On Wed, 14 Oct 2015 10:12:15 -0700, Califbill billnews wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 14 Oct 2015 09:12:05 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 10/14/2015 8:47 AM, Tim wrote:

Though amtiquated, I don't know why it was dropped. They're bringing
back Morse Code too. Evidently it's always good to have a back up plan

http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/n...009-story.html




Morse code was a relic even when I was in the Navy many moons ago but it
was still taught in Radioman school. It has since been dropped.

We were underway on one of this ships I was on and the setup codes for
the teletype crypto gear was inadvertently shredded by one of the
Radiomen standing watch in the Radio Shack. Without the setup codes
the ship could not have regular teletype communications.

They had to get the senior, old grizzly Radioman Chief Petty Officer to
set up a morse code key and communications to the outside world was
conducted using it.


There is still a use for flashing light communication. The biggest
reason is you are not transmitting anything that can be tracked any
farther than you can see.
It also works if the entire electrical system on your ship is gone or
if you are adrift in a life boat. That is why they have a momentary
switch on a military flashlight.

in 1965, everyone in USCG boot camp needed to be able to send and
receive about 6 WPM of Morse to get out.

Alas 50 years later, I can only come up with SOS and a few selected
curse words.




Pilots needed about 5 words a minute morse. The identifiers on most Nav
aids were morse. Easy for us techs, we just looked at the tabs for the
dots and dashes and a crib sheet.

===

There are still marine nav aids that identify in morse code, both
lights and RDF stations. There is also a special kind of buoy called
a RACON that lights up on your radar when your beam hits it. It
actually creates a visual image of the dots and dashes on your radar
screen. I learned morse code when I was 12 years old for both the
scouts and for a ham radio license. At one time was up to 30 words
per minute but not any more.

On 10/14/2015 2:00 PM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 10/14/15 9:53 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 10/14/2015 9:17 AM, Tim wrote:
On 10/14/2015 8:47 AM, Tim wrote:

Though amtiquated, I don't know why it was dropped. They're bringing
back Morse Code too. Evidently it's always good to have a back up plan

http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/n...009-story.html






Morse code was a relic even when I was in the Navy many moons ago but it
was still taught in Radioman school. It has since been dropped.

We were underway on one of this ships I was on and the setup codes for
the teletype crypto gear was inadvertently shredded by one of the
Radiomen standing watch in the Radio Shack. Without the setup codes
the ship could not have regular teletype communications.

They had to get the senior, old grizzly Radioman Chief Petty Officer to
set up a morse code key and communications to the outside world was
conducted using it.
......
Grizzly CPO? I can belive that. And i bet he was happy about the
whole situation too.


It became a big deal for a while because the guy who shredded the codes
didn't fess up right away. The ship had to remain at sea while a search
was made of all spaces, lockers, etc., for the code sheets. It's one of
those deals where all secure communications made for that day
throughout the Navy had to be considered compromised.

The young guy who shredded it finally admitted it. He was transferred
and we never saw him again.




Did he eat the strawberries, too?

I learned Morse code and flags (semaphores?) as a boy scout and I think
it was for a merit badge, but I don't remember the particulars or the code.


The Navy required the budding "RMs" to copy a minimum of 22 wpm with
only a couple of errors allowed. The problem was that the "words"
weren't words. They were groups of five character random letters because
that's how messages would be encoded and transmitted in the fleet.

On Wed, 14 Oct 2015 11:14:32 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

On Wed, 14 Oct 2015 09:59:59 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:
- show quoted text -
When I was in Bainbridge the RM school was there and we had guys
tapping out messages everywhere.
There was also a lot of semaphore going on.

...........

When my dad served in the Philippines as a forward observer calling in 105 strikes from the top of a hill, he said that was one of the most dangerous parts of the job. If your field telephone quit and you couldn't repair the lines etc. your last resort was to use semefore flags. If the "japs" saw you doing that you were a standing target.


The situation between the army and the navy is different. They are
probably over the horizon and an RF burst will locate you but they
can't see you.