K9YA Telegraph Robert F

K9YA Telegraph Robert F. Heytow Memorial Radio Club Volume 17, Issue 10 October 2020 Andy Hardy’s QSP “W8XZR” Relays Judge Hardy’s Traffic Philip Cala-Lazar, K9PL Place Art work Here he K9YA Facebook page Bringham[?] Canada”); manual receiver/transmitter T(https://www.facebook. switching; plentiful ID’ing from both operators; and com/k9ya.telegraph) recently the casual use of ham radio jargon including “73,” linked an oft viewed but little “Old Man,” “QSL card” and “DX.” researched film clip from the 1938 MGM movie, Love For an instant, in a medium shot, a number of QSL Finds Andy Hardy. In that cards displayed on the wall behind the operating desk https://vimeo.com/248714142 clip Andy Hardy’s (Mickey are clearly visible ( ); freezing the frame they are the cards of W6DTA, Rooney) father, Judge Hardy W6ESD, W6NYD, W6OWM and K6PAS. Philip Cala-Lazar, K9PL (Lewis Stone), wants to send a message (from Carvel, Editor in an unnamed Midwestern state) to Extracted from the spring 1939 edi- his wife, Emily (Fay Holden). Trouble Mike Dinelli, N9BOR tion of the Radio Amateur Call Book: Layout is Mrs. Hardy is caring for her mother, W6DTA, Albert W. Brunner, 940 who recently suffered a stroke, at a Cedar St., San Carlos, Calif.; W6ESD, Jeff Murray, K1NSS Staff Cartoonist farm in rural Ontario, Canada where A.G. Neumann, 1228 Rimpau Blvd., there’s no telephone and telegrams “plentiful ID’ing” Los Angeles, Calif.; W6NYD, [Lt.] unnerve his wife. Andy suggests that A.W. Greenlee,* 621 I Ave., Coronado, 12-year-old amateur radio operator Calif.; W6OWM, Leo G. Stoeckle, Jr, Jimmy MacMahon, “W8XZR,” played 1330 45th, Sacramento, Calif.; and Dick Sylvan, W9CBT by 15-year-old Gene Reynolds, can get K6PAS, F.J. Bishop, 3244 Pahoa Ave., Cartoonist Emeritus the message through. (Note: during that Honolulu, T.H. [Territory of Hawaii]. Rod Newkirk, VA3ZBB (SK) period the FCC reserved “X” suffixed call signs for Research revealed none of these hams were employed Contributing Editor experimental stations, making for a fictitious amateur by the motion picture industry. 2004 - 2012 radio call sign.) Curious hams want to know; who advised and Steadfastly making calls long into the night, Jimmy oversaw the scene’s authenticity and contributed the succeeds in raising another 12-year-old ham, Basil Gordon, VE3AVS. Basil copies the message and CONTINUED - ANDY HARDY’S QSP ON PAGE 8 hand delivers it to its nearby destination. Some time later Basil calls back to acknowledge delivery. The Inside This Issue… winter 1937 Radio Amateur Call Book lists VE3AV, Andy Hardy’s QSP Page 1 but VE3AVS was not yet assigned. The winter 1938 edition lists VE3AVR and VE3AVT, VE3AVS still not My First Day on the Job… Page 2 assigned—another fictitious amateur radio call sign. MorseLs–16 Page 4 Robert F. Heytow The scene, depicted in Jimmy’s well-equipped and “Rig Here is an Eico GDO” Page 6 Memorial Radio Club authentic looking shack, finds him closely adher- WB2ABJ & MARS Page 7 www.k9ya.org ing to realistic, contemporary, radio amateur AM Oh! The Hamanity Page 8 t [email protected] phone procedure with repeated directed CQs (“CQ ISSN 2472-2340 Copyright © 2020 Robert F. Heytow Memorial Radio Club. All rights reserved. Volume 17, Issue 10 2 My First Day on the Job as a Telegrapher Warren McFarland “DS RY EAT,” I slowly not have indoor plumbing. Some had no electric clicked out on the telegraph lights. Raiford had both. key, using my fist. When the I had no concerns about my ability to handle the Train Dispatcher replied, railroad and Railway Express Agency work. My fa- “OK DS,” I heaved a sigh ther had trained me well in those aspects of rail- of relief and immediately roading. But telegraphy was another matter. It’s cut out all of the telegraph sort of like learning a foreign language and at the lines in the office, achiev- Place Art work Here same time patting your head and rubbing your ing blessed silence after my stomach. It requires considerably more practice first morning on the job than the average young person is likely to perform. as an agent-operator. Even The solution is to jump in and sink or swim. Rai- though I had spent many ford was my first jump. months as a telegraph stu- dent under my father, who I had always been intrigued by telegraphy. I can re- Warren McFarland was the agent for the Atlan- call as a small boy, probably in 1928, when the base- tic Coast Line Railroad in Avon Park, Fla., there ball World Series was being played, going with my was a tremendous difference between that and in mother and younger brother to the bandstand in a being only 18 years old and having total responsi- park in the middle of downtown Avon Park where bility for an agency, including all telegraphic com- telegraph instruments and a blackboard had been munications in the office. set up. The Seaboard Airline Railway agent, A. O. Kinsey, the Western That day in February 1942 began my Union agent and my father, the ACL seniority as a telegrapher on the Ocala “jump in and agent, all took turns copying the tele- District (Division) of the ACL. I had graph transmissions from the games arrived before daylight on train No. sink or swim” and posting the play by play, inning 38 to relieve the agent, W. K. Jen- by inning results on the blackboard. kins, who would be absent for about There was a large crowd and I can still a week, attending the annual conven- recall the sense of pride I had, that it tion of the Order of Railroad Telegra- was my father telling all of these peo- phers, of which he was an officer. Raiford, Fla. was ple about the World Series. That was the beginning a very small town, located about 45 miles south- of my interest, but I didn’t seriously attempt to learn west of Jacksonville on the ACL line running from how to do it until my senior year in high school, Jacksonville to St. Petersburg. It was a one-man after I had decided that I wanted to make railroad- agency, but it was home to the only penitentiary ing my career. in the state at that time, which meant that it was a fairly busy office. At Raiford, as in all the one-man agencies, the agent was required to keep a different set of accounts for In a one-man agency, the agent was responsible for each of the two or three hats he wore, railroad, Rail- everything—passenger business, freight business, way Express and, sometimes, Western Union. In Railway Express (the United Parcel Service of the larger towns there were usually separate Western day) packages and Western Union telegrams. He, Union offices, thus the railroad agent-telegrapher Robert F. Heytow Memorial Radio Club and it was nearly always “he” in those days, even had no Western Union responsibility, except in swept the floors, dusted the furniture and cleaned emergencies. Each agency had a large “Cash Book,” www.k9ya.org t [email protected] the restrooms, if there were any. Many agencies did which my father taught me must be balanced at the K9YA Telegraph Copyright © 2020 Robert F. Heytow Memorial Radio Club. All rights reserved. end of each day, for keeping the railroad account. have made it through those days without his as- Railroad station accounting was a double-entry sys- sistance and in my youth I am certain that I failed tem, but was different from normal accounting, or to thank him adequately. 3 bookkeeping as it was known then. Money received On the other hand, the outbound shipments of li- was entered as a debit, while money deposited to the cense plates to the various County Clerks through- railroad account was entered as a credit. out the state did result in commissions being paid The agent also was paid separately for each hat he by Railway Express. Rail- wore. The railroad paid a salary ranging from $100 way Express commissions to $150 per month at that time, while Railway Ex- ranged from ten per cent press and Western Union paid a commission based down to six per cent, based upon the cost of shipments or telegrams handled. on the volume of business The difference between the two was that Railway in a given location. These Express paid a commission on both collect and commissions kept the li- prepaid shipments, either inbound or outbound, cense plate business from while Western Union only paid a commission on being a complete loss to the Place Art work Here collect telegrams received and prepaid telegrams Raiford agent. sent. Raiford had the usual as- The Western Union commission policies resulted in sortment of telegraph wires the agent at Raiford performing considerable work running through the office, for which he received no pay. Inmates at the state a dispatcher’s wire, No. 17, penitentiary manufactured the automobile license with an alternate, No. 16, a Ocala Union Station plates for the entire state. The County Clerk in Western Union wire, and two or three other, lo- each county would order license plates, by Western cal wires. I cannot recall if there was a “bluestone” Union telegram sent prepaid. Penitentiary officials battery located at Raiford to serve as a power would notify the County Clerks of license plates booster, but many of the one-man agencies did shipped by Western Union telegram have them. The local agent had some sent collect. These types of telegrams responsibility in maintaining these constituted the bulk of the Western batteries, but the signalman came by Union business at Raiford, thus the on a regular basis to assure they were agent received no commission on “a ‘bluestone’ working properly.

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