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THE AM BULLETIN BOARD => QSO => Topic started by: K1JJ on July 02, 2018, 10:32:25 PM



Title: Old 1943 Navy - flag, semaphore, blinker morse code - signaling training flick
Post by: K1JJ on July 02, 2018, 10:32:25 PM
I came across this old WWII training flick and found it fascinating. They use the old phonetics, explain "flag" signaling, and show actual navy men sending semaphore and light blinker messages.

My dad was a signalman on a battleship in the WWII Pacific theater so I'll bet he watched this back then.

I am quite familiar and fluent in semaphore and blinker after being the scout troop signalman, but never realized how complex learning the "flag" message system was.  The series of flags that they run up a rope on ships uses a manual full of codes. It's really a complex method. It was not easy to become really proficient at these three systems as a Navy signalman. Take a look at how fast some of the instructors send semaphore near the end.


Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5yvloNbBMA

While we're at it:  An inside tour of off-limits areas in the 1943 Battleship New Jersey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW83U4bkC_k

Tour inside a 1941 submarine: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHea-m1MQfk


T


Title: Re: Old 1943 Navy - flag, semaphore, blinker morse code - signaling training flick
Post by: W1RKW on July 03, 2018, 03:53:40 PM
Interesting stuff, Tom.

I've always wondered why some hams who used similar phonetics on the ham bands.  Now it makes sense.  

Like the USS Silversides, there used to be a Gato class diesel boat moored in Groton, the USS Croaker, just a few hundred yards north of EB.  She was moved in the late 80's early 90's to another location after many years of decommissioning and recommissionings.  My band mates filmed a music video on the USS Croaker before she departed Groton. The song was called Fast Attack.  Don't know what happened to the video but the ship was an interesting piece of history very similar to the video you provided. She wasn't the best museum piece. She needed a lot of work at the time. I guess the curators could not maintain her for lack of funding so off she went but it was an interesting boat.  I recall the radio room was 100% functional and could tune 40m and maybe 75m and everything in between and above and below.  About the same time the USS Nautilus was moored at the sub base.



Title: Re: Old 1943 Navy - flag, semaphore, blinker morse code - signaling training flick
Post by: KB2WIG on July 03, 2018, 05:45:56 PM


Well,. she didn croak. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_and_Erie_County_Naval_%26_Military_Park

klc


Title: Re: Old 1943 Navy - flag, semaphore, blinker morse code - signaling training flick
Post by: K1JJ on July 03, 2018, 08:46:44 PM
Yep , the old Gato class Croaker.   I believe that was the same sub we had a tour of in Groton around 1963 when in the scouts.  The whole troop took a bus there and checked it out. Funny, but I can't remember anything about that inside tour. It was cramped, claustrophobic and impressive, but that's all I remember about it... sigh.


I've always had a dream of being let lose in a large battle ship to explore anywhere I wanted. Can you imagine how much fun that would be? I bet it would be easy to get lost.   I'll bet for a certain $ donation they would let you do it... :-)   I wonder if all RF devices would become useless including cell phones in that steel cage.

I did an inside tour of the Intrepid aircraft carrier in NYC. That had strict public limits too, but oh, what a place to get lost!  I feel proud to be part of a race that has the ability to build machines like this. It's truely amazing what they accomplished back then - especially before computers were available.

Happy Independence Day everyone!

T


Title: Re: Old 1943 Navy - flag, semaphore, blinker morse code - signaling training flick
Post by: W1RKW on July 04, 2018, 12:29:49 PM
the wife and I did the Intrepid tour several years ago.  Also went aboard the USS Growler a Regulus missile boat.  Like the Intrepid and other ships with off limit areas, its missile control room is still considered classified even after all these years.


Title: Re: Old 1943 Navy - flag, semaphore, blinker morse code - signaling training flick
Post by: AJ1G on July 04, 2018, 04:41:04 PM
My father in law no doubt watched that signaling training movie. He was initially in the merchant marine and made several Murmansk runs. He apparently was still subject to being drafted, and, along with two of his brothers, took the
advice of their oldest brother, who had been drafted into the army as an infantryman, and enlisted in the Navy. The Navy put him into the Armed Guard, who were assigned as gun crew and signalmen on merchant ships in convoys. So he spent th entire war on merchant ships. All three of the brothers in the Navy survived the war. Thier older brother in the Army was lost on Christmas Eve 1944 on the way to the Battle of the Bulge, when the troopship he was on, a large Belgian liner the Leopoldville, was torpedoed and sunk off Cherbourg France. There were a huge number of casualties, details of the sinking remained classified for many years post-war.  The History Channel show History Undercover did an episode on the Leopoldville sinking.
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