[CQ-Contest] TQP vs CQ RTTY

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Tue, Oct 02, 2007 at 03:23:04AM +0000, Steve Harrison wrote:
> At 09:46 AM 10/1/2007 -0400, Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
> >
> >Steve writes: 
> >
> >> It would be far better and easier for all concerned if the 
> >> rattiers simply stayed up the band as they used to. 
> >
> >International RTTY never stayed "up the band."  
> 
> I certainly do not remember, in the 42 years I've been contesting, EVER
> consistently hearing, throughout a weekend, ratty below 7035, let alone all
> the way down into the Extra class CW band. NEVER.

Participation in RTTY contests has been growing very strongly in the past
two decades.  Go to http://www.radiosport.ca/rsrp/logs.php, select
"Graphs and Tables" -> "Log submissions" -> "ARRL RTTY Roundup" and you'll
see what I mean.  From about 300 logs submitted in 1990, the contest is 
now getting over 1100 logs submitted, almost a four-fold increase.  If you
chart log submissions for other contests, you'll see that the curve is even 
more steep in Europe.  Take a look at the "DARC Worked All Europe DX Contest,
RTTY" graph - there are now more logs being submitted in the WAE RTTY 
contest than there have been in all but five previous years in the WAE CW 
contest.

>From the huge increases in log submissions, you can safely conclude that 
there really are a _lot_ more RTTY stations on the air than ever before,
and the trends indicate that there will certainly be more.  

> What really needs to be made clear is the rattiers need to stay as far
> above 7025 as possible. There is simply no reason at all why they should go
> below that frequency, let alone clear down to 7015, as I heard several loud
> ones do this past weekend.

I would suggest that a RTTY contester who cannot find a clear frequency 
above 7025 and who hears unused spectrum below 7025 might disagree that 
there is "simply no reason at all" to use a frequency below 7025.

-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/