[GreenKeys] i-Telex- Worth pursuing, or not?

[Mark Hall]

Hello Greenkeyers!

Every chance I get to play with my machines, no matter what I'm doing-
cleaning, lubing and adjusting one, hooking one up to do something,
receiving ITTY or Autostart- is something I am very thankful for. Like
amateur radio, Teletype machines are a hobby, but a very beneficial one
for me. Sometimes while working on a machine, I may have something
simmering on a "back burner" mentally, and I will figure it out as well
as the current problem I am working on with my hands.

There is an audible sense of satisfaction in hearing my model 15 KSR and 28
RO, whether they are "running open" or merrily printing out something.
It's like listening to the sound of something mechanical and precisely
built, like a big old grandfather clock ticking and winding, or a "hit and
miss"
pump jack engine running when all is quiet on the farm at 2 am.

i-Telex is another opportunity to make our machines run a bit more. The
prospect of having a machine start up and type out a message is appealing.
It is a photographic opportunity if you can time when the machine starts
and runs the cat off the top of the machine, or makes the dog cower under
the coffee table and bark.

Being able to "dive in" and reply is another pleasant opportunity. Or being
able to dash off a message to someone else, and even if they aren't there
to receive it, it will be waiting for them when they do. It's a bit like
texting with some requisite latency blended in. Not as prompt as texting,
but it really
doesn't matter, does it? Emailing would be faster, but would it have the
degree of appeal of hearing type pallets hit paper, and machinery come to
life?
These, to steal the words from a favorite song out of the musical "The
Sound of Music"; are but "a few of my favorite things..."

I doubt it would even begin to be perceived as a threat to RTTY either.
Modern software and the "glass Teletypes" that run it can do it so much
more
efficiently, and effortlessly. It would be laughable to think that someone
would actually use an ancient, heavy beast of a machine or a punched paper
tape to convey what a macro in a program can do, with the right click of a
mouse. However, the appeal of sending a typed out QSO to a contact appeals
to me in a way that merely dropping a pre-printed card in the mail to the
buro doesn't. The prospect of having a few ham buddies who would
collaborate on
operating a "Heavy Metal Net" on the air would make me set aside time just
to make the magic happen.

I like it when my machines make noise. With much the same conviction as the
hot rodder who opts for a nicely noisy gear drive instead of a timing chain
in his engine, it's the sound of mechanical things that "makes it" for me.

Depending what our friends in Germany come up with for using USTTY
machines, I will happily take a run at this. If it comes down to actually
having to
find and use an actual Telex machine like a WU 32 ASR, that might be
another story for another day. Working on these rigs to get them to a state
of full
operational capability is truly a "mixed bag" at best sometimes. In my
brief career as a fledgling Teletype nut I have been kindly blessed in this
aspect by
receiving machines that were well cared for, and being given a good start
in this hobby. The prospect of taking an unknown machine and getting it to
a good
condition is one I would not approach without caution. But, if it's
possible to get a machine working on i-Telex, I will happily offer myself
as the "guinea pig"
for this project, in the hope others of Greenkeys might join in as well. It
is, after all, another opportunity to hear our machines run. And when
machines run,
they get warm. When they get warm, they give off an aroma of lubricants. To
those of us who savor the smell of vintage Teletype oil, life is indeed a
dream.
If not, whatever beverage, alcohol or non, will stand in nicely.

Hoping all of you are recovering from the effects of Avian Holocaust Day,
as I am... I happily remain


your prairie based compatriot,

Mark KE5LIB
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20151129/5ce8b8a4/attachment.html>