[RTTY] RTTY Contests at bottom of Solar Cycle

[Don Hill AA5AU]

Hi Terry,

Well, RTTY contesting is not as great during the low part of the cycle
of course, but it's still fun.  It's hard to remember what it's like since this
cycle has had a good long run toward the high side.

One thing for sure, instead of 10 & 15 meters being the money bands,
20 & 40 become the money bands and more attention is spent to 80 meters also.

I'm seriously thinking of putting up a 3rd tower with a 40 meter yagi.  If I
want to successfully compete against bigger and better stations, I'll need a
better 40 meter antenna.  It's things like these that need to be considered when
conditions start to change.

This is where SO2R becomes even more important for checking band openings
on 10 and 15 meters when the bands stay dormant for most of the time.  Instead
of keeping a station on 15 meters from sunrise to sunset (and even after) you 
will keep a radio on 20 meters most of time except to work 80 at night.

For me, I'll probably not be able to work South America off the back of my
antennas as I do now and may need to install a 3rd tribander just to keep an
eye out for South American and Caribbean stations on 10 & 15 meters.

It's new ballgame when condx go south on the high bands but it's still fun.
You have to work harder, which is OK by me.

Personally, I'll probably not enter as many RTTY contest as I have at the high
point of this cycle and many stations will do the same.  This means that some of
the smaller contests will have very little activity compared to the past few years.
Don't look for any records to be broken except maybe the RTTY Roundup.

73, Don

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terry Dunlap" <kk6t at joneslumber.com>
To: <rtty at contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, March 17, 2003 5:25 PM
Subject: [RTTY] RTTY Contests at bottom of Solar Cycle


> I'm just getting started in RTTY contesting and the solar cycle
> is doing a nose dive.
> 
> What's a RTTY contest like near the bottom of the cycle?
> 
> 73 de Terry KK6T
> 
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