[WriteLog] Best RTTY decoder

[John Cashen <vk4uc@bigpond.com>]

Bill, W6WET wrote:

"I know this doesn't answer you question directly, but you'd be better
off to ditch the HAL and download MMTTY.  I've compared the two side by
side using two computers with the same audio feed, and MMTTY beats the
HAL hands down for pulling the weak ones out.  My DXP-38 has been
gathering dust for several years now.  Anyone want it?  Make me an
offer; it'll go cheap.

And if you want the absolute best in RTTY decoding, purchase RiTTY by
K6STI.  It isn't cheap - $100 - but it beats everything else I've tried.
It requires specific soundcards and runs only under DOS (real DOS, not
the Windows emulation).   Personally, I wouldn't be without it."

I agree with Bill and have been saying so for several years now. When one 
looks at what the HALs used to cost, RITTY seems good value for money. 
Certainly MMTTY is the best value, being freeware. The difference between 
the two S/W decoders is that RITTY is optimized for RTTY contesting whereas 
MMTTY is more an all-purpose decoder. There are several very important 
features in RITTY that makes it superior for contesting whenever there are 
weak signals, or in QRN, or QRM environments, or all three. When the S/N is 
high then both decoders perform very well, but then so do most decoders.

RITTY works very well in SO mode with both Writelog and RTTY(by WF1B), but 
you cannot use two copies of RITTY with two separate sound cards to use 
Writelog in SO2R as you can with MMTTY. RITTY was configured without regard 
for a second sound card (or the advent of another board standard other than 
ISA) and one must use a different decoder type for the second radio. Some 
use their HAL ,while I (and others) use MMTTY on a second sound card 
(PCI).I have had no significant problems except that I couldn't make the 
new dueling CQs work in Writelog 10.45. This was because of a timing 
problem with MMTTY and was presumably fixed in 10.46G, but I still can't 
seem to make dueling CQs work.

Since K6STI no longer upgrades RITTY and because  it is DOS-based and 
limited to using only ISO sound boards, there will  eventually be only 
obsolete S/W or hardware platforms that it will run on. What a shame if 
technology were to  take a step backwards.   Wouldn't it be nice if MMTTY 
or some other new Windows-based PCI/USB decoder were to capture the 
contesting features that make RITTY so great so we could have it on future 
machines?

I for one would pay another $100.

John  VK4UC




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