[RTTY] OOK Recieve Mode? RTTY HISTORY REFERENCE

[Jerry Flanders]

At 11:55 2/17/2005, niddy noddy wrote:
>This was mentioned in an earlier digest. I admit I was
>never exposed to the Clatter of Surplus RTTY
>Equipment, the closest I came was my Elmers Setup
>using a KAYPRO II.
>
>SO what exactly is "OOK"  ??
>
>KF8ZN
>


ON - OFF keying, like CW.  The very early RTTY hams could not legally use 
FSK, so they used OOK on the mark freq.

I just googled up some very early history from a pioneer's ( Forrest "Bart" 
Bartlett, W6OWP - he calls it Make And Break - MAB) writeup 
at:  http://www.rtty.com/history/w6owp.htm


"...During following weeks I would occasionaly key one of my transmitters 
from the Teletype, calling CQ. This is probably how contact was made with 
Wallace Ludgate, W7LU, in Portland, OR. He was enthusiastic about giving 
MAB keying a try. He had a Teletype and had built an FSK terminal unit. We 
discussed ways it might be modified for make-and-break keying, A schedule 
was made for July 5th, 1952, Copy was only fair. My log doesn't indicate 
what the difficulty was but another schedule a week later resulted in a 
solid 30-minute RTTY QSO. From then until FSK was authorized, W7LU and I 
enjoyed many RTTY contacts using the MAB mode.

It was February 20, 1953, that FSK became legal on the HF bands. At 1235AM 
I contacted W6RZL for my first FSK QSO. We concluded the contact at 110AM. 
No other RTTY was heard and there was no answer to a RTTY CQ so I closed 
down for the rest of the night. W0UUL was the only other contact that first 
day of FSK operation. The next day, Bill Snyder, W0LHS, was worked. Bill, 
in more recent years, wrote "The Digital Bus" column in WORLD RADIO..."

This is only an excerpt - much more at his web site above. Interesting read.

Jerry W4UK