JFK Teletype Art from 1962

Written By Ben Sisto
 

In February 2025, OPEN purchased this “pre-ASCII” drawing from an auction. The seller indicated it was made by SF Mime Troupe, a long-running community theatre project focused on political satire. Because of that, we interpreted some of the “random” characters and terms like COMLOGNET as being sort of a 60s counter-culture / spiritual hacker kind of thing. Maybe this was made by a psychedelic ham? Not so.

 

Working Theory

This portrait of JFK was made with a teleprinter and is almost certainly a modification of a prior work by Ralph Larson, a salesperson at the Teletype Corporation whose work became popular and widely shared. We believe the portrait was distributed from Schilling Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas on Thursday October 18, 1962 at 6:40 PM and two individuals, Paul R. Federico and Sid Leechter, may have had something to do with its creation. It was routed to Washington D.C., possibly via the Department of Defense, across an Air Force communications network called COMLOGNET with the intent of being shared across all relays on the network for morale boosting purposes.

The following is an explanation of how we got to this understanding; could be wrong—looking for clues and tips from hams, ex-USAF members, teleprinter historians, etc!

 

I. Header

  1. “ZTTU” — Z is the SOMI, or “Start of Message Indicator,” and the following TTU may be a security approval. (Telegraphic Automatic Relay Equipment, NATO, 1967; pages 10–11)

  2. “ZXA” — Not sure about this; another SOMI?

  3. “RUWJEUA” — The "RUW" prefix was often associated with Strategic Air Command (SAC) bases such as Shilling. I’m taking a guess that JEUA is somehow part of Shilling’s station ID.

  4. “9999 9999999” — Not sure about this. Some of routing standards make mention of random characters occasionally being inserted at the start or end of a message.

  5. “RUCRALL: — This looks like a 7 character NATO routing code. May mean:
    + R (identifies string as routing code)
    + U (USA)
    + CR (Washington D.C. / The Pentagon)* This bit is from ChatGPT and needs verification.
    + ALL (Route message to all Minor Relays and Tributary Stations)
    A Minor Relay was an intermediate node in the network; a Tributary Station was an end-user terminal. (Telegraphic Automatic Relay Equipment, NATO, 1967; pages 10–11)

  6. The actual message includes the characters “SCHI.” Schilling Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas. Schilling was a major hub at the time; it was marked for closure in 1964. It also mentions COMLOGNET, or The Communications Logistics Network, which was a US Air Force comms system which became operational in 1962. That same year was rehoused under the Defense Communications Agency which renamed it AUTODIN. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Digital_Network)
    “GOOD COPZ” may be a typo or friendly slang for “GOOD COPY” which would have been appropriate for this kind of document, especially if military.

  7. Looks like characters over-printed again and again causing the creation of what looks like a block graphic. This may have happened if a carriage return was omitted. (Source: Reddit member z33511 in r/AirForce, 3/17/25, original post removed by mods). This would explain both “SCHILLING” being cut off, and the lack a word that should proceed “PEOPLE” such as “THOUGHT.”

 

II. Portrait

Portraits of Kennedy were popular in teleprinter circles at this time; this one looks very similar to one by Ralph Larson of the Teletype Corporation (above). This image of Larson’s work can be found in the 1972 edition of RTTY Handbook by Wayne Green, Editor of 73 Magazine, a popular periodical for amateur radio enthusiasts.

There are some differences between Larson’s original and the item I purchased:

8. “33-///” appears atop JFK’s hair; not sure if this is significant, a stylistic edit, etc.

9. “BC” appears on JFK’s left shoulder. This feels intentional; no leads on meaning.

 

10. The name PAUL R FEDERICO* is embedded in the portrait

11. The name SID LEECHTER* is embedded in the portrait

*Haven’t found any information on these two names having searched a bit on Newspapers.com, and search engines with reference to involved groups like Western Union, RCA, IBM, and the US Military. Best guess is they were teleprinter / equipment operators with access to military level equipment.

12. JFK’s quote from 1961.

 

III. Footer

13. “YTTU” — A guess: Whereas “Z” is the SOMI (Start of Message Indicator), “Y” may mean the transmission is ending.

14. “ZXA” — Repeats from Header; not sure of meaning

15. “RUWJEUA0001” — Code repeats from header; Shilling’s base ID?

16. The 291st day of the year at 18:40, which would mean Thursday October 18, 1962 at 6:40 PM. (Source: Reddit member z33511 in r/AirForce, 3/17/25, original post removed by mods).

 

Tips, corrections, and leads:
ben.sisto@gmail.com

Thank you!

Ben Sisto
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