U.S. Army Morse Code Practice Records

Featured are excerpts from some old 78-rpm code practice records, made by the "Special Service Division, S.O.S., War Department". Manufactured by "Allied Record Mfg Co." There is no date on the recordings but judging by the content my guess is that they were made in 1942 or 1943.

No, it probably is not the most exciting video you will ever see, but the audio content may be of interest to some.

The video starts with the Code Aptitude Test... for weeding out unsuitable candidates, I guess. Then part of the first lesson. Finally, the 16-wpm lesson (the highest-speed record I have; not sure if there were faster ones...).

I have uploaded MP3 recordings of the entire set (42 recordings) at www.archive.org

BTW, I learned my Morse Code from these records years ago as a kid. They really do work!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• AF2Z
• Morse
• Code
• Army
• training
• WWII
• 78rpm
• phonograph
• records

[Tsunyme]

i was in 501st signal battalion at the 101ST AIRBORNE DIVISION (AIR ASSAULT). we are the eagle's voice. do you mind if i share this with fellow hams & commo folk? btw: proud to see this post.

[AF2Z]

@Tsunyme Thanks! You can share it all you want. The complete set of recordings are available for download as MP3 files at ARCHIVE DOT ORG Just plug my call sign, AF2Z, into the search box there.

[ereneotaton]

what wpm is this?

[AF2Z]

The record label for this recording says it is 16 wpm but it sounds a little faster than that.

[2fastg35]

Great video! Thanks for sharing... I was wondering how you got those records. ?

[AF2Z]

I got these recording from my uncle who was in the Signal Corps during WWII. I don't know how he came to own them.

[NHSActor]

My grandfather served in the Signal corps in WWII. He worked out of Gaza, Egypt, intercepting German, Italian, and Japanese Diplomatic parcels, and sending them to Washington to be decoded by the OSS. He would have listened to these records to learn the trade. He is today 87, and remembers the code perfectly, despite a bad case of Alzheimers.

[ScenicDepot]

My dad very likely took this same aptitude test after being drafted in 1942, and was told, "You WILL be a radio operator." He scored the highest in the Signal Corps class in Georgia, and was sent to a location in a castle near London to intercept German Enigma transmissions. They didn't know what they were copying at the time, it was all in five-character groups, but it had to be done perfectly. He was required to sit at his radio for eight hours at a time with no breaks.

---KE7J

[HoneycombAgent]

Rare to find a 33 platter spinning at 78 rpm

[alpha754293]

I think the greatest part about the video is the fact that there's a keyboard sitting next to the record player. A little bit of the old, a little bit of the new. And as we advance, I think that some of these skills should be carried along with us; even if it is quite..."archaic".

[PanekPL]

@AF2Z Add these to Discogs and send me the links

I want them

[charlessmyth]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

[marcrhsn]

@JohnnyX50

Those transmissions are made by the USA, Great Britain, Israel and some other countries. Search for "number stations" here on youtube. To receive them, you just need a shortwave radio, not very suspicious and easy to buy. High-tech equipment is much more suspicious. The messages are decoded using "one time pads". Just a piece of paper with numbers and letters on it that can be easily hidden or destroyed. Very low tech, but much harder to crack or discover than any high tech attempt.

[tpsossff]

Yes, not the most exciting bit of video but it is an important historical record. In an age when I can take something smaller than a cigarette packet out of my top pocket and speak to anyone on the planet it is easy to forget that things were once very different.

Sobering too that if I could go back in time with my lappy and the right software I could probably decode into plain English all messages being sent by all sides simultaniously in real time.