[GreenKeys] Western Union Five Level and 1968 ASCII Code Card

Sat Jan 27 15:37:31 EST 2018

Hi Paul,

Let me see if I can help explain what happened here.  Yes, there is a difference between the CCITT No. 2 Standard that Europe and probably the ROTW followed for a Telex keyboard and what was implemented in the USA.  

But first, I've attached a picture of my Western Union Model 28 ASR Telex Keyboard.   There,  you can see that upper case V and upper case Z  do not follow the CCITT No. 2 Standard. 

Second, please see this article from the Western Union Technical Review from January 1964.  This is an interesting article that explains in detail the process that Western Union used in deciding to use the Teletype Model 32 ASR versus the Siemens T100 for Telex service.

This article, called "A New Line of Light-Duty Teleprinters and ASR Sets", covers the issue directly at the bottom of the first column on page 18. 

http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/technical/western-union-tech-review/18-1/p018.htm

Continue on by locating the "Next" option at the upper right of the article. Then, you can page through the article online. 

On page 25, the article goes into additional detail and says, with regard to V and Z,  "The character printed by Western Union Telex printers is imprinted on the left half of each key and the character printed by foreign Telex teleprinters is imprinted on the right half. The upper halves of the F, G and H keys are similarly "split" Since the upper case codes for these three characters are reserved for domestic use and their use is prohibited by the international Telex standards, the right halves of these keys are blank." 

Hopefully, that provides enough detail about how the keyboard standard is different in the USA.   I am hoping that Ken can comment on how the Telex keyboard was designed in Canada.

If you have the time, please read the entire article as it has some interesting technical details about the Teletype Model 32 ASR. 

73

Russ - WA3FRP
wa3frp at aol.com

i-Telex 834328 WUTMPAM CHIL

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Heller <paul0926 at comcast.net>
To: Wa3frp <wa3frp at aol.com>
Cc: greenkeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sat, Jan 27, 2018 12:31 pm
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Western Union Five Level and 1968 ASCII Code Card

Thanks for sharing, Russ. This explains a lot of information in one place. 

When I first started my ITTY system here in Arvada, I learned that the Europeans were not happy with ITTY because it was transmitting incorrect codes. I wrestled with this for a long time until I figured out what codes were appropriate and what were not. In particular, the $ was a no-no because it was sending a FIGS-D which is WRU in Telex! It would drive their machines mad. Henning helped me solve all the problems for the Europe channel, which transmits TELEX at 66WPM. 

I was aware that one could put a 60WPM gear in the 32 to operate it on RTTY. That must be a challenge when the other party types a $ in the conversation!

I remain confused about two things.  

First, the TELEX convention of +? when you want to turn over conversation to the other person. I figured it was only my 32 which could not generate the +, but I see + is not even in the WU TELEX standard.  Was the TELEX code different in Europe?

Second, my 32 has a funny keyboard with alternate value show, but not active, for some of the keys. For example, FIGS-Z can be “ or +; FIGS-V can be ; or =;   Not sure what the = sign is all about because it is not on that chart anywhere!

Paul
W2TTY
i-Telex: 80003

ITTY:  		HTTP://INTERNET-TTY.NET:8000/ITTY
AUTOSTART:  HTTP://INTERNET-TTY.NET:8030/AUTOSTART
EUROPE: 	HTTP://INTERNET-TTY.NET:8040/EUROPE

On Jan 26, 2018, at 9:13 PM, Wa3frp via GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

This is something that every Field Technician had in their wallet. 

Russ - WA3FRP
wa3frp at aol.com

i-Telex 834328 WUTMPAM CHIL

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