[RTTY] Suggestion for upcoming RTTY Roundup

[WW3S]

it depends on what the exchange is.....for Roundup, you are correct. It
would be best to NOT send the dash. In contests where the exchange is a
number, however, you are better off to send 599-05-05 or 599-123-123 or
whatever.

On 12/31/2005 4:00:49 PM, Bill Turner (dezrat1242 at ispwest.com) wrote:
> ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
>
> At 12:15 PM 12/31/2005, Tyler Stewart wrote:
> >Guess it depends on how smart your decoder is
> >(both computer and human software) and whether you can type well which
> way
> >works better.  My preference is for dashes...
>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> It's not a question of smart or dumb decoders, it's an inherent issue
> with Unshift On Space (USOS). What you are doing by sending dashes is
> foiling USOS, not a good idea, IMO. Nearly every TNC and software
> uses USOS by default, for good reason.
>
> For those new to RTTY, USOS resets your FIGS/LTRS case back to LTRS
> every time a space is sent or received. When copy is poor because of
> QRM/QRN and dashes are being used, the reset never happens and you
> get print like this:  599-48-48-48 instead of 599-RI-RI-RI. If you
> send 599 RI RI RI (without dashes) then USOS can reset back to LTRS
> with each space and you will get at worst 599 48 RI RI.
>
> The idea of using dashes goes back to the early days of RTTY
> contesting before anyone realized the value of USOS. WF1B, bless his
> heart, included dashes in his default macros and people have been
> using them ever since. Sendin