[RTTY] RTTY operation in ARRL's Field Day exercise?

[k0bx@qsl.net]

I guess we all have opinions, here is mine.  Our club W0DCW was 2A but
then went to 3A to have a RTTY/PSK31 station fulltime.  True there was
not much activity on rtty as I would have liked, but there was enough.  

But all the vistors, kids, old/new hams all wanted to see the RTTY in
action.  Our club doesn't care about score.  I know there are many clubs
that FD is a contest.  Those clubs will not support RTTY/PSK31 as it
takes away from the overall rate.  I understand that and it is fine. 
There are many rtty contest so we really don't need rtty as a contest
mode on FD.  But it sure brings over the crowd.

When there wasn't any rtty, we did use the station for CW.  At 11 am
Sunday morning, all the stations shutdown and watch as we copied the
W1AW bulletin on PSK31.  It was great fun.

So bottom line, rtty/psk31 is never going to replace ssb/cw on FD.

Joe K0BX op W0DCW on RTTY during FD.