Morse code speed - learned something new about my Dad

[James86004]

I am reading all this stuff about Morse code while studying for my Amateur radio exam. I knew my Dad was a Morse code operator when he was in the Marine Corps in the early 1960s. I didn't know he was in Intelligence and transcribing Soviet communications:

"My best was about 60 words a minute. That is pretty fast. I was copying Russian women operators at the navy headquarters in Vladivostock. They were using an auto key. Push left and you get dits, right and you get dahs. They were very good."

He went on to say they were usually gossiping, and were the hardest to copy. Ciphered Soviet communications were easier, since they were much slower and always sent in blocks of 5 characters.

 

[crawler#976]

Cool stuff.

Had a friend who was in country doing the same thing. He basically lived in the USSR and East Germany while performing intelligence gathering missions in the early 60's. Spooky stuff, no pun intended...:Wow1:

 

[SunTzuNephew]

I had a friend (long since passed away) who was a merchant marine ships radiotelegrapher, back in the old days...

He could send code by hand at about 50wpm, even years after he retired... and he did it with a straight key, not keyer.

He would listen to code over the radio, and after about 6-7 minutes of it he'd start transcribing it....his 'buffer' could hold that much.

Skills like that are awesome. Not everyone can do it, it's like singing opera.

 

[howell_jd]

I don't know anything about morse code but I can attest to the speed of Russian women's gossip! My wife is originally from Russia (Komsomolsk-na-Amur). Her mother lives with us too. Here at Fort Leavenworth we get two sets of international officers and their families each year for the Command and General Staff College. Many officers are from former Soviet states too. I therefore have a steady stream of new friendships being made across political and military lines. What a world!

 

[wyorunner]

The standard for military today is to be able to copy 20 wpm, although not as fast as they used to be, its still fast. For those that havnt done morse code, it is not fun. It took me 7 months to learn it and its not like learning to ride a bike, once you stop using it you forget it, for the most part. They dont train how to send anymore just how to understand.