Peter Meter - Ham Radio?

[sniper22]

@3clicks_Off

 

[gh1950]

The Air Force spent 6 months teaching us to copy 18.6 GPM along with a lot of operating procedures and radio theory. We had to copy on an MC-88 typewriter (all caps manual typewriter copying on 6 ply paper with 5 sheets of carbon paper). I came out of tech school copying 30 GPM and felt pretty good until I got in the field and was saddled 8 hours a day copying between 40 and 50 GPM under a lot of static and other folks keying away.

I don't do much CW any longer (went to tech school in 1970, got my Novice in 1982 and my General in 1984), retired from bopping dits in the Air Force in 1992. Still radio active but am steadily losing my hearing and I can't dig out the weak signals like I used to be able to (being 70 is hard when parts stop working). But, if SHTF I can pull my old tube transceivers out of their faraday cages, improvise a multi-band dipole and be on the air with my bug in a very short time. It's good to have something to fall back on.

You certainly sound like the man that needs whatever this is.

 

[Klif]

You certainly sound like the man that needs whatever this is.

While I probably do need it, there is no way I'd drive from Douglasville to Athens.
I could probably get it to work but trying to find someone that is using baudot or ascci to talk to would be the real chore.

 

[Gaffer1968]

The Air Force spent 6 months teaching us to copy 18.6 GPM along with a lot of operating procedures and radio theory. We had to copy on an MC-88 typewriter (all caps manual typewriter copying on 6 ply paper with 5 sheets of carbon paper). I came out of tech school copying 30 GPM and felt pretty good until I got in the field and was saddled 8 hours a day copying between 40 and 50 GPM under a lot of static and other folks keying away.

I don't do much CW any longer (went to tech school in 1970, got my Novice in 1982 and my General in 1984), retired from bopping dits in the Air Force in 1992. Still radio active but am steadily losing my hearing and I can't dig out the weak signals like I used to be able to (being 70 is hard when parts stop working). But, if SHTF I can pull my old tube transceivers out of their faraday cages, improvise a multi-band dipole and be on the air with my bug in a very short time. It's good to have something to fall back on.

I think when I was in tech school in 68 for Tech Control we called you guys "ditty boppers." :0)

 

[Klif]

Y

I think when I was in tech school in 68 for Tech Control we called you guys "ditty boppers." :0)

Yep, I was on A shift in 70, a year after Hurricane Camille came through and messed up Biloxi pretty badly. We were in the old two story wooden dorms (main base as opposed to Triangle) and went to school from 6a - 12p. We were ditty boppers for sure.

 

[Gaffer1968]

Y

Yep, I was on A shift in 70, a year after Hurricane Camille came through and messed up Biloxi pretty badly. We were in the old two story wooden dorms (main base as opposed to Triangle) and went to school from 6a - 12p. We were ditty boppers for sure.

Same shift...we had to march en masse across the runway to the main base. I left Keesler (was right over by the southern tip of the runway in the SW corner of the base) just before Camille. Last time I looked on Google earth, all those barracks were razed to the ground.

 

[Klif]

Same shift...we had to march en masse across the runway to the main base. I left Keesler (was right over by the southern tip of the runway in the SW corner of the base) just before Camille. Last time I looked on Google earth, all those barracks were razed to the ground.

Yep, my daughter and her Navy husband were enroute to his new base in California and they were driving out about 6 years ago. They stopped by Keesler and rode around and let me know that none of what I remembered, except the main base part and the flight line where we had to stand in mass for parades was still there.

When I was there the WAF squadron was across the street from us and on a dare we would run through late in the evening. Some of those ladies were swift afoot and would chase the guys down and be ugly to them. I either never ran across or got caught and it's not something I would want to do again.

I remember marching back from school and "beat and blow" (the band) would change tempo just as we marched past the reviewing stand and instead of a nice mass we would start to look like whack a mole characters until the red rope would call cadence and get us back in to step.

After graduation I got stationed in Alaska at Elmendorf AFB and that was a quick change of weather. Left there when Vietnam bombing started again and went to the Philippines. Talk about seasonal temperature changes.

 

[gh1950]

I had one when kind of like that when I was stationed at Misawa Air Base in Japan that could copy the baudot and I believe it came from MFJ. It wasn't fast but it was effective once you connected with another station. I was a High Speed Morse Op in my Air Force job so had no problem sending or receiving Morse at about any speed (and no I didn't send Morse as part of my job, that just came naturally after learning to copy code).

If you can use this, or know someone who can, I will mail it to you Need an address in PM