[GreenKeys] CFH 10.943 Now Dead

[John Vendely]

Duncan,

The Indian Navy RTTY signals I referred to were station VTP on 8298 kc, 
audible sporadically here on the Atlantic coast of Florida in the 
mid-morning hours.  Also heard was another Indian navy station sending 
the identifier "RBSL", not sure what that signifies.  It doesn't appear 
to be a callsign.  Both stations send weather reports and 5 letter 
cypher groups.

The following Dutch navy and Portuguese navy RTTY stations are still 
active using 75 baud/850 shift, and are good copy here at this moment:

CTP (Lisbon, Portugal) 12853.5 kc, 8551.5 kc, 6389 kc
PBB (Dutch Navy, Dan Helder) 8439.15 kc, 6357.75 kc, 4280 kc, 2474 kc

Both are channel availability broadcasts.  Actual traffic is infrequent.

Deutsche Wetterdienst is copyable on 7646 kc,10100.8 kc, 11039 kc, and 
14673 kc, using 50 baud 400 shift.

I'll have to look through my notes to find the frequencies on which I've 
heard that French Forces 85 shift station.  The call sign was "CALORIE", 
and typically was sending test transmissions with "Brick Geants", the 
French equivalent of "Quick Brown Foxes"

To be sure, there's only a fraction of the unencrypted baudot RTTY there 
was even a few years ago.  However, some can still be found, though it 
takes a little dialing around to find it.  I'm fortunate to be located 
on the Atlantic coast (about 35 m. south of Cape Canaveral), and have a 
0-30 MHz rotary log periodic and several beverages.  Signals from 
Europe, Africa, and the middle and far east are pretty good here, though 
conditions are generally poor these days.  Folks further inland may not  
hear these signals as well as we can on the coast.  Enjoy these stations 
while they last!

73,

John K9WT


On 12/27/2010 4:12 PM, Duncan Brown wrote:
> John,
>
> Thanks for your report on RTTY signals still on the air. What are the frequencies that you are copying??
>
> Please let this list know of your 850hz transmission schedules.  Hope to have our AN/GRC-142 running by then.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Duncan Brown, K2OEQ
> USASA  31J
>
> Chief TTY operator&  repairman
> AWA Communications Museum
> http://www.antiquewireless.org/
> http://www.antiquewireless.org/museum/museum.htm
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: John Vendely<jvendely at cfl.rr.com>
>> Sent: Dec 27, 2010 3:32 PM
>> To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net
>> Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] CFH 10.943 Now Dead
>>
>> The Dutch navy still has a few frequencies with 75/850 RTTY in use,
>> which I heard over the weekend, but they're just channel availability
>> broadcasts.  It's better than nothing, though.  Hopefully they didn't
>> disappear after the holiday as well.  The Portuguese navy still had
>> similar transmissions, though I haven't checked recently.  The German
>> weather bureau transmissions are still there on several frequencies 24/7
>> at 50 baud, and I occasionally hear Indian navy RTTY broadcasts in the 8
>> Mc band, with shifts as high as 1 kHz.  I also occasionally hear some
>> French Forces 50 baud 85 shift RTTY, probably special operations, as
>> they appear only sporadically.  Virtually all the French Forces point to
>> point links using the Siemens ARQ modems (ARQ-E, ARQ-E3, etc.) are now
>> extinct. The only one I still hear is the link from La Reunion to Paris,
>> both sides of which are copyable here at this moment at 11,421.7 and
>> 11,521.7 kc.  This link idles most of the time, though a small but
>> consistent amount of traffic does come through.  Of course, this is
>> really not "classic" RTTY.
>> Suffice to say that HF data transmission has changed radically in the
>> last several years.  Maritime stations have gone mostly to proprietary
>> versions of Pactor, and the military has moved to the esoteric high
>> speed HF waveforms.
>>
>> It's gotten to the point where we'll have to provide our own RTTY
>> traffic if we want something to receive on HF.  For what it's worth,
>> every April at the Vietnam Veteran's Reunion in Melbourne, FL, we set up
>> a large display of operational military radio gear, including 850 shift
>> teletype using two truck-mounted AN/GRC-122 systems.  Regular schedules
>> are maintained, and a number of stations around the country participate
>> in the RTTY nets.  It's dismaying to see how few ham operators even knew
>> how to set their software-based RTTY systems for 850 shift.  Many assume
>> that anything other than 170 shift is illegal.  If there's any interest,
>> I'll make sure this list is notified the next time we operate...
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> John K9WT
>>
>>
>>
>> On 12/27/2010 2:45 PM, Ron Boltz wrote:
>>> The Canadian Forces 10.943 RTTY marker went silent over the Christmas
>>> weekend.  This was the last CFH station transmitting.  It will be greatly
>>> missed by me as it was always a good demonstration of RTTY to visitors and a
>>> good way to test the equipment.  The CFH 10.536 WX was better but that went
>>> silent several months ago.  Now there is nothing reliable I know of here in
>>> the east.
>>>
>>> Ron Boltz
>>> K3TZJ
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________________________