Time for a story...................
At the Maritime Academy, all midshipmen will complete 2 semesters at sea on the Golden Bear, named after our state of
California, not Jack Nicklaus the golfer. One
cruise will be as an underclassmen, so better get used to
sanding, painting and
cleaning, the 2nd cruise will be as a senior now with Nav duties. CMA had not had a instructor or midshipman with a General or higher HAM
radio license in 4 years. With me possessing such a
license from the git go (I was licensed before all my upperclassmen were even born), I was told by faculty to familiarize myself with the ships secondary
radio room and test and
repair if needed. All was in good working order except high SWRs (standing wave ratio) either due to the feedlines, antennas, or their connections. The
salt air had compromised a lot of coax and connections, so I was beating my fellow underclassmen to the fun of
cleaning corroded messes, lucky me. We had a crew of 500 and I spent my off time 4 hours a day running
phone patches to crew's
family back home. This puts you as an underclassmen in the enviable position of not receiving the hazing crap and other stuff from the upperclassmen. Plus, for the 1st time in 4 years they had a midshipmen that for the competition against the
Navy and Coast Guard could send and receive flashing light competitions. When you learn Morse code by sound, it does NOT translate to speedy copy of flashing light. My performance (or lack there of) gave us last place in that competition. I got hounded pretty good for my poor performance, here I was a hero one day for running their
phone traffic over the radio, then a total schmuck the next. Flashing light just doesn't
work for me, I need to hear "di dah dah" for my mind to quickly recognized the letter "W". Because of past college I got through CMA's 4 year program in 3 years, so next year's cruise would be my senior cruise and I intended to make good my past poor showing in the flashing light contests. I rigged solenoids and heavy springs on the shutters of the ship's flashing light, doing away with the need to have a fast arm. To drive the solenoids I used a lambic fully electronic paddle keyer running a relay that could handle the
current of the solenoids. I had the engineers rig up a lens, photocell, tripod, circuitry and a tone
generator to drive a speaker. At night in port when the
Navy hot shots wanted a flashing light contest, I'd just swing the lens and
sensor to aim on their light and bingo, I now had the sound my brain needed for fast copy. To send, instead of having to depend on the speed and accuracy (we are being judged by the other's deckofficers) of my wrist, the solenoids are taking there marching orders from my electronic MFJ keyer that employs perfect duration and spacing over a speed range of 3 wpm (words per minute) to about 60 wpm. The contest starts from the Navy vessel at a "I'm sure you can copy" 8 wpm. I return at 13 wpm. They go all out at around 18 wpm with tons of duration and spacing
mistakes. I finish 'em off at 25 wpm and because all my fingers are doing is just tapping a
single paddle back and forth and the
electronics are doing all the precision
work, our light transmissions were considered "flawless and amazing" by the Navy officers. Do I feel bad about cheating? Not in the least.
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