[RTTY] FD RTTY/PSK from W4BFB

[WB2RHM - Ben Antanaitis]

Our Field Day efforts went well.

Last year was the first year W4BFB - the Mecklenburg Amateur Radio Society 
had a 'digital' tent.  In park that we use for FD, I set up my home 
contesting station and attached it to a GAP vertical antenna. I demoed and 
explained 'digital mode' to lots of our club members who tried their hand 
at RTTY and PSK for the first time.

This year, I got named FD Chairman, so I had to plan and run the show. That 
left me very little time to operate my RTTY/PSK FD station this year.  But 
because of last year's effort, my 'operator sign-up sheet' was full with 
members who watched or tried the digital modes and wanted to do it again or 
try it for the first time.

We made a couple of hundred digital QSOs, 60/40 split RTTY vs PSK. The PSK 
QSOs take so much longer than contest RTTY QSOs, and I think that a lot of 
ops were 'new' and not 'contesters'. That's fine with me, because FD 
weekend is, in my mind, for demonstrating/promoting/showcasing/teaching 
amateur radio to the local public and to other hams.

We even got some local TV coverage.

If you have broadband: Click here, it is only good for 30 days:

http://www.news14charlotte.com/content/headlines/Default.asp?SecID=41&ArID=96276& 


I set our exchange to be 599 serialNumber serialNumber FD 3A NC 3A NC so we 
could make 'good' QSOs with FD stations and any UKDX stations that called 
us. I am going through the logs and I am going to send in a 'check log' for 
the UKDX folks who worked us.

Now to get everything set back up for this weekend's contest......

73,
Ben Antanaitis
WB2RHM