Piccolo ======= Piccolo is a MFSK system. MFSK stands for multiple frequency shift keying. Piccolo works at 20 baud. It achieves a higher bit rate by using multiple symbols for each element. Two elements together form a character. So at this rate 10 characters per second are possible. There are two modes, one representing ITA2 and the other ITA5. ITA stands for international telegraph alphabet. ITA2 is Baudot, having 5 bit characters and normally using 7.5 bits if you count the start and stop bits. At this rate piccolo is equivalent to 75 bits per second. It requires 6 symbols for each element. ITA5 is ASCII, having 7 bit characters. With one start, a parity and two stop bits this comes to 11 bits per character or a rate of 110 bits per second. It requires 12 symbols per element is piccolo. The different symbols are tones of different frequencies. ITA2 ITA5 number frequency Hz number frequency Hz 0 400 1 420 2 440 3 460 0 460 4 480 1 480 5 500 2 500 6 520 3 520 7 540 4 540 8 560 5 560 9 580 10 600 11 620 The frequency spacing is 20 Hz. -- END --