[RTTY] Last NRJ issue received

Wed Jun 4 20:16:10 EDT 2003

Jim, there are lots of people that would be glad to help you get started in RTTY.  However, you need to be part of the solution and start putting your signal into an antenna instead of that dummy load!  Heck, just the other night I thought the band was dead, but found one RTTY CQ on 20M.  It was 2E0AVF, Richard, in England.  I noticed from the map that he was near my grayline.  When we finished a CASUAL QSO, I tuned up a few KHz and found VQ9LA, Larry, on Diago Garcia, some 9,900 miles from here and also on my grayline!  We also had a casual chat.  I'll look for you this evening if you give me a time and frequency.

It is true that RTTY is the premier digital contesting mode and thus the emphasis at Dayton.  RTTY contesting is exciting.  If you think you don't like contesting, you should try RTTY contesting!  It is also true that you will usually find more casual QSOs in PSK31 mode at a given time.  During a contest, the bands will be overflowing with RTTY signals!  However, you can usually find someone to QSO with during noncontest times as well.

RTTY is easier to copy than many ddigital modes.  Let us here on this reflector know how we can help you.  73 - John, WA9ALS
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jim Harris 
  To: wa9als at starband.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 6:30 PM
  Subject: Re: [RTTY] Last NRJ issue received

  wa9als at starband.net wrote:

I just received the last issue of the New RTTY Journal.  In an accompanying
letter, Bill Henry explains that any remaining dollar value to your NRJ
subscription will be converted to  CQ Magazine subscriptions.

Bill stated "Declining reader interest dictates that it is time to close the
New RTTY Journal."

Some people complain about various reasons they don't subscribe to QST or
CQ.  Some day we might lose them too.  Use it or lose it?  One could wonder
the same about the mode too!  Get on the air - the water's fine!  73 - John,
WA9ALS

  I am somewhat new (2-3 months) to the reflector and have only been licensed about 15 months after a lifetime of working in electronics.  I would like to comment on the last paragraph above.  The thought is use the mode (RTTY) or lose it.  For me RTTY has been a hard mode to get into.  PSK31 was relatively easy.  I have tryed several times a week for 2-3 months just to copy RTTY (only xmitted into a dummy load) and finally last night was able to get sustained copy but only because it was a long casual conversation between two acquantances.  
  There seems to be 2 or 3 reasons that it is hard to get started.  First there is a lack of RTTY to copy.  I have a schedule of RTTY transmissions and if they occurr they are too weak ro short to copy, I think.  Second, exchanges that are heard usually occurr so fast (maybe contest) that by the time I'm ready it is gone.  I've not tryed to call CQ as I'm not sure I could reliabily copy it should there be a response.  (I've always had good success calling CQ on PSK31 but not SSB.)  I attended the RTTY forum at the Dayton Hamvention and it was mostly about contesting....heck I just want to get that first RTTY QSO behind me.  Or is RTTY not about casual QSO's......just contesting?

  Which brings me to my point.  Breaking into amateur radio has been difficult except for passing the element tests.  Getting started in PSK31 was relatively easy.  In most areas there is a huge learning curve and a farternal atmosphere that is difficult to enter.  Two friends started in amateur radio at the same time as I and seem to have the same experience to various degrees.  There seems to be a lack of quality training materials and other viable assistance for the very beginner.   Also, be prepared to let the beginner make mistakes and don't call him/her a lid or give them the silent treatment or set them up for a bad situation.

  All that said.....it's going to be try and try again until I'm comfortable with RTTY as a beginner.

  73,

  Jim,  AB0UK

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tom Osborne" <w7why at charter.net>
To: "RTTY" <rtty at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 6:10 AM
Subject: Re: [RTTY] Re: [WriteLog] RTTY Contest Records

  --- "Don Hill AA5AU" <aa5au at bellsouth.net> wrote:

With the sale of the RTTY Journal to CQ and the future of the
RTTY Journal website unknown (although I've been told it will stay
      for a while anyway),

I hope it doesn't go the way of Ham Radio and CQ VHF magazines.  I
seem to have read where there would be no changes when they sucked up
those magazines either.  73
Tom

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