The history of private datacommunication 4282

Were the messages actually routed?

They were sent to all machines on a regional network, and only those that were addressed would in fact turn on and print out the message. I never saw the control station operation though, and it is possible that they actually did "route" automatically between each regional network. I always buttumed not, and that each message was manually sent to each regional network, but I could be entirely wrong about that...

(Trivial note, Model 28's were not "regeared" to 100wpm, that was pretty much standard equipment. They could also be ordered with 60 and 75 wpm gears, or with a gear box that allowed shifting between different speeds.)

I can't remember if the Beehive terminals used the same technique as the older system did, but I'm almost positive that it did. Just that it was electronic rather than mechanical. They may have even been compatible with each other???

I haven't looked at any of the FAA equipment since we removed the old Beehive equipment from the FAA and NWS offices here, maybe 7-8 years ago, and they started using their own equipment rather than leasing it from a carrier. But I did visit with a the NWS office here about a year ago, and got the royal tour of the current system they use. That was impressive! In particular because the operator was an expert on Arctic ice, and we spent a great deal of time poking through their ice imaging resources.

--