{Mumfier 39 — flpriI 1995 Kigfit ck Left-fl-flszecf‘ViEropfex wags EDITORIALAND orsum SUBSCRIPTIONOFFICES: . Morsum Magnificat. 9 Wetherby Close, Broadstone, Dorset BHIS SJB, England. Phone/FAX: Broadstone (01202) 658474; ISSN 095 3-6426 International +44 1202 658474 MORSUM 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 andfuture. MORS UM MAGNIFICAT is for all Morse enthusiasts, amateur or professional, active or retired. It brings together material which would otherwise be lost to posterity, providing an invaluable source of interest. reference and record relating to the traditions and practice ofMorse. EDITOR Geoff Arnold G3GSR CONSULTANT EDITOR Tony Smith G4FA1 (l3 Morley Road, Sheringham, Norfolk NR26 81E, England. Phone: 01263 821936) © G C Arnold Partners 1995 Printed by Hertfordshire Display plc, Ware, Herts ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: 1 UK - Europe Rest of the World Airmail Airmail lYear: £12.00 £12.75 £15.50 1. 2 Year: £22.50 £24.00 £29.50 EEL§Eid Payment by Access, Eurocard, Master—card or Visa is also accepted; quote your card number and expiry date, checking that you have written them clearly and correctly. Overseas cheques, etc., must be payable in Sterling and drawn on a London Clearing Bank. Please add £2 for transfers via Girobank International, Bootle. UK. Make all cheques payable to ‘G C Arnold Partners’. Subscribers in North America only For VISA or MASTERCARD orders via can make payment in US Dollars to our Wise Owl, call (310) 375—6258. Best times subscription agents there, Wise Owl to call: week-days 9am to 9pm Pacific WorldwidePublications,4314 West 238th Time, or week-ends 9am to 6pm Pacific Street, Torrance. CA 90505—4509. USA. Time. Ifrenewingyour subscription by mail, Make checks payable to Wise Owl World- please send them the reminderyou received. wide Publications. If ‘phoning. tell them you are renewing,and RATES: Airmail which was the last issue you had. 1 Year: $26.50 All subscription copies are individually 2 Year: $50.00 mailed directlyfrom the UK NOTE: Surface Mail is becoming Increasingly slow and unreliable, and we can no longer guarantee delivery of subscription copies by this method. ON OUR FRONT COVER Right and left-handed Vibroplex #6 Lightning bugs. Photo/Collection: Dave Pennes WA3LKN Comment Contents MUST ADMIT that, when typing the article on the 2 News close-down of US Coastguard station NMN which U1 Radio Bygones appears on page 36 of this issue of MM, I was close to shedding a tear. Having listened to NMN’s broadcasts 6 Reflections from myself during my time at sea, it seemed a particularly Uncle Bas — 22 poignant report. I hope that the equipment and the skills 8 Calibrating the Speed which have stood the test of time at NMN and many other Control W/T stations ashore and afloat be thrown on your are not to willy— Electronic nilly upon the scrap—heap. Keyer I well understand all the wondrous things which com- 10 Military Morse Training puters and satellites are bringing to mankind (and the not so USA wondrousthings, too). However, just because someone has 12 What Happened and and a computer, perhaps a laptop a personal electronic to TOPS? organisertoo, that person would be foolish indeed to throw 14 away all his pens and pencils and his last scrap of paper. MM Back Issues I am sure that we Morse enthusiastscan be relied upon 16 Commemorating to carry on using and honing our skills, but the relentless E. T. Krenkel of WIT the discarding by professionalscontinues to worry 24 Showcase me whilst the world remains such a precariousplace. On another matter, I have to announce that all our 26 A Morse Filter/ stocks of kits for the W3NQN CW Filter have now been Digital Decoder sold. Under the auspices of the G—QRP Club, Ian D. Wye, 27 MM Binders New House, Hook Road, South Amcotts, Scunthorpe, 28 First Humberside DN17 4A2, is holding stocks of components High Speed for several filter designs from Ed Wetherhold W3NQN, Telegraphy World and is happy to receive enquiries from Europe. Championships Readers elsewhere should contact Ed Wetherhold 32 News extra direct 1426 — at Catlyn Place, Annapolis, MD 21401 4208, 34 Info Please! USA, enclosinga US dollar bill to cover his expenses. 36 ’1 NMN (Chesapeake) Closedown 114100?” 38 MM Bookshelf 1/ 39 Readers’ ADS STOP PRESS! 40 Code in the Head NZ Government Seeks Change in Test Rules 42 Your Letters The Governmentof New Zealand has decided to propose the deletion of RR 2735 in Article 2 of the Radio Regula- tions at the next World Radio Conference(WRC95) to be held in Geneva in October. RR 2735 contains the current Mom ncfex ‘ I requirement for competence in Morse code by radio amateurswishing to operate on frequencies below 30MHz. 9 The QRP Component Co. In a letter to NZART, New Zealand’s national radio 15 Derek Stillwell society, the Ministry of Commercehas advised that even if 33 G4ZPY Paddle this move is successful there is intention Keys no to change International present licensing policies or the Morse code requirementin the foreseeable future. There will be a fuller report on this 48 FISTS CW Club matter in the next issue of MM. 48 G-QRP Club 911171139 — filprif1995 Man United States Coast Guard . tions in numerical order. The serial Abandons HF CW Service number will be allocated by GBZIWM USCG Master Station ‘Atlantic/NMN’ according to the order in which the in- ceased Morse code operations on 1 April tent to participate as a resistance group 1995. Arrangements have been made for is received. If contact is not made the a special certificate to be issued to those call will be repeated at the next hour. copying its historical final message. The station will be operational from NMN was the only military station . 0700 hours on each day on provisional ‘ on the East Coast of the USA still work— frequencies of 7.007MHZ, listening on ing CW on the HF bands, broadcasting 7.010; and 14.007MHz, listening on weather and navigation bulletins and 14.010. The station will be open to all daily code practice. when the scheduled calls are completed. Coast Guard CW stations NMC An SSB station will also be opera- (San Francisco) and NMO (Honolulu) tional on 3.770MHz, listening plus also closed down on April 1. 3kHz, for contacts with all other radio (Informationfrom W5YI Report) amateurs. It is planned to operate the same sta— See also the report of NMN’s tions on the same frequencies on VJ Day closing-downsignals on (August 15), using the suffix /VJ again page 36 of this issue assuming there is no official objection. The object will be to contact as many GBZIWM on VE and VJ Day amateurs as possible who were in the To celebrate VE Day the Duxford Far East during the war with Japan. Aviation Society Radio Section will be Interested persons are being asked to operating GBZIWM on CW from the contact GBZIWM to make themselves Imperial War Museum’s Duxford air- known in order that priority can be field on Saturday and Sunday, May 7 given to them on the day. and 8 (VE Day) signing /VV as a suffix, Special QSL cards will be used for subject to no official objection being contacts made on all these days and all received. contacts will be acknowledged via the The primary purpose will be to bureau. contact resistance groups who operated (Information from Duxford Radio in Europe in WWII. On the hour a call Newsletter, journal of the Duxford will be made for resistance group sta— Radio Society.) 2 Mam — aprii 1995 World QRP Day AGCW Activity Week 1995 June 17 is designated annually by the AGW-DL invites all licensed amateurs International Amateur Radio Union as and SWLs to participate in the AGCW World QRP Day. Many QRP stations CW-only Activity Period from 0000 will be heard using typical levels UTC May 29 to 2400 UTC June 5, 1995. power 1 from 5 watts output down to milliwatts. Use only hand keys, semi-automaticbugs ‘ High power stations are asked to avoid or electronic keyers. No keyboards, or interference to these QRP stations — or electronic code reading devices! better still, to reduce power themselves ‘Contest—style’ QSOs do not count. and join in the fun! Only QSOs with exchange of reports, QTH and names of operators qualify for AGCW-DL scoring in this activity. QRP/QRP Party Scoring: QSO on HF with more than 5 All licensed amateurs and SWLs are watts power = 1 point; QSO on HF with invited to participate in AGCW-DL’s QRP (5 watts or less) = 2 points; QSO CW-only QRP/QRP Party to be held on on VHF/UHF bands = 2 points; Com- May 1 from 1300 to 1900 UTC, on ‘ plete QSO reported by SWL = 1 point. 3510—3560 and 7.010—7.040MHz. Logs: To include callsigns, date and time Classes: A = 5 watts output maximum (UTC), band used, QTH and operator’s (or 10 watts input); B = 10 watts output name of station worked. A declaration maximum (or 20 watts input); and C = must be made confirming acceptance of SWLs. the rules and the power used. SWL logs Call: CQ QRP. Exchange: RST+QSO must include the calls of both stations in Nr/Class. Example: 579021/A. a Q80 and at least one RST report from Scoring: QSO with own country = 1 the QSO, plus band, date and time of point; QSO outside own country 2 the QSO.