Eleanor Powell tap-dancing actual morse code in Ships Ahoy 1942 movie clip. We**, listened to this carefully and the code in minute 1.35 is an SOS and then at 2.38 it’s a bit sloppy at first and the transcribing is ahead of her tapping, but its real code. Overall fascinating.
**The authenticity of this code was verified by the W2LCW ‘CW Cops’
In this second clip from the movie Ship Ahoy, 1942, we first hear morse code buzzing in the background and ‘Darling I love you’ is correct except love is sent as ‘lowe’. Powell’s tapping SOS at minute 0.28 is correct and in minute 1.09 we have listened closely and she has tapped danced ‘youre wonderful’ but spelled wonderful as ‘wonderfuj’. This is overall very accurate code and unique dancing but could have been done 100% correct considering CW was at peak use in WW2 at the filming time of this movie….W2LCW ‘CW Cops’
Hazel Fausak, 93 years old in 2015 talks of her WW2 radio operator days in Canada and does some CW at the end of the video.
We hope we will remember our CW if we make it to 93.
We hope we will remember our CW if we make it to 93.
QST Magazine image 1942: “CW For Our Country”
WW2 Marine radio trainees. CW was copied by typewriter and not by hand.
Here is a 1950 photo of Olive Carroll, then a 24 year young woman from British Columbia, who trained as a Canadian radio telegraphy officer and took a job on a Norwegian ship and traveled the world. Her original ham call was VE7ERA. She is still active using CW as VA6ERA / CF6ERA.
A book about her career, Deep Sea ‘Sparks’ – a Canadian Girl in the Norwegian Merchant Navy, can be found on Amazon.
Women doing a portable operation in the 1940’s
U.S. Navy WAVE Virginia L. Scott sending a message in a Code Room of the Radio School at Madison, Wisconsin March 1943 B/W. John Falter later made this color reproductive print in 1943 as a recruitment poster from the B/W photo. The print is a wonderful depiction of the era and the importance of CW in WW2.
