[3830] RTTY Roundup KR0L Single Op LP

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                    ARRL RTTY Roundup

Call: KR0L
Operator(s): KR0L
Station: KR0L

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:    0
   40:  165
   20:   43
   15:   23
   10:     
------------
Total:  231  State/Prov = 49  Countries = 8  Total Score = 13,167

Club: 

Comments:

Before I get into the guts of the report, I just have to mention the really
exciting bit: this was the first contest in which I was able to log a packet
QSO.  On Saturday, 40m wasn't loaded too heavily with RTTY during the day, and
the rules of the contest permit packet QSOs.  I was able to make one with N5LUL
on 40m and it worked out reasonably well, despite the QRM.  I tried to use
UNPROTO mode (UI) but wasn't clear if it was working.   Connected mode did the
trick.  I've been interested in packet lately and it was a lot of fun to do
that.

Now then, I've just had my ticket since last July so still new at this.  This
was the first time I've participated in a digital contest, and also the first
time I've operated RTTY in any kind of serious manner -- though I've operated
PSK modes quite a bit already.  I had a blast.  It definitely was a different
challenge than PSK, and I think I really honed my RTTY skill.

This was also the first contest I operated entirely from within fldigi.  I run
on Linux and so fldigi is the main RTTY option I have.  It has a built-in
logger that is very nice, but its contesting features are minimal.  It does
have shortcuts to quickly highlight RX text and put it in appropriate fields,
as well as dup checking, but doesn't do scoring or mult counting while I go. 
It also doesn't have as many keyboard shortcuts as I'd like, though it has an
exceptional macro system with keyboard mapping.

I found the lack of keybaord shortcuts didn't bother me much with this; I was
able to operate faster than RTTY could transmit.  I don't think it would have
worked out well for a SSB contest though.

I dumped my logs to ADIF and wrote a simple sed program to convert the ADIF to
a format N1MM could import for scoring.  According to N1MM I was active just
over 9 hours.  The actual number is less than that because it doesn't consider
me to be off unless there were gaps of over 30 minutes.  I have two young boys
so there were gaps throughout whenever one wanted to play tag for a bit or
something.  I also spent a fair bit of time with one of them sitting on my lap
watching videos of trains on Youtube in one window while I operated fldigi next
to it.

My main 20m antenna, a fan dipole box I'm borrowing for another week or so from
W0BH, refused to tune up on my TS-2000 on the digital portion during daylight
hours (SWR > 10:1).  So I used my spare 20m one, which is really only about
10ft up in some trees, for most of those 20m contacts.

In other news, I believe I'll get two more states for WAS, and several new
countries for DXCC, confirmed on LOTW as a result of this.  That leaves Alaska,
Mississippi, and North Dakota that I still need LOTW confirmations on.  Anyone
that wants to set up a sked, drop me a note <grin>

Thanks everyone for the fun contest.  Hopefully I gave some of you some your
first Kansas.  I saw two other Kansas stations today (W0BH among them) but none
yesterday.

73s,
John
KR0L


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