Readers can now get this newsletter in two ways, either by collection (Downloading a pdf version for off-line reading/printing) from the newsletter distribution service, and from same they will get regular notification of the availability in same by a brief e-mail, or now thanks to the efforts of Keith Drummond this newsletter has also been made available on line within the main RSO site. Which also resulted in a major redesign of the RSO site being necessary to accommodate full width representation on all pages.
The newsletter distribution service (a Yahoo group) can be subscribed to ...Click Here
We will need your participation submissions and feedback, so please send us your stories, concerns and wishes, and please recommend us to your friends and enemies
I want to say thank you to our readers and our contributors, also in the name of Brian Streetly
and Keith Drummond
Mrs. Petra Henderson
(Royal Signals 1971-1976)
The following is a compilation of many different items and information by Petra, some she found from on-line web sites, some from books, some translations from German sources and a lot is simply written by herself, including the noticeably "odd" inclusion of her very twisted humour from which everyone distances themselves! (even Petra) That said you can hopefully still learn a lot and have fun? So anyone who is unhappy with the content of this free newsletter or datasheet can ask for a full refund under our standard Policy. A copy of the policy can be purchased for three hundred pounds sterling including P&P from Petra directly
Shock Horror Headline…
British Army Deliberately gave its Signals Operators Wrong Morse Code Training.
Hands up all those who learnt Morse Code in the Royal Signals! What…? So many? Well have I got news for you, you are all lying! You there… Put your hand down, and you, and you…! Shame on you all!!! It is a unknown fact (and after I have told it, it will probably remain unknown!?!?!) that not one single soldier alive today ever learnt or used Morse Code in the Royal Signals!, and despite ongoing rumours to the contrary you cannot hear Morse Code on the Radio, even on the Ham (amateur) bands who continue to use CW today as a communications Art-form!
There are things that defy "so-called" Common Knowledge, (and maybe as a result of this newsletter you can win yourself a pint or two in a pub bet) such as…
To make matters worse Mr Morse also had three different lengths of not only spaces, but also of dashes.
In fact apart from Railway Trackside Telegraph Operators in North America no one ever really used Morse Code.
Ironically on December 12 1901 Marconi made the first transatlantic communication, which involved sending the Morse-code signal for the letter "S" from Poldhu, Cornwall in southwest England, 2170 miles across the Atlantic to an aerial device suspended from a kite in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, England, to Saint John's, Newfoundland. Then the code letter "S" was probably chosen as the only one that both American and European users could understand, then it is not only in the spoken word that we have difficulty understanding American "English!"
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (Born April 27, 1791 - Died April 2, 1872), artist and inventor, had the basic idea of using a combination of dots and dashes, and for that can claim credit. He was however lousy inventor, but very good at marketing and at formulation of contracts to ensure his name was the only one to be recorded on subsequent patents.
Mr Morse's first message demonstrated over distance and containing the famous words chosen by Morse as the first long distance telegraphic message, sent on May 24, 1844, "What hath God wrought?" was sent in Morse's system of numerals, and required an extensive Dictionary and each word be laboriously looked up at both ends.
Morse compiled his code dictionary, assigning a number to each of some 5,000 commonly used words. "It is a most tedious, never ending work," Morse wrote Alfred Vail on October 14th 1837. It would be no less tedious to use: For example, "England" was represented by 252; "Wednesday," by 4030. Yet the confident Morse continued, "You will be pleased with my plan of the permanent dictionary, which I have drawn out ready to show you when I see you." then Mr Morse did not understand any form of logic and simply numbered all words of his Telegraph dictionary (hence the name "code!") and to send anything, you needed to look up the word, send the number, other end looks up number, writes down word. Morse did invent many features of wired telegraphy, including the efficient design of a bi-directional single wire telegraph using electromagnets and the earth for a common return path, and he invented the relay, which was a device that mechanically connected the recording stylus arm of the receiver apparatus to press the key of the next transmitter and so replace a human operator in a relay station, which were needed to overcome the limitations of distance due to wire resistance, etc. That is why Relays are called such today, after relay stations!
Incidentally even Morse's claim to his "Inventing" the single wire telegraphy was like Ex-Pre