22 Feb
2013
22 Feb
'13
11:16 a.m.
gibberish. I seem to remember that it was also common
practice for RTTY
operators to send something like "LTRS LTRS LTRS" when beginning a
message to make certain that the receiving end was in the correct mode.
It was (or is -- I can't believe there are no old telpritner enthusiasts
left :-)). In fact a lot of amateurs sent LTRS after a CR/LF to make sure
each line started i nthe right mode, just in case a character on the
previous line had been mangeld into FIGS
As an aside. many older machines had '3 row' keyboards. That is, 3 rows
of keys. The figure shift of QW...OP is 12...90, which makes life a
little more tolerable :-). Later machines, like the Creed 444, haev a
full 4 row keyboard, but with mechncial interlocks so you can't press
keys for symbols in the wrong shift.
-tony