[RTTY] RE: Death of RTTY?

[Phil Cooper]

Hello all,

I have been reading this thread with great interest, as I cannot quite
visualise a world without RTTY and RTTY contests!

There have been some very good comments, although it would have been a bit
more rationalised if some of you had actually tried PSK31 and/or PSK63.
I have used PSK31 quite extensively, especially when the first Windows
software was released. Back then, most folk used 5 to 10 watts, and often
less than that. I had several QSO's with Claude VE3WQ and others where we
turned the RF right down, using less than 1 watt, and still had workable
copy.
If you had an overdriven signal, then you were politely told about it, and
offered suggestions on what to do to improve things.
Go and suggest that a PSK signal is overdriven now and see what you get as a
reply!
As an upside to PSK, I once played about with my soundcard, and wanted to
get them back to the correct settings. As it was very late evening here, I
decided to tune up on 10m, as the band would be as dead as the proverbial. I
turned the RF drive right down, and was probably running about 5 watts.
I made a few adjustments, and the switched between TUNE and typing, which
should have let me see that the output power drops by half, as expected.
By now, I was running less than one watt, and kept hitting F1 to send CQ, so
that I could make any final adjustments.
Imagine my surprise when an LU8 station came back to me! We had a QSO for
about half an hour on what should have been a dead band. No way we could
have done that with RTTY.

Yes, I have tried almost all of the newer digital modes, mostly because I
write a small column for BARTG's magazine Datacom, and like to let people
know what is out there. I enjoy the fun of Hellschrieber, and also had some
fun with MT63 too.
Over the last couple of years, though, there has been a trend to using more
power than is necessary. PSK31 has suffered from this more than most.
It is now quite normal to see folk using "hundreds" of watts, when 10 would
do.
That is one of the reasons I don't feel happy about using PSK31 for
contests. 
Have you seen the mess that results when a DX station appears on PSK31? A
total mess unless the operator is skilled at handling pile-ups.

Regarding PSK63, well, I did try it, and I agree with other comments in that
it is simply too fast to be good for a contest.
With RTTY, even very short CQ's can be tuned in by ear pretty closely (Oh
dear, is that a sign of me getting hooked??) and certainly enough to see
which call it is. Generally, all I need to see is the last part of the call,
and I will have a good guess as to who it is, and will know whether I have
worked them.
With PSK63, even a fairly long CQ call is over very quickly, and gives no
time to tune, mainly because you cannot (and I challenge someone to prove
they can!) tune in by ear alone, and by the time you have moved the mouse,
the signal has long gone. OK, you may get close, but you then have to wait
for another CQ call, and try to tune that in properly, thus wasting a lot
more time.
I tried sending two lines of RYRY, plus two lines of CQ calls, and even that
was over too quickly to move the mouse and click close enough to get good
copy.

I did note that the helpfile suggests parking your dial on 14.072 and using
100Hz segments from there upwards. That will almost certainly draw some
response from all those PacTor mailboxes! Funny how the band is dead quiet
for weeks, and then as soon as a contest is on, there are all these active
mailboxes going for it!

I will give PSK63 a try, but it will never (get me - NEVER) replace RTTY in
my life! Even if I am a puny GU0 (I'd have preferred being labelled as a
puny GU0 signal (:-), rather than a puny GU0 (:-) signal - HI Chen!)

I am now away till then end of the week, but I am sure there will be more
comments .

73 all de Phil GU0SUP


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