Radio room photos

[Ron Stringer]

Originally Posted by Wismajorvik

Lincompex was used primarily on point to point HF circuits.

It was also used on QE2 to copy Press (Daily Telegraph?) to produce a daily newspaper for the passengers. I don't know how successful it was.

[Varley]

Do you know what the terminal equipment was, Ron? Lincompex I learned (never saw) was for voice so it sounds like an attempt to use a PSTN facsimile machine.

[Wismajorvik]

Originally Posted by Ron Stringer

It was also used on QE2 to copy Press (Daily Telegraph?) to produce a daily newspaper for the passengers. I don't know how successful it was.

I have a vague recollection of Lincompex being installed on noisy landlines by Hughes in Saudi Arabia...anything for that extra buck.

[Ron Stringer]

Originally Posted by Varley

Do you know what the terminal equipment was, Ron? Lincompex I learned (never saw) was for voice so it sounds like an attempt to use a PSTN facsimile machine.

You are correct, David, it was Piccolo (not Lincompex) that was used for producing the newspaper on QE2. If I remember correctly (and, if the foregoing is any guide, that is most questionable) the Lincompex was made by a GEC company but I can't recall which part of the group. It certainly wasn't Marconi!

[Wismajorvik]

I believe Lincompex was a GPO design and the kit was manufactured under licence by several companies. I attended the STC factory in Newport Wales where it was being produced. Piccolo was developed by the FO and again manufactured under licence.

[Varley]

Thanks Ron. Piccolo I heard of and may have heard but not knowingly experienced operationally. I'll Google it before I ask more. David V

[Wismajorvik]

http://alancordwell.co.uk/Legacy/hfradio/dwsint.html
Information on one of the piccolo systems possibly around mid 60s. There were variations later and also an earlier basic system which I recall came out of Belgium and used 100hz steps.

[Varley]

Thanks for that 'W'. wonder if there is any similarity with multiplexing telex connections over PSTN (one voice channel could be assigned to ? telex channels).

[Wismajorvik]

Not much experience with the PSTN but would assume that between exchanges multiplexed narrow band fm would have been used. Nowadays if telex was required then time division multiplex would be the system, telex being far slower than the bit rates available. There was an international half speed telex system in the 70s and I recollect that exchanges would introduce 'nulls' in the traffic which caused severe problems with synchronised cryption systems.

[Naytikos]

Troposcatter works OK in cold climates where the atmosphere is reasonably stable, a nightmare in the tropics.

[Wismajorvik]

My experience was in the middle east and with both frequency diversity and antenna ( billboards) diversity Systems were reliable for better than 99.9% of the time.

[Naytikos]

But in the Caribbean, without oil company funding, one had a single 30-foot dish at each end and four fixed frequencies, one for each supposed circuit. It was common to get through a whole roll of teleprinter paper overnight by the machine churning out random characters one or two to each line due to atmospherics.

[Sparks69.5]

RAF Stenigott had a couple of Trop Scatter dishes for NATO. Ace High System if I remember correctly.
Whole lot just abandoned about 25 years ago.

[Chadburn]

Originally Posted by Sparks69.5

RAF Stenigott had a couple of Trop Scatter dishes for NATO. Ace High System if I remember correctly.
Whole lot just abandoned about 25 years ago.

They did indeed, the whole lot was collapsed on to the ground and just left for years, not sure if they are still there or the Scrapmen took them.

[BobClay]

This is what the winds in Cornwall can do to a 30 metre dish ....

[Engine Serang]

No Sky Sports tonight.