[RTTY] ARRL CW-contest and 80m activity

[Carter Grabarczyk]

DJ3IW Goetz wrote:
> 
> How comes that the ARRL CW contest produces so much stateside
> activity on 80M? Each and every one of my calls to cqing USA stations
> brought an immediate response with just 100watts into a simple dipole
> at 30ft on my side!
> Wish I could see the same level of stateside 80m activity in RTTY contests!
> 73 de Goetz, DJ3IW


A possible explanation could be the propagation condition known as
"multipath" which can be prevalent on 80. Our CW decoder (the brain) is
quite immune to multipath and we can usually copy the CW just fine.
However, many RTTY decoders perform very poorly in the presence of
multipath, making each contact a real struggle.

73/Carter/K8VT