[RTTY] ARRL.org poll, RTTY vs. PSK31

[Patrick STODDARD]

Hi!

I've been following this thread since the ARRL.org poll popped
on their web site (I voted RTTY), and wasn't going to add to
it until after I came back from another trip to Mexico for a
long holiday weekend.  A poll like this only shows results of
those who voted, and who knows what the motivation for some of
the votes might be, but I don't think it's that far off in
terms of the popularity of PSK31 over RTTY and the other digimodes.

Last weekend I was down in Baja California - a nice 400km/250-mile,
4-hour drive from my house - where I visited friends, used my so-so
Spanish, and spent much time on HF.  For all of my CQ calling, and
tuning around trying to locate QSOs, I only logged a single RTTY QSO.
Sure, the CW contest was in full force - but I had more RTTY Qs on a
similar trip over the same contest weekend in May 2000 from the same
general area.  On the other hand, except for Monday at midday and the
early afternoon (propagation outage) I could always round up a QSO
around 14070 or during the daytime and early evening around 28120
in PSK31 between Friday evening and Monday evening when I drove home.
I didn't hear a thing other than CW between 21070 and 21100.  I had
a 706Mk2G, KAM98, laptop with LinPSK software (I don't do Windows on
my PCs, just Linux), and a small variety of antennas (A-99 & 40m
inverted-V at my friend's QTH in Mexicali, a 20m dipole between two
trees in the mountains between Mexicali and the Pacific coast on Sunday),
running 100W on RTTY or 35W on PSK31 from Mexicali and only 10W on
Sunday in the mountains.  I did some SSB, but had a lot of fun working
guys all over on PSK31 to keep busy and steer clear of the CW contest.

As with the other trips I've made to Mexico in the past two years when
I played radio, I did not publicize this trip to avoid receiving a
nasty-gram from the XE authorities (my permits there have a "no
contesting or DXpeditions" clause in them - otherwise it would be
XE2/WD9EWK on RTTY contest weekends!), or worse.  I left the KAM98
with my friend to use with his 706Mk2G, and hope he uses it on RTTY
along with the CW and PSK31 he also enjoys.  By leaving that over there,
it's one less item I have to haul through the border with me, one less
item for Mexican Customs to hassle me about if I get the red light at the
border (green light means no Customs inspection, red means stop - and
hope the "no bribes" posters at the Mexican Customs posts are true)
on a future trip.

For those who only work RTTY for contests and the occasional new/rare
DX, that's fine.  That ensures we are well represented in those portions
of the bands for others to see/hear.  But without non-contest casual
QSOs during other times more and more will look toward PSK31 for digital-
mode contacts, and future DXpeditions will probably take note of that.
I hope that's not the case, and I'll do my part on my excursions to Mexico
and in the future to other places.  PSK31 won't go away anytime soon, it
is too popular, but it is possible that both of these modes will continue
on - especially with the freebie software that anyone can try out.

Have a great weekend all - I'm staying indoors to avoid the 43C/110F heat,
and put some more time on my new 756Pro2 that didn't go to Mexico last
weekend.  A radio with a large manual like this one means I'll actually
have to read it :-) to figure out all these features I've never had with
my 706s, a TS-520, or other rigs in the past.  73!


Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK (and occasionally XE2/WD9EWK)

-- 
Patrick STODDARD                E-mail: wd9ewk at yahoo dot com
Glendale, Arizona, USA          ICBM:   33.5 N 112.2 W

        My web page, sort of: http://www.qsl.net/wd9ewk/