ALLEN’S NAVAL ADVENTURES IN JAPAN, 1962-1963
In March, 1961 joining the Navy seemed to be a good option since I was subject to the draft. Following Boot Camp and Radioman School in San Diego, I was given order to the Communication Center, in Yokosuka, Japan. My travelling orders took me by a 4 engine prop (DC-7), stopping in Honolulu, Guam, Kwajalein and then on to Atsugi Air Base, near Tokyo.

The Comm Center had two outlying bases, one inTotsuka, which was the Transmitter site, and the other at Kami Seya, the Receiver site.
After a few days, I was transferred north, to Kami Seya to work on the receiving of communications for most of the Eastern Pacific.
At Kami Seya, the base was situated over a large farming area used by the locals but also used for our many receiving antennas, and our work buildings amongst the fields.
Our work space was divided into two sections, the Radio room, where several people would receive messages sent by Morse code. The other section was called Diversity, which dealt with communications using teletype machines.
I ended up in Diversity, which turned out to be the most fun I had had my whole time in the Navy.
DIVERSITY
We handled traffic from three other communication centers, Adak, Honolulu and Guam.
Some technical stuff: In the 60’s, communications used electronics capable of sending and received radio frequency signals. Teletype signals are comprised of audio tones, and using electronics created the input to a Teletype machine. The printed paper became the messages passed on to the recipient.
The electronics of the time where capable of up to 32 separate channels of teletype signals, but fewer were actually used between the other ComCtrs.
Some more stuff:
During the daytime, radio signals bounce off the Ionosphere, so the higher frequencies (megacycles/megahertz) can be used. At night, reverse happens, so in Diversity we had to continuously monitor the signal strengths from the other ComCntrs to be sure it wasn’t time to move to better frequency ranges.
These teletype signals were, in turn, sent to Yokosuka’s Main Comm Ctr to be run through classified crypto machines and forwarded to the recipients in clear text.
Often times there wasn’t much to do, so I would amuse myself with looking for news broadcast by UPI (United Press International) as well as AP (Associated Press). I would hook up a spare teletype printer and sit there and read the news. I would check with any other CommCtrs to see if they wanted anything to read?
I would also set up a receiver to listen to VOA(Voice of America) and AFRTS(Armed Forces Radio Television) and listen to other news happenings. One such event was the Sonny Liston Floyd Patterson Boxing match, Sept. 25, 1962, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. This was broadcast by AFRTS, so I would pipe this to any other CommCtr to listen in. There was also a ringside teletype announcer who would type out blow by blow hits by each boxer! I think this was from AP, and found it by accident.