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[Mumfier 33 — flpn‘f 1994 Buzza Morse Code filpparatus 1M). 2 lSSN 0953—6426 MORS UM MAGNIFICAT was first published as a quarterly magazine in Holland, in 1983, by the late Rinus Hellemons PAOBFN. Now published six times a year in Britain, it aims to provide international coverage ofall aspects of Morse telegraphy, past present and future. MORS UM MAGNIFICAT is for all Morse enthusiasts, amateur or professional, active or retired. It brings together material which wouldotherwise be lost to posterity, providing an invaluable source of interest, reference and record relating to the traditions and practice ofMorse. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: lYear 2 Years United Kingdom: £12.00 £22.50 Europe, including Eire: £12.75 £24.00 Elsewhere: Surface mail £12.75 £24.00 @wE Airmail £15.50 £29.50 a Payment by Access, Eurocard, Master-card or Visa is also accepted; quote your card number and expiry date. Please note that. owing to very high bank charges for currency exchange, we are unable to accept overseas cheques, drafts, money orders, etc., unless payable in sterling. Overseas cheques and drafts must be drawn on a London clearing bank. Make all cheques payable to ‘G C Arnold Partners’. Subscribers in North America can now make payment in US Dollars to our subscription agents there, Wise Owl Worldwide Publications, 4314 West 238th Street, Torrance, CA 90505-4509, USA (see page 48 for further details) EDITORIALAND SUBSCRIPTIONOFFICES: Morsum Magnificat, 9 Wetherby Close, Broadstone, Dorset BHIB 818, England. Telephone/FAX: Broadstone (0202) 658474: International +44 202 658474 EDITOR Geoff Arnold G3GSR CONSULTANT EDITOR Tony Smith G4FAl (until further notice, please write to Tony care of the Editorial office) © G C Arnold Partners 1994. Printed by Hertfordshire Display Company. Ware, Hens ON OUR FRONT COVER Buzza Morse Code Apparatus No.2, made in Australia, possibly in the 19305. Base, ‘Masonite'; key and switch lever 0.05in (1.3mm) steel strap; pressure required to close key 800 grams (!); contacts are steel nuts and washers; buzzer appears to be a commercial item of average quality. An example in poor condition seen in an antique shop recently was priced at A$100 (about £50). Collection/Photo:Colin MacKinnonVK2DYM (Buzza also made more professional-looking keys andfurther information on this company and their products will be welcomed. — Ed.) Comment Contents NE OF MY GREAT DELIGHTS IN LIFE 2 News is browsing through old books and maga- 6 MM Back Issues & zines. Not just those which deal with In the Next Issue 0telegraphy or wireless, but any which describe the 6 Radio Bygones then ‘state of the art’ in other mechanical or scien- 7 Chinese Dit-Dahs tific too. In the I be topics, process, never cease to 8 The First Time amazed at how the just true old saying ‘There’s I Saw Paris nothing new under the sun’ turns out to be; forjust 16 Words, Words, Words... how many years the cunning ideas of today have 18 actually been in use. What Hath God Wrought! 22 Short Breaks The scale may be different, and the way in which the ideas are implemented will no doubt 24 Showcase have changed considerably, but many of the prin— 26 Polar Radio, 1912 Style ciples used in today’s high-tech equipment were 34 Info Please! actually thought up a century or more ago. 35 MM Bookshelf I such idea I came across just an whilst was 36 More on the Aircraft for searching an interesting illustration for the back Identification Switch cover of this issue of MM. The idea is that of a 38 MM Binders printer based on the principal of pressing a piece of 38 Hear, Hear! paper against a rotating type-wheel at the precise 39 moment that the desired character is facing the ‘Infatuation’ paper. The same basic idea has been used, in either 39 Short Breaks a mechanical or electronic medium, in typewriters, 40 Creed Trainer Key computer printers, even in early photo-typesetters. 42 Readers’ Advertisements Were you to include applications where the printed 43 Your Letters is ‘rasterised’ — image transmitted and reproduced 48 US Subscriptions via as a pattern of dots, rather than in ‘solid’ characters Wise Owl — even television, video and modern printers of the laser and ink~jet varieties could be said to owe something of their existence to that same idea. And where did our back-cover illustration errtllsement come from? A book published 99 years ago. ntfex Truly amazing! I CG VW’M EH; 23 G4ZPY Keys 42 G-QRP Club 42 FISTS CW ,/ G3GSR Club MM33 — flpr‘if 1994 Mew Operation Maquis 1994 (FSHJM), TMSOHA (FSIDA), Readers are reminded that over the week- TOSORC (Martinique) (FMSCW), end of 11—12 June 1994, special event ON4WAR (ON7YO), PA6JUN, stations in France, England, Belgium, GBZIWM (G4HXH), GX4ARE Holland and Martinique, will be on the (G4ARE), GBSHCR (or GOFSP/P) air to honour the memory of the radio (GOFSP), GX3YRG/P (G3OEP), operators who risked, and often suffered, GOJNP, G4NXN. death or torture while maintaining the On Sunday June 12, from 0630 UTC, clandestine radio links between France on 7.025MHz, a net will be activated in and England during WWII. communication with GBZIWM at the Many of the commemorative stations Imperial War Museum’s Duxford air- will be using low-power wartime equip- field. During these communications, ment on the 40m amateur band and stations on the continent (some using modern equipment will be used on other wartime equipment) will transmit in te- bands. All radio amateurs are invited to legraphy a sentence in French similar to contact them, and those using B2 or those sent by the BBC during WWII, other clandestine sets will be especially and the sentences will be sent back in welcome. English by GB2IWM. A diploma can The stations will be active mainly on be applied for by radio amateurs or these CW on the HF bands, but also in other SWLs who copy at least five of modes and with some limited operation sentences, together with the calls of the on VHF. Contacts will be confirmed stations which sent them. will by special QSL cards specific to each Additionally, station TMSOMA station, and special diplomas will be be activated from June 7 to 12 from a A further awarded as described below. different location each day. Stations (QSL managers in brackets) diploma will be available for amateurs SWLs who hear, this taking part will be: TMSOAM (FSSMR), who contact, and TMSOCA (F6HPX), TMSOCR station and report its different QRA (FSOZX), TMSOLF (FSMXH), locator on each day of operation. self— TMSOLR (F6DTU), TMSOMM For more information send a 1 and IRC to Jean- (F 1 NYO), TMSOND (F SIU), addressed envelope 5 chemin TMSORB (FlHNU), TMSOSO Jacques Legrand FSSMR, Mi 06560 (FSWA), TMSOVR (F6AXX), du Cambarnier, Villa Lou, TMSOYO (F3NV), TMSOBR Valbonne, France. in this (FSMYW), TMSOSM (F6IPS), (Reports from participants MM. TMSOMN (FSXX), TMSCD (F2FX), special event will be welcomed by TMSOMA (FSAM), TMSOHG — Ed.) 2 mm — flprif1994 Danish Liberation Celebrations hoc Morse committee, or its members, The Danish Freedom Fighter Museum are asked to contact MM immediately. station OZSMAY (see MM31, p.7) plans to be on the air on May 4, on 14.038, ZR0 Test 14.043 and 14.046MHz (i) to celebrate The ZRO Memorial Technical Achieve- the Danish liberation message. ment Program, otherwise known as the UK stations are particularly asked ‘ZR0 Test’, may be of interest to read- to stand—by for this station, for normal ers of MM. Basically, it is a series of QSOs and ‘chat’, because many WWII CW numeric code groups transmitted at resistance people come to the museum 10 wpm through the AMSAT—OSCAR- that day and like to see the station l3 amateur satellite with each succes- working. sive group transmitted at a lower power Torben Dahl, OZSABN, writes than the previous group. ‘please be patient when calling us as The participating listener monitors we are sometimes speaking to the visi- the downlink signals from the satellite tors and it is not possible to key at the until the numbers can no longer be cop- same time. There are also two short cer- ied. Those who can hear the beacon can emonies in the evening, at 1930 and qualify for the basic award by copying 2030, when we may have to shut down the code group heard at that level (des- for 10—15 minutes.’ ignated ‘ZO’). The challenge is to improve home- IARU Morse Committee station reception performance to a point A meeting of the Administrative Coun- where the lower-level downlink signals cil of the International Amateur Radio can also be copied. Endorsements, in Union was held in Brussels, Belgium, the form of attractive stickers to affix to 26—27 on September 1993. During this the basic certificate, record each succes— meeting, its chairman, IARU President sive level heard and accurately copied. Richard L. Baldwin WlRU, announced At the beginning of the run, uplink his intention to appoint several new power from the control station is set to ad hoc committees, including one to be match the general beacon downlink concerned with ‘Morse code: the issues, strength. This is level ‘ZO’. After send- and a proposed position’. ing and repeating the first random five— There is no further information at digit number at this level, the control this but the time, recommendations of operator lowers his uplink power by 3dB this committee could, potentially, have (half power) and repeats the procedure a considerable impact on the large with a new random number (level ‘21 ’). numbers of radio amateurs who still This continues through successive use Morse code around the world.