[RTTY] NAQP2001 score or joke, you choose.

[Tom Tate]

NAQP RTTY 2001
Call used: WA7NPX
Location:  AZ

Entry Class: Single Op

Band    QSOs   Pts   QTH    DX
80         1         1         1         0
40        15      15         9          0
20        26      26        16         1
15         0         0         0         0
10         0         0         0         0
--------------------------------------
Total     42      42       26         1

--------------------------------------

Claimed Score: 1134

Software: RTTY by WF1B  v5.02

Power Output: 100
Yaesu FT920 without optional filters (Ok, I'll go buy some for next
time, cause I'm not doing that again!)
MMTTY with WF1b for first six hours of attempted suicide then
WF1b with PK232 trying FSK. Yaesu goofed in it's manuals though.
Finally, WF1B with PK232 AFSK

What a funny day! This was not only my first attempt at working NAQP but
I also was going to try a new to me FT-920.
Wow, I finally have a nice rig. Better than that old Kenwood TS-820s.
Finally I'll be able to hear someone.
Still it would be nice to dispense with the PK232 and the Oscilloscope,
so decided to use MMTTY with WF1B on the same computer.

Installed all the software and was ready for the contest with 10 minutes
to spare. Even had time to program the macros the way I wanted this
time.

2 minutes into the contest noticed the sound card buffer from MMTTY to
WF1B was too slow. No one answered my calls because the screens were not
synched and I was always late answering. Changed buffer sizes. No luck.
Moved from a 200 mhz Pentium computer to a 700 mhz P3. Now an hour gone
by. Smart move to "borrow" a pc from work I think.

Who the heck would name their kid "Zummie"?

Unfortunately, MMTTY doesn't want to key the Yaesu. Turns out the PTT
for MMTTY uses TXD or RXD but I have my home-brew interface set up for
PSK and that software uses DTR or RTS. Too late to change. Let's just
use VOX, I decide. No such luck. MMTTY makes diddle sounds out my
speaker but still the Yaesu won't key up. By the time I re-read the
Yaesu manuals, web sites etc. and figure out that VOX won't work in data
mode, hour two slips by.
No more time to dilly dally. Still with ten hours to spare it's time to
reconnect the venerable PK232 and get to work.

By the time the PK232 and oscilloscope are reconnected another hour has
gone by. Why and how do gremlins get in the back of a shack and mess up
those cables so FAST? This radio was only installed a couple of months
ago!

"Honey, would you fire up the Bar B Q?" has got to be a contestor's
worst fears realized. I like RTTY but I love my wife. KC7HNS was
attained by her just to show she cares, so I had better care too. Next
hour gone bye bye.
With eight hours to go, maybe I'll have a respectable score. Here we go.

What is with these names? Did I read the rules correctly? Why oh why
can't Lobster print correctly? The PK232 must be dying because it only
prints the first part...Lobsta.

Oh well, I'll try to answer. No luck. No answer to my hails. In fact no
one will answer my cq at all. Did I read the Yaesu manual correctly? Oh
here is the answer, Yaesu wrote the manual in error. Read the
application notes on the web. (Thanks to all you guys that posted it)
Made the changes but still no answer to my cq. Checked the output of the
PK232 with the Oscilloscope, everything checks out ok though.

At seven hours the decision was made to give up and go to AFSK. After
warming the soldering iron and making the changes at 6 hours to go,
everything seems to work for me ... finally. Or so it seems.

DSP is great. With a quick twist of the knobs I can finally do what I
could not do with that old Kenwood. I can clean up the signals to the
PK232 better than with my old JPS NIR12 DSP unit. Wish I had left the
cables connected to the sound card so I could run MMTTY too. But that
particular cable lays somewhere under at least a foot of cables on the
floor.

Since it is too late to really get a good score and since the "Big Dogs"
were howling it was decided to only do a S & P contest till I was sure I
wasn't bothering someone I might not be able to hear. A 6BTV vertical is
all the CC&R's will allow right now.
Oh well, the front end on this Yaesu more than makes up for the lack of
radials I forgot to lay out just before the contest. KC7SLW won't mow
the lawn so KC7HNS has to do it and she doesn't like to trip on the darn
things.

Bodiddles? At last, Guinessman! Now things start to tumble. I can
understand alcohol. Too late to change to "sparks" or "saguaro". Anyway,
Beachdude, RFGAL and Gismo are in the log and I am finally having fun
the way I intended my Saturday to go.
The only complaints now are,  I should have bought some filters for the
rig and some Guiness for me! I like the format of this contest. If you
don't like humor, don't play in this contest!
.
Actually, a lot was learned from this particular Saturday even if I
didn't make that many contacts.
At least my score should be easy to outdo next year. My goal next year
will probably be the easiest to surpass next year of anyone's. I'll try
to have a good name by then, will join a team, and last but not least
will absolutely test each piece of gear BEFORE the contest.
Thanks to all that put up with my antics. I look forward to printing
this contest again.
I'll raise a Guiness to a great bunch of guys. Er, people. Sorry RFGAL.