[GreenKeys] ITTY

[Martin]

George

Oh dear, I opened a can of worms, but it need not be so.

I did not for a moment expect content to be any different for us, 
obviously without effort from someone, maybe in Europe, that will not 
happen. I just hoped for the option of the different parameters so we 
can read your wonderful efforts, whilst exercising our equipment as well 
as yours.

I fear many enthusiasts with machines over here may  condemn to death UK 
machines thinking there is nothing to copy anymore.

As you claim lack of interest in the "european service", (how do you 
know?) this may have been because it was not in european tones, no one 
over here used your high tones on AFSK, so has no equipment ready to 
receive them.  At the time I tried to use it by recording and changing 
the frequency but that was obviously not very convenient!

The Tones issue is probably a greater issue than the one of speed, as 
many machines will have been converted for 45 baud ham use. Both are 
likely to occur over here but I may concede that there could be more 
machines on 45 than 50. Some still have gears for both. If you dont want 
to change the speed, please can you at least consider changing the tones 
for a european service?.

I would have thought that coding issues, if they really exist as a 
problem, were easy to handle in software,

The answer with pictures is dont bother, I personally have no need to 
copy pictures which I probably already have on tapes anyway! If lines 
wrap then too bad, its not a great issue. Lets not throw out the baby 
with the bathwater in the search of perfection or nothing.

You say the technical side isnt a great issue, so given what I have 
explained, what is the cost in time and money to provide the side by 
side US service at 50 baud low tones? Is it another server or just 
another port?

Developing it to make it Euro specific can come later if people like at 
and can be bothered to do it, obviously if they cant, leave it as it is.

I just hoped that maybe it might be fairly straight forward for you to 
continue to offer the service you had before for Europe, but if you dont 
feel you want to help us over here then I have to accept that. It 
certainly doesnt seem likely anyone over here will run a service from 
scratch as yet. And maybe the interest is not as great as it is over in 
the states, but it does exist. I would like to be able to tell people 
about your service so they can exercise their machines, but I cant while 
they are not likely to be equipped to use it.

We all appreciate this is a hobby activity and you guys are busy people 
and we are lucky to have you doing anything for such a voluntary service 
but I hope that doesnt preclude us asking for more ways to improve and 
enjoy the service. Call it feedback and throw it in the bin if you like. 
But it would be a bit apathetic not to ask!

Martin





On 20/11/2013 08:14, George B. Hutchison wrote:
> Regarding European Service - - -
>
> Two or three years ago we did have 50 baud service on ITTY. No mention of
> European tones was ever made or considered.
>
> The European service was discontinued after perhaps six months due to
> perceived lack of interest on the part of European teletype enthusiasts.
>
> We were attempting to reconcile the differences between some of the European
> conflicts with US coding, such as bell on upper case J as compared with Bell
> on uppercase S, and European line lengths, which we adhere to by limiting
> our line length to 68 characters.
>
> This causes problems in instances where picture tapes which were prepared
> for 72 character lines need to be abbreviated to conform to the European 68
> character line. Who would be the one to take the time to go through them all
> so as to comply with the European standards?
>
> Another problem is the question of who in Europe would be interested in
> performing the message preparation of news items for Europe?
>
> ITTY has been damned fortunate in that we have had the Exemplary service of
> Tom Tillson and Wayne LeTourneau for all these years, with a few who
> occasionally pop up for a week or two, but most likely find it horribly time
> consuming.
>
> If there is interest in European service I don't feel there would be much of
> a problem with the technical details.
>
> Where there could be a significant problem is that it is extremely difficult
> to find personnel who would edit and prepare material for transmission.
>
> Another problem is that ITTY is a WINDOWS-BASED SYSTEM. As wonderful as
> MacIntosh and Linux based opsystems are to those who believe in them, it is
> indeed irritating to have to deal with those who cannot make their prized
> boxes work on ITTY. To this end I will try and get Bill Bytheway to detail
> the specifications he has used to make this system run extremely well (and
> ya gotta admit that between the RTTY broadcasts run around the turn of the
> century, and the fact that with little modification the ITTY software still
> works with remarkably well) and we will publish them on RTTY.com so that
> those with the linux and Mac bent can try their magic.
>
> It's actually a lot cheaper and far less time consuming to run down to
> GOODWILL or Bruno's Computer Recycling Emporium and buy something like a
> Dell GX150 for 25 bucks, put a half gig or gig of memory in it, load XP and
> the ITTY Software, and then edit to your heart's content. We might even go
> as far as preparing an ITTY Distribution CD such that you won't have to rely
> on the internet to get good copies of it.
>
> Europe - If you want it, please step up to the plate. We'll help, but you
> must get your hands dirty, as well.
>
> George - W7TTY - ITTY Central
>
>
>
>


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This Email personally scripted by: Martin
The Strowger aficionado's site is athttp://www.aeolian-hall.myzen.co.uk