sๅๅoɹ saddle

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thirdcrank
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Joined: 9 Jan 2007, 2:44pm

Re: sๅๅoɹ saddle

Post by thirdcrank »

I couldn't tell you any of the technical details of what we used and as we were not at sea, at least not in the literal sense, if anything conked somebody arrived in a van to fix it.

In Leeds our master unit was in the Information Room at Brotherton House - newly acquired as Leeds City Police HQ in 1965, just a couple of years before I started although the kit may have been ancient. Stuff from other forces was churned out on perforated rolls - a bit like a pianola. Then the operator decided where it would go. Endless paper. When we first went digital, it was termed a message switch. This meant the sender decided where it went. They were helped by some formats eg if a police pensioner died, the format was PENDEA. Through a combination of backside covering causing over circulation and ignorance, stuff went all over the place at times.

During my time at Farce Control, when I may have been acting-up in the absence of our boss, I received a message switch naming me personally as the addressee in the text, but sent electronically to OPS ie every terminal in operational - as opposed to administrative offices. (Force Control was a part of Operations Division.) Ironically, the message switch was about over-circulation, sent to me because the chief superintendent in (Dis)Organisation wrongly believed my people were responsible for deciding who got what. It included a sarcastic comment along the lines "We all know why this happens." when she obviously had no idea. Bear in mind that this had gone to 40 terminals where the long-suffering operators all knew the score. I sent a truly polite reply back, addressed only to HQ, a single eponymous (?) terminal being as diplomatic as possible explaining what was what. Within minutes I had our own chief superintendent on the blower telling me I should have replied through him. Probably fortunate we were on dry land or we'd have been sunk.
Last edited by thirdcrank on 12 Apr 2021, 4:41pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kylecycler
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Joined: 12 Aug 2013, 4:09pm
Location: Kyle, Ayrshire

Re: sๅๅoɹ saddle

Post by kylecycler »

Mick F wrote: 12 Apr 2021, 4:04pm Murray Code.
Five elements with a 1.5 length start and a 1 length finish, making one character 7.5 elements long.
....... or was it 1 element to start and 1.5 to finish? My memory is vague these days! :?

26 letters of the alphabet of course, but there was a "number shift" character and "punctuation shift" character, plus a "letter shift" to go back to letters. Also a "carriage return" for a new line character. 30 characters in all if my memory serves me.

First teleprinters I worked on were called Type12. Electrical mechanical machines first designed to work on 50bauds, but later they increased it to 75bauds. One baud was one character per second, so these machines rattled themselves to bits especially at 75bauds.

The Type 12, needed a specialist engineer to look after them. He had a separate workshop and spares and was employed every single day keeping the beasts going. He made sure there were spare machines that the operators could swap to in case of a breakdown, and he was on call-out 24/7 for them. That job, was his sole job onboard.

Later, they brought out electrical/electronic machines with a "golf ball" to hit the ink ribbon. They were designated TGN ....... RN was famous for using letter names and or numbers for equipment. The TGN was a vast improvement on the Type12.
Last I remember we had TGN5 ..... or was it 6 ......... in the late 1980s.

Then, we went all digital to DIMPS - Digital Information Messaging Processing System in my latter ships. Probably still used now.
kylecycler wrote: 12 Apr 2021, 3:46pm So how is it some of you folks are able to print letters upside down and back to front? Is it some kind of fiendish trick that came with the update?
As from a previous post regarding the title of this thread.
https://www.flipyourtext.com
Ach, I knew I should have read through the rest of the thread! Thanks for the explanation, though, but as for the rest, it put me in mind of this...*



You're a clever fellow, Mick, an awful lot cleverer than I'll ever be! :lol:

(If you haven't seen "Who's on First?" you haven't lived (yet) - you can see how Morecambe and Wise were inspired by these two...)

*Seriously, though: until you've learned something it's as clear as mud but after you've learned it it's as clear as day - c'est la vie, huh? :)
fastpedaller
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Joined: 10 Jul 2014, 1:12pm
Location: Norfolk

Re: sๅๅoɹ saddle

Post by fastpedaller »

kylecycler wrote: 12 Apr 2021, 3:46pm So how is it some of you folks are able to print letters upside down and back to front? Is it some kind of fiendish trick that came with the update?
You just have to turn the keyboard upside-down? :lol:
De Sisti
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Joined: 17 Jun 2007, 6:03pm

Re: sๅๅoɹ saddle

Post by De Sisti »

Mick F wrote: 12 Apr 2021, 3:09pm Try this then.
ʎʇɹɐd ǝɥʇ ɟo pᴉɐ ǝɥʇ oʇ ǝɯoɔ oʇ uǝɯ pooɓ ๅๅɐ ɹoɟ ǝɯᴉʇ ǝɥʇ sᴉ ʍoN
Back in my old days working on comms and cryptography equipment, this was often typed on the teleprinters.
It's one sentence that I could type blindfold.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.
If you were in the comms trade in the Navy you should have been taught to touch-type(?), so typing a well-known phrase should be easy?
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Mick F
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Location: Tamar Valley, Cornwall

Re: sๅๅoɹ saddle

Post by Mick F »

De Sisti wrote: 12 Apr 2021, 6:03pmIf you were in the comms trade in the Navy you should have been taught to touch-type(?), so typing a well-known phrase should be easy?
I was a technician, fixing the stuff that the operators had broken! :wink:

Most of my hands on comms and cryptography experience was in Clyde Submarine Base communications centre 1982 to 1985.
My jobs at sea tended to cover radars and weapon direction systems, but the last couple of sea jobs I was middle management in charge of the maintainers. I was termed a "system engineer", but more of a pen-pusher and organiser.
Mick F. Cornwall
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