[RTTY] New RTTY Callsign Database now on-line

[Don Hill AA5AU]

aa5au_rtty040913.zip has been uploaded to http://www.rttycontesting.com tonight.
It can be downloaded directly from the home page.

This is the latest RTTY callsign database containing 23,349 RTTY callsigns.
This is an increase of 264 callsigns from the previous database.

Only callsigns that showed three or more times in recent logs were added.

Please read the readme.txt file on more information on the files contained in
aa5au_rtty040913.zip.

I felt it was important that I put this out tonight.  I spent this evening
boarding up most of my windows in preparation for the possible arrival of
Hurricane Ivan.  Tomorrow I will finish boarding up the house and evacuate
tomorrow night.  Unlike 1998, when 4 hours into the contest I quit CQWW RTTY to
board up and flee Hurricane Georges, I am not bringing my radio equipment with
me.  I just have too much of it to haul.  I will pick the PW-1 off the floor and
place it on the operating desk and hope the water doesn't come higher than the
desk where all the other equipment is sitting.  It will either be spared or it
won't.  I am not taking down the antennas.

I've been through this before with Hurricane Georges, so the feeling is not
unfamiliar.  It's not a good feeling.  The thought of leaving most everything
you own and worked hard for with the possibility of it all being lost is hard to
take.  But these are material things that can be replaced and it's the reason we
pay through the nose for insurance.  It's the price we pay for living on the
Gulf of Mexico.  Life is much more important than the radios sitting on this
desk or the plaques and certificates that hang on the wall.

I felt the pain of our brothers in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina when
Charlie and Frances hit them hard.  And prayed for those on the East Coast when
Gaston came ashore.  But now it's my turn to flee the storm.  But I will survive
and I will return no matter what happens to the QTH.  Don't feel sorry for me
because I've always known the risks of living here.  I will be OK but I feel a
little sad tonight.  You all know how much I love my station and how much I love
to operate it.

I want to thank those that have already wished me well today when they sent
their logs.  It means a lot.

I'll be QRT around 1800Z.

73, Don AA5AU