--- On Wed, 10/1/08, hankvond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> From: hankvond <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: [digitalradio] Re: ASCII ?
> To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2008, 8:30 PM
> --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, John Becker
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > Why did ASCII fail to catch on? Just curious!
> >
> > 73,
> >
> > John, K9MM
> >
>
> Hi John,
>
> Probably because ASCII requires separate equipment. The
> standard TTY
> would not do ASCII and the home computers of 1980 would
> were a little
> too "software challenged".
>
> Hank - KI4UMX
>
>
The computers would handle rtty with no problem. I wrote a rtty program on an
old 8080 computer mother board that only had about 2 K of rom and 1 K of ram to
do the program. Could do 60 and 100 wpm. I was using a ST-6 to send the
pulses to the computer and generate the tones.
The old computers often used the 110 (think that is the speed) ASCII for the
input/output hard copy. That same 8080 was used to decode the ascii from W1AW
when they sent it.
The old Comodore and Radio Shack computers could handle that slow speed with no
problem.
I am sure there were several reasons the ASCII did not make it. The slower 60
WPM Baudot gave fewer errors than the faster speeds. Most hams could not type
60 wpm or faster. There was already much Baudot equipment out. The mechanical
ASCII devices cost a lot more.
