[CQ-Contest] The next great toy

[Leigh S. Jones, KR6X]

I used to do this with a Betamax recorder, using a Drake R4A
receiver as the front end.  The sensitivity wasn't great, because
the RF gain was cranked back low, and the bandwidth was only
~6 -10 KHz with varying attenuation, but it was limited primarily
by the R4A first IF crystal filter rather than the VCR.  Had to fudge
the "BFO" l.o. way out of alignment to put the filter into proper
perspective.  I "FM-ed" the output of my T4X with the carrier
gain cut all the way to zero into a dummy load and listened on
the receiver to play the signals back.  You could hear a lot of CW
signals tuning around in that bandwidth, and it made for great
post-contest fun and games.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete Smith" <n4zr at contesting.com>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 12:12
Subject: [CQ-Contest] The next great toy


> In Dayton, I had the chance to see a demo and talk with the inventor of
the
> device he calls "The Time Machine."  Simply put, this inexpensive unit
> allows you to receive ALL of an 80-khz slice of any HF band, and record 6
> hours (per tape) of the whole band segment on a VHS stereo VCR.  Then you
> can go back, at your leisure, and play back any time slice, tuning across
> with your receiver to revisit any station, anywhere within that frequency
> band.
>
> The possibilities strike me as endless -- imagine being able to record the
> first 6 hours on 14000-14080, for example, and play it back later to find
> out why you did better or worse than the competition.  See how W3LPL or
> KC1XX were doing, what they were working and when, while you were
> struggling, or soaring, on the same band.  Or you could put one at a
> station on another continent, and hear later how the whole contest sounded
> from over there.
>
> Check out http://www.expandedspectrumsystems.com/prod2.html for the full
> story.  I have no financial interest -- just think the CQ-Contest audience
> should hear about this.
>
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
>
> Check out the World HF
> Contest Station Database at
> www.pvrc.org
>
>
>
>
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