[GreenKeys] A few more TTY videos

[tony.podrasky]

GM OMs;

THE YEAR WAS 1968

I was 16 y.o. when I got active in MARS.

The Net Control OP invited me over to his shack (garage).

His gear was entirely military - which I loved! (I'd GLADLY
trade my do-everything Ten-Tec ORION II for the pair of ARC-5s
on the 80M Novice band if I could get the same joy I did back then).

He showed me around. All those knobs and meters were fascinating to me.

THEN

He showed me some HUGE BLACK BOXES. He said that they were Teletype
machines. I said: "what does that mean?". Well - he was MORE THAN
WILLING to show me!

He had a 15-KSR and 15-ASR (19) and the Model 14 collection - and he
demo'd ALL OF IT!

He started out with just typing on the 15 in local-loop mode. Then he
took the cover off so I could watch it work. The he turned on the 19
and put it into the loop. He sat me down at the 19 while he was on the
15 and we had a local-loop QSO! Then he went onto the AF MARS RATT net
and I got to see a round table.

I WAS HOOKED!

I went down to the local Military Surplus store and picked up a 15
that was in pretty good shape. I brought it home, set it up, and turned
it on. It SCARED THE HECK OUT OF ME! I called up my Net-OP buddy and
told him that it is making horrible noises. He said to put the phone up
to it and turn it on. I did. I turned it off. He said: "Oh - it's just
''running open'' - sounds good to me!". He told me to plug in the jacks
to the big box on the shelf (local loop). It stopped running open and
just hummed. Then I was able to type on it. I asked him now to get in
on the air. Well - I had no idea of how much work was ahead of me - but
I built a T.U. out of the ARRL Handbook, got that working in receive,
and was able to print stuff. Then I needed to build the FSK and
fortunately, the Drake T-4XB had a schematic of one. I went on the air
and made a QSO - the only problem was the other guy said that I was
transmitting up-side-down. Fixed that and everything was great.

I helped about 15 hams to get on RTTY.

---

THE YEAR WAS 2012

Some of my nephews stopped by the house. They saw the 28-KSR and asked
what it was. I told them. I showed them how it works, and explained
how I use it.

I've never seen anyone go from "ZERO-TO-BOREDOM" so fast.

The next closest thing was explaining Amateur Radio to someone with a
computer connected to the internet and also having a smart phone.

When someone sees my radio shack, and asks about it, and I explain
Amateur Radio to them, the usual response is "Why go thru all that
trouble when you can just call someone on the phone or go on the
internet?"

My response is: "I'm afraid that I can't explain that".

They look at me like I'm an idiot - for having all that junk - and
I just write their question off along the lines of "Why do you like
to climb mountains?" or "why build something / brew your own beer /
make a cabinet / (etc) - when you can buy it already made?

You just can't answer questions like that.

UE,
W6ESE - TONY
NNNN
ZCZC


On 01/27/2014 08:20 AM, Lee Mushel wrote:
> I watch everyone's comments on this and I guess I'd have to admit to
> being really sad,   You see, at any time I choose I can sit at a
> machine, 28 KSR at 60 speed or 28 ASR at 100 and start typing.   I did
> take a typing class in high school since there were so few alternatives
> to take at that time and have no trouble keeping ahead of the machines.
> Yes, that was 60 years ago.....  But an event occurred in my life only a
> few years ago that not only saddened me at the time but forces some
> "reinforcement" of that feeling when I read about "experiences of this
> sort."
>
> I invited a young and newly licensed fellow to visit my shack since I
> felt that it would benefit him to see some ham activity that went a bit
> beyond the usual hand held/Sunday night net stuff.
>
> And I sat him down at the 28 KSR and told him to go ahead and "play, you
> can't hurt anything."   And I took off the cover so he could see all of
> this marvelous stuff happening.   After a few seconds I could see he was
> bored to death and so I stopped the torture.   Of course, there's really
> more to see with a 15 or 19 but those machines of mine require some time
> to set up and I haven't run anything like a fox box or 14 typing reperf
> for "years and years."
>
> 73
> Lee    K9WRU

-- 
What's this thing?
It's called a MODEM.
And what's this button do?
Whatever you do, don't touc{{{7bh6x!{@$#)$% NO CARRIER