[Milsurplus] TBW A1 v. A2

[Ray Fantini]

Looking at the troublesome keying design of many of the early
transmitters like the TBW, GO-9 and the BC-191 have to wonder about how
they were used for CW operation. Dot get me wrong, yes it is possible to
get them to work without chirps, if your careful and everything is set
up correctly, but the environment they would be used in was often
anything but stable or conducive to good operating procedures so this
brings up the A1 vs. A2 question, Ok I know that A2 would have reduced
range compared to regular CW but all the problems that are annoying in
A1 disappear in the A2 mode. Also when you look at the brute force 800
cycle A2 modulation schemes of the GO-9 and TBW they had a respectable
output in A2. Perhaps A2 was the mode for CW operation with these mobile
radio sets and A1 for the long haul high power applications? If not what
was the A2 mode for? It was installed on many medium power transmitters.
And while on the subject of CW vs. AM why is their a BFO on ARC-5
radios? Cannot imagine that they were ever used for anything other then
local communication, plane to plane and plane to tower and the like. Was
the BFO function for use when setting receiver frequency or spotting the
transmitters? 
Ray Fantini KA3EKH