[RTTY] Re the blacklisting

[Phil Cooper]

Hi all,

I am fairly certain this would NOT have come from Doug N6TQS while operating
N8S.
I have always found Doug to be an excellent op, with great pile-up skills on
RTTY.

Whether it is a reasonable thing to do is open to debate, as has happened,
but my own feeling is that it is not a good way to operate, as (to me!) it
indicates something of a lack of ability in handling a pile-up.

As I have yet to even hear N8S, I am still waiting for the vaguest of
chances, and I am fairly sure that if Doug is operating at the time, I stand
something of a chance, but I have to be able to hear them first!

Watching the pile-up calling them over the Easter weekend, it is fairly
obvious that many trying are not RTTY ops, and are clearly not used to the
way RTTY works.
I guess some folk are trying to work them on any mode possible, and will try
anything to get them in the log.
One call was N8S N8S N8S DE UA3XXX UA3XXX.
This style of buffer is absolutely useless, as by the time it gets to the
callers ID, he is probably lost in the QRM, and I am sure that the guys out
there know their own call!
Generally, in a contest, I advocate the use of DE before a call, but with
the DX pile-up, just sending your own callsign 2 or possibly 3 times is
enough.
Ops like Doug will have a great knowledge of regular RTTY calls, and will
pick out enough to work you, or at least try.

What would I do? I think I would probably ask XX1XX to QRX, and call YY1YY
again, and if XX1XX persists, work him, then try YY1YY again. Not ideal, but
if you don't work him, you won't get him out of the way, and he will slow
the rate down considerably.
As to whether XX1XX actually gets logged, or even gets a card, that is
another matter for the operators conscience!

One last thing................ Over the Easter weekend, there was an obvious
pirate using N8S, and working loads of EU stations, who will clearly not be
in the log at the end of it. I was quite surprised that so many EU stations
actually thought N8S would be S9+10, and coming from the East, but that's
life!

73 all,

Phil GU0SUP