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 Previous: ARRL Concludes 5-MHz Experiments, Awaits FCC Decision on New Band |  Next: The K7VVV Solar Update |
By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor
January 3, 2003
This week, surf to a site dedicated to the original ham radio data communications mode, and just in time for this weekend's ARRL RTTY Roundup!
If you are an OM with emphasis on the "O" like I am, then you may remember Walter Cronkite's, KB2GSD, news broadcasts on CBS with the Teletype machines printing away in the background. I loved the sound of the Teletype machines and I think that is one of the reasons I got into ham RTTY (radio teletype) in the first place.
 Want to try RTTY? Then go to the AA5AU RTTY Page and find out how. |
At the height of my RTTY career, I had a pristine Model 28ASR that sounded like music to my ears, but eventually I got the computer bug and replaced the green keys with a TRS-80 keyboard (I wonder if there are any programs that simulate the sound of the green keys?). Don Hill, AA5AU, is an RTTY fan, too, and he has built the AA5AU RTTY Page, which is an excellent site for information on the state of the RTTY today.
For folks just getting their feet wet in RTTY, Don's web site includes an excellent tutorial, "Getting Started in RTTY," that describes how to get up and running in the RTTY mode using MMTTY, a free Windows RTTY program written by Makoto Mori, JE3HHT. There is a page that describes how to build simple transistor computer interfaces for FSK, PTT and CW. Have you bought a new computer and wonder where the serial ports have gone? Well, you should check out Don's USB-to-Serial Port Adapters page to find out how to solve the problem of the missing ports.
The page also contains a variety of information regarding RTTY DXing and contesting, as well as a great list of links to other RTTY web sites. Don also maintains the AA5AU WriteLog Web Site. The purpose of the site is to help educate users on how to set up WriteLog, which is a Windows RTTY contest program written by Wayne Wright, W5XD.
Until next time, keep on surfin'.
Editor's note:
Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, resides in downtown Wolcott, Connecticut, and is a member
of the QQCC (QST
quarter century club), i.e., he has been a QST writer for 25 years. Since getting his
ticket in 1969, Stan has sampled nearly every entrée in the Amateur Radio menu
(including a stint as Connecticut Section Manager), but he keeps coming back to
his favorite preoccupations: VHF and packet radio. As a result, he runs a
2-meter APRS digipeater and weather station (WA1LOU-15) from his mountaintop
location in central Connecticut. Stan has been a long time advocate of using
computers with Amateur Radio and wrote programs to dupe contests and calculate
antenna bearings way back in 1978. Today, he is on the board of directors of
the Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR) and uses his Mac to surf the Internet
searching for that perfect ham radio web page. To contact Stan, send e-mail to wa1lou@arrl.net.
| Previous: ARRL Concludes 5-MHz Experiments, Awaits FCC Decision on New Band | Next: The K7VVV Solar Update |
