Hi all,
I am sure most of you know all about QTC's, what they are, and how to handle
them.
However, each year, there are loads of stations who simply don't know how to
handle them, and say "SRI NO QTC".
Here is a simple guide I wrote for BARTG members last year, and towards the
end, there is a way of handling them with MMTTY. Then again, with the A & K
indices the way they are at the moment, it could be hard work to find
anyone!
PLEASE NOTE: These are MY thoughts alone, and you may have a better way to
do it.
ALSO@ Walter DL4RCK has made a FREE version of RCKRTTY for this contest, and
you can download it from his website.
So, what are they all about?
Each year, the WAE RTTY Contest comes along, and there are many of us who
keep saying ?SRI NO QTC? because we simply do not understand what they are
all about.
QTC traffic is quite simple, really, and very easy to handle with the right
software.
In WAE RTTY, everyone can work everyone, unlike the CW and SSB legs of this
contest.
A ?QTC? is simply a list of ten contacts made by one or other station,
showing the time, callsign worked, and the serial number exchanged. Once a
batch has been sent, it cannot be sent again.
There is very little to understand, except that you can only exchange them
with someone from another continent, and the batch cannot contain a QSO sent
between the two stations doing the exchange. For example, if my 10th QSO in
the contest is with AA5AU, and I send him some QTC, I cannot send him that
10th contact, as it contains the QSO made between the two of us.
QTC traffic is normally sent in batches of 10 contacts, and each line
contains the time, callsign and serial number of that contact. Each batch is
numbered in the format 001/10 meaning the first batch containing 10
contacts.
Although there is no absolute requirement to send or receive a batch
containing 10 contacts, this is the default for most contesting software,
and is the easiest to handle.
To make life easy for me, I usually aim to get about 100 contacts in the log
before I start bothering to send QTC?s, as this would give me 10 batches,
but you can receive from the outset.
Don?t bother trying to exchange them with that weak ZL, whose exchange you
only just got after several attempts, as you will end up re-sending them
time and time again. Far better is to wait and go for that UA9 with the S9++
signal, or maybe the 5B4 or EA8. Later into the contest, there will be
plenty of W?s and VE?s with good signals that will readily exchange QTC
traffic with you.
So, how is it going to happen?
First of all, you will call someone and exchange the usual contest report
with them, and one of you will send ?TX/RX QTC??". Assuming the answer is
yes, then one of you will send, and one will receive. How you decide who
will do what is up to you. Some folk use a buffer for each option, and some
will tell you what is going to happen. It really doesn?t matter who does
what, as both parties get the same points for the exchange of QTC?s.
For now, I will assume you will be on the receiving end.
He will send QRV? To which you reply QRV, and then he will start sending.
You are looking for the batch number, so watch out for that first. Next
comes the actual traffic, and will most likely be one contact per line,
unless propagation screws it up.
So, you will end up with something like this:
001/10
0012 G3URA 049
0013/AA5AU/056
0014-RA9FOE-012
etc for ten lines.
Whether there is a space, a dash or a slash between the fields depends on
what software is being used to send the data, and is not important.
If you have all the data and the calls look OK, then simply send QSL TU, and
let him get on with the contest.
If you have one line of garbage, then just ask for ?07 AGN PSE? and he will
send line 7 again. If there is more than one line, do it one line at a time,
as this is less confusing all round. Too much garbage, and you can ask for
ALL AGN PSE.
Now you have handled QTC traffic, what does it mean to you?
Let?s use a simple example, as this will make it clearer.
Suppose you have worked 100 contacts in the contest, and there are 30 mults
in that total.
This would give you 30 X 100 as a final score, ie 3000 points.
Now, if you received 50 QTC?s from 5 different contacts, you score will now
look like this: 30 X (100+50) = 30 X 150 = 4500 points.
This represents a 50% increase in your score, and is well worth the extra
points.
Handling QTC traffic with MMTTY.
MMTTY is not able to handle QTC?s directly, but as many of you will be using
MMTTY anyway, I have given some thought as to how you might be able to do
this task.
You will NOT be able to send any QTC, but it doesn?t really matter whether
you send or receive, as 10 points are given to both sender and recipient.
You will need to think about whether you want to create buffers to aid you
in this.
It might be useful to have one that says CAN YOU SEND ME QTC? and maybe one
that says QRV, and another for QSL AND TU at the end.
If you need a repeat, I would suggest simply doing that on the fly.
Within MMTTY there is a text capture facility, and you could use this to
simply receive the QTC traffic, and then save it as a simple text file by
the batch number.
Go to FILE| SCREEN TEXT TO FILE and then save the screen text as 001-10.txt
or whatever, but please remember to save the callsign of the person that
sent them to you.
Alternatively, you could simply open several instances of NOTEPAD and then
highlight the text and copy it to NOTEPAD. Again, save it as the batch
number, and include the callsign of the sender.
When you come to sort out your final score, simply add the number of QTC?s
to the number of QSO?s and then multiply by the number of mults, but do
remember to take into account the bonus points for the various bands.
At the end of the contest, simply use ?cut & paste? to copy all of the QTC
data to one text file.
When you submit your log, include the QTC file with the rest.
This is not an ideal method, but it MAY help you to gain some extra points!
Alternatively, take up Walters' offer of the FREE version of RCKRTTY.
73 all
Phil GU0SUP
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