[RTTY] Are digital modes a DXexpedition afterthought?

[Bill Coleman]

On Jul 18, 2006, at 1:54 PM, <montemerlo at verizon.net>  
<montemerlo at verizon.net> wrote:

> What I do get very upset with, are multi-week DXexpeditions, which  
> state on their web sites that they will be running PSK31 & RTTY  
> modes, update those websites on a regular basis, and then remove  
> the Digital notice the day they pack up to leave while only trying  
> a couple of PSK31 contacts the last day.

Sorry to reply to such an ancient thread, but....

Sometimes Dxpeditions do things based on limitations or restrictions  
that aren't evident to outsiders. A couple of likely problems come to  
mind. First, there may be equipment failures that prevent them from  
running digital modes, or at least force them to choose between  
digital and CW or SSB. Another scenario may be that due to RFI  
problems, they can't run digital and CW or SSB on the same band at  
the same time.

Given that choice, it is natural to see these expeditions favor the  
more popular modes. Perhaps if the CW pileups would slack off, you'd  
see more digital operation. Same for SSB.

The last factor may have to do with the nature of RTTY or PSK31.  
Because of the capture effect, pileups on RTTY can be completely  
unintelligible, particularly for a large number of simultaneous  
signals. Perhaps they tried some RTTY and found that the rate was  
really low, so they went back to CW (or SSB).

The whole idea of a DXpedition is to try and give the most exposure  
possible to the most hams. It may be difficult to do that with  
digital modes. If the participants decide they can reach more people  
with other modes, who can blame them?

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901