[RTTY] N8S Digital Camp

[J. Edward (Ed) Muns]

Had a chat with Dave, K3LP, just now on 15 meter phone down at N8S.  There
are three separate "camps", each with their own operating tent, radios,
antennas, generator and sleeping tent.  The Digital Camp has a Pro3 and an
ICOM 7000.  One radio is typically dedicated to RTTY or PSK while the other
radio is often used on either CW or SSB to augment the other two camps.  (I
have noted a few times when they were on two bands RTTY at the same time.)
The CW and SSB camps have three Pro3s, so when we find four CW or four SSB
stations on the air simultaneously, the fourth station is actually at the
Digital Camp.  That explains why RTTY and PSK are sometimes constrained to
certain bands, based on antenna availability.

On a different topic, Dave says the current DXpedition QSO record is around
101K QSOs for a field day style operation like N8S.  They are hoping to
break 120K before they leave this weekend.  They're over 90K now, although
the 120K goal seems like a stretch to me ... I can't imagine them finding
30K more QSOs with folks that can copy them.  We'll see.

On yet a different (even less RTTY-oriented) topic, Dave worked 60 Q's on
5MHz two nights ago and only 15 last night.  His QRN is very high, so they
plan to hook up a Beverage or some kind of RX antenna tonight.  Also, there
was a lot of JA QRM on the frequency and for a while they actually went
split to RX on another channel.  In any case, they will be on 5MHz again
tonight beginning at 10Z.

73,
Ed - W0YK