[RTTY] Contest Happenings??

[Roger Cooke]

Hi.

  The poor propagation in the BARTG Sprint contest presented some
difficulties with exchanges.
I realise that the ubiquitous use of 599 is now more or less accepted,
but I was quite pleased
in one way to receive 449 from one station. Unfortunately the Writelog
module does not allow any
change from the 599 that is automatically sent. I could never quite
see why the report was used
owing to this fact, something that the Sprint obviously takes into
account.

  I realise I am making waves here, but should we not consider this in
future contests? What is
the point of sending 599 when we all know that both columns in the
contest log are going to say
599? It really is a waste of time. This is probably designed with
"saving time" in mind?

  One thing I noted in the Sprint from about half a dozen (if that)
stations was when a station
was running a freq. I called, he came back and issued his exchange. I
returned and issued mine.
As soon as I went back to receive he was calling CQ again, no QSL, TU,
Have a nice day, kiss my
butt or anything. This really p....d me off and I insisted on one
station giving me an acknowledgement
of my number. I know I am a GOM now I have reached 65 but come on
guys, give me a break! How long
does it take to say TU? Are we that hell bent on saving time?  RTTY is
the last bastion of gentlemanly
behaviour and friendship, let's not spoil that!

  Does anybody else share my grief? Am I the only Luddite on the air?

Having said all that, I did exchange a few niceties with old friends
and must admit that the few that
did not bother to acknowledge were far outweighed by the majority!
It's still an enjoyable mode.

 But what do YOU think about sending either a genuine RST or nothing
at all?


73 de Roger G3LDI GOM, BOF + Bar
rcooke at g3ldi.freeserve.co.uk
g3ldi at amsat.org
g3ldi at qsl.net
g3ldi at gb7ldi.#35.gbr.eu