[CQ-Contest] The History of automated voice for SSB Contesting

[Jim Smith]

Back in 1960 I rigged up an endless tape loop which I ran through a 
Wollensak tape recorder (which, in true ham fashion, I still have).  To 
maintain tape tension I draped the tape loop over the back of a chair 
and wrapped a few turns of #14 bare wire around it to act as a weight.

Fed the output of the recorder into my 100V and let the VOX take care of 
turning the TX on and off.

Worked FB for calling CQ.  One day after I'd been CQing into a pretty 
much dead band for a couple of hours I got a visit from a Radio 
Inspector who was wondering what was going on.  I proudly showed off my 
Rube Goldberg contraption.  He clearly didn't like it and told me to 
stop doing it.  When asked what part of the Radio Act I was contravening 
he simply told me again to stop doing it.  Well, I was pretty young then 
and lived in terror of the licensing authority so I guess I stopped 
doing it.

73, Jim	VE7FO

On 3/8/2013 1:23 PM, David Thompson wrote:
> The discussion on improving voice recordings for phone got me to
> thinking about where we have come and where we might go.
>
> Long before digital voice recorders (DVK's) the astute SSB contester
> discovered the voice loop tape for diskette players.  These loops ran
> from a few seconds to as long as 16 seconds and were designed as
> telephone answering devices.  I used one for years to call CQ and the
> last time I used one extensively was in the CQ WW SSB in 1979 to win the
> USA 40 meter Single Band.  I tried to use it in the 1984 ARRL DX SSB on
> QRP but found that only on 10 meters could I get answers to be worth the
> effort.
>
> In 1985 I found Nel-Tech designed by the fellows who designed the Wang DVX
> and I laid out good dollars and brought the Nel-Tech 100 home.  I used
> it in a few contests and N5KO was living in Atlanta at the time took it
> to N4RJ to use for Single Operator in the ARRL SSB SS.
> It did appear in a voice monitor that there was some hum so he stopped
> using it and lost his voice on the second day.
>
> Next I bought a MFJ 432 and found that you could cascade a pair for more
> options.  This worked well for me in the CQ 160 SSB in 1994 as I won the
> Zone 5 Plaque.  You had to watch as it you pressed a button wrong you
> wound up sending an extra first letter.  I wonder how many logged
> KK4JRB.  When they were first introduced they worked fine on what you
> had recorded but would not let you send straight through.  Tom, W8JI
> came up with a fix to correct and those of us with early MFJ 432's got
> Rev 1 which corrected the problem.
>
> A number of hams experimented with the text to speech programs but as
> several pointed out using a different voice to send the report caused
> all sorts of problems.
>
> Jamie Dupree NS3T, who uses his voice as the Washington reporter for WSB
> radio decided that he would take the DVK to the next step and program
> .wav files so he could run an entire contest without speaking except for
> a few corrections.  He published an article in CQ on the subject.
>
> Digital voice could be the future.  But so far the steps have been
> stumbles. Henry Radio sold the 300 but you had have one at the other end
> to work correctly.  AOR tried two models several years ago but again you
> had to have a unit at both ends.  D-Star from ICOM so far is just a VHF
> device.  The problem is that there needs to be a standard decoding so
> the various interfaces can make digital voice be just another digital
> mode.  This can help with the QRM on the amateur bands but you still
> need a way to have a set of exchanges to send.
>
> We have come along way from flipping a toggle switch or using PTT for
> phone contests.  I went straight to VOX when I went on SSB on Jan 1,
> 1960 and have not looked back.
>
> 73 Dave K4JRB
>
>
>
>
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