Re: Old CW ID'er Callsigns (Tuesday Trivia Story) I ended up with a non working Spectrum Repeater. Since I enjoy some forms of self abuse I set out to get the box going again.
Well... After a bit of rebuilding the old beast nicely came back to life. The CW ID'er still has the original owners callsign... a WD4... call back on the east coast. I became curious about the original owner and the repeater hardware history. I sent out a few emails based on some web searching to find the orignal owner and repeater story. Give or take two weeks I pretty much had the results. The original owner "Joe" had placed this 2 meter machine on the air in North Carolina and over time became part of a much larger linked system. Joe had been the owner and trustee of the box for a long time. Alas the repeater had problems in the circuit design (mostly power supply related in this case) and became problematic. At some point in time the repeater was removed and replaced. I must sadly report that WD4... Joe became a silent key and the non-working Spectrum Repeater was eventually sent to Wisconsin as part of a repeater controller sale on ebay. The good news is how the "36" North Caroline Box - Repeater System remains on the air with another trustee/owner. At least the repeater system didn't fade into history. So my Wisconsin "friend" removed the still much desired ACC Repeater Controller and sent the non working repeater out here to California. Over much time I rebuilt the rf hardware into separate original Spectrum Boxes I had found over time at Amateur Radio Flea Markets. I placed another repeater controller on the newly wired package and away it went back in service in rural Northern California. Just for the sake of fun trivia... it would have been kind of neat to contact Joe and tell him where his original Spectrum Repeater is now located and how it got out here. We give Joe historical source credit for the hardware and kind mention in the local club newsletter with a similar included story. Just a short story from an Amateur Callsign found on an old repeater cw ider. I've also got other vintage ID'ers around that probably have their own stories to tell. cheers, skipp
