[GreenKeys] The Teletype Machine That Could Draw

Sat May 16 11:11:45 EDT 2026

Dan. Yes! And both the M15 and M28 had WX pallets or a typebox
available. Here is a link to font details:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WeatherTeletypeChart.jpg

The M28 likely had updates like you mentioned. May it also have taken
advantage of the M28 stuntbox?  Faster printing with backspace, tab, etc.?

73, John W1AN

 >
 >

> John,
> Are you referring to the weather tty type box that had arrows for wind 
> and circles for sky cover?  I don’t recall any other fonts for weather. 
> Those type boxes were used for the Surface Airways reports back in the 60s.
> If that’s what you are referencing, that code was changed to plain(er) 
> language for sky cover (SCT, BKN, OVC) and degrees for wind so the 
> character set would be completely different.  I wonder if those type 
> boxes still exist in someone’s basement?
> 
> 
> Best Regards,
> 
> Dan Provost
> 
> 
> 
>> On May 15, 2026, at 11:23 PM, John Spigel via GreenKeys 
>> <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net> wrote:
>>
>> I've posted a bunch, 125 or so, of additional TTY ART MP3 files on
>>
>> https://5bits.net
>>
>> Now just 170 shift, but will add 850 shift in next few days. I've 
>> rendered the ART in GIF format so you can get an idea of what you 
>> might be printing. I'll make up a fancier web display later.
>>
>> I plan to collect a number of Christmas pics and add them as they 
>> become available.
>>
>> I'm seekingr some files/ tapes that may exist that are from WX reports 
>> that used the weather service fonts. I'd like to create a couple of 
>> MP3 files so we can museum demo. An M15 with the fonts would be a nice 
>> find, too.
>>
>> 73, John W1AN
>>
>>> On 23-Apr-26 23:35, Joe Clanin via GreenKeys wrote:
>>> >I suspect that it would be faster to try hand transcription, as 
>>> awful as that job sounds.
>>> Luckily, there's still quite a bit of time before Christmas.
>>> -Joe
>>> On Thu, Apr 23, 2026 at 6:07 PM Jones, Douglas W via GreenKeys 
>>> <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net <mailto:greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>> wrote:
>>>    From: Chuck Rehor -- Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2026 5:52 PM
>>>     > Can we get the two JPG's as text files so we can send to our 
>>> TTY's?
>>>    I wonder if any of today's generally good OCR tools could
>>>    successfully don this conversion.  I suspect that it would be faster
>>>    to try hand transcription, as awful as that job sounds.  Someone did
>>>    it 50 years ago to make the originals.
>>>    When I saw the title, however, my mind flashed back not to ASCII (or
>>>    BAUDOT) art, but to the fax machine I remember seeing as a child
>>>    when I visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  They
>>>    had two machines next to each other in what I recall looked like
>>>    identical housings.  I'm pretty sure one was a Model 32 RO machine
>>>    printing wire service text.  The other was a fax receiver printing
>>>    weather maps.  Looking through the window on top, you could see a
>>>    helical bar that was turning one turn per scan line behind the page
>>>    while the paper advanced one scan line per turn of the helix.  The
>>>    cloth ribbon ran full width between the page and bar that hammered
>>>    the ribbon against the page and helix for each black pixel.
>>>    I stared at that machine for several minutes trying to figure out
>>>    how it works.  The above description is from my memory so may be 
>>> wrong.
>>>    In any case, that was definitely a TTY that could draw!
>>>                 Doug Jones
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>>>>>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool: https:// 
>>>>>> teletype.net/gksearch
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>>>>> Jordan Spencer Cunningham's GreenKeys Search Tool: https:// 
>>>>> teletype.net/gksearch
>>>>> 2002-to-present greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/ 
>>>>> pipermail/greenkeys/
>>>>> 1998-to-2001 greenkeys archive: http://mailman.qth.net/archive/ 
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>>
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