Wireless Work in Wartime. Ill, 



By John L. Hogan, Jr. 



THE two articles of this series which 

 have already been published, in the 

 August and September issues, out- 

 lined the simplest ways to learn the Morse 

 Code used in radio telegraphy and ex- 

 plained a buzzer-telegraph line which could 

 be used for code practice. The cooperation 

 of two. students in the manner indicated 

 makes it possible for both to advance far 

 more quickly than could either one working 

 alone. By placing themselves at the 

 opposite ends of an electrical communica- 

 tion system (the buzzer-telegraph line) and 

 by relying upon it for the interchange of 

 messages and for correction of errors of 

 transmission, both operators learn to de- 

 pend upon their own efforts to signal 

 correctly. It 

 becomes evi- 

 dent at once 

 that clear, 

 uniform for- 

 mation of the 

 Morse dots 

 and dashes is 

 essential to 

 real tele- 

 graphing, 

 since poor 

 sending at 

 once brings 

 its natural 

 consequence 

 of incorrect 



Diagram showing how three stations may be connected with the 

 same line wire and other units may be added as desired 



receiving. 

 The greatest 

 temptation of the novice telegrapher, viz., 

 to send too fast, is quickly shown to be 

 productive of nothing but trouble; to send 

 £0 fast that the words run together, or so 

 fast that incorrect Morse characters are 

 formed, or so fast that the receiving oper- 

 ator cannot put the words down easily and 

 completely, is to show one of the clearest 

 signs of incompetence. The experienced 

 operator suits the speed of his sending to 

 the particular conditions, and never trans- 

 mits the words so fast that the receiving 

 operator cannot "copy" all of them. To 

 adapt one's gait to the man at the other end 

 of the line, be it wire or wireless, is not 

 only common courtesy but has been found 

 by long experience to result in the ac- 

 curate transmission of the greatest num- 



ber of words in any given length of time. 

 Dangei j of Student Practice 



Although the buzzer practice line has the 

 advantages indicated above, there is a 

 danger in having no sending to listen to 

 except that of a companion student. 

 Starting from the ground, with no tele- 

 graphic experience, one is likely to make 

 some mistakes even though the greatest 

 care is used. It is most difficult to form the 

 complex characters like "Q" (dash-dash- 

 dot-dash) and "Y" (dash-dot-dash-dash) 

 correctly, and a beginner is always likely to 

 interject an extra dot-space or two. Con- 

 sequently "Q" is made to sound like 

 "M A" (dash-dash, space, dot-dash), and 



"Y" seems 



line wire very much 

 like "N M." 

 This defect 

 may be no- 

 ticed after the 

 word "YOU" 

 is written out 

 as "NMOU" 

 several times, 

 but the way 

 the student 

 usually cor- 

 rects the fault 

 is by increas- 

 ing the space 

 between "Y" 

 and the next 

 letters. This 

 has the effect of setting off. the "NM" 

 character, but is not a real cure, since the 

 dash-dot-dash-dash of the letter "Y" has 

 not been smoothed out into perfect form. 



There are a large number of errors like 

 these which creep into the sending of 

 students, and, occasionally, even into that 

 of experienced operators. They are always 

 dangerous, however, and often lead to 

 serious misunderstandings. Listen to your 

 own sending, and to that of your partner, 

 and try to make sure that each dot, dash 

 and space is formed and timed correctly. 

 You can weed out these troubles yourself by 

 giving the Morse characters keen enough 

 study; but the best plan is to have some 

 experienced operator listen to your trans- 

 mission and criticize it for you. After you 



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