[RTTY] TX9 -Reversed I'm confused

[W0YR at aol.com]

Yes, it IS an issue.   

Let me help you understand how RTTY works.  

An RTTY signal consists of pulses at two distinct frequencies.  With a BFO 
turned on, these become two audio tones.  The (now) standard spacing or "shift" 
is 170 Hz.  A Baudot character consists of a start pulse, five data pulses and 
a stop pulse. 

The two conditions are called "Mark" and "Space."  One tone is for Mark and 
the other is for Space.  If the tones are juxtaposed, the characters printed 
will be incorrect.   For instance, the letters "Y R" become "6 4"  

There is a standard to which stations must adhere in order to be printed 
properly.  If stations do not adhere to this standard (which the Chesterfield 
station is not doing,) the results are all inverted.  

When transmitting and receiving RTTY, the other station should not be able to 
tell if you are transmitting using an AFSK method or true FSK.   The end 
result is the same.  If the placement of the two tones is reversed, the result 
will be inverted. 

My point is, if the Chesterfield station would just throw ONE switch, we 
wouldn't even be having this discussion!  

I worked them on 15, 20 and 40 and had no problems.  Perhaps one of their ops 
has set things up incorrectly.

73, 

Mike
W0YR/4