[RTTY] N8S

[J. Edward (Ed) Muns]

I suspect there are some important factors down at N8S that are affecting
the RTTY operation which many of us are not privy to.  For example, the N8S
web site shows three physically separate locations for CW, Phone and RTTY.
This implies a dedicated set of radios and antennas for RTTY, but that may
not be the actual case.  Yesterday when the RTTY station on 17 meters was
CQing for long periods of time with no answers, I asked about 12 meters.
The reply was that the antenna was being used on 20 meter CW.  While that
explanation wasn't clear to me, it did indicate that antenna sharing was
going on and RTTY is probably lower priority than CW.  But even if my
inference is wrong, it is safe to say that there are valid reasons for the
various band-modes on the air at a given time.  The fact is that N8S has had
an impressive number of band-modes on the air simultaneously since they
landed.  80K+ QSOs is hard to complain about, unless of course, you are
unfortunately cursed with poor, or no, propagation to Swains Island at the
times you can get on the air.

73,
Ed - W0YK