# Rtt



## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

I came across this recently. It came to me at GKZ, probably from GKA, but may have been taped up on GBTT.

David
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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

Not a quick brown fox in sight!


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

I remember getting telex messages on Mobil Australis. I kept a special clean rosey to capture the miles of tape that then had to be fed through the teleprinter in order to print out the megaboring messages. How I wish I'd kept a few hundred yards of that tape for a souvenir .... Just kidding.

However, we still hear about "tickertape parades" for triumphant lesbian sportspersons and whatnot. Wonder where they get the tickertape from in these days when even Faxes are "old school".

John T


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

There were lots of these RATT pictures in the 80s. One In particular I liked was of the Apollo 11 rocket at launch for the first moon landing. It took up about half a roll of tape to run it off.


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## Wismajorvik (Dec 29, 2011)

david.hopcroft said:


> I came across this recently. It came to me at GKZ, probably from GKA, but may have been taped up on GBTT.
> 
> David
> +


We used to receive many of these RATT pictures at Christmas time at an organisation I worked at. The more interesting messages were the PICOLLO transmissions which required using the monitor speaker to hear the carols!


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

WhT a dummy I am, i just had another look and realised it was a picture of a boat! I was about to try and decode it.

John T


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## hawkey01 (Mar 15, 2006)

David,

I am fairly sure we did not originate it at GKA. It could have been from GBTT one Christmas.

Neville - Hawkey01


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## LouisB (Dec 23, 2007)

King Ratt said:


> There were lots of these RATT pictures in the 80s. One In particular I liked was of the Apollo 11 rocket at launch for the first moon landing. It took up about half a roll of tape to run it off.


Hi Rab. When I used to fiddle around with these sort of things (as a hobby) Via a programme on my receiver and an early p.c. and using a dot matrix printer (remember them) I could transcribe rtty/fsk transmissions into some wonderful pictures as well as text.

LouisB. (Scribe)


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## Graham P Powell (Jun 2, 2007)

Hi David,
Well, I'm blowed, forgotten those pictures. Brings back all sorts of memories.
That sort of thing came in from GBTT over the Christmas period.
It was very nice to see it again!.
I have a feeling in the back of my mind that we used to get other ones but not sure about that.
All the best
rgs
Graham Powell


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## Larry Bennett (Aug 28, 2005)

Graham P Powell said:


> Hi David,
> Well, I'm blowed, forgotten those pictures. Brings back all sorts of memories.
> That sort of thing came in from GBTT over the Christmas period.
> It was very nice to see it again!.
> ...


Yep we used to get quite a few - many really artistic efforts and I wish I had kept some. I will have a look in my box of GKA archives just in case I find something. Obviously at GKA we had tons of 5-unit tape held in the RTT section. We utilised the used tapes for Xmas decorations in the old station, along with a Santa Claus with a noose around his neck and a 'severed hand' in the to-ship traffic carousel.
Larry +


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

For Wismajorvik. Ref your #5. I believe that GBTT / QE2 was equipped at one time with the piccolo system. 
For LouisB. Are you still fiddling around with radio stuff?

Regards

Rab T


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## LouisB (Dec 23, 2007)

King Ratt said:


> For Wismajorvik. Ref your #5. I believe that GBTT / QE2 was equipped at one time with the piccolo system.
> For LouisB. Are you still fiddling around with radio stuff?
> 
> Regards
> ...


@Rab.

Still having a twiddle on occasions. Mainly Ghz range digital stuff Rab. Had a bloody great motorised Yagi on the small veranda of my flat but objections were raised. Mostly digital photography and printing A2+ these days. Had a succession of Austin 7 motors circa 1933 but expensive to maintain so sold on. Keeping fully occupied in my dotage 

LouisB. (Scribe)


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## Ron Dean (Aug 11, 2010)

trotterdotpom said:


> WhT a dummy I am, i just had another look and realised it was a picture of a boat! I was about to try and decode it.
> 
> John T


I'm sure you mean "picture of a ship" John. - Remember "Ships have boats". (Wave)

Ron.


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## hughesy (Dec 18, 2007)

I kept a hard copy of a telex I sent when I was on the bow drill one in Nova scotia
long as a cricket pitch took me a very long while to type, had it for years,maniifests for all the gear going back on the supply boat. this thread taking about telexs reminded me of that. It was much quciker and a lot better when we got an IBM word processor hooked up to the Marisat comms saved the company loads of money on time transmitting on that system too??

all the best
Hughesy


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

For Louisb. Good to see you are still keeping your hand in. I have now reduced my capabilities purely to keeping my morse receiving OK by listening to the amateurs and copying the HF ATC stuff. 

All the best

Rab T


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## Graham P Powell (Jun 2, 2007)

Larry mentioned the miles of 5 unit tape we had at GKA.
The North Atlantic weather used to come in from Bracknell Weather Centre and the tape would go into a handy bin to be collected by whoever was listed to do the broadcast . One day, the handyman thinking the bin was full of rubbish chucked it out!.
Yet another anecdote from the amazing place that was GKA!!!.
rgds to all
Graham Powell


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## Wismajorvik (Dec 29, 2011)

King Ratt said:


> For Wismajorvik. Ref your #5. I believe that GBTT / QE2 was equipped at one time with the piccolo system.
> For LouisB. Are you still fiddling around with radio stuff?
> 
> Regards
> ...


The piccolo system was under development at the time in question, (used between fixed land stations) and had greater steps between single tones than the later configurations. Hence the smart folks could write music! The hard copy was of no interest...


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## King Ratt (Aug 23, 2005)

Thankyou Wismajorvik. I would like to have heard the musical compositions using Piccolo. do you have any existing recordings of these?


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## Wismajorvik (Dec 29, 2011)

King Ratt said:


> Thankyou Wismajorvik. I would like to have heard the musical compositions using Piccolo. do you have any existing recordings of these?


Recording was not possible for security reasons and all tapes were consigned to the incinerator, (including the chad!)


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

R651400 said:


> The history and development of Piccolo goes well before QE2 ever met the drawing boards...


Mmm...

Piccolo was announced in 1962 and the keel of QE2 was laid in 1965 - drawings would have been made somewhat earlier. Of course MFSK in general had been in development and military use for some years prior to 1962 but Piccolo itself did not pre-date QE2 by too long. 

Piccolo continues to this day - it is even used in controlling drones - but QE2 is long gone, so somebody had their priorities right when deciding where to invest.


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## Wismajorvik (Dec 29, 2011)

Ron Stringer said:


> Mmm...
> 
> Piccolo was announced in 1962 and the keel of QE2 was laid in 1965 - drawings would have been made somewhat earlier. Of course MFSK in general had been in development and military use for some years prior to 1962 but Piccolo itself did not pre-date QE2 by too long.
> 
> Piccolo continues to this day - it is even used in controlling drones - but QE2 is long gone, so somebody had their priorities right when deciding where to invest.


If I recollect, Piccolo dates back to 1948 in Belgium. Further development was undertaken by a UK government department before being offered to UK commercial companies.


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## Ron Stringer (Mar 15, 2005)

I am relying on my increasingly dodgy memory, but I recall that the equipment used on QE2 for receiving the Daily Telegraph was supplied by Plessey. 

We had previously done trials with QE2 using Marconi _Autospec _but it was not up to the job of producing large quantities of error-free copy aboard ship over HF. And of course it could not handle pictures.


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## NoMoss (Mar 14, 2007)

I also worked for the government department which used Piccolo. Later on I joint the Post Office and we used to send a copy of the press to the QE2 from Nitonradio using Piccolo.


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## david.hopcroft (Jun 29, 2005)

I had another try at a better scan of the telex picture. It was on that thin plain 'cheap' stuff that faded to yellow, so hope you can see it better this time

There is an article in the current 'Ships Monthly' magazine (April issue). Apparently the QE2 is still in Dubai berthed in Drydock World alongside the British Pride and the FSPO Deep Producer. Some rooms still 'as was' when sold. A crew of 58 mostly Ukrainians are living aboard for maintenance. Still awaiting a decision about conversion to a luxury hotel, but needs a lot of work to make her seaworthy for the voyage to China for the conversion. 

David
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