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

[Pete Smith N4ZR]

Back in the 80s sometime, I had a30-second answering machine cassette 
recorder, followed by a circuit that rectified the audio and amplified 
it to switch a relay for CW CQing.  Worked fine, but pretty inflexible.  
I'm glad those days are behind us.

73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at
http://reversebeacon.net,
blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com.
For spots, please go to your favorite
ARC V6 or VE7CC DX cluster node.

On 4/5/2013 5:36 AM, Jim Smith wrote:
> 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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