wythall radio club

The Elliot Bros GPO Morse Key from the age of Electromagnetic Telegraphy

I recently purchased at auction, a lot described as a “ British 1916 Elliott Bros GPO Pattern Morse key mounted on a wooden plinth”. With fees and delivery charges it cost me £33.00

FIGURE 1: Elliot Bros GPO Morse key c 1916

It will need some restoration and a new spring and couple of parts don’t look quite right so it might be a copy, but further research will confirm this, and I will describe that work in a future article. This key is probably the oldest in my collection but I was familiar with the manufacturer and wondered if it was ever used in the age of Electromechanical Sounders. I thought was worth further investigation.

The Elliot Bros company has an interesting history. It had its origins in1850 as a company founded by William Elliot together with his two sons who became began trading as William Elliot and Sons and were based at Century Works in Lewisham, London. In 1854 it became known as Elliot Bros and produced optical, surveying, navigational scientific instruments for home and overseas customers including many famous scientists, then working on the new applications for electricity. including batteries and galvanometers and in 1876 a new works was established in St Martins Lane, London to supply the growing demand for telegraphy equipment together with switchboard components and measuring instruments for the lighting, traction and power industries. Elliot Bros and its successors would continue to grow and develop through innovation, takeovers and amalgamations as a high-tech company, eventually, over time, becoming part of GEC, GEC Marconi and currently BAE Systems Ltd. It was one of the first suppliers of electronic computers and control systems in the 1950’s.

Looking at the morse key with its GPO attribution I started thinking about how quickly telegraphy developed in this country with messages being sent country and world-wide using morse code. Each large town and city would have telegraph offices based in Post Offices and railway stations where the telegraphist would tap out their messages, at so many “old pence per word,” to be received far away instantaneously and delivered by the telegram boy who would often to be told to wait for a reply.

Of course, morse code wasn’t sent then as we know it today. It was all sent over wires connecting one telegraph office to the next. This was all due to the invention of electricity and the battery plus the development of electromagnetism by Michael Faraday in the 1830’s. American academic Professor Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail were working on electromagnetic devices to record switched voltages on a moving paper tape in the 1840’s. They developed what was to be known as American or Railroad Morse Code.

Although we attribute the code to Morse, it was Vail who invented the system of assigning long and short voltages to different letters in the alphabet to form a “code” of dots and dashes, which could be transcribed on a moving paper tape and read by the recipient on a device known as a Register

American Morse Code uses different time lengths; a dot, a short dash (two units), a long dash (four units for the letter L) and very long dash (five units for the number 0). It also uses gaps within letters meaning a character might consist of a mix of clicks and pauses. International Morse Code which was developed a little later uses uniform dots and dashes.

The basic telegraph system comprises an electrical circuit connected by wires to a voltage source (battery) using a morse key as a switch to energise a relay in the Register. Applying the voltage to the relay coil induces an electromagnetic field which causes the iron core to move in when the voltage is applied and out when the voltage is removed. As the relay opens and closes it makes two different sounds and although the morse was being visually recorded on paper as DOTS and DASHES there was always an audible indication of what was being received from the operation of the Register relay. In the 1850s telegraph operators began to realise that they could recognise the different sounds made by the Register as dots and dashes and a new device was developed called the Sounder based around the electromagnetic relay.

A dot was a CLICK followed a short time later by a CLACK.

A dash was a CLICK followed a long time later by a CLACK.

The SOUNDER could be amplified by housing it in a small wooden partial enclosure, called a RESONATOR. This amplified the sound by bouncing the echoes out of the front of the resonator towards the operator

The following table shows some examples of American Morse Code letters and their sound:

Fig 2 is a picture of a typical morse key and sounder unit that would be used in telegraph offices throughout the world. A video and sound recording of a morse key and telegraph sounder receiving American ( a.k.a. Railroad ) Morse Code can be found here. (https://youtu.be/-St7jTk5ciw)

           Figure 2: Morse Key and Sounder

I also found an interesting American Morse Code demonstrator on the internet from Morse Code World . You can select letters from a table and hear what it sounds like on a Telegraph Sounder or CW Oscillator.

International Morse Code was standardised in the 1860’s to suit European telegraphy needs and replaced American Morse Code. In later years it became better suited to audible, consistent-tempo signalling using an oscillator, whereas American Morse mostly stuck with the click of a mechanical sounder

With the invention of the thermionic valve, in the early 1900’s enabling the invention of the oscillator, we can assume that electromechanical sounders and resonators would have still been in use at a time when this Elliot Bros GPO key was made. In fact, we know that sounders stopped being used for commercial telegraphy as late as the 1940’s as telephony networks expanded and teleprinters came into service.

Listening to the Sounder demonstration video, I wondered how long it would take to become proficient in sending and receiving with a sounder. I asked the question of Google and it said, “becoming proficient as a telegraphist using a sounder typically took 3 to 6 months of intense daily practice in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While beginners could memorize the Morse code alphabet in a few hours, training their ears to distinguish the rhythmic “tap, tap, tap” of the sounder and achieving working speeds of 15–20 words per minute required significant dedication, often involving long hours of apprenticeship, especially for noisy environments like railroad stations.”

Apparently, the best operators could translate the sounder’s clicks into written text immediately, sometimes typing messages directly onto a typewriter whilst receiving.

In the UK, in the GPO, there was a career hierarchy within the Telegraph office with boy or girl Messengers becoming Sorting Clerks, then Probationary Telegraphists for up to a couple of years before becoming an Established Telegraphist. The man responsible for the Telegraphy office was called the Superintendent Telegraphist.

The development of UK telegraphic networks saw a shift from private commercial ventures in the 1840s to a unified, Government owned, nationalized service operated by the General Post Office (GPO) by 1870. The GPO expanded the telegraphic service nationwide, utilizing railway lines for infrastructure and providing competitive services until competition from telephone networks reduced its usage throughout the 20th century. At its heyday there were some 14,000 telegraph offices in UK towns and cities.

Looking through some family photographs from the 1890’s, I was surprised to find a picture of Great Grandad Pettitt in his role as a Telegraphist in the Main Birmingham Telegraphist office in Exchange Chambers, Corner of New Street and Stephenson Place.

Talk about it running in the family !!

An extraordinary likeness.. Great Grandad Pettitt at work in the 1890’s

73 

Chris G0EYO

70cm handies and Club handheld yagis at the ready next Tuesday 2nd June.

It’s the annual Wythall Radio Club ‘find the hidden transmitter’ evening in Wythall Park – 7.30 for 7.45 pm by the Tennis Courts.

Bring a 70cm hand-held and an antenna adapter to take the PL259 plugs on the yagis.

Expect lots of fun trying to be the first to find the transmitter. 

And chat afterwards in the bar of Wythall House.

Visitors welcome to participate or observe!

Some previous years events can be found here.

2025

2024

We’ll be continuing to build the excellent LARC 40m kits this Tuesday 19th May.

Come and see the Club in action!

Six members are building these SSB/CW transceiver kits as a Club project.

And on Tuesday John M6KET has donated his so anyone can have a go at building part of it.

Just the job for a little refresher or first time soldering and coil winding – there will be expert helpers on hand to advise where necessary!

A working LARC radio will be available as a guide (see photo).

The LARC sets have few components to solder in place and only a couple of torroids to wind.  Great for first-time builders.

Wythall House Darts Room from from 8pm on Tuesday – visitors welcome!

Daffodils bloom again at Wythall House- it must be Radio Club’s Easter Contest time

A good turn out of members again at Wythall House the other Tuesday to see the awards presented in the usual entertaining fashion by Lee G0MTN with the bonus of some slides from the family’s holiday to Japan (and even JA/G0MTN QSO’s to prove it.

Lee reported on the many take-aways from this year’s contest:

*There were over 100 contacts made over the contest period;

*There was trend away from the traditional 145.225 FM contacts ;

*There was an increase in the number of modes used to include – FM/GB3WL/GB3XO (Echolink)/SSTV/HF both CW and SSB and FT8;

*JA/G0MTN was a very welcome surprise call as Lee visited Japan with family;

*There was a brief discussion of how the rules might evolve for future Easter Contests;

(The Easter contest was always designed to be a simpler version of the Xmas Contest)

*Lee also gave the meeting a brief update on the many challenges he faces as an organiser  of the WORLD RADIO TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP to be held in the UK on July 11^th 2026.

And the results!

            THE COLIN BAKER G6ZDQ 2M/70CM TROPHY WINNER: NEIL G1TZC

            THE G0ICJ DAVID DAWKES ALL MODE TROPHY WINNER: CHRIS G0EYO

The wonders of Zoom as Lee presents the trophy to a delighted on screen Chris G0EYO

As ever the Club thanked Lee for his promotion and organising of this  great Club Event event

COMING SOON..FRIDAY 15TH MAY 9.45-11.45 THE FRIDAY MORNING CLUB…

TUESDAY 19TH MAY LARCSET 40M KIT BUILDING IN THE DARTS ROOM 

TUESDAY JUNE 2ND FOXHUNT IN THE PARK…

SATURDAY 20TH JUNE GB0BUS ACTIVATION AT WYTHALL TRANSPORT MUSEUM

A TALE OF TWO KEYS BY CHRIS G0EYO

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness”.

I hope lovers of Dickens will forgive my misappropriation of his famous saying but this is a story of two apparently identical morse keys purchased at different auctions, where wisdom may explain the reasons for their apparent differences, but foolishness probably resulted in me buying them in the first place.

Early last year I wrote a piece about the Great Northern Telegraph Company (GNTC) morse key, its origins and the part it played in the development of world-wide communications. This is the key in question.

Figure 1: First GNTC key (a.k.a. The Danish Key)

The underside view (see Figure 3) shows spade terminals which enable it to be plugged into a terminal board or another associated piece of morse equipment known as an undulator which enables the operator to keep a visual record of the received morse and read it later.

In 2025 I purchased a Lot of five morse keys at an auction in Bedfordshire. Amongst them was this apparently identical GNTC key.

          Figure 2: Second GNTC Key

                                                                                     These Scandinavian keys are sometimes known as Swedish Pump, Copenhagen, or Danish keys. Most are large keys with long levers and the contact at the rear of the key, furthest away from the knob. They are designed to be fixed to a desk or plugged into another piece of equipment to keep them stable. They are quite smooth to operate.

In the previous article I had established that originally the key was manufactured in Copenhagen and could be recognised by the number “605/606” impressed on the underside of the Bakelite base to identify the moulding pattern. The first key I purchased was manufactured under licence by Morse Equipment Ltd, of Tring, Hertfordshire in the UK and possibly manufactured by Sedgewall Communications Group in the 1960/70’s. I thought it would be useful to identify the differences between my two purchases. To make things a bit clearer I will identify my first (and original) purchase as: Key 1 and the second (and more recent one) as: Key 2

         Figure 3: Underneath View Key 1

        Figure 4: Underneath View Key 2

 DIFFERENCES

External appearance

1. Key 1 has a Morse Equipment Limited and Serial Number label, whereas Key

shows no sign of ever having had a label.

2. Key 1 does not have skirt under the knob, whereas key 2 does. Most examples of

this key in other people’s collections show it without a skirt. I surmise that Key 2,

the later key, had the skirt as an option. It looks genuine.

Internal appearance

1. Key 1 looks to be a better quality of manufacture. Metal parts are plated,

whereas Key 2 metal parts are not bright.

2. Both Bakelite mouldings have the same pattern number in the same place

stating:

a. 605/1X

b. 606/1X

3. There is a paper label on the inside of Key 2 stating SEDGEWALL plus the number

9621020004, there is no such label on Key 1.

4. Key 1 has four Spade terminals which are wired up to the key contacts, whereas

Key 2 uses threaded screws and nut fixings wired up to the key contacts and towhich the morse plug cable is also wired. These look to be professionally done rather than modifications carried out by an amateur, that is you can’t see wherethe spade terminals would have been on Key 2.

5. Both keys have an access slot in one end to allow a cable to be fed through to the connections. This would not have been required when the spade terminals on Key 1 were used in conjunction with a separate terminal interface board (which was shown on the earlier article).

Clearly from the early evolution of this morse key when it was manufactured by the Great Northern Telegraph Works in Copenhagen, then under licence by Morse Equipment Limited of Tring, it underwent changes. Was this because of specific applications, markets or availability of materials? To try and find out more, I decided to research the company Morse Equipment Limited and its sister companies, Teleprinter Equipment Limited and Communication Accessories Limited.

An advert from Wireless World, May 1973, (reproduced in the previous article), showed that each of these companies traded from the same address; 77 Akeman Street, Tring, Herts. An associate company Morse Equipment (Military) Limited was incorporated in 1994 and in 1996 the company moved to the Apex Business Centre in Dunstable from Akeman Street. The company was finally dissolved in 2010. I have not been able to discover anything which clearly defines the business relationship between the Great Northern Telegraph Works, Sedgewall Communications Group or Morse Equipment Ltd. Were Sedgewall contract manufacturers for Morse Equipment Ltd? All these businesses were in communications equipment manufacture and supply. Great Northern became GN Store Nord A/S and today the group consists of GN Store Nord A/S, GN Hearing A/S, and GN Audio A/S. GN develops and manufactures intelligent hearing, audio, video, and gaming solutions. Sedgewall is a sub-contract manufacturer of electronic and electro-mechanical products and operates within the defence, intelligence, aerospace, maritime and emergency services sectors.

KEY CONSTRUCTION

All straight keys have screw fixings which can be adjusted to give the required spacing between contacts; one on the lever arm (aka the hammer) and one on the base or frame (aka the anvil). There is also another screw which adjusts the tension of the spring that opens the contacts when the key is released. These settings can be adjusted to suit the operator’s preferences. Most straight keys have their contacts and screws fully exposed, although many keys used professionally would probably have a separate cover to prevent tampering and the ingress of dust.

The GNTC key is different in a couple of ways. First everything is housed and mounted in a Bakelite cover. A knurled metal knob which sits under the key arm adjusts the tension on a horizontal spring connected to the lever arm. Turning the screw clockwise increases the tension on the spring, turning it counterclockwise does the reverse. A vertical plastic smooth knob at the front of the key covers a brass slotted screw which has the upper contact on one end. This is used to adjust the contact gap. You set the gap using a screwdriver on the screw. Once set, you turn the plastic knob to “lock” the brass screw in position. Pressing the key down causes the lever arm to raise and close with the upper contact, thus completing the electrical circuit.

 WHAT NEXT?

Not being able to find out anything more about the development or history of the GNTC morse key and its successors, it was time to decide what I was going to do with this duplicate key. I am attracted to keys which have been used professionally, and Key 2 is a nice key but, if it is not going to be fixed to a desk it needs to be mounted on a base or platform, to keep it stable on the desk. I also thought that with such a long keying arm, it may benefit from a base that extended under the arm to prevent it from “tipping” under a heavy-handed fist!

WRC member Neil G1TZC had already designed and manufactured a 3D base for an old Marconi Marine 365 morse key and offered to do the same for this key. We exchanged sketches and ideas, and he came up with the proposal below in less than 24 hours. It took less than one hour to draw using OneShape, an online 3D package and 7 hours to print.

               Figure 5: Neil’s 3D design

Neil explains his strategy for this project.

“This project was built from the bottom up. So, the base section was initially a 200 x 90 rectangle sketch. Then radius off the corners at 10mm. Then you extrude that. Chris wanted a 10mm block at the front, so I went with that for the whole of the base – this is where the whole 3D thing comes in. Inside the box he only wanted 5mm for the base, but with 3D you think beyond the old way of drawing. You add another block the size of the key footprint which was 140 x 90. Again, radius the corners at 10mm. This gets you to a block on a block. Then a lip to sit inside the key to stop sideways movement. This was 130 x 80, to give a 5mm lip all round. Then comes the neat bit. You can extrude backwards. That gives you the open box. Add a couple of screw posts to hold the key in place and you are done. A 45-minute project. It is being printed as a high-quality finish. This takes much longer to print and uses far more plastic but still works out at only about £3 material cost.”

Neil did a great job on this base and the smooth finish blends in nicely with the key to make it look right, even though it is not possible to get a high gloss finish with 3D printing. The next part of the project was to fit the lead weights in the new base. I chose weights which are used on vehicle wheels for balancing (available from Amazon). They come with a self-adhesive backing so affixing them to the base was easy and I found that I had room for weights totalling 800g. This gave the key a real solid feel to it which promised to remain rock solid even in the hardest of key pounding.

    Figure 6: Key mounted on 3D Base

After trying out the key for a few QSOs, I became concerned that, at a height of 71mm, the position of the knob would mean that the operator’s arm would not be comfortable for long term use. In the event, further testing over a few days confirmed that this wasn’t a comfortable height. So, we entered phase 2 of the design.

3D BASE PHASE 2

I asked Neil to reduce the base height by 10mm. I wouldn’t have so much depth to fit all the weights but experimenting found that three layers of weights at 600g was possible. At the same time as reducing the height of the base, I decided that the front stabilising platform was also not necessary and spoilt the overall look of the key. I asked Neil to remove this at the same time as adjusting the height. In the end Neil came up with a height reduction of 9mm which avoided a complete redesign.

             Figure 7: Neil’s 2nd 3D Base

With original GNTC key fitted (no knob skirt), it looked excellent, so weights were fitted to this one and the key was put through its paces over a few days. After a while it became apparent that, for me personally, the key was more comfortable to use with a skirt under the knob, which Neil was kind enough to also produce on his 3D printer

     Figure 8: Mounted on 2nd 3D Base

This seemed like a good time to review where we had ended up. We had two pretty much identical keys. One with a higher base and a stabilising platform and one with a lower base but no stabilising platform. Neil kindly offered to produce a third base, and it was now time for me to decide as what it should be. After much deliberation, I decided that I wanted to end up with two bases both of similar height but one with a stabilising platform and the other without.

            Figure 9: The Final Result

Both keys are comfortable to use, although I am not an experienced enough as a “telegraphist” to have long “rag-chew” QSOs with experienced operators. Originally, being professional keys, they were designed for long term use and are easily adjustable to suit the operator’s requirements. What shall I do with them? Well, I have no idea of their true value and I have invested some cash in them, so I think I will keep them safe and bring them out on those occasions that call for a bit of vintage CW with the other “old fist thumpers” out there.

73 TU dit dit.

de Chris G0EYO

Wythall Radio Club were delighted to welcome back former member Jamie M0SDV to talk about his Solo DXpedition to Grenada: not only that but he’d only just returned the day before from a gruelling trip to Bangladesh operating in a multi -operator expedition as SD21WD

There are surely few  solo DXpedition operations given the logistical demands but Jamie was well up to the challenge and his meticulous planning and execution resulted in an outstanding result in the CQ WW DX CW at the end of November- one of the incentives for this project

 Once arrived on the Island via St Lucia, (an 11 hour flight ) getting the hire car, driving through narrow country lanes to his north of the island  location Jamie prepared the shack for operation.

Solo erection of the antennas  went well  next morning  (a 5.30 a,m. start) until the 18m Spiderbeam pole challenge when a gust of wind caused some problems but with the help of a lone gardener on site the situation was rescued!

The week before the contest was spent with sight seeing, eating the local  food and generally doing the tourist things but also making many QSO’s before the start of the contest at the end of the week

This was Jamie’s final Youth Overlay entry in the CQ WW entry and he claimed the North America Youth record and the Grenada single -op high power record.

In the contest-6,249 QSO’s and scored over 9 million points in the single op all-band entry category

This was a fascinating account, much enjoyed by all members, of a real adventure showing the resilience and resourcefulness of Jamie.

  Our appetites were further whetted by news of a possible M0SDV trip to Ascension Island later in the year.

COMING SOON ON THE WEBSITE

1.A TALE OF TWO KEYS BY CHRIS G0EYO

2.THE EASTER CONTEST RESULTS.

You can see behind the scenes of a solo dxpedition at Wythall Radio Club next Tuesday 7th April at 8pm. 

Visitors are very welcome.

Jamie M0SDV will be talking about his visit to Grenada island as J38W where he made an average of over 1,000 qsos a day. 

The talk will cover the planning and equipment used for this solo dxpedition as well as the operating and day-to-day issues when using this new location. 

Jamie has just returned from 2 weeks operating with the S21WD group in Bangladesh, so this will make an interesting comparison.

The session will be in the Darts Room, Wythall House, Silver Street, Wythall – there is a location map here.

alacarte, SAMBA – these may sound like they belong at a dinner dance…..

Instead, they are part of the world of the Raspberry Pi (RPi) – and material we covered in Wythall Radio Club’s recent 3 evening course.

Over 20 members and visitors packed out the Darts Room, our base at Wythall House. 

Ian M0LQY (photo) took us from first steps with a RPi through networking with a Windows PC to connecting the Pi to manage our radios.

In the final week Ian gave us a live demo of how to compile software, using popular digital mode programmes as examples.

There were lots of questions and discussion, and some attendees brought along radio applications they were using with their RPi.

From discussions in the bar afterwards, it was clear that once you have one Pi it is never enough!  Some owners had 4 or 5!

Many thanks to Ian for an excellent and accessible series of talks, giving us the basis for lots of computing experimentation to fill the time as we head into the summer duldrums on HF!

High pressure and early mist – maybe there will be some enhancement on 50MHz and 144MHz today?

So at Wythall Radio Club’s ‘Third Friday Club’ we plugged in a FT857 and connected the 6 and 2 beams. 

Nothing doing on SSB so we added the Signalink to see if there was any FT8 activity.

Lots of PSKreporter spots on 6m, with +1db from Sweden and -9db from Denmark – nice!

But enhancement seemed very sporadic as we only managed digital QSOs with Nick M1DDD/P in Derbyshire on 6m and Steve G1PYT in Stourbridge on 2m.

Many thanks to Steve and Nick for coming on with such a quiet band.

So always CQ on a quiet band – you never know who might be listening!

Let’s see who we can work at our April ‘Third Friday’ event.