[RTTY] WAEDC RTTY Contest

[Kok Chen]

Barry, W2UP, wrote:
> 1. It goes back to our "roots," i.e., traffic handling

I do hope that folks don't take this wrongly if some of us
don't devote our full spirit to WAE.  Some of our "roots"
come from experimenting with finding better means of
passing messages, not the act of passing messages itself.

I am probably not the first, nor the last, RTTY nut case who
gets into contesting for the fun of it, rather than for winning
anything.

90% of the participants in any contest know, going in, that
they have no chance whatsoever to win anything.  Points
really have very little significance.  Some people get on
to work a new band mode (the 001's :-), and points really
don't mean anything to them.

There must be a reason for the participation of these 90%
other than random acts of masochism.  If a contest is fun, it
will attract a lot of hams; if not, well, you need to find a way to
attract more people if you don't want your item 2 to be self
fulfilling:

> 2. It adds to the "action" in a RTTY contest where you may get
> bored due to lack of activity (true of most RTTY contests except
> WW and Roundup).

Personally, I am going to try to get on for a few QSOs, and even
sending QTCs when there is an opportunity; perhaps someone
in Oceania or Asia can copy my signal well enough :-).  If I meet
up with ZL2BR, I intend to ask "QTC?" so we can have a good
laugh over it.  But I will not be getting on to try an improve my
own record, or anything like that.

I haven't worked HK0 on RTTY in years, that in itself, would be
enough incentive for me to tune around the bands :-).

As far as stressing my traffic handling ability, CW Sweepstakes
is enough of a humbling experience :-P

73
Chen, AA6TY