[3830] RTTY Roundup ND2T(@W6YX) M/S HP

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                    ARRL RTTY Roundup

Call: ND2T
Operator(s): ND2T, W6RK, N6DE, W6NEV
Station: W6YX

Class: M/S HP
QTH: SCV
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  100
   40:  318
   20:  271
   15:  210
   10:  301
------------
Total: 1200  State/Prov = 55  Countries = 53  Total Score = 129,600

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

This year ND2T was one of three (count 'em) side-by-side simultaneous M/S
operations from the Stanford Amateur Radio Club shack. The other two operations
were N6DB and W6YX. We shared the antenna systems and the operator comforts of
the shack. We also enjoyed the companionship of the other operators and
benefited from the internal competition among the three teams. 

An overall goal was to test whether 3xM/S would produce an aggregate score that
was greater than the 2xM/S score the Stanford Amateur Radio Club produced in
2010. The answer is yes, there were more open bands, but not 1.5 times the
score. 

As you might imagine, compromise was called for in band choice. We had very
limited success in operating two stations on any of the high bands (one high,
the other low), and no success with either of those stations running SO2V,
which had been our optimistic plan.
 
ND2T operated one radio, an MP, and an Alpha 86 running 1Kw. 

ND2T got off to a rough start despite having passed all tests during a trial
run on Thursday night. We could copy signals better by ear than print them with
MMTTY. Alligators Were Us, and we apologize. A deep dive into the decoder
parameters eventually put things right, and the right stuff stuck. Twenty
minutes later, all received signals got very raspy and suddenly we couldn't
diddle on transmit. We don't know the root cause of these failures; the fix was
to move the computer/radio interface from one COM port to another. 

So, it is two hours into a 24-hour contest and you are having no fun. What can
you do? Answer: take a short walk in the California sunshine and press your
mental restart button. Things got a lot better, and we were able to make up
much of the ground we had lost to our shack-mates. 

N6DE came in real early on Sunday and made hay while our shack-mates were still
QRT. He had a productive 40m run of JAs and other Asian stations. He then caught
the 20m EU opening. He wins the MVP award.

It was a real pleasure to get W6NEV into the chair. He walked into the shack on
Saturday never having operated a RTTY contest, but keen to listen in. By the end
of the contest he was happily running rate. 

Thanks for the Qs to all who entered the contest. It was great to work so many
new-to-RTTY calls. Come back again! Thanks to our operators. Thanks to our
shack-mates. Thanks to N6DE for coordinating this highly successful effort from
the W6YX station. Thanks to N7MH for dreaming big. Thanks to N6DB, N6DE, K6UFO,
N7MH, and ND2T for setup and knockdown. 

See you next year.


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