Home-made morse key by an ex radio officer

[Shelterdeck]

Semi Automatic "Bug" Morse Key
Feeling like a change from ship models, a few days ago, I decided to try and build a semi-automatic bug key. This type of morse key was first developed in the United States. Conventional morse keys move up and down, and both dots and dashes have to be made manually. When I first went into passenger liners as a junior radio officer in 1965, I found it very hard going sending large numbers of messages, often containing hundreds of words. My wrist was quickly in danger of seizing up, so I obtained a cheap Japanese bug key in Cape Town. The bug key works horizontally, and the side of the palm can be rested on the desk. Pushing the paddle to the right with the thumb, produces a string of dots by vibrating a piece of weighted steel spring with electrical contacts fitted. Pushing it to the left with the forefinger, the dashes have to be made individually. I found this a great help, and was soon able to send for considerable lengths of time without getting tired. In the next twelve years, I got through two Japanese bug keys, the first being accidentally dropped by the third radio officer when it was only a few weeks old. That broke the paddle arm off, and I had to effect a temporary repair until I could replace it again in Cape Town. Despite being quite cheap, I had no complaints about the Japanese keys, they were really good. But I had heard that the American Vibroplex keys were the best of the best. Eventually, I was able to purchase on in Houston, Texas, for about £50. I used that one regularly from 1977 until leaving the sea in late 1992, and still have it today. The key illustrated is purely my own design based on trial and error, and it took almost a week to get it working correctly. I have compared it with my Vibroplex, and although I am a bit "rusty" at morse after 25 years, can still produce perfectly readable code, and cannot tell any difference in handling between mine and the Vibroplex,
I incorporated small ball races for the top and bottom bearings that gave a very smooth action. The spring steel is a piece of a junior hacksaw blade with the teeth ground off. The vertical pillars are all old rifle shells cut off to the correct length, and bolted to the acrylic base via holes drilled through ends. The dent caused by the firing pins was a great guide for the drill. The open tops were fitted with home-made caps made from brass, with a fancy brass bolt in the top for purely aesthetic reasons. Solving the spring problem was beyond me, as I could nor find any springs small enough, or of the correct strength. I got round this by using powerful neodymium magnets instead of springs, and they work really smoothly. The tension can be easily adjusted by moving the magnets further apart, or closer together. Neither could I get the dot contacts correct, so I used a small magnetic reed switch. It is actuated by a magnet fixed the vibrating arm. The speed of the dots can be adjusted by moving the brass weight along the vibrating arm. The closer it is moved to the front of the key, the faster the dots. Most of the construction is in brass. The base and paddle are acrylic sheet and the finger knob is a small "button knob" normaly used for glass cabinets.
This is my first attempt at making a "precision instrument" as most of my micro-engineering has been on very small model ships. No doubt there will be a lot of faults, by I feel it is pretty good for a first attempt!

Bob

[BobClay]

Nice One !!

[Engine Serang]

Are they not all "Ex".
On this site we are all "Ex".

[Shelterdeck]

Yes!

[Varley]

Well, I'd have to ask whether he was intrinsically safe, increased safety or flameproof. Ex is not enough!

And with all those gaps into which ex-sparks might encourage a very non Ex spark I fear none of the above.

[Engine Serang]

Dyslexia rampant in the shack.

[Varley]

Rampancy in the shack discouraged.

[Engine Serang]

As an aside, on every ship I was on the RO, always a Marconi Sahib, tried to send faster than the Operator in Portishead, a somewhat forlorn endeavour I believe. What was regarded as a good average WPM and what was a bloody good WPM?

[Harry Nicholson]

Originally Posted by Engine Serang

As an aside, on every ship I was on the RO, always a Marconi Sahib, tried to send faster than the Operator in Portishead, a somewhat forlorn endeavour I believe. What was regarded as a good average WPM and what was a bloody good WPM?

Thirty wpm, whilst a good clip, could result in requests for repeats that made the whole business more protracted than if you sent at a more sedate 25 wpm. For some coast stations in Red Sea a speed of 20wpm was more suited, and the same would be best if the other ship was manned by a newish chap. I would soon become fed up to be on the receiving end of some speed fanatic's ego.

[BobClay]

Perhaps some will remember the 'wobbly Morse' which you encountered, particularly in the Gulf. Because it was a change in style rather than errors after a while you got used to it, and it was perfectly readable.
When I trained for the Cheltenham mob I had to do the Morse training regardless of experience, (receiving only for obvious reasons.) They had a large number of samples of wobbly Morse which they often played. Strangely most of the other trainees who were ex-services (all three services) found this most difficult, mainly I'm sure because they'd never heard it before.
They would ask me who sent this sort of Morse which told me they hadn't been listening to those Gulf stations which of course back then they wouldn't have been. They mostly listened to Russian Morse which is usually first class.

[Harry Nicholson]

Originally Posted by BobClay

Perhaps some will remember the 'wobbly Morse' which you encountered, particularly in the Gulf. Because it was a change in style rather than errors after a while you got used to it, and it was perfectly readable.
When I trained for the Cheltenham mob I had to do the Morse training regardless of experience, (receiving only for obvious reasons.) They had a large number of samples of wobbly Morse which they often played. Strangely most of the other trainees who were ex-services (all three services) found this most difficult, mainly I'm sure because they'd never heard it before.
They would ask me who sent this sort of Morse which told me they hadn't been listening to those Gulf stations which of course back then they wouldn't have been. They mostly listened to Russian Morse which is usually first class.

Not sure what you mean by 'wobbly', Bob. I do recall Port Sudan about 1957, his frequency would drift during a dash. Some said it was down to him having a single valve transmitter, so the tuning would alter with the load of the keying. So he made a bit of a warbling sound, a bit like an early morning blackbird tuning up.

[BobClay]

Yes the note was unstable on quite a few transmitters out that way, but the style of the sending was strange too. It's difficult to explain, but the dot and dash lengths were far from the 3:1 ratio generally recommended. Together with an unstable note it made for an almost musical sound .. . Once you'd listened to it for a few runs in and out of the Gulf you did get used to it.

[Hawkey01]

Before working in the station all new entry RO's at Portisheadradio and coast stations had to attend training school. To learn touch typing and also to attain the required morse speeds. That was 27 wpm. Many could already do this but that was the system. 6 weeks if my memory serves me correctly. We were also tested on the use of auto keys/bugs before we could use them live.
Many seagoing RO's could not handle reception at that speed so generally speaking you never used it. It soon became obvious who could and could not work at speed and those QSO's were a pleasure.
The requirements with PMG 2nd was 20 wpm and 1st 25 wpm for plain language and lesser speed for code and figures.

Neville

[Engine Serang]

Wobbly Morse reminds me of Hull Tech lecturer, Arthur Eccleston, who maintained there was two types of electricity; dc and wobbly dc.

[BobClay]

I think when the MRGC came out the 25 wpm was kicked into touch. I took the MRGC in 1975 but since I had a PMG2 at the time didn't have to do the Morse, only the writtens and practical.

Interestingly for the Cheltenham mob plain language was always in a foreign language. To tell the truth I found this easier as you just treated it as code and didn't try to read it which could be a distraction. There was a similar time period for touch typing training but I did a 'brain washing' Sight and Sound touch typing course when I was doing my PMG2 in Leith years before so they let me come in three weeks late on that one. Their touch typing training was that old dum did e dum de dum didee dum music stuff, pretty naff I thought and told them they should go with the sight and sound strategy.
I was promptly told to STFU, which I did.

[Duncan112]

Originally Posted by Harry Nicholson

Thirty wpm, whilst a good clip, could result in requests for repeats that made the whole business more protracted than if you sent at a more sedate 25 wpm. For some coast stations in Red Sea a speed of 20wpm was more suited, and the same would be best if the other ship was manned by a newish chap. I would soon become fed up to be on the receiving end of some speed fanatic's ego.

From "The Nymph and the Lamp" by Thomas Raddall - well worth reading

Skane regarded his bony hands and long fingers with the wisps of
black hair on their backs. "I can rip it off at thirty, if that's what you
mean. But it's only swank to do that when twenty-five or less will
handle the traffic. Matt used to say there ought to be a printed motto in
every station working ship traffic

—Twenty's Plenty. When you're young like Sargent you feel the urge
to tear it off as fast as you can, and you get a kick out of it when some
poor fumbling Sparks aboard a tramp has to ask for a repeat. Gives
you a superior feeling; and you repeat at a painful fifteen or twenty,
just to show the chap—and anybody else who may be listening—what
a patient wonder you are. It's a game called 'roasting' that every
operator knows.

"I remember when the first German liner appeared in these waters
after the war. We had a young chap here like Sargent, just out of the
navy and full of hot steam and ginger. We had a few messages for the
German and our boy had a fine time roasting the ears off the
German's junior op. The chap kept asking for repeats, and finally our
wonder boy cracked off 'Get another op.' That's the ultimate insult in
this business, you understand. Well, the German fetched his chief,
who turned out to be an old hand at the game. He copied our
messages all right and then announced he had some stuff for
retransmission to New York. His apparatus was one of those
Telefunken outfits that warble like a canary, and he had something like
two hundred messages, nearly all In German.

He screwed down his key to the least possible working gap and he
zipped those messages at our hero in bunches of ten, going a blue
streak, Clinnett —the wonder boy—was sweating blood inside five
minutes. He couldn't use the station typewriter because the signals
weren't loud enough, so it was pencil and pad, with a duplicate to be
made for every message, a carbon sheet to be whipped into place for
each new message, and the completed messages to be torn off and
marked with the time of receipt—and all that with the German sailing
straight on at about thirty words a minute. I know, because I was here
in the room and so was Matt, and we plugged in to hear the German's
side of the game. The air was quiet. You could sense dozens of other
chaps, ship and shore, listening in—because everyone knew what was
up.

"At the end of the fourth or fifth group Clinnett bad to ask for a repeat
—a signature here, a word or two there. At the end of the seventh he
was asking for whole phrases. You could fairly see the German
grinning. And then it came, a curt little service message in perfect
English, addressed to the O-in-C, Marina, demanding 'Please use
capable operator.' There was dead silence in the phones for a
moment, and then you could hear ships up and down the coast piping
'Hi-hi-hi' — the signal for a laugh. And the laugh was on us, on Marina,
you see. Matt was furious, with Clinnett as much as the Hun."
"What happened?" Isabel asked.

"Matt took over the watch himself, tapping out 'OIC here' in his slow
way and telling the Hun to go on with his messages in groups of ten.
By that time everyone on the coast had stopped to listen, for they all
knew Carney's fist—and they knew what was coming next. A lot of
smart ship ops have been fooled by that fist of Matt's. They think
they've got a slow chum at the other end of the line and they screw
down their keys and try to roast him. Well, Matt's been in this game so
long that the code's his native language—he thinks in dots and
dashes. And nothing bothers him—interference, static, speed—
nothing. He can read the stuff by instinct, and faster than any human
hand could send it. Everyone on the coast knew that, but the German
didn't and away he went like greased lightning with his next ten
messages.

"At the end of them Matt gave him 'R' for the lot, and added 'Send
faster.' The German zipped off another group; and again Matt said
'Send faster.' The Hun was good, mind you; he was sending as fast as
any man could go. But he couldn't keep up that pace His wrist was
getting tired When he tried to cram on a bit more speed it was fatal He
began to make mistakes falling all over himself, going back and
repeating Another group, and Matt cracked off, in that same slow fist,
mind you. 'Send much faster. Have other traffic to clear.' There was a
pause, and the German came on again, going at a terrific rate. But
when he got to the third or fourth message in the group he stumbled
badly, went back and repeated, zipped on for a bit, and stumbled
again.

"At the end of the group it was rather pitiful—like watching a good
penman ruin his fist by trying to write too fast. And of course there was
nothing the German could do or say about the speed—he was dealing
with a shore station. and a shore station in its own official range is
practically the Almighty; its word is law. By the time he got to his
twelfth group the Hun was stumbling and fumbling, making a stuttering
mess of it; and then Matt put an end to it, tapping out in his calm way,
slow and merciless like the cold wrath of God, 'Use recognized code or
get someone who can.'

"You should have heard the chorus in the phones—every op in the
area snickering out 'Hi-hi-hi.' Even Clinnett laughed, standing there
beside Matt with a pair of phones plugged in. And then in the silence
before the German's junior op came on again. sending at Matt's own
rate, a bit over twenty, no more, Matt got out of the chair and motioned
Clinnett towards the pencil and the message pads. 'Take over,' he
said. 'And after this don't act the damned fool at my key.' Can't you
hear him saving that?"

[Farmer John]

Wow, that is a real feat, a recounting of Morse Wars that has your heart beating faster. Love it.

I have looked at the picture of the apparatus, it has finally dawned on me, the "architecture" of it reminds me of my Barograph. That is intended as praise and admiration.

My Smell-Chequer suggests "spirograph" for "barograph". Not sure about that.

[Harry Nicholson]

Duncan writes: From "The Nymph and the Lamp" by Thomas Raddall - well worth reading.

Thanks. Enjoyed that. I'll look it up, Duncan.