[GreenKeys] Burt Prall WA9??? (SK)

[Ralph Irish]

I don't know how many GreenKeys people will have known or remember Burt. When I first met him, he lived in a 
Chicago suburb. He had 'connections' at Illinois Bell. He could 'shop' in their Surplus Yard. 

His 'ham shack' was on the 3rd floor of a very large house. The 'shack' took up most of the 3rd floor. And, there 
was an 'attic' above that, where he had a number of 'spare machines' stored. (We got to stick our heads up high 
enough from the stairway to get a look up there.) 

He had direct lines to several police stations, the county sherrif and probably both of the major airports, O'Hare 
and Midway. He had probably 20 WORKING 28 KSR and ASR machines up there. Most were 'active' for many 
hours per day. He had TWO 50 pair cables terminated in his garage. They led directly back to his closest Central 
Office. From there, they went to the 3rd floor and to many modems, Call Directors, maybe building alarms, etc. 

This visit to his house was in late 1969, with some cooperation of the weather, or early 1970. Long before computers 
were found in homes and ham shacks. While we were up there, 'gawking', machines would start up, print a few lines, 
and shut down. The functioning machines kept him abreast of weather, traffic, and likely some criminal activities known 
to be going on. He probably had close to 20 Model 101A Data Sets in use. There were a handful of TUs in operation, 
and he monitored a few HF and VHF Teletype channels. 

Burt was also the source of Model 101A Data Sets that were put to use in Metro Detroit, by hams and non-hams. 
Michigan Bell usually put such 'surplus items' under the scrap hammer. Illinois Bell sold them to a select few, at 
reasonable prices. Burt probably had his own parking place at the Surplus Yard. 

On one machine, he had a 'demo' of the Answerback system. I've forgotten the callup sequence, but when it was typed, 
one would see: 

YESITSTILLWORKS! 

on the page! This was started with two Carriage Returns and one LTRS character and ended with another Carriage 
Return. I think that used up all of the slots in the drum. (20 characters and a STOP blade, right?) 

The purpose of the trip was to buy four RT Sets that he had available. They were getting popular in the Detroit area 
and all were spoken for before we headed for Chicago. Bert was an affable fellow and our trip there was one of pure 
amazement. 

He was a bachelor, and lived with his parents. We got to nod at them in their living room, on our way to the 3rd floor. 
I also met with him one time in this area. He was close friends with two area hams, (father and son, W8DLT and 
W8GBT, both SK) and came to this area to visit with them. I happened to be at the home of W8DLT, picking up 
something like a Model 14 KTR or the like. 

I don't remember exactly where I was going with this, but if nothing else, it might bring about some pleasant memories 
for a few GreenKeyers guys. It seems to me that I've seen Burt's name mentioned on here, but not certain. He left 
the Chicago area and lived out the remainder of his life in the SouthWest. Not certain of which state. 

That trip was one of those times I should have had a camera with me. Short of photographic proof, many would be a 
bit skeptical about what I've written. There is at least one GreenKeyer that will recognize things in this post. He was 
one of two who accompanied me to the Chicago area that day. I would make him a Bcc addressee on this, but I don't 
have his e-mail address on this computer. He will probably see the SUBJECT and have it 'tweak' his memory. 

73, 

Ralph - W8ROI 





-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20170627/89f330f4/attachment.html>