[GreenKeys] Early early computer-created teletype art

Fri Aug 9 21:51:28 EDT 2019

Tom & Gang 

I never knew John, but I did see him at the Dayton Hamvention, in the RTTY Journal Hospitality Room, several 
times, setting up is artwork, and offering tapes for sale. I think that at least one time there, he had both BAUDOT 
and ASCII tapes for some of the items. I'm certain that he never made a penny from this effort. To him it was 
just a way to preserve and hopefully interest others in the idea. 

I watched that interview just now and enjoyed it very much. Thanks for passing that link along. 

- - - - 

I was a subscriber to the RTTY Journal when it was owned by Frank (Dusty) Dunn, W8CQ, and followed it for 
several more years after Dusty sold it to Don Crumpton, who had a "6" call out in California. 

The year of the 'transfer' from Dusty to Don, Don decided to drive to Ohio for the Hamvention and meet some of 
the subscribers, etc. Sadly, on the way he had car trouble in a remote area and it took several days to get parts for 
his car for a repair. All he could do was go back home. 

I think he passed away shortly after that. The following year, his widow Delores came to Dayton to 'meet the 
gang' and let them know that the RTTY Journal would continue under her leadership. 

She was quite nervous meeting people under these circumstances. I was one of the 'early birds' to the Hospitality 
Room and she grabbed me and asked me to take photos with her POLAROID camera which was equipped with a 
special filter installed INSIDE the camera to provide a 'screen mesh' over all photos that made photo reproduction 
much better. 

So, that year I wandered all around the room, getting shots of different people and groups, and making notes for 
her. Many of the photos ended up in a following issue of the Journal. 

Typically, the Hospitality Room was open both Friday and Saturday evenings. There was a steady stream of people 
in and out of the room, and there was usually a fair amount of liquid refreshment available. For several years, a ham 
from Kentucky, (Henry, W4MGT) who had contributed several articles to the Journal, over the years, would send a 
special bottle of Kentucky Bourbon to Dusty, and later to Dee. He usually had a simple note taped to the bottle, 
wishing the gang a good Hamvention and safe return home, etc. 

Henry had come up with an interesting modification to some TUs. His plan was to use two IDENTICAL channel 
filters, tuned to the MARK frequency, and then have something similar to a Product Detector where one of the 
two filters was somehow shifted the appropriate number of hertz to give the desired shift. It was much easier to 
construct two filters with the same center freq and bandwidth and "Q", etc, and easier to set the product detector 
a given number of hertz away from the MARK frequency to provide the correct incoming shift. 

- - - - 

John, K2AGI, came a number of times to the Hospitality room. He would carefully tape RTTY art items to the walls 
and let people know that tapes were available from him. He had a great collection. Before the 'computer era', when 
RTTY Art production was 'computerized', John probably had the largest private (for lack of a better word) collection 
of things. 

I was active on the 'eastern USA Autostart net on 3637.5 Khz. A number of people kept an RTTY station on this 
freq. and basically 'copied everything' until the electronic SELCAL (SELective CALling) devices were published in 
the Journal. I don't remember the author of the original article about SELCAL, but it allowed one to program, usually 
with some diodes on a 'matrix area' of a PC board to respond to their call, a 'general call' and some standard 'shut down' 
sequences. Most of us have seen someone here on GreenKeys end their message with 

NNNN 

This was a standard 'shut down' or 'end of message' sequence used commonly by the commercial Teletype community 
of the wire services and others involved in 'broadcast' type activities. 

Anyway, on the Autostart freq on 80M, a number of people had a tape of one of the Playboy Playmates of the Month. 

There was a lot of controversy about the propriety of sending such things over the air! One of these ladies became known 
as "Miss 3637.5" It was not uncommon to come home from work and go to the basement to see the day's activities on 
Autostart and see several copies of "Miss 3637.5". To some it was a waste of paper, and others a waste of electricity for 
their monthly power bill. No lack of reasons to complain about something you personally didn't like. 

Other Playmates became well known over the RTTY Art venues on the air. As John Sheetz said in his interview, due to 
the efforts of Don Royer, WA6IPR and several other dedicated 'artists', there was a steady stream of art, showing people, 
places and things. Most of the people were depicted with their clothes on. 

- - - - 

Going back to my Navy days as a Radio Operator, around Christmas on several occasions, there was a famous piece of 
RTTY art that got sent on the Fleet Broadcast freqs. It was "The Madonna and Child" reproduction of a famous piece 
or art. It ran for around 20 minutes, since it was at 60WPM and consisted of a lot of 'overlining' of certain parts to give 
good results. We usually attempted to make a tape of the event, and may have succeeded a few times. If the printer did 
not defeat overlining you could end up with a very nice piece of work. 

There was another famous piece of RTTY art that would show up occasionally, in 'slack times' on the Mid Watch. It 
was the daVinci depiction of "The Last Supper". This was printed sideways, and once it was done, it was removed from 
the machine and taped on the wall long side parallel to the floor. I seem to remember that the finished item was maybe as 
long as 24 inches, if not a bit wider. 

Other times, in 'no-traffic' situations, there was either a string of RYRYRYRYRY followed by a string of SGSGSGSGSG 
used as test strings to keep the channel occupied, and easy to find. 

It had been determined that continuous use of the RYYRY sequence caused excessive wear on those two type pallets and 
so at some point, someone determined that after a string of RYRYRYRY there would be a string of SGSGSGSG, to reduce 
the wear on the R and the Y. 

NERK NERK NERK DE NPG NPG NPG 
RYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYRYR 
SGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSGSG 

Followed by either a continuous string of LTRS characters or a dead carrier for a minute or so, followed by another 
'test string' of the RYRYRY and the SGSGSG. 

NERK was the callsign for "ALL SHIPS COPYING THIS BROADCAST" AND NPG WAS NAV COM STA SAN FRANCISCO . 
The unclassified callsign for the Hancock was NWLD and later on, NGKQ. In browsing though the callsign directory, I discovered 
that virtually all ships and commands had more than one unclassified callsign. Never could find out why. 

They must have had some huge transmitters for NPG since we recall hearing them from all over the pacific, under certain 
circumstances. The Fleet Broadcast was always sent out on five or six HF frequencies so that it was possible to copy NPG from 
a variety of distances from San Francisco, with reliable copy of messages. I never heard any details, but I would suspect that 
they had 5 to 8KW transmitters at the various transmitter stations. 

- - - - 

I hope that my rambling is not boring to any or many. It is great to think back to that time of my life and remember the 'good times' 
along with the bad times. The nearly two years I spent on the USS Hancock were most interesting and educational for me. 

For now, 

73, 

Ralph - W8ROI 

- - - - - - - - 

From: "Thomas Tillson via GreenKeys" <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net> 
To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Friday, August 9, 2019 6:57:05 PM 
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Early early computer-created teletype art 

Does anyone recall John Sheetz (SK)? 

Here is a BBC interview with him discussing RTTY art. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Beg5qb4is 

TT 

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