BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

Mr. Luddite

On 12/7/2015 11:52 AM, wrote:
On Mon, 7 Dec 2015 11:16:35 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Before I converted to "ET" in the Navy I was an "RM" for two years and
was sent to Teletype Repair "C" school in Norfolk to learn how to
completely disassemble, repair, reassemble, adjust and maintain Mod 28
Teletype machines. There were two versions on ships and shore stations
at that time. One was just the printer section for receiving messages.
The other was the full console with the keyboard and tape reader for
sending messages. Don't remember much about them other than they had a
bunch of mechanical clutches operated by a main shaft that had to be
precisely adjusted. The Mod 28 was originally designed to run at 60
words per minute (a "word" being five characters) but they had been
upgraded to run at a blistering 100 words per minute. They were 8 bit
machines including a "start bit" and a "stop bit".

Upon graduation from the school the students traditionally received a
card proclaiming that you were now a "Doctor of Teletype Technology".
I still have mine.

Archaic technology now-a-days but it was a digital format and a
predecessor to computers. So was Morse Code, for that matter.

Baudot code? I never got into teletype but there were several of my
IBM buddies who were playing with them in the 60s. These were RF
connected on a ham band. At that time, if you wanted to use Ma Bell
you had to rent a modem from them and it wasn't cheap.
I do remember the navy being hot on paper tape.
IBM had a paper tape attachment on a keypunch M047) that I got to work
on now and them. When I was in GITMO they had me take a look at one
but they had to carry it out of the crypto shack, into the hall
because I wasn't cleared there. I got it going and they dragged it
back. Later I heard it was still going well.
I did my best to avoid "teleprocessing" until I moved down here and I
couldn't be as selective about what I worked on. My rule used to be
"nothing with a 7 in it". I was a "glass house" guy as much as I could
be.
I found myself at the other end of the spear down here. we had lots of
stuff that was connected to the central site up north so I had to
figure out how to fight with the phone company.

Yes, Baudot. 100 baud, if I recall correctly.

I worked on them on the first ship I was on but not much after that.
When I converted to ET, I was probably one of the few ET's that also had
the job code for teletype repair. It was an advantage when I reported
to GLakes to start ET school, because the guy that assigned your duty
sections was also in charge of the base HAM radio station. When he
saw I had the teletype repair NEC on my records, he offered standing HAM
radio watches on duty days instead of having to stand master-at-arms
watches (I was a petty officer at the time). I took it.
They had a surplus Mod 28 console that didn't work, so I got it up and
running. Nobody used it though. All the HAM messages were sent via voice.

In those days every ship monitored the "fleet broadcast" which consisted
of several TTY "channels" multiplexed on one RF frequency.
The radio shack would have four or more teletypes running constantly,
printing out "skids" (the paper print-outs of messages). RM's would
check the headers for every message and tear out those that were
addressed or copied to the ship they were on. They would also have
tactical communications (single channel) to communicate to specific
ships or shore commands. All of this went through crypto equipment.

Again, old technology now but it was pretty impressive at the time.

I remember one day while in port a bunch of "yardbirds" came aboard
and installed the weirdest looking antenna I had ever seen on the ship.
It looked like something out of a Buck Rodgers' movie. I later found
out it was an antenna for a new-fangled system called "Satellite
Navigation" ... an early military GPS system.