[GreenKeys] Teletypewriter on Display

[Steve Garrison]

Gentleman and Ladies (do we have some ladies in our group?),

 

I wanted to relate to you an interesting event in which I took part
yesterday.  The event was a TechFest put on annually by a local amateur
radio club in the Atlanta area.   The TechFest is not quite what you would
call a HamFest, but they do have a outdoor boneyard for those that want to
tailgate with their treasures.  There is also a chili cook-off with hot dogs
and hamburgers to go along with the chili. The main purpose of TechFest is
for local groups to show off a particular aspect of amateur radio in which
they have an interest and some expertise.  The idea is to have a place for
others to come and see a particular aspect of amateur radio that they may
have an interest in but didn't know where to start.  And the best part of
the whole thing is that it is free.  There is no admission, they just ask
for donations to help offset the costs.  I think they just about break even.

 

This year, the club that I represent, the Alford Memorial Radio Club of
Stone Mountain, had a display that was listed in the TechFest information
flyers as "The Original Text Machines, RTTY before computers."  I had the
Kleinschmidt TT-483 that was featured on the YouTube video I post several
weeks ago on display printing copy from ITTY and HeavyMetal.  The display
was an overwhelming success.  We had folks stacked 3 and 4 deep waiting to
get up to the front to get a close-up look at "TINKERBELL" in action (the
name comes from the fact this machine was taken out of service around 1985
from Tinker AFB in Oklahoma).  Besides the hams that had fond memories of
the machines in their "shacks" of yesteryear, there were several that wanted
to get with me after the event to possibly join the GreenKeys list and get
their machines, that have sat idle for many years, back in service.  Several
said they had machines they would like to find new homes for and you may see
more on this soon (anyone ready to make a trip to Atlanta?).

 

And the most amazing thing about the display was the young kids!  They, for
the most part, where absolutely mesmerized.  There must have been at least a
dozen of them that stood around and watched wide-eyed at the big mechanical
machine printing on paper.  And they were asking very well thought out
questions about its operation as well.  There were two young men that must
have come by at least 4 or 5 times to watch it in operation.  And when I did
some RTTY Art, I wound up giving them the copy to take home.  You would have
thought it was Christmas morning and I was Santa Claus giving them a
wondrous present as they raced off to show it to their parents.

 

The most asked question was "Where do you find paper?" and second was "Where
do you find ribbons?" along with where do you find parts and what happens
when it breaks down.

 

Many visitors to the display were past military who remembered the machine
from their service days, one had even attended school at Kleinschmidt in
Chicago on the machine.  More than a few said they had fond memories of
tearing copy off of a teletypewriter in the newsrooms of newspapers or radio
and TV stations they had worked in when younger.  One lady remarked that she
was one of the ones sitting in front of the keyboard of a machine eight
hours a day typing in the messages that got sent to "who knows where."

 

The event was just over 4 hours in length and I talked nonstop about
teletype for the entire event.  My voice was just about gone as there never
was a time when we didn't have a line waiting to see the machine, hear the
clatter, and smell the oil!  One younger lady on the sponsoring club's staff
asked me if I had some plastic to put down under the table for the machine
after someone had quipped about all the oil "dripping" off of the machine.
I assured her she had no worries about me ruining the carpet (this was a
first class venue).  All in all it was it was a fun and enjoyable day.

 

Hope I didn't ramble too much, but wanted to share!

 

Steve G./N4TTY

 

 

 

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