[GreenKeys] Zee vs. Zed

[Howard Zuloff]

As an aside to ways of overcoming communication hurdles given the regional and international differences in spoken English, and other languages (e.g., the phonetic alphabets), I thought I would add a little information parenthetically related to this topic and also related to teletype that might be of some interest to those list members who are possibly interested in becoming hams. As you will likely know from earlier discussions, the tones we get from ITTY (thanks to Paul, and to George) are practically noise free and a great boon to testing our teletype gear and provide a reliable source of program content to print; however, all that changes when the medium of transmission is no longer the internet but HF (shortwave) radio waves propagated great distances through the ionosphere. With radio as the medium, transmission and reception can be a wild ride. 
Goodbye to reliable content copy and hello to what can often be a real challenge due to the many ways in which the radio waves conveying those signals will change. Why this happens and dealing with it is just part of the intrigue for hams engaged in long distance (DX) radio communication! You may certainly question what could be intriguing about the deterioration of signals, which in the case of radio teletype (RTTY), often results in weak, fading (even fluttering) audible tones, or tones that might be readable one minute and no longer discernable (or gone!) the next. Especially at times when the ionospheric conditions do not provide good support for clear signal copy, it can sometimes be difficult to even exchange one’s name or call sign correctly. This can be quite frustrating when a pair of hams are trying their best to complete a communications session (QSO) successfully, and especially so when one’s call sign (identification) is in question. In contrast, there are times (sunspot activity, time of day, communication mode and other factors permitting) when DX communication is very well supported. Although long ago, and exceptional, I once had the good fortune of having an hour-long RTTY QSO via “glass teletype” using modest equipment with a similarly equipped ham, his location (QTH) was in the USA and mine Japan. The QSO ended when he had to get ready to go to work that morning. The desire to achieve successful radio communication between fellow hams (radio amateurs) who may be separated by oceans and different languages is indeed the essence of what is both a hobby and a service, and hams find reward and excitement in making it work. 

73, Howard  VA7ZU


- - - - - Original Message - - - - -
From:    Gary Chatters WA9ZZZ <gclistr at garychatters.com>
To:      GreenKeys at mailman.qth.net
Date:    Wed, 17 Jun 2020 00:52:11 -0400
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Zee vs. Zed
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 6/16/20 9:07 PM, Dave Horsfall wrote:
> > Damn, but it's hard to talk to an American whose callsign ends with "Z".
> >
> > -- Dave VK2KFU
> 
> Sorry about that.  When I first got this call I quickly learned I could not use "Zee".  People would get one, or maybe two "Zee"s, but it was hard to explain that all three suffix letters were "Zee".  So I figured I had to use "Zed".  Which a lot of American hams use anyway.
> 
> 73,
> Gary
> WA9ZZZ
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