[GreenKeys] 30 mtr RTTY??

[Gary Chatters]

On Fri, 4 Jun 2004, sbrant wrote:

>
> One fellow told me that someone was sending a beacon
> in the 30 mtr band using 45 baud 850 shift.


Steven,

This is a recent project that started from discussions on this maillist.
It will take a few months for things to develop.

The goal is to have an autostart net that is friendly to mechanical
Teletype machines.  If you have past experience with RTTY you may be
familiar with the autostart operations that occurred on 80M and 20M back
in the '60s and '70s.  The idea is that starting up something similar will
encourage more RTTY activity, plus it will be a place people can run their
old machines.

The specifications for operations are:
Frequency:  10.137300 MHz for mark
Shift: 170Hz, space below mark
Modulation: Baudot code, 60WPM (45.45 baud)

That is, conventional 60wpm ham RTTY.  Line lengths should be limited and
ended with multiple CR and LTRS to give the carraige time to return.

In an effort to get the net going Roy, K4EEG, started running hourly
bulletins for several hours each day.  His antenna is a vertical dipole,
which has gone through several variations.  With this simple setup and
running max power for the 30M band (200watts), he consistently put out one
of the the strongest signals that I could hear here in Maryland.

There was also consideration of establishing autostart frequencies on 80M
and 40M but so far there has not been much effort put in to using those
bands.

As I said, the whole project is just starting.  Several list members have
plans to join the net but it may take a few weeks or even months for them
to get ready.  There is no telling what the activity level will turn out
to be in a year from now.  It will be a while before I can participate.


>
> So last night I tuned around and found a station
> running 850 shift and what sounded like rtty
> and looked like rtty on the MTTY screen, but I could
> not get it to decode.  Tried several baud rates,
> different decoders, different modes, but never
> could get what looked like a lockup of the print.

There are still some non-ham fixed stations using 30M.


73,
Gary