About RTTY.COM and the WEB Masters

About RTTY.COM

This website is dedicated to RTTY as it was when it first was available as a new and exciting Amateur Radio operating mode.

The RTTY operator had to find some manner of teleprinter, learn how it worked and how to repair it, and then BUILD all of the necessary electronics needed to make it run.

It is by nature a hobby which can be quite addictive, requiring untold hours reading books, searching junkyards, wheeling, dealing, experimenting and so forth so that at last that whirring, oily black box would begin to print real words and messages.

The advent of the "Glass Teletype" was the beginning of the end of the mechanical teleprinter era. For a time it was a boon to the dedicated RTTYer, because suddenly the machines that had cost three-hundred dollars could be acquired quite often for just carrying them out of the building.

Today the mechanical printers are history except in the hearts and minds of a dedicated few. This website is for that few, and it is hoped that by its existence interest in Mechanical RTTY will continue, and perhaps enjoy a rekindling.

This website is here for the WORLD. It undergoes periodic changes and additions, and has been a learning experience. We welcome your comments and suggestions.

Below you see two photographs. The guy on the left is me, George, W7TTY. The fellow on the right is Bill, K7TTY.

I sold Bill his first teletype machine in 1968. He was fifteen at the time, and has been cursing me ever since. But without Bill's coaching, encouragement, enthusiasm and long hours, we could not say "click on the link below and enjoy..."