[Elecraft] [OT] Jim's Dot Stabilizer

[Fred Jensen]

OK, thanks for the recordings Eric.  It isn't unique to hams, or to Erie 
Canal RO's.  I worked Coastal Marine from So California in 56-57 while I 
was a senior in high school.  That "swing" was fairly common, as were a 
large number of fists I can only categorize as "truly sloppy," like an 
air traffic controller giving a clearance with a mouthful of marbles.

His signal was clean however, and very easy to copy.  Transmitters 
afloat were usually powered by M-G sets which often modulated the 
carrier with a whine.  MCW from an audio oscillator was common on 500 Kc 
[emergency receivers afloat were usually unpowered crystal sets with no 
BFO], and key down dragged the M-G down.  The result was a carrier that 
chirped, sometimes through the passband of my receiver, a steady whine 
that chirped, and the MCW audio that chirped, each in it's own key and 
tempo.

I sort of assumed the name came from the RO's on the freighters in the 
Great Lakes, but never really knew.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
- www.cqp.org

On 7/4/2014 12:39 PM, EricJ wrote:
> Here's a couple of recordings of W0BMU and the Lake Erie swing that Buzz
> mentions. Listen online or d/l them. The bands used to be full of
> interesting and quirky fists and styles like this. Not unlike speech
> patterns some were quite beautiful, some were in-your-face obnoxious.
> That was before non-meat code readers and (gakk!) keyboards.