>From my memory back in the late '60's, I visited Hal, W9VW, one weekend over
in La Porte, IN while going to a school in Chicago for Xerox or IBM. He took
me
over to Larry,s, W9IOP, to see his setup.
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Sweepstakes legends
>
> I was reading an old NCJ yesterday with an article by W9IOP that was
> originally published in 1960. The article was titled, "How to beat the
> winners" and was full of useful tips for operating SS. As I understand it,
> W9IOP and W4KFC were the kingpins of SS in those days and into the early
70'
> s.
>
> I began to ponder the psyche of these operators and I, with some
amazement,
> realized that (at least as far as said article goes) there was no mention
of
> "two radio" operating. I'm quite sure that they both had at least two
radios
> (stations) so that wasn't the limiting factor. Of course, computers were
> essentially non-existent, but I don't really think that would be a
limiting
> factor cuz some of us that dabble with 2 radios today aren't interfaced
and
> it definitely would have been a competitive advantage then as now.
>
> With memory keyers/tapes and such they coulda CQ'd with one radio while
> searching for new meat on a different band.
There were Bohme keyers and Whetstone perforators for paper tape CW sending.
I used an old reel to reel tape recorder that was solenoid operated and used
rectified
audio for relay keying.
> So what was it, why wasn't this operating technique used before computers
by
> the top ops? (maybe it was, but if it wasn't was it because):
>
> (1) Never thought of it?
Larry had two side-by-side setups of 75A4's and 32S3's and individual
amplifiers
on each band. He could listen to either receiver or both and would switch
between
them.
> (2) Competition didn't require it (could win w/o it)?
Not many were committed or did not have the resources like Larry.
> (3) Bordered on "ethics violation" (spirit of the contest?)?
I do not believe this was an issue.
> (4) Too hard to check for all those dupes on paper ( I doubt it, the rate
> got REALLY slow late in the test even for those guys)?
Larry had one of those "steel trap" minds that could remember QSO's from the
previous weekend's operation, though he kept a dup sheet.
> (5) Style of operating was more S&P than running?
Larrry would run on radio then S&P on the other, moving the run to the other
if
conditions warrented it.
> (6) It was just too gooda secret to share with the general populace? (no
way)
I do not believe many were aware of the setup, or the possibilities.
> What say? Was there any discusion of this phenomenon (2 radioing) in the
> good old days?
I had the first production Signal/One in 1969 and that really introduced fast
band
changing with it's broadband tuning. I believe many considered that to be
the
ultimate and fast band changing became the norm. With all rigs, and many
amplifiers, with that capability today, the second radio becomes the next
logical step, again.
When Chet Opal came out in the late 70's with his Micro-TO keyer with two
memories, I built two. One for each hand and four total memories. At FD in
'76 or '77, the local club had to setup a relay team to deliver pitchers of
beer to
me because I had so much time to drink while pushing the foot switches and
only having to send the other stations call letters.
I am looking into the second radio, again. With more antennas going up in
Indiana
and eventually moving back there, I am looking forward to listening to two
frequencies again.
73, K8Joe"Palooka"
jpalooka@aol.com
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