[GreenKeys] 2022 Field Day RTTY

[Jeffrey Golas]

I'm just getting back around to recapping my field day fun, so figured Id share this. I picked up a model 32 from the West Virginia contact a couple weeks back, and since it had no stand I thought it would be a fun challenge to take it to field day and see if I could get it going and even get it on the air. All in a park, all generator/solar. As far as I was aware it may not have been used in a couple decades. The paper on it was so yellowed and brittle I stole the roll (and ribbon) off my other 32.

I started out just inspecting it and looking for any obvious issues or vermin (the usual lol). It looked fairly dry so I busted out my NYE oil and gave the main camshaft some love, and manually spun it over a bit. Eventually I fired it up and it ran, although the keyboard trip was stuck open so the entire thing chugged away.

Over a couple hours I somehow adjusted the keyboard trip right and actually got that working decent. I also lubed up the punch and got that going. The reader unfortunately wasnt working, no solenoid action.

 Eventually I took out the new Dovetron TU I scored on Ebay, that shut it up however I couldnt get it to receive ITTY. Eventually I ran home and grabbed my Hal st-6 off my desk; no bueno, same issue. 

When I got back though, we had a boy scout troop camping at the next site over come over and were visiting the radio stations and even making some contacts on our GOTA station. I started messing with the 32 and had a crowd. Let some scouts type up some paper tape souvenirs, one of which typed the rick roll (just in time for meme month). They were loving messing with it and punching out tapes. (At this point it was dark out and Im working under a desk lamp with the mosquitos).

Thats when I started posting here for help, and you guys gave me some great ideas. I also pulled up the 32 manual specifically and realized if I reversed the loop polarity, it would be in answer mode. I did so and the thing sprang to life. (I also found my loop wire was rotted away and had to tape it up).

On Sunday I hooked up the hal to a club members Lab 599 radio, and we managed to make contact with Nick! I didnt even realize at first we were only running 10 watts from PA to North Carolina! (So I commandeered the gota station instead, an ft-897). We were using a g5rv antenna strung up in the trees.

We had a qso with nick and even worked another station. I tried to work Harold, but heard a museum ship instead at 14086. Try as I might I couldnt work the ship nor Harold. I had a crowd again and it was neat watching Nick actually type out a message in real time.

Between all this, Sunday morning was crazy busy with hikers at the park checking things out and asking to punch a tape. People love interactive stuff!

One of our club members had his wife punch a tape, then had his kid look up baudot and decipher the tape when they got home.

All in all a great weekend and educated many many people on teletype, rtty, and the old WU services.

I never did get back to the Dovetron TU. I also got a Heathkit that I think I fixed (it decodes great but sending is wierd).

(I did store the machine in my car overnight so bugs/vermin/etc wouldnt get into it.)

Thanks for reading,

Jeff KC3GJX & Phil-Mont Mobile Radio Club

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image0.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 119287 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20220707/2efa499a/attachment-0004.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image1.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 166198 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20220707/2efa499a/attachment-0005.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image2.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 84276 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20220707/2efa499a/attachment-0006.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image3.jpeg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 103900 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/greenkeys/attachments/20220707/2efa499a/attachment-0007.jpeg>
-------------- next part --------------