[RTTY] RTTY and Emergency Communication

[Lee Buller]

I know that this reflector has a heavy contesting tilt, but during the recent ARRL RU, was started thinking of why RTTY is not used that much in Emergency Communication.  Or maybe it is an I don't know about it.

During the RU...I was working stations all over the country and even the world with good copy.  Then I started thinking why isn't this mode used more for EMCOM?  Now, years ago there were many RTTY nets and stuff....the Military and Government had numerous RTTY circuits going on.  A friend of mine in the Navy said that is all he did...make sure the RX was getting "NINCOMPOOP" messages from HI (Pearl).  

With the proliferation of Laptops, cheap interfaces, good programs, a simple 100 watt radio, and a dipole...a lot of traffic could be handled during an EMCOM event.  Now, I not not talking about search and rescue....but a lot of health and wellfare messages.  An RTTY set up could easily be put together in a "go" bag.  

What is cool about using RTTY (and there could be other type of digital modes used too) that messages could be prepared on other laptops and then those could be sent.  There are a lot of possibilities from EMCOM and RTTY.

Now, I am not an EMCOM guy at all.  I have a two meter FM rig somewhere on the workbench under a lot of junk....but it just gave me pause to think about this "old" technology that is now very portable and very robust.  At least we do not have to lug and ASR 33 or a Model 15 into the field.  A lot of traffic could be cleared in a short period of  time under pretty poor conditions.

Just some thoughts....what are your thoughts about RRY and EMCOM?

Lee - K0WA


In our day and age it seems that Common Sense is in short supply.  If you don't have any Common Sense - get some Common Sense and use it.  If you can't find any Common Sense, ask for help from somebody who has some Common Sense.  Is Common Sense divine?