[R-390] More dweedle-dweedle

[Scott, Barry (Clyde B)]

Had marginal success last night copying RTTY.  I managed to catch the tail-end of a ham QSO, but was not successful with much else.  40M propagation wasn't particularly good from the west coast last night so I didn't copy WC2XPF (lots of QRN).  I missed ARRL's ham broadcast, but will try again tonight.

There are lots of other RTTY signals out there, but I don't seem to be able to get much out of them.  For example, there is a strong station around 10,130 kc, but I couldn't make much out of it.  According to the display, it appeared to be an 850 cps shift, but I could not get intelligible copy.  There are so many variables here: 5-bit, 6-bit, 7-bit, 8-bit, number of stop bits, baud rate, parity, etc.  I tried lots of combinations with no luck.  Of course, it could be it was sending encrypted -- don't know.

Any suggestions on some common modes other than the "standard" ham configuration of 45.45 baud, 170 cps shift?  Is it possible from the relative sound of the signal to make a guess at the baudrate?  Do many common baudrates share a common data format (databits, stopbits, parity)?  It doesn't seem this should be so difficult.

Of course, I used the R390A for some of my attempts last night so this is "on topic".  :)

Thanks,

Barry(III) - N4BUQ