[RTTY] FSK origin

[Tom Osborne]

> Looking for information on the origin of "FSK" when and where. What
> depicted the name FSK.
>
> Bob   wa6bob at arrl.net

Hi Bob
FSK is Frequency Shift Keying.
Back in the "goode olde dayz", we used to actually shift the frequency
of the vfo 850 cycles.  You would just put a carrier on and shift the
carrier back and forth from mark to space.   It was a lot more
difficult then because all of the vfo's didn't didn't use  the same
circuit for the oscillator and you would have to build a fsk circuit
for each vfo design.  Some of them even had to have a different
circuit for each band.  Some of the older setups used a polar relay to
shift the frequency.  They were bad because the noise and hash could
be really annoying if you didn't build a filter to filter it out.
When Heathkit came out with their H-8 computer, things really started
getting better.  Then Radio Shack came out with the TRS-80 Model 1
"wide band nooise generator."   There was some neat rtty software for
it but you had to operate between the birdies in youjr receiver to use
it because it was so noisy.  It used to be called the "Trash 80."
I remember we used to call "cq rtty" on CW and when someone would
answer, we'd shift to rtty.  Ah for the good old days.  73
Tom W7WHY