I used a tape loop unit from Burstein-Applebee and did the same rectified
audio thing to my 'TO keyer's driver for it's mercury-wetted relay. I may
sstill have that loop thingy somewhere here :)
73, Dan
On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 10:21 AM Art Boyars <artboyars@gmail.com> wrote:
> 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)
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|