FIRST? SINGLE SIDEBAND

[Ray Colbert]

Yes, Gen Lemay who was a ham (last call was W6EZV)
had one of his C99 Globemaster freight haulers
equipped with a Collins KWS-1/75A4 for their
around the world trip to demonstrate the reliability
of SSB vs AM for the Air Force communications.
The trip was written up in one, maybe two issues
of CQ magazine in the mid 50's.  Art Collins and
I think Gen Butch Griswold (K0GRC?)were also on the
trip or at least parts of it.

I don't recall if the early ssb systems for the phone
companies had a pilot tone or not.  If so, it would
be like the more recent commercial ACSB (Amplitude
Compandered SideBand) systems that was done
to replace the FM systems around, but it never caught
on.  Not worked with the long haul broadcast audio
during those times, I really don't know how they did
their audio feeds.  Perhaps some of the ot's on the
list can enlighten you with that.

If you gather up a bunch of old CQ and QST magazines
from the early 50's, you can read the ssb column and
some lead stories about the progress of the mode.  They
each had a sideband column with who was talking to
who and what countries.

73
Ray, W5XE

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