[Milsurplus] My TCK-4 - more info A7PVF / W7PVF Part 2

[Mike Morrow]

Neil/W7PVF wrote two technical articles for CQ:

August 1961   - A Modulator-Powered Bybrid Transmitter
November 1968 - A Transistorized RTTY-TU

In August 1970 73 Magazine, page 84, he wrote a letter complaining of CQ's failure to pay $150 for his November 1968 article.  Their are no articles in 73 written by Neil.

In later years his address was:

2640 133rd
Seattle, WA

Perhaps that's where the TCK has been stored.

I suspect that Neil had the skill to modify the TCK as you have described.

>From other net sources, it appears that he was born 03-27-1932, and passed away 02-13-1997 at age 64.  (However, one source implies that he's still alive at age 85.)  But his call does not show up in the 1993 Calls section of QRZ.com, and noboby has requested it as a vanity call in all these years.  (When my dad's call W5WRR expired after he was SK, some fellow whose initials are WRR took it almost immediately.  I dislike call signs that are initials...that shows obviously that they are non-sequentially-issued vanity calls.)

Mike / KK5F

-----Original Message-----

From: Mike Morrow 
Sent: May 14, 2017 9:58 AM
To: Ken Gordon , Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] My TCK-4 - more info A7PVF / W7PVF

Early Army MARS call substituted A for W in the ham call.  A7PVF would be W7PVF.
>From 1954 Call Book:

W7PVF
Neil A. Iverson
East 623 Dalton Avenue
Spokane, Wash.

There's little doubt that the frequencies found on that chart were Army MARS frequencies.  Most ham gear up to 35 years ago did not support operation so far away from a ham band, so the TCK would be very useful for MARS.

In the 1950s, the ITU reduced the call sign block stating with A for the US to the range AA to AL.  Calls starting with A7 are assigned to Qatar.  Army MARS calls had to start with two letters from AA to AL.

Google "W7PVF radio" and you'll find him mentioned in the August 1970 issue of 73.

Mike / KK5F

-----Original Message-----

From: "Kenneth G. Gordon"
Sent: May 14, 2017 1:03 AM
To: Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] My TCK-4 - more info

Inside the front door, I found the call A7PVF hand-written in large letters. 

As I remember it, Army MARS calls used to begin with A.

Might there be a list somewhere of the holder of the call A7PVF?

I'll bet this is the call of the original user of this TCK-4. It might even be the guy who did all 
the mods.

Ken W7EKB