[3830] CQ/RJ WW RTTY F6IRF SOAB LP

[f6irf at free.fr]

                    CQ/RJ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: F6IRF
Operator(s): F6IRF
Station: F6IRF

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: JN35
Operating Time (hrs): 30

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts   State/Prov  DX   Zones
------------------------------------------
   80:   90   190        7      30     8
   40:  110   256       18      40    13
   20:  170   405       27      49    19
   15:  130   342       34      46    20
   10:  170   453       35      44    19
------------------------------------------
Total:  670  1646      121     209    79  Total Score = 673,214

Club: Les charlots du 74

Comments:

TRX: IC706 barefoot - (50W on S&P / 25W on runs)
Antennas: OB6-3M trapless tribander at 12m, trap-dipole 40/80 at 17m  (re-oriented
NW/SE after the SAC !), R7 vertical at 6m (often useful when the beam is not in the
right direction - I.E. on 14Mhz, where the Moxon-rectangle of the OB6-3M gives a
tremendous F/B ratio).
MMTTY 1.62 (many thanks to JE3HHT for bringing this nice piece of software free
to the ham community... what an example of ham-spirit!)

SOAPBOX (nobody force you to read this part - but  I love reading the others
comments, so I guess there are a few others like me around!)
This is a part-time / TTY-rookie effort...
My only previous experience in a TTY contest was in 1997 from 4U1ITU (*)
(F6HYE/IOC, TY1PS and  OM1AM had hard time to convince me - must say, for me 
contest=CW  ;-) 
I thought, I that I would look for a few DX's and "basta"... what a mistake! 
The first "shock" , right at the start (magic sunrise on low bands!) was to work
HC8N - at the first attempt !-  both on 80 and 40... I Thought : A mode that can
give you this sort of "orgasm" can't be that bad ! Fortunately had no important
commitment so I continued, and must say that I really enjoyed it...
I was not planning to do anything else but S&P, but  S&P is really slow and
boring on TTY, so I finally "cracked" and tried a few runs... the problem is
that the poor 706  (had no other transceiver with VFO precise enough) even at
50W was getting so hot (especially on 10/15m), that I had 2 options - to reduce
to 25 or limit my runs to 10mn (quickly added a fan over the TRX which
helped...). It is really amazing to see the DX's you can work calling with 25W
in this mode. Before this contest, I thought  that TTY was only good with
high-power,  but this must have been true before DSP's, waterfall displays and
so on... Now even with 25W, modest antennas and surrounded by big-guns the guys
find you (hope this could be true also in CW!). 
Found condx great, 10m widely and late open to states and JA, good BS on EU
stations (thought it would be hard to work BS with LP small ants and that the
echo would even make this impossible in TTY, but no... Logged quite a few "over
MUF" stations on 10/15). As I had many states missing on 20m, late plans were to
finish the contest on this band, but tried a few CQ without success and as I was
too tired for the effort of scrolling the band once again, I went to bed before
2200z... sorry for those who missed F on 20m  (did not hear more than 3 or 4
stns active from my country)
Finally, thanks to this contest who made me discover that TTY is far from being
an obsolete mode  (and see you next year... For sure I will borrow a PA to get
to the 150W LP-limit... ). 73's Patrick

PS: Really feel sorry for the poor guy who spent his weekend sending "CW only"
on 40 and 80... Probably he did not realize that,  for a large majority of
TTY'ers, CW is nothing else than a blue line on the waterfall display (I must be
the only one still listening at the audio. CW habit; can't operate without
listening). Personally I tried to avoid going outside of IARU recommended
data-segments, but of course, it is not always possible to resist when you hear
a "new one"... HI !

(*)Looking at the archive saw that we did 787 Kpts... And it was a new EU record
at that time... For sure something has changed for the TTY world!

NB: please QSL only via E-qsl.cc if you can (my log will be uploaded soon), and
avoid direct cards (still haven't got cards reprinted, and yet too many QSO's
since march...), Sorry but I prefer being active on the air rather than doing
secretary-job meanwhile waiting for a cluster-alarm ! (if you insist I'll try to
do an effort, but pse don't blame me for the delay, card-management is a real
nightmare for me...)


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