On RTTY, I think SO2R will increase your score by about 50
percent. It takes about $5k - $10k to get set up.
second radio $2k
second heavy duty rtty amp $2k
2 sets bandpass filters $1k
switches, band decoders, gizmos $1k
more antennas $2k
Actually doing SO2R on RTTY is not very hard. The decoding is
done by a machine, and a time history of the decoding is
presented on the monitor screen, so everything is just a
mouse-click away.
One of these days, in the not-too-distant future, someone is
going to come up with a RTTY Skimmer, and the whole ballgame will
change once again, at least in the assisted category.
Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, Arizona
-----Original Message-----
From: Al Kozakiewicz
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2012 10:43 AM
To: RTTY reflector
Subject: [RTTY] What does it take to finish in the top 10?
I'm curious about the operating techniques part of RTTY
contesting.
Forget, for a moment, about the DX contests where the station QTH
and antennas can be a major contributor to score. The just ended
NAQP is kind of a great leveler - low power, $20,000 antenna
systems are not a tremendous advantage and there aren't too many
rare multipliers. I looked at Don AA5AU's QTH on Google
satellite and it doesn't look like a world class contest station.
A decent tower on a suburban lot - well within the resource
limitations of many hams.
I put an honest 9 h0our effort in. It would have been 10 except
that it snowed here for the first time this winter and my planned
2 hour break for dinner out with my wife turned into 3. But, in
my case, I doubt the extra hour would have made a huge
difference. I had a total of 429 QSO's and my best one hour rate
was 69.
I did learn this time to be more aggressive in switching from run
to S&P when the running QSO rate slowed down.
But what I really want to know is how many of the contesters who
score north of 500 QSO's are running SO2R? When I consolidate my
2 QTH's this year, I will build SO2R capability, but I need to
know how much is dependent on my ability and operating techniques
and not station capabilities?
Al
AB2ZY
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