[RTTY] Fw: [CQ-Contest] CQWW, the 1st part... sooner than you think!

[Shelby Summerville]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "K1TTT" <K1TTT at ARRL.NET>
To: "reflector cq-contest" <CQ-Contest at Contesting.COM>; 
<N1MMLogger at yahoogroups.com>; "Rlx" <RLX at yahoogroups.com>; "Nobarc" 
<nobarc at nobarc.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2008 7:44 AM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] CQWW, the 1st part... sooner than you think!


> HEY! DON'T YOU STOP READING NOW THINKING YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT RTTY, THIS 
> IS
> LONG BUT KEEP GOING, ITS WORTH IT!!
>
> This first part of the big 3 part CQWW fall contest is coming soon.
>
> CQWW RTTY occurs the last weekend in September.  It is an excellent chance
> to test out antennas, radios, amps, and other station changes made over 
> the
> summer.  It is also an excellent way to learn, or brush up on, SO2R or 
> other
> logging program features since you don't have to concentrate as much on
> copying the exchanges and calls.  You can pay attention to the computer 
> and
> the mechanics of your operating rather than worrying about making copying
> mistakes yourself.
>
> I look at RTTY contesting a lot like CW contesting, but quieter.  While it
> is useful to listen to the received signal to make timing exchanges go
> smoother, you don't have to listen to most of the qrm and other noise, you
> are just listening for the other guy to stop transmitting so you can 
> start.
> Also, with modern loggers, and more contesters realizing that RTTY is
> gaining popularity, the pace of RTTY contesting is picking up.  It wasn't
> long ago that a typical exchange was repeated several times, extra 'hello'
> and 'thanks' and brag stuff was added which slowed things down... now I
> think most operators have figured out that rates well over 100/hr are very
> possible if you cut out the chit chat and use exchanges like in CW 
> contests
> with just a few simple modifications.
>
> And don't think that it takes lots of extra hardware of special stuff to 
> get
> into RTTY contesting.  If you are using a logger like N1MM and have hooked
> up your sound card as a voice keyer you are likely just one cable away 
> from
> RTTY operating.  If you already have the computer playing audio to the
> radio, all you need is to get the radio audio to the computer.  With an
> FT-1000mp, and probably many other radios, that can just be a single off 
> the
> shelf cable from the line out-on the back of the radio to the sound card
> line-in.  This lets you use the radio in SSB and send/receive AFSK.  DON'T
> listen to the pundits that say you 'HAVE TO USE FSK' to do good!  I have a
> wall full of plaques for winning North America, the USA, or the World, ALL
> done with AFSK, and NEVER a complaint about the signal.  And all I had to
> add were 2 cables so I could use the narrow filters instead of SSB filters
> using the mp's 'PKT' mode.  And 100% FREE software!
>
> It also presents you with some interesting technical operating 
> capabilities.
> With a single sound card it is possible to do SO2R and be decoding 2 bands
> at once, and not lose a beat decoding the 2nd radio while transmitting on
> the first.  With 2 sound cards, or 2 computers with one card each, you can
> decode BOTH VFO's on 2 radios at once, so you can both CQ and S&P on 2 
> bands
> at once!!  Talk about technique building!
>
> CQWW RTTY has some very interesting operating features.  First, it has a
> very interesting Multi-Single Low Power category.  We ran that here and 
> were
> able to win the World plaque a couple times, how many times has someone in
> the states won a World plaque in CW or SSB???  This category makes it nice
> for expeditions and other stations that don't have RTTY capable amps to do 
> a
> multi-op without a lot of big amps.
>
> Next, CQWW RTTY is a 'Work Everyone' contest... You get to work everyone,
> including stateside.  Multipliers are states/provinces, countries, and
> zones... so your first stateside and Canadian on each band are TRIPLE
> multipliers!  This adds to the activity and there are virtually no slow
> times, there is always someone out there to contact.
>
> And as in most RTTY contests there is no 160m, so while that might be
> interesting if you have antenna changes there to test, at least you don't
> have to worry about the end of summer noise quite as much.  This also 
> means
> for M/S or M/2 entries you can spend more time on the productive 80m and 
> 40m
> night time bands.
>
> So keep in mind, CQWW REALLY starts in September!  Hook up those sound 
> cards
> and get on the air.  Check out some of the digital contest reflectors and
> web sites for hints and suggestions.  Join the N1MM-Digital reflector if 
> you
> use that logger for all the up to date info (including a new update to 
> MMTTY
> to make it work better with Vista!)
>
>
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
>
>
>
>
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