K4OJ wrote:
> ...for me it is just the opposite, everything
> seems to be CW - after flushing the toilet, and
> the tank is filling, I swear I can hear a bunch
> of QSOs in play - they sound like UA)'s over
> the pole - what is real scary is when I start
> pulling calls out of the water/porcelain
> marriage!
Speaking of Morse in the water, true story follows----
Takes place on a Navy destroyer docked in Norfolk, VA.
As some of you know, in my mis-spent youth and early adulthood I was a Navy
Radioman. In the late 50's, early 60's, that meant that newbie 'bootcampers'
spent most of their waking hours copying the "Fox" CW traffic, monotonous
24WPM 5-letter coded groups for for 8 or 12 hours straight, then crash to grab
some sleep, wake up and eat, and back at it again.
After one particularly long 12-hour watch 9-PM to 9-AM, I had just
grabbed some breakfast, took a shower, and crashed in my bunk at about
10AM. The bunk was just below the waterline and next to the skin of the
ship (5/8" steel plate). As I lay there just drifting off to sleep I
started to clearly hear Morse code coming from the water outside the
hull of the ship. It was slow and choppy, as sent by an inexpert
operator on a mis-adjusted straight key, but it was readable code, and
it seemed to come from more than one source, because there were changes
in pitch and intensity at various times. "Aw, it's only my imagination
fueled by exhaustion" I convinced myself and drifted off to sleep. When
I awoke several hours later, it had disappeared.
When I went back up to the radio shack that evening form my next shift,
I mentioned this to a couple of old hands, they gave me a 'knowing look'
and snickered a bit, and pooh-poohed it away. Somehow I had the feeling
they knew something that they weren't sharing with me.
Fast forward to the next morning after my 12 hour shift. I was beat, so
skipped breakfast and shower and just crashed... in my bunk by 0915.
There was no code coming through the hull! I was my imagination after
all!
10AM -- I am jerked awake by Morse coming at me again, right through the
hull of the ship! Luckily there was another RM, a bit more experienced
than I, in the compartment. Sheepishly I asked him if he heard the same
code I was hearing. I had to convince myself that I wasn't going nuts.
"Of course" he said. "It's Gertrude."
Who the hell is Gertrude, and how is she sending Morse through the hull
of a destroyer?" I asked.
Well, to make a long story short, "Gertrude" was a code word for a sonic
system that Sonarmen useD to communicate with submarines during fleet
exercises. Took a visit to the sonar shack, and they had a J-38 which
they used to key a sonar transducer, and of course they weren't very
expert. Turns out that every Tuesday and Wednesday at 10AM they held
practice drills with other destroyers moored nearby.
73, Hans, K0HB
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