RTTY BEGININGS

I had a bit of insomnia and went to the ARRL website. I opened up the electronic edition of QST, it had an article in the "Vintage column" about W7DET's station. It showed a picture of W7DET's station from 1957. What caught my eye was next to the desk was a teletype machine. After thinking for a bit I began to wonder when radio teletype or RTTY actually started. The story was very interesting after reading several sites about the history of RTTY I found out that after WWII the government had all these teletype machines left over and there was a problem. The machines could not be sold commercially and the government had no use for that many machines so they somehow entered into the ham radio community around 1946. Soon afterwards "The Amateur Radio teletype and VHF Society" was formed and things took off from there. It was real interesting reading the history of the teletype and how it came into ham radio I suggest you do a google search for rtty history and you will find a lot of information!

73's
Mike/N8GBU

MY MOST WANTED QSL'S

I have compiled a short list of some rather famous people I would like to QSO with and receive QSL's from. At the top of my list is musician/writer Joe Walsh call WB6ACU. His contact maybe as difficult a station to get as a "JA" as he is a very busy man. I follow him on Twitter etc. and the man is always on the go. If he is not performing solo he is in with the Eagles band and then he maybe found visiting our troops! Next up is the International Space Station, I know its probably not as difficult as I think but a QSL card from outer space would be out of this world ! ( Pardon the Pun )  After that is the sound man Mr. Bob Heil of Heil sound K9EID. Bob's company makes the best quality Microphones on the planet. Not only does he make them for ham radio he makes them for the entertainment world. He is good friends with Joe Walsh and the two have worked together on this side of the business of course the Eagles band has Bob's microphones to use and test and there are also a number of other groups who use Bobs Equipment. Number three on my top ten list is K7AGE Randy. Randy in my book is the YouTube Elmer of ham radio. He has a large YouTube channel of ham radio info video's. I like to think of Randy as my Elmer, I have talked with him a couple times via Twitter and a couple of Yahoo Ham Radio Help Groups also on the AMSAT BBS.

73's
Mike/N8GBU