[Elecraft] RTTY vs. PSK31 (was: OT - 73 Magazine (was H modemixer))

[N2EY at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/15/07 7:58:01 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
rondec at easystreet.com writes:


> If the day ever comes that we do find ourselves unable to squeeze in
> sideways on a band, perhaps we'll need to re-think the use of some wider
> bandwidth modes, just like "King Spark" was outlawed for just that reason
> about 75 years ago. 
> 
> 

Spark was outlawed for US hams in 1927. Part of the "1929 rules" that came 
about as a result of a series of World Radio Conferences in the 1920s.  

But it was a moot point by then. Nobody was still using spark on the ham 
bands by 1927 - it was simply ineffective compared to the new tube transmitters. 
Time and time again, it was shown that a 50 watt CW rig could do as well or 
better than a kilowatt spark on 200 meters, and that was the end of that.

When hams went to the short waves, spark did not go with them.

If you think we have fast progress and lots of change today, just consider 
what those hams of the '20s and '30s went through.

When hams got back on the air after WW2, 99% were on 200 meters, using spark 
rigs. The well equipped amateur might have a kilowatt rotary spark, a big 
Marconi-type antenna (4 wire flat-top 100 feet long, between two 75 foot masts, 
with an incredible ground system), and possibly a form of regenerative receiver 
with Audio detector, loose coupler and a stage or two of audio - all battery 
powered. On a really good winter night, such a setup might be good for 1000 
miles. On an average night, 400-500 miles. During the day, maybe 100 miles. 

Fast forward 5 years or so (1924-25).

The oceans have been spanned, using short waves and far less power than it 
took to work 1000 miles on 200 meters. Tube transmitters are all the rage, while 
200 meters is old hat and spark is rapidly disappearing. Superhet receivers 
are in the hands of a few, bands like 20 meters allow DX in daylight, and there 
are a few hams using voice. The old flat-top Marconi is gone, replaced by a 
balanced Hertzian dipole fed with the new "ladder line". 

Fast forward 5 more years or so (1929-30).

The whole world has been worked using short waves, to the point that "DX" has 
come to mean continents and countries worked, not distance in miles.  200 
meters and spark are ancient history. The advanced amateur has a multistage tube 
transmitter and a superhet receiver. Crystal control is becoming popular. The 
new 1929 rules require clean, stable signals, so monitors, filters and 
rectifiers are the order of the day. "AC" tubes are used for the receiver, and there 
is a considerable selection of new bottles for the transmitter. Some hams are 
on 10 and even 5 meters.

Compare the 1919 shack with the 1929 shack, and almost nothing in the first 
was used in the second. Even the keys and headphones were usually different. 

Fast forward 5 more years (1934-35) and the equipment of an advanced ham 
station could be used today with little or no modification. Single signal superhet 
receiver, crystal controlled transmitter, T9X stabilized signals, clean Class 
B plate-modulated 'phone, even SSB. 

73 de Jim, N2EY


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