[GreenKeys] SELCAL

[tony j. podrasky]

Hi Guys;

I was a part of the autostart group on 14.075MHz back in the 70's.

Some of the features that were there:

  o Most stations were left fully operational 24hrs/day.

  o With the sequence <callsign>FIGS BLANK H the transmitter
    would kick in and send an answerback message - usually
    just the callsign.

This was good because you knew you were on frequency and that
you could "hit" another station. Some guys had phaselocked loop
TU's so if you were off frequency when you called them, their
crystal controlled transmitter could be zero-beated.

  o Some guys had reperfs and T-Ds set up so you could relay
    messages back and forth.

  o The ZCZC sequence was used as a general call, but since
    the protocol was not strictly followed, some guys set
    up their SELCALs for <SPACE DE SPACE> which almost
    always was used.

  o 6 N's <NNNNNN> was usually sent out - to make sure that
    all the machines on the loop were returned to standby
    at the end of traffic.

Because of the amount of work required to get a station
on RTTY, protocol was held in high esteem:

  o Sending out the NNNN sequence at the end of xmit.

  o Ending a transmission with the carriage at the 
    beginning of a fresh new line.

  o Making sure that you didn't exceed the 66 
    char/line - and definitely not past 72!

  o ACTUALLY SENDING out the chars to begin a new line
    (these days, when I use the 28-KSR I have to sit
    at the machine and use the local CR/LF keys 
    constantly because of the lack of training on 
    the RTTY circuit).

  o Sending <CR CR LF LTRS LTRS> to begin each new line
    to give the older machines enough time to get to
    the left margin.


I don't know if this can ever be duplicated again,
but it was so much fun that it is worth the try.

73,

tony - W6ESE - ex WA2EAA
NNNNZCZC

 
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Tony J. Podrasky | LOST:
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