Chris,
Thanks for the info... that gave me some help in narrowing down my
search.

I think I found what I need:

http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/books/1912.html

I'm sure this is out there somewhere on the net (or in a library), but
it might actually be worth buying instead of spending time looking.

Thanks again,
Dave


Chris Jewell wrote:
writes:

Where can I get a detailed description of AMTOR-B's protocol?

The 2005 ARRL Handbook, p. 9-19, in the bibliography for the section
on AMTOR, contains the following:

CCIR recommendation 476-3, "Direct-Printing Telegraph Equipment in
the
Maritime Mobile Service." Reprint available from ARRL Headquarters
as
part of the Proceedings of the Third ARRL Amateur Radio Computer
Networking Conference.

With that hint, typing 'CCIR 476-3' into a search engine might turn
up
a copy of the official definition online somewhere. "SITOR-B" or
"NAVTEX" might be other good search terms to try, since SITOR is what
the protocol is called in the maritime mobile service, and NAVTEX is
the service that the US Coast Guard provides using SITOR.

I realize that you want to write your own program, rather than copy
or
use an existing one, but you might find the source code of hfterm
instructive. http://hfterm.sourceforge.net. It's a Linux program
that implements AMTOR, PACTOR, GTOR, and some other digital modes.

--
Chris Jewell Gualala CA USA
(No call sign yet: I'm taking elements 1, 2, and 3 in February.)