[RTTY] WAEDC + QTC's and how to handle them

Wed Nov 10 13:46:49 EST 2004

One more comment about QTCs.  

To my surprise, in the past, quite a few stations have asked for my 
QTCs on 80m.  Unless you are very loud, I generally decline.  Why?  
Because with all the noise on 80m, it takes too long to exchange them 
with all the fills.  It's a lot more efficient to wait until the 
following morning (local time) and exchange QTCs on 20, 15 or 
(hopefully) 10m.

73,
Barry W2UP

On 10 Nov 2004 at 18:26, Phil Cooper wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I am sure most of you know all about QTC's, what they are, and how to
> handle them. However, each year, there are loads of stations who
> simply don't know how to handle them, and say "SRI NO QTC".
> 
> Here is a simple guide I wrote for BARTG members last year, and
> towards the end, there is a way of handling them with MMTTY. Then
> again, with the A & K indices the way they are at the moment, it could
> be hard work to find anyone!
> 
> PLEASE NOTE: These are MY thoughts alone, and you may have a better
> way to do it. ALSO@ Walter DL4RCK has made a FREE version of RCKRTTY
> for this contest, and you can download it from his website.
> 
> 
> So, what are they all about?
> 
> Each year, the WAE RTTY Contest comes along, and there are many of us
> who keep saying “SRI NO QTC” because we simply do not understand what
> they are all about. QTC traffic is quite simple, really, and very easy
> to handle with the right software. In WAE RTTY, everyone can work
> everyone, unlike the CW and SSB legs of this contest. A “QTC” is
> simply a list of ten contacts made by one or other station, showing
> the time, callsign worked, and the serial number exchanged. Once a
> batch has been sent, it cannot be sent again.
> 
> There is very little to understand, except that you can only exchange
> them with someone from another continent, and the batch cannot contain
> a QSO sent between the two stations doing the exchange. For example,
> if my 10th QSO in the contest is with AA5AU, and I send him some QTC,
> I cannot send him that 10th contact, as it contains the QSO made
> between the two of us. QTC traffic is normally sent in batches of 10
> contacts, and each line contains the time, callsign and serial number
> of that contact. Each batch is numbered in the format 001/10 meaning
> the first batch containing 10 contacts. Although there is no absolute
> requirement to send or receive a batch containing 10 contacts, this is
> the default for most contesting software, and is the easiest to
> handle.
> 
> To make life easy for me, I usually aim to get about 100 contacts in
> the log before I start bothering to send QTC’s, as this would give me
> 10 batches, but you can receive from the outset. Don’t bother trying
> to exchange them with that weak ZL, whose exchange you only just got
> after several attempts, as you will end up re-sending them time and
> time again. Far better is to wait and go for that UA9 with the S9++
> signal, or maybe the 5B4 or EA8. Later into the contest, there will be
> plenty of W’s and VE’s with good signals that will readily exchange
> QTC traffic with you.
> 
> So, how is it going to happen?
> First of all, you will call someone and exchange the usual contest
> report with them, and one of you will send “TX/RX QTC??". Assuming the
> answer is yes, then one of you will send, and one will receive. How
> you decide who will do what is up to you. Some folk use a buffer for
> each option, and some will tell you what is going to happen. It really
> doesn’t matter who does what, as both parties get the same points for
> the exchange of QTC’s.
> 
> For now, I will assume you will be on the receiving end.
> He will send QRV? To which you reply QRV, and then he will start
> sending. You are looking for the batch number, so watch out for that
> first. Next comes the actual traffic, and will most likely be one
> contact per line, unless propagation screws it up. So, you will end up
> with something like this: 001/10 0012 G3URA 049 0013/AA5AU/056
> 0014-RA9FOE-012 etc for ten lines. Whether there is a space, a dash or
> a slash between the fields depends on what software is being used to
> send the data, and is not important. If you have all the data and the
> calls look OK, then simply send QSL TU, and let him get on with the
> contest. If you have one line of garbage, then just ask for “07 AGN
> PSE” and he will send line 7 again. If there is more than one line, do
> it one line at a time, as this is less confusing all round. Too much
> garbage, and you can ask for ALL AGN PSE.
> 
> Now you have handled QTC traffic, what does it mean to you?
> Let’s use a simple example, as this will make it clearer.
> Suppose you have worked 100 contacts in the contest, and there are 30
> mults in that total. This would give you 30 X 100 as a final score, ie
> 3000 points. Now, if you received 50 QTC’s from 5 different contacts,
> you score will now look like this: 30 X (100+50) = 30 X 150 = 4500
> points. This represents a 50% increase in your score, and is well
> worth the extra points.
> 
> 
> Handling QTC traffic with MMTTY.
> MMTTY is not able to handle QTC’s directly, but as many of you will be
> using MMTTY anyway, I have given some thought as to how you might be
> able to do this task. You will NOT be able to send any QTC, but it
> doesn’t really matter whether you send or receive, as 10 points are
> given to both sender and recipient.
> 
> You will need to think about whether you want to create buffers to aid
> you in this. It might be useful to have one that says CAN YOU SEND ME
> QTC? and maybe one that says QRV, and another for QSL AND TU at the
> end. If you need a repeat, I would suggest simply doing that on the
> fly.
> 
> Within MMTTY there is a text capture facility, and you could use this
> to simply receive the QTC traffic, and then save it as a simple text
> file by the batch number. Go to FILE| SCREEN TEXT TO FILE and then
> save the screen text as 001-10.txt or whatever, but please remember to
> save the callsign of the person that sent them to you.
> 
> Alternatively, you could simply open several instances of NOTEPAD and
> then highlight the text and copy it to NOTEPAD. Again, save it as the
> batch number, and include the callsign of the sender.
> 
> When you come to sort out your final score, simply add the number of
> QTC’s to the number of QSO’s and then multiply by the number of mults,
> but do remember to take into account the bonus points for the various
> bands. At the end of the contest, simply use ‘cut & paste’ to copy all
> of the QTC data to one text file. When you submit your log, include
> the QTC file with the rest.
> 
> This is not an ideal method, but it MAY help you to gain some extra
> points! Alternatively, take up Walters' offer of the FREE version of
> RCKRTTY.
> 
> 73 all
> 
> Phil GU0SUP
> ---
> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.788 / Virus Database: 533 - Release Date: 01/11/2004
> 
> _______________________________________________
> RTTY mailing list
> RTTY at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty

--
Barry Kutner, W2UP              Internet: w2up at mindspring.com
Newtown, PA                     Frankford Radio Club