[RTTY] RTTY Screwed by FCC?

[Bill Turner]

ORIGINAL MESSAGE:

On Sat, 14 Oct 2006 19:52:25 -0400, "Joe Subich, W4TV"
 <w4tv at subich.com> wrote:

>If you want to split hairs, no signal that is transmitted by RF 
>(or light in fiber optics) is truly "digital." 

------------ REPLY FOLLOWS ------------

For a signal to be "digital", the data has to represent numbers. That
is what the word "digital" means. In the case of RTTY, the bits are
purely analog signals, which is why they can be decoded with an analog
computer, namely a teletype machine. There is no number crunching
involved. You can, of course, digitize the signal just as with any
analog signal and process it, but the original signal was and is
analog.

I realize I'm pi**ing into the wind here. People who don't really
think about things will lump any on-off signal into the "digital"
category whether it really is or not. 

One last example: Your house probably has switches on the wall which
turn a ceiling light on and off. Is that a digital switch? Or just a
two-state, i.e. binary, switch? If you believe it is digital, then you
will believe RTTY is a digital mode.

Bill, W6WRT