[GreenKeys] Archive of RTTY Journal and more

[Jim Haynes]

> 
> On 8/7/25 5:30 PM, Nick England wrote:
>       On line here and several other places
> https://www.navy-radio.com/manuals/tty/rtty-journal.htm
> 
> 
Which gives me an excuse to retell my favorite QSL card story.

One night I came home from work in Santa Cruz, CA.  I was feeling
nostalgic, so pulled down a bound volume of RTTY and started reading
through it.  Several articles in which the publisher Merrill Swan
W6AEE was discussing terminal unit (now we'd call it a demodulator)
design with Herbert Hoover, Jr. W6ZH.  With deepening nostalgia I
decided to turn on the radio and see what might be on.  And as luck
would have it 80M RTTY was having propagation to die for.  I was
getting perfect copy from some stations in the Pasadena area and one
of them mentioned that he was running something like 15 watts.  I
felt like I had to break in and tell them about this phenomenon.

We chatted for a while and then one of the guys said, "Let's stand
by for Pete."  So we did, and the next strong signal I heard was
signing W6ZH.  Pete turned out to be Herbert Hoover III, with his
late father's W6ZH call sign.  So I was able to tell him that I had
just been reading some of his father's writings about TU design
when I decided to turn on the radio.

As a non-licensed teen ager fascinated by Teletype machines I learned
about RTTY from a column in CQ magazine written by W2NSD.  The column
made me aware of amateur RTTY and Merrill Swan and RTTY magazine.  So
I immediately contacted Merrill, subscribed to RTTY, and soon after
acquired a 21A printer from a ham.  I can't imagine anyone being more
friendly and helpful than Merrill and we became friends.  Later on
I was in the Air Force at Edwards AFB in the Mojave Desert.  I got
directions from Merrill and drove down to Arcadia to visit with him.
It was about a 2 hour drive back then, and I made many of them on
weekend days and sat with Merrill in his ham shack as we talked about
RTTY.  I hever got the printer to work, but learned a lot about it and
had a lot of fun trying.  I never met H.H. Jr, but I know Merrill
thought very highly of him.

Later on I got my ham license, got the University of Arkansas ham club
station on the air with RTTY, and got my own Model 15 machine by
putting together a bunch of scrap parts given me by Ray Morrison W9GRW.

Those were the days!