rjr@mgweed.UUCP (Bob Roehrig) (03/27/84)
The reason for the "barbaric practice" of posting bulletins in upper case is that's the way they are received off the air! Yes, I use antique hardware for several reasons. I punch paper tape as I receive the transmissions. I don't know of a better, more reliable "backup". I have a Baudot/ASCII converter and could send the input directly to the computer, but phone lines and data links have a habit of going down without notice. I don't use my own computer in the ham shack because of the rf garbage it generates. There are enough problems with qrm and local line noise. I also use the tape for retransmission on the air. I have also found that on hf, the slower the data rate, the more reliable the copy. So I only use the amtor or ASCII transmissions for fills if something was missed or garbled on the initial Baudot transmission. I appreciate the comments I have received regarding upper vs. lower case and from now on they will be posted in lower case. Had I realized this preference, I would have done it sooner, but I have been posting bulletins for quite a few months and have not received any comments regarding lower case until several days ago. Perhaps I should inquire if anyone objects to my limiting the line length to 63 characters. There are quite a few terminals in this area that are limited to a 64 character line. Also this length should certainly be acceptable to any printer used. Speaking of posting things to the net, I wish everyone would leave at least one blank line at the beginning of postings so the text is separated from the header junk. Mentioning "stone-age hardware" reminds me of the fact that we have had an unusual number of "accidental" transmissions on our local 2 meter rtty channel. These transmissions are ALL caused by those that use computers for rtty rather than the old clunker printers. I would caution anyone using a computer to be aware that when power is shut down on the interface and/or modem, the transmit line sometimes defaults in the "on-the-air" state! This has occured most often with stations using vic-20's or 64's with some of the Kantronics or similar interfacing. Bob, K9EUI (k9eui)