[RTTY] New RTTY set up - comments pse.

[Bill Turner]

A few thoughts in no particular order:

1. Retire the PK-232 and use MMTTY. It is better at digging weak
signals out of the noise, as many have testified here before. It also
has a plethora of filter/demodulator settings which can help under
various band conditions. You may have to upgrade your P2 machine,
though. I'm not sure MMTTY will run on that. See the website for more
info.

2. Use FSK when possible. Unlike AFSK, you can set it and forget it.
With AFSK you have to be constantly aware of drive level in order to
not overdrive the audio section of your TX. AFSK was invented as a
work-around for transmitters which had no provision for FSK. It was
never intended to be used when FSK was available.

3. For contesting, never, never use a waterfall display. You want a
very narrow IF filter, no more than about 350 Hz, and that makes a
waterfall useless because you would only see one signal anyway.
Waterfalls are fine when DXing or casual operating with a nearly empty
band. One exception in a contest might be when you QSY briefly to ten
meters or some band you think is dead and want a quick look to see if
there is any activity at all. 

4. As to contesting software, I have used both WriteLog and N1MM
Logger and each has good and bad points. N1MM is free, while WriteLog
costs. On the other hand, N1MM is notoriously buggy and WriteLog
isn't. On the other other hand, N1MM has some features - actually a
lot of features - that WriteLog doesn't. I especially like ESM. 
Bottom line: I use N1MM mostly, but I keep a copy of WriteLog ready
when I have pulled out more than three or four clumps of hair running
N1MM. Twice in the last couple of years I have been so frustrated with
N1MM's bugs in the middle of a contest that I exported my log file,
imported it into WriteLog and continued the contest. One does not do
that lightly, I assure you! 

4. When and if you get really serious about RTTY, obtain a copy of the
software RITTY by K6STI and an ancient DOS computer to run it on. It
requires a very specific soundcard which may be hard to find and it
will not run under Windows, pure DOS only. RITTY still has the best
demodulator for picking weak ones out of the noise I have ever seen,
with the one exception of the very expensive HAL ST-8000, which is a
dead even tie with RITTY. Run that computer as receive-only, driven by
the same audio feed as your MMTTY setup, and only glance over at it
when MMTTY prints garbage on a weak signal. You will be amazed how
often RITTY gets it right when everything else doesn't. Be sure to get
version 4.54 or later. Earlier versions have a bug which will cause
the display to freeze after running for several minutes or hours.

Hope this helps and welcome to serious RTTY! 

Soapbox mode off. :-)

Bill, W6WRT