RTTY
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [RTTY] Mark & Space - High Tones

To: RTTY Reflector <rtty@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RTTY] Mark & Space - High Tones
From: Kok Chen <chen@mac.com>
Date: Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:03:42 -0700
List-post: <rtty@contesting.com">mailto:rtty@contesting.com>
>From the introduction to Section 16.2.1 (RTTY) of Chapter 16 in the 2010 and 
>2011 ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications:

"RTTY consists of a frequency shift keyed signal that is modulated between two 
carrier frequencies called the mark frequency and the space frequency.  The 
protocol for amateur RTTY calls for the mark carrier frequency to be the higher 
of the two in the RF spectrum."

Then, under "FSK vs AFSK Modulation":

"AFSK can be generated by using either an upper sideband transmitter or a lower 
sideband transmitter. With a USB transmitter, the mark tone must be the higher 
of the two audio tones in the Audio FSK signal.  The USB modulator will then 
place the corresponding mark carrier at the higher of the two FSK carrier 
frequencies.  When LSB transmission is used, the mark tone must be the lower of 
the two audio tones in the Audio FSK signal.  The LSB modulator will then place 
the corresponding mark carrier at the higher of the two FSK carrier 
frequencies."

Under "'Spotting' An RTTY Signal,"

"By convention, RTTY signals are identified by the frequency of the mark 
carrier on the RF spectrum.  "Spotting" the suppressed carrier frequency dial 
of an SSB receiver is useless for someone else unless they also know whether 
the spotter is using upper and lower sideband and tone pair the spotter's 
demodulator is using."

When Ward N0AX asked me to contribute to the 2010 and 2011 Handbooks, I had 
very carefully included those paragraphs just because these topics keep getting 
asked on this reflector every year or so.

(Of course cocoaModem has a menu to select between USB or LSB for RTTY, PSK31, 
MFSK16, ASCII RTTY, DominoEX and SITOR-B.  I was surprised to see so many 
software modems in Joe's list that don't do it, since it really doesn't take 
more than a few minutes of mostly clerical work.)

73
Chen, W7AY

_______________________________________________
RTTY mailing list
RTTY@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>