"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...

On Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:34:46 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


Funny thing about code. When the USCG finally put code to bed and out
of service, they had this big ceremony out where the old Marconi
station was on the Cape - whole big last transmission - Auld Lang Syne
- never more to be used - I have a copy of the last transmission and
a certificate from the USCG about the last transmission (you had to
copy it and send in the transcript) - big deal - historical, blah,
blah, blah. Ten minutes later, USCG signed off with SK and that was
that.

In theory.

Half hour later, SOS from a freighter off the coast of Alaska and
rescue operations coordinated.

In Morse. :)


One of my Navy sea tales:

During one of our patrols in the Med on a DE a radioman inadvertently
shredded the key codes for the crypto gear during a mid-watch. He didn't
fess up right away and therefore all codes had to be considered compromised.
(He finally admitted his guilt)

Meanwhile, they couldn't use the secure HF TTY, so they rousted the old
seasoned Radioman Chief out of his rack and he had to set up and send
encrypted CW for about 4 hours. It took him at least an hour just to raise
somebody. I was dragged out of my rack because nobody could figure out how
to set the transmitter up for CW. (I figured it out, but it was the first
and last time I ever had to do that).

The CO was not a happy camper.

Definitely dates me though. I don't think they even use HF anymore.

Eisboch