Some years ago I was asked by Geoff Brown, GJ4ICD, to help design and make some beacons for the 6m band. These were to be sent to various parts of the world which were not covered by existing beacons. My job was to work on the exciter and the keyer, while Geoff would add the amplifiers. These units were to be assembled on printed circuit boards that would be easy to work on, if necessary, at their destinations. This meant that the keyer matrix should use diodes that could easily be changed if a different callsign or grid locator was required. The size would be larger than for an EPROM design, but this did not matter. If a unit with an EPROM had to be re-programmed then a return to base would be much more likely.
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