I’m not a ham yet but I’ll get there one of these days. I was reading about the novice class lisence and its allotted privleges and frequencies. I would like to know what kind of things you can get on radio teletype. Are there message boards? Is it possible to send and recieve data other than text. Is there a way you can get onto the internet using Rtty? I would love to get onto the SDMB over the airwaves.
I’d start here…
The Novice class doesn’t exist anymore. The FCC Amateur Radio license class structure was changed a few years back. Currently there are three classes: Technician, General and Extra. Technician Class will get you all operating privelges on 30 MHz and up and requires no Morse code, so it’s a good place for novices to start.
I couldn’t get SandWriter’s link to work. Instead try here, which has all sorts of RTTY links.
73 de KB2YYR, Tech Class Ham since 1996
Ham checking in:
Strickly speaking, RTTY or radio teletype is only text. If you’re interested, also look up ‘packet radio’ along with RTTY. Packet stations can communicate with each other directly like a chat room and instant messaging or a mailbox system can be established like Email.
However, as you were suggesting, there are a number of other non-voice and non-morse (CW) modes out there. One thats popular is SSTV or slow scan television. This is something like a slide show where the radio equipment is connected to the PC to display still images vertical line by line.
Internet-based amateur radio is coming around, too. Two or the more popluar services to research are Echolink and IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project). These are akin to VOIP, if you’re familiar. I’m not really involved with either of these, so best to do your own research. I’m pretty sure each has non-voice provisions, though.
There’s also some space/satellite based systems out there, too!
jngl