Rtty!

[G6Tanuki]

Tuning around on 21MHz this morning, I was amazed to hear dozens of RTTY contacts taking place.

I guess there must have been some sort of contest or activity-day going on.

Alas when I tried booting-up my old IBM Thinkpad on which I have FLDIGI installed, it seems to have had some sort of neurocerebral 'event' and just sits there beeping pitifully.

No RTTY for me! I must investigate further.

But I wonder - does anyone else use here still use RTTY? Whether by steam-engine Creed teleprinters and ST5/Toni-Tuna type terminal-units or by modern software?

The need for a transmitter that happily handles 100%-duty-cycle operation has always been a bit of an issue for traditional FSK RTTY operation.

[dsergeant]

CQWW RTTY contest this weekend! Yes plenty of people still use RTTY but with the coming of FT8 etc activity tends to be concentrated in a few contests and similar events. Virtually all done with software these days, old Creed 7Bs are probably as rare as hens teeth.

73 Dave G3YMC

[G6Tanuki]

I guessed there must have been some sort of activity-day or contest to have drawn so many RTTY stations out of the woodwork; alas though my Ten-Tec Corsair can happily do 100W at 100% duty-cycle for 5 minutes, as noted the laptop was sulking.

In the very-early-80s I wrote code to let my Elektor 'Junior' computer [6502-based, with 4K of RAM] work as a RTTY terminal-unit; it sent/received audio by way of 'bit-banging' and an outboard circuit derived from the old Kansas City tape interface, and converted the 5-bit RTTY to/from 8-bit ASCII which was then run to the VIA chip and a couple of 1488/1489 TTL-to-RS232 chips into a Teletype-43.

I learned a lot about concurrency and interrupt-handling in the process!

These days I'm happy to use the likes of FLDIGI

[M0AFJ, Tim]

I still have the occasional RTTY contact on 20M, there are normally people listening. I’m using HRD software module, been years since I touched a Creed…

Tim M0AFJ

[G6Tanuki]

Originally Posted by M0AFJ, Tim

I still have the occasional RTTY contact on 20M, there are normally people listening. I’m using HRD software module, been years since I touched a Creed…

Tim M0AFJ

Is there a specific frequency on which I should listen/call on 20M for RTTY contacts? When I poke my Thinkpad into renewed consciousness it could be fun to try some hand-crafted poke-and-type RTTY contacts rather than the seemingly-current "press F3 to send your QTH and station-details, F4 to send 5x9" clockwork contacts.

[Sean Williams]

I've got all the gear to put any single current machine (German) I have on the air, the Creed fleet will rely on my finishing the ST5 I started a couple of years back

[G6Tanuki]

Following this thread, I somehow feel an obligation to come up on one of the bands and do some classic 5-bit RTTY QSOs.

If I can resurrect my ThinkPad [whether by simply changing the realtime-clock battery or something more-adventurous in the way of jump-starting the 15-year-old battery-pack] I'd be happy to try some slow RTTY poke-and-play manual-typing contacts.

[Jon_G4MDC]

Ryryryry....

[g4wim_tim]

In the early 70's I bought a Creed 7B with silence cover from Gordon G3LEQ who was very active at the time on RTTY.
Some years later I designed a terminal unit which used switched capacitor filters and was published in RadCom (or maybe wireless world).

Used to shake the house down when it did a carriage return.

[its ur aerial]

I also noticed an unusual amount of RTTY on 15m, it reminded me of the only time I saw a Creed 7B in action, definitely a branch of the hobby for the serious enthusiast.
Ken G6HZG.

[raditechman]

The RSGB has a data section as part of its Club Contests. These contest take place on 80m approximately once a week throughout the year using SSB, CW or Date. the next one is this Thursday 28th September and is Data this week so you should hear lots of RTTY on 80m between 8.00pm and 9.30pm.
MMTTY is a good program to decode RTTY on your computer.

John

[M0AFJ, Tim]

Originally Posted by G6Tanuki

Is there a specific frequency on which I should listen/call on 20M for RTTY contacts? When I poke my Thinkpad into renewed consciousness it could be fun to try some hand-crafted poke-and-type RTTY contacts rather than the seemingly-current "press F3 to send your QTH and station-details, F4 to send 5x9" clockwork contacts.

Hi, 14.080 to14.099, I’ve tended to call around 14.090..
GL
Tim M0AFJ

[Alan Bain]

I've still got a working Creed 7E and TU and it works really well for RTTY. You do rather need the GPO "Silencing cover" to keep the noise in and of course to turn the drive down on the transmitter to keep the PA valves happy.

I did fire it up once during a RTTY contest and apart from one person who wanted to know what type of CPU I was using it was fine - I don't think they
realised that it wasn't just another PC.

I used it during a demonstration back in Cambridge and David Wheeler stopped by (drawn he said by a familiar hot teleprinter smell).

[QQVO6/40]

G'day everyone.

Teletype model 19 with a 15 tape distributor here. Made in 1938.
Hal ST8000 terminal.
Just love the sound of a Teletype in full flight.
Bit like the nostalgia of a steam railway engine under full load.

I have a Siemens model 100 as well. Just doesn't sound the same though.

CR CR LF LTRS LTRS LTRS
People running computer software regularly forget these simple functions.
GRRRRRR!

73 all.

[G6Tanuki]

Have got my laptop on charge, will have to see if it still boots after a good couple of days charging.


Never used a 7B but did spend some time with a 444 in the back of an Army radio truck... Part of the BRUIN system.

The one thing that was drummed into us was to send CRCRLFCRCR before the carriage hit the end... There was a bell that pinged around 68 characters but it was not easy to hear over the sound of other mechanical stuff and the generator that powered everything.

I must also see if I can remember where I put the audio interface to transceiver leads.. It's a long time since I last saw them!