[RTTY] RTTY History

[Dave Barr]

N9PUZ asked about when Amateur RTTY started.

Check out:

www.rtty.com/history/index.htm

In an article at this web site Bart W6OWP wrote:

"By the end of WW2, FSK had made Radioteletype a practical reality in 
the military and commercial fields. It was an emission, however, not 
available to hams operating HF until February, 1953"

"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."


So was it the late '40s or the early '50s???

K2YG