[RTTY] CQWW Rtty

[Dennis OConnor]

Well, first time in a long time for a rtty contest, even if it was only a few hours of S&P operation... The last rtty contest used WF1B ver 2.0 running under DOS (original, paid for and registered) driving a PK-232 into an Omni 6 and a Henry 3K,  but the world moves on... 
   
  Being that I operate 80 and 160 and have no working antennas for other bands I decided to throw up a dipole for 40 and 20...
  Decided to try N1MM - MMTTY (hey, free is good) with the MK-V and Henry 3K... Small thrash to get it all going - about an hour of head scratching - but it finally smoothed out and began to play...  Shortly before the start of the contest I decided to fire up the amp and check for RFI (didn't expect any but you never know)..
  Hit the power switch on the Henry control console, 3 seconds later there is a solid 'thump' from the amp deck and the console lights go black... Whut the hey?  
  There is the definite smell of 'magic smoke' departing some components - and when you are out of magic smoke you are out of luck... So it appears that the Henry is not going to play in this contest...
  OK, time for plan B...  I eyed the other operating bench with the Orion-Titan... They are not set up for digital but in my wasted youth as a street racer 'ya run what ya brung'... OK, I got out the thumb drive and loaded the software into the computer on that bench...  Lessee, the Rig Blaster is wired to the MK-V and I don't feel like making new harnesses to move it...  So, a search of the goodies box turned up a line cord that will get audio from the Orion into the computer sound card.. And another cord from a previous rig will put output audio from the soundcard into the AUX mic connector on the Orion, so AFSK it will be...  It already had a PTT from the serial port for CW contesting so I was in business...
   
  Then I went into lets make the software work, mode... Actually this turned out to be relatively painless since I had just solved getting it to run on the MK-V... Well, painless once I remembered that the AUX audio input has to be turned on by menu command in the Orion... Never the less at 2350z I am ready to go - making power and no RFI....
  Let me say this package of software works like gangbusters... After the first 5 minutes I forgot about WF1B...
   
  Results... This was a part time, S&P operation... It was perfect fall weather and I have a big list of work that needs to be done before the weather goes away.... I spent way more hours outside than I did operating...  I would pass by the bench, sit down and work a pass across the band and then go back outside...  
  Anyway the N1MM screen shows this:
   
  172-56-30-56
  44,020
   
  Looking at the results it is clear I was DXing not contesting...
   
  Orion II
  TItan III
  80 meter dipole at 100'
  40 meter dipole at 70'
  20 meter dipole at 35'
   
  cheers  ...  denny - k8do


denny / k8do
       
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