[RTTY] What is this auto mode that QRM's me?

[Shoppa, Tim]

With all the Winlink and RM-11708 talk going around, I have a question.

When I contest especially on 80M RTTY band (also occurs other bands, but most frequently on 80M RTTY band, may be weighted by the fact that I like 80M the most!) I am often QRM'ed by some sort of automatic digital mode.

This auto mode is characterized by two sides chirping at each other, one side typically is "longer" than the other. The short chirps are just a second or so, the longer chirps are several seconds.

Bandwidth is similar or broader than RTTY but it is not RTTY.

I think this is some sort of ALE mode or HF packet, but don't know if it's Winlink.

It most frequently comes up on me after I've been running on a freq for 10 or 20 minutes or even more.

I know that this auto mode "sees me" because if I pause, it switches from "short chirps", to the long chirps. So clearly this auto mode sees me on the frequency and knows the frequency isn't clear, but is trying to carry on nevertheless.

Does this sound familiar? I am on east coast US and I'm pretty sure this is some sort of ALE mode (unsure which one) and I'm 100% sure there's no human at either end.

Tim N3QE