VE3DZ posted a link to a 1971 recording:
https://hamgallery.com/dx1970/w4bvv.mp3
I was one of the operators at the W4BVV(SK) Multi-Multi back then. (W3ZZ
(then W3BQV, formerly K1ANV) (SK) said of me "He didn't know a G from a
DL!").
At some point during my years at 'BVV I built the boxes that were used for
those CQ machines. Tom had little stereo cassette tape recorders, one for
each band/station. They had cassettes that were short continuous loops of
tape. We would record the CQ message CW audio on one track, and a
continuous tone on the other track. My boxes had simple rectifiers for the
audio tones -- the CW track to drive the key line, the continuous tone to
drive the PTT; some kind of push button start. I don't remember what I
used for drivers -- transistor switches?? relays?? For 'phone, the CQ
message was recorded on the one track, and the second track was still used
for PTT. Everybody called CQ with Tom's voice.
Now, to the case in point. I think that the long and slow CQ in the linked
audio file was K4YF (then K3NPV, formerly W8ZBX?) (SK) on 80M. You didn't
get a lot of rate or volume on 80M back then. Tom's 80M antenna was four
sloping dipoles off one of the towers -- a pretty good antenna in those
days.
Of course, "in those days" we were logging on paper, with paper dupe
sheets. Except K4YF, a blind op, used a portable typewriter.
Dupe sheets... W4BVV himself had access to a computer (later, we would
have called it a "main frame"). Between the TWO WEEKENDS of each mode of
the ARRL DX Contest he would enter the entire log for each band into a
sorting program, and output a printed alphabetical list of stations worked
for us to use, going into the second weekend. We would read the 80M list
to K4YF just before the contest re-started.
For 160M Tom had an old DX-100 in the corner (I think we still had power
limits on 160M) and another set of four-sloper dipoles on a different
tower. I think that now and then in the night somebody would fire up on
160M, work the few QSOs and multipliers you knew would be on, and maybe a
sked or two.
More on dupe sheets... One time, W3ZZ wondered, "If you had a computer that
would give you a red light or green light to tell you if a call was a dupe,
would it give you an unbeatable advantage?" Well, Gene did tend to
overstate things, as those who knew him would attest. And he is still
missed, as are W4BVV, K4YF, W1ARR (SK) and many of the other op's from the
old W4BVV team.
To tie this to another thread running here, remember that back in the day
SS was TWO WEEKENDS for each mode. That's a change that even I appreciate.
73, Art K3KU (K3OAE back in the day)
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