorthe port.

Fromanauction catalogue (tabs held on 19" MayatWetwood,Stallordshira) Listedas 3 Spark transmitter,thoughttobec1914.

INTERNATIONALDIRECTORYFINDS NEW FIRMS

With whom it wnllPAYgou to deal.

INTERNATIONAL

CODEconesYUUR MESSAGE

To these new firmsECONOMICALLYand renders II Inlelhglblceven to firms which areIgnorant of YOUR languaqc

VVORLD-WIDE

WIRELESS SERVICE

musmlmsm”CHE?”and no the remit of

"use lhmc services

\nINCREASESYOUR BUSINESSJI

AND>THEN IT PAYSYOU 1'0 u'nuzeTHE

“-

MARCONIPRIVATE CODE SERVICEProvide YOUR own private code

V

'

which will materiallq{amREDUCEYOUR CABLE BILLS

SEND l‘S A I’UST LARIJ SAYINI. \\'IIICH Ul’YOU \VOII‘IJ) LIKE.

I ()IIIJGATION ON YOUR PART.THE

Marconi International Code Co., Ltd.,MARCONI HOUSE, STRAND. LONDON, W.C.2

MarconiDirectoryBooklet

Marconi ‘

CodeBooklet

THIL FOLLUW’ING BUOKLETSANI) \V’E \"IIJ. SEND THEM TO YOU FREE OF ANY

Privateode

Booklet'V'AFVefie'rfiéfimirtFeMafia—mfitemaIIona/CodéboTnpérTyDE ’

Yearbookof WirelessTelegraphyandTelephony 1922.