CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY
Call: AB1J
Operator(s): AB1J
Station: AB1J
Class: SOAB LP
Class Overlay: Classic
QTH: Waltham, MA
Operating Time (hrs): 23:52
Summary:
Band QSOs State/Prov DX Zones
------------------------------------
80: 94 28 4 5
40: 241 41 35 15
20: 240 31 48 17
15: 52 5 22 12
10: 2 0 2 1
------------------------------------
Total: 629 105 111 50 Total Score = 297,122
Club:
Comments:
This is my 11th consecutive CQ-WW-RTTY, all single band until this all band one
for the Classic overlay for a change. Even with the sunspot drought conditions
were reasonable and there was a nice 15m opening to Europe Sunday afternoon.
I'm curious as to what kind of propagation was involved. I hit one short 10m
opening Saturday afternoon for two QSOs. I wrote home about it.
The middle bands, 40m and 20m, were the mad house money bands. 80m seemed short
and I had trouble working the outlying districts.
I only managed 13% running, all 40m and 80m, which is way below my goal of
20-25%.
On Saturday and Sunday mornings it's fun to watch the noise floor rise as my
neighborhood wakes to greet the day. One by one their gadgets go on the air.
At 5:30 am local all is quiet but by 7:30 things are buzzing. Literally. Good
morning! Won't you be my neighbor?
With all the FT8 activity there's little left over for RTTY except contests. I
tried the mock RU FT8 contest but didn't enjoy it as much as my regular FT8
operating. Still, it might become a contesting mode eventually and RTTY could
end up on the dust heap completely. We'll see. The last revolution of this
magnitude was AM to SSB way back in the day. One difference then was SSB gear
cost a lot, whereas everyone now has a soundboard available, so FT8 is cheap and
easy.
One thing I like about RTTY is all the fussing and fiddling I can do with the
software and hardware. When I started using MMTTY I made a spreadsheet and
recorded the settings for all the variables for all the profiles that came with
the program. Based on that I made my own profiles for contests, plus
experimental ones, tweaking them as necessary over time. I did similar with the
radio settings, N1MM+ and screen layouts. All this took years and is ongoing.
There're no similar procedures with FT8. You set a few parameters and away you
go on autopilot. FT8 is a waste of my OCD. Another case of automation putting
humans out to pasture.
Along with others, I'd like to extend a heartfelt invitation to ND stations to
participate. Let's Make America Whole Again. More of the rarer Canadians are
welcome, too, but I'm not advocating colonization.
Do you ever wonder if an eastern EU station on 80m, like, say, from Ukraine, who
seems unusually loud and clear is operating remotely? I do. Maybe I just have
a suspicious mind. Shame on me.
Thanks for the Qs and a good time.
73,
Ken, AB1J
Flex 6500
N1MM+ MMTTY(narrow) MMTTY(wide) 2Tone(Selective)
20m-15m-10m attic dipoles
80m-40m outdoor 66' stealth wire, Dentron manual tuner and indoor counterpoise
LoTW eQSL ClubLog
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