Reading the various emails on this subject, I can't help but put in some of my memories. At age 17 in 1940 I got my ticket with the call W8VHF in Detroit, MI. Have never used VHF. Learned the code by using a 2-tube regen rcvr to listen to cw on 40 and 80m and by listening to some naval stations until I could copy the stuff. Had a buzzer to learn sending. Since then I have been using cw about 98% of my operating time. I'm not a high speed operator. I remember two guys who were whizzes on cw. One was W8CW: I think his name was McDonald, he was a telegrapher for Bell Telephone in Detroit, and a runner up to McElroy in cw speed contests. The second was Win Peebles, W8GQB, one of my Elmers after I got my ticket. Earlier in his life he worked for one of the broadcast stations or newspapers copying national and international news sent out by the news services. Perhaps it was Press Wireless. He claimed he could do the following. Copy the code on a mill, stop and eat a candy bar, get a drink from the fountain, and go back to typing where he left off. I believe it. By the way one of the emails on this list, or maybe the DxLab list, mentioned being trained for maintenance of high power transmitters for the navy. When WWII came around the Signal Corps sent me to Press Wireless for the same kind of training. However, on arriving in the Pacific war, I never got near a big transmitter. That's all folks!
73, Bud, K9ZT ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
