Varicode adopted by ITU

| March 1, 2013

On 19 February the International Telecommunication Union announced the simultaneous adoption and approval by correspondence of a new Recommendation entitled Telegraphic Alphabet for Data Communication by Phase Shift Keying at 31 Baud in the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite Services. The alphabet, commonly called Varicode because the more frequently used characters in the English language occupy fewer bits, was developed by Peter Martinez, G3PLX, in the 1990s. Adoption of the Recommendation is the culmination of work conducted in ITU-R Study Group 5 and its Working Party 5A during 2011 and 2012. Working Party 5A is responsible for studies of techniques and frequency usage in the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite Services, as well as certain aspects of the land mobile and fixed services.

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