Morse in beginning says "If you understand this you're a giant nerd"

I was a RadOp for the Canadian Military in the very early 80's. The bug was legendary by then and old-timers swore by it and amazingly, bugs are still in use. Brilliant content young lad. Great stuff.

Was watching a mate at a hamfest use one of those double paddle vibroplexes to send. I put my laptop near his setup and put a mic next to his transmitting radio so it could pick up the sidetone and he was doing over 60wpm on the thing. I'm lucky to do 5!

I got my ham license and learned CW (up to about 15wpm) during the pandemic. These days, iambic paddles (which generate dits and dahs electronically) are by far the most common, but bugs are still in use to this day. Every CW test (contest) always has at least one bug user, and you can tell - it is common courtesy to match your speed to a slower contact if you're faster, and while paddle can simply turn a knob to change speed, bug users have to do a lot more work, so they often just send slower dahs but leave their dits speed alone, which sounds like a weird jazz swing. Similarly, the irregularities of straight keys are easy to pick out, too.

I'm convinced he was actually calling in an air strike at the start

Thanks for the video. My Bug was built in 1945 and was used on the Rock Island Railroad. I even know the name of the telegrapher. I put it on the air every once in a while, but I'm not proficient by any means. Usually, I just use a straight key. 73 de N7KBT

7:25 -- The closer is supposed to go UNDER the flat spring -- that little tab at the end stops the pivot at the right place for proper contact. The closers continued to be used on radio keys for keying the transmitter during tuning. 13:15 -- near miss, Grace Hopper is credited with the first computer-related use of the phrase "debugging." In aviation, "bug" was another word used like "gremlin," to indicate a mystery problem. "De-" was a commonly added prefix for such words, to give a humorous "officialese" tone. One interesting note: some old Vibroplex keys can be found in a wooden carrying case, with a cable that has two flat contacts at one end, separated by an insulating layer. These were made for professional telegraphers, who had their own personal keys (adjusted to their preferences). One end of the cable would be connected to the Bug with ring terminals, then the contacts would be inserted between the pads of a straight key, which was then adjusted to minimum gap (thus holding the contacts in place). This adapted the Bug to operate the transmitter without having to remove the straight key, so an operator would be able to use his own key for his shift, then the next operator could do the same thing with a changeover taking only seconds to complete.

There seems to be a bug in the amazon kindle page for Calling all Stations itself. The reviews on your page are all for a genesis album. A lot of comments saying it is just meh without Peter or Phil leaving low star reviews. It might be hurting your rating. I Will be buying your book when i have a little more scratch. I love your channel. Keep up the good work.

My father had one of these. I recently donated it to the NS Savannah, for use as a display item in the radio room there.

Amazing! Old school tec is beautiful!!!

Another great video! Thanks for clearing up the origins of the term "bug". I had always assumed it was the moth story.

I think the famous log entry shown at 13:10 that gets claimed as the "first computer bug" contradicts the idea that the term originated there---the log entry wording "first *actual* bug found" and the rather extraordinary step of saving a dead moth clearly indicates that they found it very funny that a metaphorical bug had for once turned out to be a literal one, but that only makes sense if they already used the term.

Fun fact, the reason amateur radio is called "ham radio" is because the personal affectation you produce when pounding on a straight key is called your "fist" - the best telegraphers back in the day could actually recognize each other by how their fists sounded. A sloppy amateur could be said to be "ham fisted" if their code wasn't neatly and skillfully spaced.

Gills is a writer for several KZfaq channels, has his own channel and is a published author….. I’m excited when I remember to bring my coffee to the bus stop

Very nice and interesting. Now I know how the vibroplex key works, although I own just some "normal" Morse keys. Sometimes I power a circuit with a little model steam engine (+dynamo) and can Morse with a little light bulb, powered by steam. People love this, when I am at a model fair or similar.

I got my Novice license (WN6UQB) in 1965 at age 11 and used a straight key. I was taught to use my thumb and first two fingers to actuate the knob, not a single finger as you demonstrate at the opening. Older hams I met and became friends with all used bugs on CW and while I wanted one, my allowance money never allowed me to get one. Thanks for this great exploration of a wonderful piece of gear!

Such a great video! You do such excellent research! I’m a computer engineer (retired), and a ham. I’ve heard Grace Hopper retell the “moth bug” story for many years, but linking it with the 19th century origin of the term makes so much more sense. Again, such excellent research!

I’m a young ham radio operator who is currently learning the code. When I hit 20WPM I hope to get a bug key to learn on. Thanks for the video!

Giles book is amazing. Waiting for the sequel.

I knew some cw ops who detested bug keys. I think they never got the knack of using them to be honest. I find them charming and their swinging cw sound is a breath of fresh air amongst all the iambics on air.

I can hardly work CW but I know some hams that have amazing skill. One I know has a leg mounted key he uses while driving down the highway on long trips. What’s amazing is he can be sending and receiving 20 wpm while talking to the passenger in his car with him.

Once I heard you sending Morse, I had to start the video over and take out pen and paper. I do not see myself as a giant nerd but have been a amateur ham operator for 50 years and Morse code is my favorite mode. Love the Bug. I had one many years ago :-)

Amazing - as ever, something I hadn't known much about until you took me down the rabbit hole! So much design & engineering for a simple task. It suddenly struck me how much we rely on the presence, or not, of electricity. Binary is just that, Morse the same. It all comes down to dots, dashes, ones, zeros, Yin, Yang, black, white, left, right...& we've built this amazing world on the back of it all!

Another superb video. I can imagine hundreds of morse nerds having an organism watching your video. (Sorry about that one.) I did many, many years ago build quite a high-powered transmitter only to be told that it's output would qualify me for being hung, drawn and quartered.

There is a chance that this will be the video that gets you to 100k subs. Congrats!

I believe you're correct about the word "bug" being in use well before to the moth-in-the-computer story. I'm sure the latter did occur, but the staying power of the story was due to the irony that the bug they were searching for turned out to be an actual bug-later misremembered as the origin story.

I did once treat myself to a brand new, genuine Vibroplex and learnt to use it. While they are, indeed, beautiful pieces of precision engineering, they are very tricky to set up and, if not used and correctly adjusted, can enable the operator to send FAR worse Morse than a straight key ever could. ;-)

1975, I bought a new Vibroplex Original, with the optional "circuit closer" for an extra $5. I never knew it was called a circuit closer or the real purpose it was designed for. I just called it the shorting switch. I used it when tuning the TX tube's plate and load.

I wanna play with all the cool stuff on the shelf behind him!!!

Very good coverage of the Bug.

I am on the younger side of licensed Amateur radio operators at the oh so young age of 35 (currently). I had to learn Morse code at 5 wpm to obtain my General license when I was 15. I never used CW (Morse code) but dad who is 70 did on low power. He strung an antenna atop the General Motors plant in Moraine Dayton where he was a maintenance electrician. When everything was working at the plant - he would work low power DX CW contacts. He would operate on 40 meters. He used a straight key at first and then a semi auto key although I forget the brand and type. QSO?

I was in /u.S. Navy 1962 - 1970, radio operators still used Morse. My memory is that Navy radio operators were allowed to use Bugs, but Navy only supplied straight keys. Radiomen who wanted to use one bought their own.

I would be interested to see your analysis of one of the old (1910s) western electric bell wall phones. they are simple but I am guessing that not many people know how they work.

"IF BOU UNDERSTAND THIS YOURE A GIANT NERD" (sic.)

I remember when I was a boy back in the 1950s going down to the UP Depot in Marysville, KS, to watch the telegrapher use his Vibroplex Bug.

Very cool that people have soooooo many hobbies including this curiosity :) :)

That series arrangement must've caused a LOT of headaches! Does the circuit remain closed when the telegraph is at-rest?

love all your videos mate

I love this video! The first key I ever got after the ubiquitous 'Japan' key was a Vibroplex Original. Super tricky to set just right, but when you finally lock it in, it stays for years.

I have several, the oldest is 1920, works as well today as it did 104 years ago

I love the intro. Keep up the great work! Your channel is very special and unique. You deserve alot of commendations for all of the effort you put into these videos and for your channel/brand. I thank you for helping share the knowledge of all the things you share with everyone of the world and myself. I always enjoy learning new things and about more from the past.

Fascinating!

Great vid, Gilles...👍

The term bug was probably inherited by IT from previous fields, what Admiral Hopper registered was that the bug in the computer was caused by a real bug. BTW, my grandfather learned telegraphy during the Great War, and was able to decode morse by ear even from a distance from the telegraph station. This was later useful later when, as a Station Master, he decoded a message regarding a runaway carriage on the train line, and he got out of the station and started yelling orders to all the personnel on the tracks, which started turning switches, and they were able to send the carriage on a dead track where it could not damage anything but itself.

Great Video !

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. Thanks - - . . . . . . - -

I've come across a two paddle electronic 'vibroplex' which had a neat feature. You can keep the dash paddle activate and insert dots in between dashes with the other paddle. AFAIK this is not possible with any of the mechanical keys. According to the ham that used it he said he really liked it and that it was very convenient, fast and produced perfect lengths of dash and dots an pauses in between.

Never had a bug but do have Vibroplex paddles to use with a keyer. Love it.

Thank you, keep working.

ohh! that typewriter..! alternate history..! : o

You've written a novel? That's awesome! Now I'm curious about the current production of telegraph keys- I'm surprised that there's still some demand for them, always thought that the Morse code was somewhat antiquated method of communication. So, thank you, seems like I have something to read about now:)

I thought the code at the beginning was going to be a Rick roll 😂

Awesome keyb

Vibroplex also came out with a "straight" key, built to the same standards and quality; I love mine!

My dad was a wiz on one of those "bugs." - I never could get the hang of it, or even later keyers and just stuck with a straight key.

Saw a fellow ham use an iambic paddle key, was amazed at just how fast he went, 25 words per minute!

My bug is a chrome deluxe "original" from 1946...with its original cardboard box (serialized to the key). I also have a USN marked straight key Dad brought back from the radio operator's position of the PBY he flew in WWII. Cool history, thanks! I tried to learn morse in Boy Scouts but was better at signal flags...

Nice book ❤

Glass arm is an apt term, also more polite than what it feels like, like cru..., like being nailed-up. Or acid dripping out the parts of your hand and wrist that you still can feel. Or you could call it doorknob despair/rage.

Rug beaters, buggy whips, spoke shaves, telegraph keys...what other relics of the past are still being manufactured today?

This is cool. I was just looking at this model at the local tiny museum and was wondering about it being sideways and what the extra arm did.

good video

Fist needs some practice spacing between letters are a bit inconsistent kudos for the demo...vibroplex is alive and well supplying keyers to Ham radio. I have 3 Vibroplex keyers including a "bug" single keyer which my wife owns and uses.

Were there portable telegraph key sets that could be attached in remote locations, alongside rail lines , for adventurers in remote areas that contained telegraphy lines or military scouts? Would they require battery banks to function?

Okay, who decoded it?

The less know fact is that original telegraph keys produced a magnetic click and the long or short time between the clicks determined if it was a dot or a dash

There is something about this video that I've noticed. It's not the accuracy of the subject matter, nor the overall quality (both excellent), but........the shelf behind you is back to front 😅

Imagine not books on tape, but books on telegraph...

I've got a Lionel J-38 straight key. A video about Lionel would probably be pretty interesting ..

I can't do morse to save my life, but I've always kinda wanted one. There was a guy running a ham store near me who could do (IIRC) 70WPM while holding rudimentary conversation on a digital but still semi-automatic keyer. My twelve year old mind refused to accept this.

How big were the biggest (most operators) networks of wired telegraphers?

Interesting

It's easy to forget how much technology has changed in the past 100 years

The moth story is likely to have been a re-imagining of the "bug bear" idea as it resulted in the first "debug" of a programmable computer. Technology always builds upon earlier developments and electromechanical relay computers were based upon the already troublesome electromagnetic multiplex telegraphic systems.

My cousin had a gorgeous Bug, Ive never picked one up.

today i learned that sending messages this way is still alive and well.

A Marconi marine operator I knew could have two CW QSO's and still engage in a conversion in the radio room, nice chap but hard work. My CW is poor but I can read RTTY (teleprinter Murry code)

2 Thumbs up!!! 👍

I think I have the signal corps box that the training set was kept in. PRS-5, nothing else stamped besides company and battalion.

My father was WWII RAF Aircrew as an AG/Sigs 1939 - '46, and used straight key (I suspect auto keys weren't good in turbulence, or evasive manouvers)

This was a great deep dive for those who are not ham operators or know very little about Vibroplex. Well done! PS. The book cover shown at 14:34 has a spelling error in Morse. Do you see it?

Theres also the story of the moth that got into the Atanasoff-Berru Computer and caused an error - a literal computer bug! Its immortalized on the Iowa State campus outside the electrical and computer engineering building by a large art piece

At 13:07 Supposedly that's where the term "debug" came from.

Turn of the 28th century? I can hardly wait! I hope they develop life extension technology in time for me. (You have a lousy "fist", by the way.)

The keys look worth collecting even if you have no intention of using them.

00:56 starts the real video

Notification Squad! :D

I read “ like and subscribe”

So basically a telegraph bug and a software bug are what linguists would call "false friends." Different etymologies (entomologies?) for the same word in different contexts.

You and fact boii, eh? Never would have guessed 😁

Never could seem to use these. Not enough finesse. I'm not real fast either. My right thumb is dah and middle finger dit on a keyer. Just feels natural. Mostly I straight key.

We call poor operators Lids. Different story.. QLF try sending with your left foot....

wow and zamzam water

Figures I don't know my Morse 😂😂

DJ Mercy

what a plug 😷😷😷😷😷😷

Qlf, OM

If only using a smartphone required one to qualify on morse code, we’d have infinitely fewer problems in society.

Hi Gilles. I could loan you a Vibroplext Iambic paddle set and I can shoot some B-roll for you. I could send some Morse around 13WPM and have it translated by a computer for the viewers to see. Radiotelegraphy is alive and well with amateur "ham" radio operators. I've never used a Bug. I should buy one and learn how. I can tell when the sender on the radio is using a Bug as the weighting is different from electronic keyers. My email is available.

Apparently, the term "bug" actually comes from an error that occurred in a relay-based computer that was manufactured in England around about the time when the German Enigma Code was being broken, the story goes that they were running some calculations on the computer and were getting some strange results, the cause turned out to be a moth that had gotten stuck between the contacts of one of the relays.