[Gonset] Gonset Communicators in SoCal

[Paul Signorelli]

Gonset Communicators in SoCal
Many people started on VHF with old Police and Taxi Cab radios, some using  Motorola (5v, 41v, 80D, 140D),  others had RCA and some GE.
There were also a variety of 'Tiny Tim' 958A Regen Handie Talkies, SCR 522's and ARC4’s
Eventually everyone got a Gonset Communicator (Gooney Bird or Green Eyed Monster).
Burt K6OQK, has Art’s , (W6MEP)’, Gooney Bird.
See : https://www.qrz.com/db/W6MEP
Art, W6MEP, had an ARC 4  in his car (around 1956) and it fed a
coaxial dipole at 13 feet. i think he made major modifications to the receiver.
i got a new ARC 4  from Army MARS.  It was nice...
i think mine got junked when the Gonset Communicator arrived.
Then i got a Motorola taxi cab FM radio and my life was changed forever.
What kind of surplus 2 meter radio did you have?
i know that Chuck Heinin, K6KAO, had a SCR 522., MARS Issued.
Burt lived about three blocks from the Gonset Factory in Burbank,CA, Steve, W6RHM, even worked there.
Occasionally, Mr. Gonset, (Faust Gonestt), W6VR,  Could be contacted on 2M as he drove around the LA Area.
The Gonset Communicators were ever where. There were 35 Yellow LACD communicators spread all over the city in parks and shelters. The LAPD Police radio techs got to install them all.
The Gooney birds were also found in almost every ‘T Hunt’ and on every military surplus frequency: 8075, 8100, etc.
Did you ever work K6BXW (Woody) in his airplane,  or W6MLZ/Train Mobile operating K6USA?
I operated Train Mobile with my Gooney Bird and never worked anyone.
A lot of people have asked me about the Chronicles of 76.
Written by Ken W. Sessions (K6MVH) in the beginning of the FM era in Los Angeles. (Ken is SK in 1994).
The 76'ers were a loosely organized group of nonconformists using old commercial FM equipment after abandoning their Gonset Communicators. The FM 76'ers preceded the Basketball 76'ers.
Ken was a very proficient and verbose person, speaking and writing.
People have asked if all those things about Wide Band Spectrum occupancy and Jamming were true why didn't the FCC shut it all down.
(The FCC monitoring station didn't have any thing else to monitor on VHF except us).
 The truth is that Ken used his 'literary license' on the Chronicles and much of it is embellished truth and alternative facts, (They still do that today).
For example in the story in Chapter V about the ZJU Cuckoo clock was real, I heard it and saw it.
Chapter XI about Telephones and WB6CSZ's system for example: k6chr did not spend an entire day at the telephone company. Ken just dialed 951 while he was visiting and we got the telephone number on 76.
Ken's technical descriptions of his repeater site were fairly accurate, Picture of his site is on the cover of FM Magazine, Nov. 1968.
His comments about occupying large pieces of spectrum was not true, we were all crystal controlled with one or two frequency rigs.
No one ran wide band FM, except the PRC 6 guys on 6 meters.
‘Kapture Kontests’ were real and run at many Hamfest  gatherings (Called Jamfests).
 I won once by attaching my 22 foot Communications Products (6 dB) vertical to my bumper, fed by a 140D. My competitors' 4-250 rig blew up in his trunk during the second round.
Ken reproduced all the technical data he accumulated later in his "Radio Amateur's F-M Handbook". He was also the Editor of the "FM Bulletin" in 1968-69,
The FM Bulletin is available at: https://www.librarycat.org/lib/W0RW/item/249283294
The "FM Bulletin” was also called "The National FM'ers Journal".
The Chronicles were reproduced in the "FM Bulletin" which documented the activities of other FM'ers around the country.
All this 76 FM operation was all preceded by a 2 meter AM  145.35 era.
I still have my Gooney Bird II and use it every week on the local 2M AM net  (145.550) . It is still working great. I am glad the ARRL left us one little slice of the 2M band to operate AM.
I have a cavity on my Gooney Bird receiver to eliminate those pesky images from 133 MHz Aircraft.
Paul   w0rw