Post by k4klb on Oct 29, 2012 0:44:38 GMT -6
So, what is Hellschreiber and what is a "sprint"? No, you don't need to wash your mouth out after talking about this mode.
From the Feld Hell Club page:
Where did the name "Hell" come from?
We can thank the inventor, a German engineer named Rudolph Hell, who patented this early method of facsimile in 1929. Hellschreiber was the first successful direct printing text transmission system, and was very popular at a time when teleprinters were complex and expensive, because the Hell receiving mechanism had only two moving parts. At first the Hellschreiber was mostly used for land-line press services, which continued well into the 1980s. A military version was used by the German Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War (1933). During WWII, Hellschreiber was widely used for field portable military communications, for which it proved to be very suitable because the equipment was simple and robust.
Sprints are short contests sponsored by the Feld Hell Club that last only several hours. It keeps them fun, casual, and gives busy hams a better chance to compete. The club is free to join and participate in contests and awards. Each month a sprint is held that has some sort of theme with special bonus stations that are used for points modifiers. The guys in this group are some of the most polite operators I have encountered, even during sprints. It doesn't take much to compete. You won't find "big gun" stations here. Back in January of 2011, I won the North America QRP class during the Happy Birthday Rudolph Hell Sprint with a simple wire antenna and a radio as old as I am (33). All the info you would ever need about software, frequencies, sprint schedules and rules can be found here:
sites.google.com/site/feldhellclub/Home
From the Feld Hell Club page:
Where did the name "Hell" come from?
We can thank the inventor, a German engineer named Rudolph Hell, who patented this early method of facsimile in 1929. Hellschreiber was the first successful direct printing text transmission system, and was very popular at a time when teleprinters were complex and expensive, because the Hell receiving mechanism had only two moving parts. At first the Hellschreiber was mostly used for land-line press services, which continued well into the 1980s. A military version was used by the German Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War (1933). During WWII, Hellschreiber was widely used for field portable military communications, for which it proved to be very suitable because the equipment was simple and robust.
Sprints are short contests sponsored by the Feld Hell Club that last only several hours. It keeps them fun, casual, and gives busy hams a better chance to compete. The club is free to join and participate in contests and awards. Each month a sprint is held that has some sort of theme with special bonus stations that are used for points modifiers. The guys in this group are some of the most polite operators I have encountered, even during sprints. It doesn't take much to compete. You won't find "big gun" stations here. Back in January of 2011, I won the North America QRP class during the Happy Birthday Rudolph Hell Sprint with a simple wire antenna and a radio as old as I am (33). All the info you would ever need about software, frequencies, sprint schedules and rules can be found here:
sites.google.com/site/feldhellclub/Home