Taking a break from working to get back on the air...I've been learning about the vintage world of commercial radiotelegraph in the maritime communications business, off and on during the past several weeks. I had previously known nothing about it, or very little at least, but in the golden age of commercial radiotelegraph in the U.S., there were many high powered shore stations up and down the East and West coasts and on the Gulf. Typically a station consisted of a remotely controlled tx site running a few tens of kilowatts and around 20 miles away, a rx site which was the location staffed by operators. There is a maritime radio historical society with a website that's very interesting. These ops were 1st class cw ops, the types who could copy any fist on a mill and to my surprise, the key of choice right up to the end in the 1990s was a bug, usually or always a Vibroplex. Receivers were usually AR-88s, and 51J-4s. I'll try to upload a photo of a typical operating position. The operator is Les Burger at KPH Point Reyes, Calif. These guys all held 1st Class Radiotelegraph tickets. You can easily blow a few hours looking around at
http://www.radiomarine.orgI had to use a bug in my CW days (I like to say I operate AM and CW but to be honest, I now operate CW so infrequently that's more or less a lie) because the T-60 keying v. was around 90 v. I was so dumb back then I tried keying it with a cmos keyer and of course, instantly fried it. I noted the professional CW operators preferred monitoring off the air with a rx instead of a sidetone--maybe because the tx was so far away they wanted to always be aware of its status.
p.s. in the photo, note the cable clamp U bolt on the bug pendulum as an extra weight. Nice idea!
Mmm, most noice!
The only complaint I've had about bugs, is that while they can be adjusted for different sending speeds, they work best at the speed you originally set them at. Also, they're a little pokey, to change speed on, on the fly. But, they sure are cool!
BTW, I picked up a T-60 (along with an HQ-129X), at a swapfest this morning, for $20. It'll make a fun "sort of" glow bug transmitter.
