[3830] RTTY Roundup K6OK SO Unlimited HP

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                    ARRL RTTY Roundup - 2020

Call: K6OK
Operator(s): K6OK
Station: K6OK

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 23

Summary:
 Band  RTTY Qs  Dig Qs
-----------------------
   80:    41       18
   40:   103      127
   20:   217      186
   15:    51       10
   10:               
-----------------------
Total:   412      341  State/Prov = 55  Countries = 49  Total Score = 78,312

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

I had high hopes that RTTY with FT4 side-by-side was going to be a blast. It was
a blast, great fun, but...

Thumbs up: RTTY Roundup is a lot more fun and interesting with FT4 and FT8 added
to the mix. Making mode switching decisions adds another layer of strategy that
no other contest has. Do I give up the higher rates that RTTY provides to go
chase DX multipliers on FT-8 at a much lower rate? If so, when and for how long?
 It also relieves the monotony because when an hour of RTTY or FT4 gets
tiresome, switching to the other makes a nice change of pace.

Needs improvement: FT4 in its current state is a diamond in the rough. At its
best I got FT4 going a little bit faster than RTTY at a rate of 120 q/hour, but
sadly only for brief intervals. This gave me glimpses of what FT4 is capable of,
a fast paced bang bang mode that moves along with a smooth rhythm. Far too often
though things got bogged down by repeats and incompleted QSO's. I'm thinking
it's a combination of software that hasn't been optimized for contest ergonomics
plus operators who lack experience with the mode. I'm optimistic it'll get
better in the future.

Icom 7300 SO1R, 500 watts, tribander, old shorty 40 and an 80 meter dipole.
Thanks for the Q's.


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