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PF1F > CW 26.07.05 20:07l 44 Lines 1975 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : D60097PF1F
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re: Aldis lamps..
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DB0WUE<DK0WUE<I0TVL<F6CDD<7M3TJZ<ON0AR<PI8WFL
Sent: 050726/1904Z @:PI8WFL.#NH1.NLD.EU #:64154 [Enkhuizen] $:D60097PF1F
From: PF1F@PI8WFL.#NH1.NLD.EU
To : CW@WW
VE1EX wrote:-
> Was wondering if anyone out there in WW land, has ever used an aldis
> lamp? If so, was it a rather slow mode of communication, or could a
> person work up to a fairly good speed with practice? I understand from
> a friend of mine, who has his second mate's ticket, that the only place
> where an aldis lamp is used as of a couple of years ago was entering the
> Mediterranian at Gibraltor..
I always found the Aldis lamp on the bridge on all merchant vessels I did
service on, late seventies to late eighties.
Now apparently there are different shapes and sizes, for ours never had
the venetian blind shutter, but rather an opaque tube around the bulb.
Keying the trigger would pull the tube backward, exposing the bulb.
We were never challenged by lamp, but for practice I picked it up a few
times to "talk" to the sister ship sparky who also saw the sport in it.
At one time I used the Aldis to talk to a radio amateur on the English
south coast. He flashed his car lights in reply, but we moved to 2m vhf
after that.
I cannot speak for others, but when reading lamp code I "hear" it in the
back of my head while watching, and then decode that - well, that is how
it appears to me.
My signalling speed in Aldis lamp sending was about 12 wpm. I thought the
shutter could not move faster and anyway, my finger got tired! I had no
training on the thing, obviously. I don't think I could have read much
faster either, but I have never tried afterwards.
(Before anyone asks, in normal marine radio CW work, my keyer was set to
20 wpm and noone complained. It was very comfortable and no repeats needed
as a rule. Of course, some ships had dots sounding like ignition noise,
but they had to repeat two, three, four times.. a single 20wpm is faster.)
Come to think of it, I could easily attach an LED to my Heatking uMatic
keyer and set it (the keyer) in practice mode. Hmm..
Rudolf PF1F
Heemskerk JO22im
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