Getting my Teletype 32 running i-Telex for the first time

[kn4ucl]

Dear Fellow i-Telexers,

After much troubleshooting assistance from Russ (WA3FRP) I am finally on-line!

Apologies in advance for my lack of skills in German (and thank goodness for Google Translate )

In summary, I have had an unused Teletype Model 32 gathering dust for some while now and was very excited to pursue the i-Telex option. So I ordered the equipment from Henning and I housed it in an 18" Reichelt Eurorack enclosure. I decided to get the full-size aluminium box, as that leaves room for future a i-Telex

I incorporated a simple AC switch (and voltmeter) using a small faceplate (also from Reichelt.) Once racked up, I still had some work to do with my M32 as the voltages for my particular Western Union US telex are not quite compatible. Luckily for me, Russ has some excellent documentation on hand which I followed: it involved replacing some resistors with different values which I was able to do using AliExpress parts. Apart from a line feed problem (fixed following instructions from the Greenkeys folks) I was almost ready! Things of course took a little longer than expected (<COUGH> user error ) but due to Russ' patience all technical aspects were resolved.

Then .... last week I was fortunate to have my first ever live i-Telex chat with Henning! It was very exciting, and although I have never used Telex in my life - it reminded me of when we would "chat" using our school Teletype 33 with the students using the local university DEC PDP-10 (that was a good few years back )

Here's a video of my M32 and i-Telex:



Next up: start learning how to use my Telex - very keen to get to grips with all the fun i-Telex services out there!

thanks everyone... best wishes

Andy


i-Telex: 792029
Identifier: GKLDK HOU
Machine: Teletype Model 32ASR
Afu Call: KN4UCL

[kn4ucl]

Hi Andy,

Fantastic!, and really great that you have a running machine on the network - Welcome to the chaos

Sean

[kn4ucl]

Thanks Sean - I am still familiarising myself with everything so I appreciate everyone's patience with me!

cheers, Andy

[kn4ucl]

I had a chat over i-Telex with Andy today. It was quite fun. I wonder what that identifier is: GKLDK HOU. Houston?

[kn4ucl]

I had a chat over i-Telex with Andy today. It was quite fun. I wonder what that identifier is: GKLDK HOU. Houston?

Yeah that is a very good question Paul! The previous owner told me that he rescued it from a gentleman who ran a carpet warehouse (or similar) and I gather that was in Texas. Or maybe HOU stands for HOUSE. I've tried googling, but GKLDK is still a mystery to me!

Appreciate the chat yesterday, and the excellent tips and tricks. Do let me know when you return to USA and I will chat at a better time for you

Unfortunately I think our chat was the straw that broke the camel's back: I've not been able to get it back to life since then but I am getting great help from the GReenkeys chaps, including Henning and Fred so I am sure it's only a matter of time before I am making more Telex noise

73 + cheers!

[WA3FRP]

The answer-back that is coded on Andy's i-Telex machine does indicate that this machine was originally located in Houston, Texas, USA. In addition, the Telex number series in the Houston, TX Telex exchange would have included the number that Andy has assigned to his machine. It might be possible to locate the actual business that was using this Teletype Model 32ASR machine if anyone has access to a Western Union Telex Directory from this period in time.

73
Russ WA3FRP