For many years radio amateurs have communicated with the aid of a keyboard, usually a mechanical teleprinter device. Now that the pc/mac is here, digital communication is much easier.

The British Amateur Radio Teledata Group is a useful link with plenty of information and well worth a visit. BARTG's role is to help with and promote interest in amateur radio data modes through contests and award schemes. BARTG also publishes the -DATACOM magazine.

Briefly there are several modes used, for the present I will mention some of them.

RTTY stands for Radio Teletype; For many years amateurs used mechanical, noisy teleprinters. Nowadays macs/pcs make life much easier.

Other modes are , PSK, HELLSCHREIBER, MFSK and MT63, PACKET Radio, AMTOR, PACTOR, etc

It is very easy to find the software on the internet, download and install it to your pc/mac. The pc/mac then has to be interfaced to a radio (e.g. amateur transceiver, - transmitter and receiver combined in one unit). This is then connected to an antenna.

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