To all you new or potentially new RTTY contestors (and even some of you old
pros),
please don't let all the recent chit chat about the need for many of the
fancy
bells and whistles in WRITELOG scare you away or keep you from thinking you
can't
use WRITELOG to participate competitively.
I run WRITELOG with as few essentials as possible. I don't use any radio
control
features other than FSK keying. The only 'cool' add-on feature I use is the
WB6BIG F-keys utility which, without, I could not effectively use WRITELOG
and
which, surprisingly, I see very little talk about on the reflectors.
I have a single 11 year old FT990, a 20 yr old 5 element tribander at only
50 ft,
a couple of dipoles, a home made 40M vertical and just last year finally got
a good
amplifier. I run SOABLP in contests that have a low power category, high
power
in those that do not. When running low power, I run the radio at the lowest
possible
output power to the amp to get the maximum low power authorized (usually 150
watts)
when allowed by the rules.
With this set-up, a good understanding of its capabilities and limitations,
understanding of the props in my area, some developed and practiced skills
using
these resources, and... with some committment, I've managed to get some
pretty decent
contest scores (currently 4th place in the ARRLRU SOABLP).
My point is that I have lots and lots of fun and do pretty good in many
contests that I participate in without the need for many of those fancy
bells
and whistles of WRITELOG. They're no doubt probably neat to have and may,
indeed,
add a bit to my score but they are not a MUST to get on, have fun, and be,
at
minimum, somewhat competitive.
That said, I urge every rtty contest participant, no matter how low your
score, to please please send in your logs to the contest sponsor to help
keep rtty contesting alive, well and growing. We need, want and appreciate
each and every one of you..
73,
Tom Moore, WX4TM ex KL7Q
Salem Alabama
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