[Qcwa] WWII RTTY

[Joseph Fenn]

Well I cant see your PICS on my old Commodore128 but a few wild guesses.
RTTY systems were just that, usually model 14 or 15's.
Yes the paper tape was much used due to speeds of like 700 wpm when
signals were good.   It was not a particular tty system, but it was
called BOEHME, and was used very much to WAR Radio.
Boehme actually copied the CW code like I said at anywhere from 300
to 600 WPM.  No opr was actually copying that by ear of course, it
was printed on paper tape as   Flat tops  /-\ or pin tops ^ thus
the flat tops became dahs and the pintops became the dits.   I was
able to read the tape as it crossed the top of my mill thrugh a track
holder.  We had a footpedal wired to the tape puller so could control
the speed at which we copied the stuff.   Most of us got up to about
70 wpm or so.    If a crash of static or interference hit the incoming
signal hard,  it would garble the tape so the receiving operator
controlling the incoming signal would send the letters "PB" to the
stn at the other end.  That meant pull his tape back a yard or so
due to the scrambled stuff on tape and resume sending.
Was a lotta fun albeit very monotonous at times as the stuff
being copied was all coded in groups of 8 letters.   You could'nt
guess at stuff you had to get it right every time.
               Joe (former WW2 opr/supvr at WVN WBR)



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* Ham KH6JF AARS/MARS ABM6JF QCWA WW2 VET WD RADIO *
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