[GreenKeys] Answerback formats

[Ralph Irish]

Hi Gang 

It seems to me that I've seen the name, "Burt Prall" mentioned on G/K a time or two in recent years. 
Burt held a WA9 call and was VERY active with TTY and RTTY all over the Chicago area. He was 
involved in Civil Defense, had DIRECT LINES from his house to several airports, police stations 
and I don't know what else. 

The one time I visited him, he pointed out a "6 x 50" telephone 'punch-down block' in his garage that 
terminated a 25 pair cable directly from his closest Central Office. He said that a second one was on 
order, since all of the first group were in use and more were needed. The 'exit cable' went out of sight 
and ended up on the 3rd floor for Burt to connect here and there. 

His 'shack' and all of his TTY gear was on the 3rd floor of his home. AND, there was an attic above 
that with more 'stuff ' in storage. The fellow that traveled to Chicago with me was invited to stick his 
head up above the top stair for a look. He was amazed at what he saw. 

Burt had a flock of active 28 machines running at all times. Direct feeds from various Weather sources, 
and 're-feeds' to Civil Defense posts and other places. 

As a joke, he had programmed one of his answerback drums to read: 

'YESITSTILLWORKS!' 

when activated. This machine was running at 100 WPM and zapped off that message in a flash. I think 
that it only ENDED with the CR/LF/LTRS which left one or two spaces unused. 

I would dearly love to exchange notes with anyone else who ever had the pleasure of seeing his 3rd Floor. 
Lots of receivers and TUs and many items that were quite foreign to me. 

In his later life, Burt got involved with a computer company that made early 'mini computers'. Not sure of 
which company it was. 

I don't see Burt mentioned in Wikipedia, so there is an opportunity for someone who knew him well to 
preserve Burt's place in history. 

73, 

Ralph - W8ROI 


----- Original Message -----

From: "WAYNE" <teletypeparts at comcast.net> 
To: "ad7i" <ad7i at ad7i.net>, greenkeys at mailman.qth.net 
Sent: Friday, September 6, 2019 11:28:14 AM 
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Answerback formats 



Paul, 

The 32 ASR Telex would not answer a call if the paper was low or out. The arm on the paper roll would disable the machine. We used to carry a low paper roll to use as a tool to set the low paper alarm. 


Their was no auto AB on the 32, you had to depress FIGS D to trigger the distant end's AB drum. 


On TWX machines their was an auto AB function as well as CTRL WRU. When you make a connection with DE machine the AB would automatically be triggered. If the paper was low the machine would not answer same as the Telex. 

All AB coding should have CR LF Delete (or LTRS on a Telex) at both the beginning and end. Sometimes the LTRS or Delete would be left out at the end to include a character in the text that was wanted. 


I am not aware of any other sensors other than the low paper switch triggered by the low paper arm. 


73, 

Wayne 

KB1FDW 

On September 5, 2019 at 11:37 PM ad7i <ad7i at ad7i.net> wrote: 

I hope that members of the list can help me with some questions about TTY answerbacks. 

Did the answerback text that was transmitted by a TTY in response to WRU include a CR/LF sequence at the end of the answerback ? 

Also, what sensors in the TTY had to be in the "good to go" state in order for the answerback to be transmitted? I'm guessing the "paper present" would be once sensor. Were there typically other sensors as well? 

Paul Newland, ad7i 
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