My First Hellschreiber Contact

A couple of evenings ago I made my first contact using the Hellschreiber mode. The contact wasn't a regular QSO either. I had never used the mode before. I had only decoded a couple of QSOs in progress. I decided to jump right into a Hellschreiber net, specifically the Feld Hell Club 40-meter Net which meets every Thursday at 0200Z (10:00 pm for me in the Eastern time zone). I was check-in number 4 or number 6. I can't exactly remember, and I didn't write it down. I was easily able to copy W8LEW, Lou, the net control station at the beginning of the net and I assume that he also able to copy me well. I also copied a station up in the Cleveland, Ohio area, and a station in Alabama. The net lasted nearly two hours. About half way through the net the conditions on 40-meters deteriorated somewhat. Lou had us switch to a mode called FM105. For the first half of the net, we had been running the Feld-Hell mode of Hellschreiber. When we made that switch to FM105, the readability did improve, however, near the end of the net, the conditions had fallen off so much that I could not read anybody.

I don't know much about Hellschreiber, but I do know that it was patented in 1929, so it is not a new mode by any means. However, until recently it was probably sent and received using an electromechanical device. Now, it is more than likely sent and received using a computer sound card. The sound that the Feld Hell mode makes on the air sounds quite a bit like clicking. This represents each pixel. Hellschreiber is a visual mode. In other words, it paints the pixels on the screen representing the characters. It is then up to the human operator to determine what was said. The human, many times, is better than the computer.

I have two things that I want to do pertaining to Hellschreiber. First, I want to get a firm grasp on what frequencies are most typically used for contacts. It seems that some of the websites conflict with each other. Once I figure out the frequencies, I can start calling CQ, or at least listen for someone calling. The second thing that I want to do is check into more Hellschreiber nets. On Sunday evenings (in my time zone), there is a net that meets on the 30-meter band (a band that I recently started using). I'll see if I can check in.

I did sign up for membership in the Feld Hell Club. I received an email back from the membership person. I am member number 1087.

Hellschreiber is pretty neat. Check it out.

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