[GreenKeys] What brought you here?

[Russ Miller]

I was a ham in College and active on 15M and 10M using SSB.  One day, in
1967, our Amateur Radio Club (W3ABT) President came to me and showed me a
Teletype Model 19 that had been donated to the school by Bell of
Pennsylvania. We sort of got permission to capture the Model 19 and
spirit it up to the station. QST had some things about RTTY but not much.
We built a W2JAV converter and added a muffin fan to sit on top of the
6146s in the Club's TX.  Once we were on the air, I was in heaven and
started to work as much DX as I could.  We discovered RTTY Journal.  The
first issue we got (September 1967) featured the W6FFC Mainline  TT/L-2 FSK
Demodulator.  Worked more DX!  Got WAC RTTY #106 and a nice mention from
John W3KV in RTTY Journal.  Met so many great people on-the-air including:
I1KG, ON4BX, ON4CK, G6JF and so many more.  Everyone was very helpful.
Locally, retired Bell of PA employee Dick W3CRO and famous ARRL traffic
handler Mae W3CUL organized a local RTTY group that met in National Park,
NJ, across the river from Philadelphia.

Graduation day was approaching and I interviewed with Western Union and got
a job as the resident engineer in the Philadelphia Telex exchange. My focus
changed from Teletype machines to Teletype systems.  The Telex exchange
occupied most of the 4th floor but the second floor had a huge paper tape
reperf system. It occupied the entire floor. By the middle 1970s, I got
more responsibilities and helped installed the new ITT CSR-4 Telex
exchange, replacing the Siemens & Halske TW-39, in Pittsburgh, PA.

Along the way, in 1974, W3CRO decided to get out of ham radio and get into
electric organs (go figure) and sold me his Collins FRT-24.  Got married!
Stored the FRT-24. No time for ham radio.  Marriage. Work. Kids.  Fast
forward to 2004 when I left Siemens Medical and decided to get back to ham
radio and  RTTY.  Discovered almost no one used Teletype machines. Culture
Shock!  Found Greenkeys... felt better.  Started working DX and contests.
Still using my ancient gear including the FRT-24, R-390A, ST-6 and M28ASR.

73 Russ WA3FRP

On Tue, Apr 7, 2020 at 1:45 PM Jeff G <jeffg at junknet.net> wrote:

> I'm sure this has been done in the past, but figured I'd ask as I'm a bit
> of a newb here and it would give me something to read. What got you into
> Teletypes, and ultimately to Greenkeys? Can be a simple answer or a short
> story!
>
> For me...I always had an interest in them, and I'm into vintage computing
> amongst many many many other hobbies. I acquired a Teletype Model 32 and
> HAL ST-6 last year, and its been a learning experience to learn about the
> history, how they work, current loops, baudot, etc. I'd love to get a 33
> some day, and (hopefully) have lines on a couple older models as well now,
> as I LOVE the old/steampunk/electromechanical aspect of them, and have
> several older items displayed in my living room, like an Edison cylinder
> player (Edison Triumph). That said I'm probably a youngin at 42.
>
> I'm also a new-ish ham (licensed in 2016) and definitely want to try RTTY,
> outside of a contest. Also just before the s--- hit the fan, I started
> volunteering on the Battleship NJ and aimed to help them get some of their
> TTY stuff going again.
>
> Jeff KC3GJX
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