[UK-CONTEST] Automation 1957

[Ken Eastty]

Keyers and computer logging have been with us for a very long time, when I
received my licence in 1957 many amateurs already were using electronic
Keyers and of course Vibroplex keys had been around since the early 1900's.
I quickly gave up using a straight key (A-M 10A) in favour of a very basic
electro-mechanical keyer which used a couple of relays and a few capacitors
to produce dots & dashes. I must have used this for a long time because my
next keyer (which I still use) employs CMOS devices.
The first time that I used computer logging was around 25 years ago in NFD
operating as part of the G4KF team. The computer was a Commodore Pet and the
program was written in Basic by Keith G3OIT.
I can't remember whether the program had a dupe checking facility, its big
advantage was in producing the logs for submission, they were in the post by
Sunday evening after the contest which saved many hours of writing (or
typing) them up in a form that the adjudicator could read.
The CW Skimmer (if it works as advertised) is something entirely different
and as has been said would reduce the skill level to nothing more than that
required for RTTY (quite why anyone uses RTTY as a contest mode remains a
mystery to me).

73...

Ken G3LVP



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