At 06:51 AM 07/28/10, you wrote: >You guys will have to find a picture of that. It sounds hysterical!
It was. It looked like a stock mobile microphone off a Motrac. He had a belt clip that normally held a HT, but the hangup button from the mic fit into it just fine. He'd have the end of mic cord stuck in his pocket. Some one would call him on the HT radio, and he'd answer on the mobile mic, and people thought he had a transmitter in his pocket. But if he pulled on the mic just right the cord would pop out of his pocket - and it still worked! >I assume Mr. McKay built the transmitter right into the mic, no? Yes. Dick McKay K6VGP is an old-time 2m pioneer in the Los Angeles area - and despite being a career pilot with United (now retired) he's an exceptionally good engineer (a future project of his is a complete rebuild of a Beech Staggerwing). In the late 1960s when I first met Dick he had a 2m repeater that grew to six receive sites and two transmit sites, and a 440 repeater that functioned as a control channel and as an intercom among the dozen or so control operators. The two channels could be tied together or run separately. The system also had a HF remote base that could be accessed from either side, and normally lived on 20 meters. He can tell you stories about the Old Farts on 20 meters trying to describe the "problem" his SSB radio had with the "strange sounding audio" and the "funny sound" at the end of his transmissions... (the squelch tail) "You've got a funny oscillation in your microphone" was one such comment... At one point you could move around the band with the DC motor worm drive on the VFO knob. A quick tap on star or pound would bump you around 200hz. For may LA area hams that started out on 2m that system was their first exposure to DXing - occasionally you'd hear DIck working DX (like Pitcarin Island) while he sitting in a restaurant and talking on a handheld. The mobile mic transmitter was basically a modulated oscillator / quintupler that used a 29.38 MHz rock, and was powered by a 9v battery. The shield of the microphone curly-cord was the antenna. It probably ran 25-50 milliwatts. At SAROC he was receiving on an HT100 that he had modified from 2 channels to 6 (the HT100 was a real Moto product that was made from slimiline HT220 less the final transistor, and in a very short case that had the battery mounted behind the radio. In stock configuration the HT100 ran about 250-300 mW and was intended for low power applications like a stage crew radio. Due to the price it was not a popular radio, I've only seen one other than the one that Dick has. Some photos of Dick's radio are at <http://www.repeater-builder.com/wa6ilq/ht100> Yes, the antenna on HT200s, HT220s, MT500s and HT100s collapsed into the case. He still has the HT100, and if he has the trick microphone, it probably still works. One toy of his that I saw only at SAROC was the hip flask he built from an intrinsically safe HT200 case (complete with collapsed Dixie cups stashed in the battery compartment). It looked like a stock radio until he popped the top cap off of the antenna and poured out the beverage. >And you will have to excuse me, but what is a "94"? Today you'd describe a repeater that received on 146.22 and transmitted on 146.82 as being on "146.82 and down 600". In the early days of 2M FM you'd say it was on 22-82 since the only frequencies available to repeaters was the range of 146-148. A repeater that was on 147.18 would be said to be on 78-18. The terminology started to get unwieldy when the splinter channels were developed (like 146.625 / 025) and when repeaters were allowed in the 145 area, That's when the current terminology became popular. So someone operating on "94" was on 146.94 simplex. >I myself don't have stories like this because I am a child of the >80's, but I love hearing about it and am know amongst my friends as >the "keeper of old things". This is why you all keep getting >questions from me regarding the Genesis radios. > >Keep the stories and good advice coming. > >-Albert > > > >--- In Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com, tony dinkel <tonydinke...@...> wrote: > > > > > > I remember that too Ken! I miss SAROC! > > > > And for your SoCal types...... > > > > I remember seeing Dick McKay walking around the Sahara in Vegas, > > talking into a Motorola mic (with just the coil cord hanging down) > > and listening on '94. > > > > This was during SAROC in the 70's > > > > Ken
