[3830] RTTY Roundup W6YX M/S LP

[dwood at cisco.com]

                     ARRL RTTY Roundup
                    
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): K6ENT, N6DE
Station: W6YX

Class: M/S LP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 23
 

Summary:
 Band     QSOs 
----------------------
   80:     40
   40:    115
   20:    208
   15:    319     <-----Multipliers ----->
   10:    247   States  Provinces  DX   Total
---------------------------------------------
Total:    929     47       11      47    105   =  97,545

Club: 

Comments:

QSO breakdown: 905 RTTY, 24 PSK31

Equipment:

Yaesu FT-1000MP, Hal DXP38
Kenwood TS-850, Digipan
Writelog v10.22 networked
10M 6 el Telrex @ 70', 5 el HyGain 105CA @ 30'
15M 6 el Telrex @ 70', 5 el HyGain 155CA @ 30'
20M 6 el KLM @ 60'
40M 4 el KLM @ 60'
80M inverted vee @ 60'
KLM KT34XA @ 60', Mosley PRO67A @ 60'


This was our first time in the ARRL RTTY Roundup, and we really
had fun!  Our main station ran RTTY with the Hal DXP38, and
the secondary station monitored PSK31 activity using Digipan.

We definitely had our share of configuration problems.  W6YX
does not have a RTTY/PSK31 setup, so Kent K6ENT brought his
laptops, software, and TNC.  We tried Writelog for the first time
in a RTTY contest.  Thanks to some folks on the air, we learned
that our DXP38 was transmitting inverted tones.  Switching the
polarity in Writelog fixed this problem, but we still don't know
why a "normal" FSK tone setting on the FT-1000MP, and a "normal
FSK A" tone setting on Writelog generated inverted tones.  We also
had problems configuring the other laptop's sound levels with the
Writelog RTTY decoder, and decided to just run Digipan on the
second station.

Dean was not in a good mood seeing these problems the night before
the contest, and lost a few more valuable hairs over the whole ordeal!
We learned the value of early station preparation, as AA5AU's
incredible score indicates.

N0SQ observed that Californians were "a penny a dozen" in this contest.
Given that information, we are surprised that we were able to 
successfully call CQ at all since we were running low power!  
It also seems that Europe was plentiful for east coast stations, 
but the same was not true from the west coast.  I nearly fell out
of my chair when K5ZD reported that he made 850 European contacts!
We had 69.  There was a good opening on 15m Sunday morning to Europe,
and we grabbed as many mults as we could.  Thanks to all the European
stations for calling us at that time!

We never heard GA or NWT the whole weekend.  It looks like a whole
bunch of people missed Georgia.  We found Delaware in the last five
minutes of the contest (thanks KE3ZZ).  Even though we only made 
24 PSK31 contacts, we worked some of the rarer mults on this mode
such as ND, WY, MT, and UT.

There is one final thing we are dying to know.  Almost half of the
stations who came back to us said "W6YX  HI JOHN  UR  599 xx."
Our fellow club member (and CW/SSB contester) John W6LD was thrilled
to see his name so many times from his friends all across the world...
but there's one problem... he has never made a RTTY QSO in his life!
We are eager to learn how everyone is associating W6YX with John.  
Is this in the "HI" file, and if so, how is this file generated?
Regardless, we had no idea John was so popular in the RTTY community,
and he will now be forced to operate with us during the next RTTY 
contest to say hello to all his good friends!  :)

Thanks to everyone who was patient with us on the air.  We are
just beginning to learn the RTTY mode, had a great time, and look forward
to next year's RTTY Roundup.

73...
-Dean - N6DE



Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/


--
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/FAQ/3830
Submissions:              3830 at contesting.com
Administrative requests:  3830-REQUEST at contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-3830 at contesting.com