Hellshrieber: A different type of ham radio activity

[TruckerLlew]

It's called Hellschrieber. It's an almost forgotten mode of transmitting. It's very neat. I don't think I can post a link here as I am not sure of the link policy anymore.

If you go to Youtube and search for either "Hellschrieber" or "K7AGE", you will find a video that is 14 minutes long and shows what Hellshrieber is and gives a short history. You can also check out more of K7AGE's videos and see what ham radio can do. He has short and long videos of various modes of operations and how you can mix and match things.

There is one video there of Randy sitting in a motel room in OKC. He has his laptop connected to the net. He has his radio in California being remotely controlled and is having a conversation with another Ham Op in Las Vegas using a combination of internet VOIP and HF radio operation on 40 meters

If you are interested in Ham Radio and activities, go looking on the site and SEE whats going on instead of just listening to hams talk about it. You won't be disappointed. Youtube can be much more of promotional tool for Ham Radio then any of us hams here on the board.

[St. Velkro]

Just got back from watching K7AGE communicate with two others via "Hellshrieber." Very interesting. Is this a more reliable way of getting good comm with someone? Say more aobut how this may be useful -- beyond just funning around.

[TruckerLlew]

Well, as a "digital" mode, it can work marginally better in noisy band conditions then standard voice communications.

The radio and corresponding software can decipher or pick out and translate the information better then the human ear can pick out and decipher voice communications in bad band conditions. The end result of receiving and understanding the information is in a visual format instead of an audio format.

When the signal may be degraded and full of static, the visual result may show the static but you can still pick out the pattern of words that are being translated on the "paper" or screen. In an audio only format, where you are trying to directly understand the word in a pile of static, you can't pick out the words or decipher the audio as easily.

[Phil1Fla]

I have never use Hellschrieber, But I use psk31 and mt63 and a few others. Digital modes seem to be the way to go. A couple weeks ago I was net control for a MARS exercise and the only long distance comm was digital. Voice was limited to about 205 miles. Digital was good a greater range.