OK, thanks for the recordings Eric. It isn't unique to hams, or to Erie
Canal RO's. I worked Coastal Marine from So California in 56-57 while I
was a senior in high school. That "swing" was fairly common, as were a
large number of fists I can only categorize as "truly sloppy," like an
air traffic controller giving a clearance with a mouthful of marbles.
His signal was clean however, and very easy to copy. Transmitters
afloat were usually powered by M-G sets which often modulated the
carrier with a whine. MCW from an audio oscillator was common on 500 Kc
[emergency receivers afloat were usually unpowered crystal sets with no
BFO], and key down dragged the M-G down. The result was a carrier that
chirped, sometimes through the passband of my receiver, a steady whine
that chirped, and the MCW audio that chirped, each in it's own key and
tempo.
I sort of assumed the name came from the RO's on the freighters in the
Great Lakes, but never really knew.
73,
Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2014 Cal QSO Party 4-5 Oct 2014
- www.cqp.org
On 7/4/2014 12:39 PM, EricJ wrote:
Here's a couple of recordings of W0BMU and the Lake Erie swing that Buzz
mentions. Listen online or d/l them. The bands used to be full of
interesting and quirky fists and styles like this. Not unlike speech
patterns some were quite beautiful, some were in-your-face obnoxious.
That was before non-meat code readers and (gakk!) keyboards.
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