[RTTY] RTTY High Speed Sprint? (was: Ahh, the sound!!)

Thu Sep 11 18:36:40 EDT 2008

"...Also, why do we still stick to 45 Bauds? Why not try 75 Bauds for a change. I have had a few Q's at that speed but nobody has suggested changing  up to 75 as a modern standard, quite easy in MMTTY.

Regards from Roger, G3LDI
Swardeston, Norfolk."

Roger,

In 1998, 1999, and I think 2000 my brother and I sponsored a High Speed Sprint. This was the era where the RTTY by WF1B program and TNC's like the KAM, PK232, and MFJ were in vogue. It was a 4-hour experiment at pushing that technology to 75 wpm. I'd have to look in my old file cabinet to see if I could find the details, but in general we picked a contest format already supported by the software so scoring wouldn't be an issue.

We had good participation for a fledgling event, but we both "got busy" with our non-hobby activities and the HSS contest fell by the wayside.

I provided the opportunity to experiment with the higher speeds and see how well the equipment decoded. I remember Ray had to create an update for his program because the higher speed revealed some issue. Other people had to put on their thinking caps (and open up their TNC manuals) to figure out how to move to the higher speeds.

As you stated, today it's simply a menu choice in MMTTY. I think it would be fun to ressurect the HSS and give it a shot with todays technology. It was exciting back then when the message would zip across your screen. It definately kept you on your toes.

QRX a sec... I found the logs and soapbox digest from 1999 on my old computer. I posted the lists below. BTW, there were no awards, just the satisfaction of participation and a list of results similar to 3830. There's some familiar callsigns in there.

73 de Bob - KØRC in MN

CALLSIGN CLASS QSO's PNT's DIST DX SCORE

N1MGO SO10LP 5 50 3 3 300

K9RRB/3 SO15HP 33 400 9 11 8000

K3MM SOABHP 150 1750 38 45 145250
GW5NF SOABHP 104 1305 19 44 82215
DL4RCK SOABHP 85 1035 18 40 60030
YT800FG SOABHP 96 1255 42 52710
AE5B SOABHP 80 820 30 18 39360
VE6RAJ SOABHP 80 845 16 28 37180
W7WW SOABHP 82 845 26 16 35490
K5DJ SOABHP 65 675 17 29 31050
PA0VHA SOABHP 46 565 15 26 23165
WA9ALS SOABHP 45 525 11 11 11550
WF1B SOABHP 27 330 13 16 9570

N8PR SOABLP 122 1435 29 32 87535
W1TY/2 SOABLP 100 1195 22 35 68115
YU7AM SOABLP 78 970 17 37 52380
KK5OQ SOABLP 86 980 19 26 44100
N6OJ SOABLP 90 965 27 18 43425
W2JGR SOABLP 79 880 21 23 38720
WA8RPK SOABLP 72 835 21 23 36740
N8YYS SOABLP 69 840 16 26 35280
DL7VOG SOABLP 63 705 12 31 34545
UT2IO SOABLP 65 675 8 43 34425
N1NVX SOABLP 60 705 13 31 31020
AH8LG SOABLP 58 870 22 9 26970
N1KWF SOABLP 50 590 17 24 24190
K1ZO SOABLP 50 520 26 13 20280
W5BBR SOABLP 52 525 28 10 19950
HA3LI SOABLP 47 555 10 25 19425
W1EM SOABLP 39 460 18 19 17020
KB4IJ SOABLP 34 375 18 11 10875
SM7BHM SOABLP 32 365 6 22 10220
VE2AXO SOABLP 27 305 16 13 8845
GW4JBQ SOABLP 26 275 4 19 6325
N6TQS SOABLP 29 295 12 8 5900
YL2KF SOABLP 24 245 0 17 4165
K7RFM SOABLP 21 195 13 5 3510
YU7AE* SOABLP 28 190 7 8 2850
KC3LV SOABLP 9 100 5 4 900
S57IIO* SOABLP 40 0 0 0 0

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

1999 HSS RTTY Soapbox:

VE2AXO - Spent less than one hour in S&P mode. At 100 wpm, it sounds like guerilla warfare, a couple of short burst and it's over. Most "exotic" call was AH6 on 10 mtrs. That's the band where my slow turning antenna rotor nearly costs me some Qs. Worked a few off the back of the beam but at times it was best to aim correctly with my pea shooter.

One question: Has anyone used a 250hz filter at this speed (75 bauds)? I know some people use a 250 hz filter at 45 baud and I am wondering if anybody tried their 250hz filter. I am no expert in this field but I suspect the 250 is too narrow for 75 bauds. Here I have a 751A and the narrow filter is 500hz. It's not a barn doors situation but it's wide enough to let all sort of things in. 73,s to all, Bob

DL4RCK - This is a fun contest. The conditions was pretty good during the whole time but the activity was low in europa. See you next weekend ! 73 de Walter

DL7VOG - Hi guys, Not that I would say, the bands were overcrowded, but it was fun to have a new experience. That was my first entry to any high speed contest. Not bad ... Okay, 63 QSOs do not even bring me into the "Hall of Fame", but anyway - I was not able to make more.

WF1B - Had my parents over for a big turkey dinner, then a providence bruins game (they won). We'll have to try to make sure everyone has advance notice for this contest next year... seems we all forgot about it until a few days before! 73, Ray

KC3LV - Hi all...after lotsa fooling around and reading Ray's suggestion about 3x (this old skull is real dense) I finally got the blamed thing to work. Only spent about one-half hour since I failed to tell the XYL I was going to try this 'test. It was a learning experience. Next time I'll know what to do. So the following should be a "check log" I guess.

W2JGR - Comment: This is a fun test. It gets the adrenalin flowing. Nice participation by DX. Thanks to all who worked me, especially G3NUG who answered my CQ for my only 10m contact. CU next year.

N6QTS - I had fun, but 75baud RTTY took some getting used to. I got at least one new country and since I'd gotten ND earlier in the morning I was pretty pleased with the day, on the whole.

The computer had a problem an hour before the contest started, so that KaGold would run but RTTY wouldn't copy anything from the KAM. Wierd, but eventually a reboot fixed it. And I found another way of hanging WF1B, this time key-down. Conditions here started pretty good, but noisy, and then declined. 73, doug

YU7YG - FUN and easy training for the BARTG next week. Thanks for contact's to all. Next contest in PSK31?

K5DJ - Didn't really have a lot of time for this years HSS test. Will try to do better next year.. 73, de Ron

K7RFM - d the two hours I had available. I'm happy. If I worked you, thanks for the contact. If you didn't, I will look for you next weekend in the BARTG WW RTTY Contest.

K3MM - Had bad QRN/Corona noise from a snow storm the whole time. Luckily it didnt affect the high bands as much and I stayed on the lower antennas to help things along. Not much on 40,
no Q's on 80, and no Asia at all. Still...better than last years score...it's all fun! Apparently there is a bug with K6STI's RITTY 3.05... at least at 75 baud. I went back to v2.38 and it ran fine.

WA9ALS - Well, this was fun! I was going to run WF1B with RITTY/K6STI, but WF1B wouldn't work with RITTY at 75 baud! (It works fine at 45 baud, and several others apparently had the same difficulty - ERROR 5 in RITTY at...) Apparently earlier versions didn't have this problem, BUT I DON'T HAVE AN EARLIER VERSION!!!

Sooo, I decided to experiment with WriteLog for the remainder of the contest. I didn't see a preprogrammed HSS contest choice, so I tried to set it up from scratch. I suppose that was a mistake! I logged some Q's, but the multipliers weren't right, and the reports wouldn't generate right!

Soooo, just for fun and because I'm compulsive, I printed the log and then entered them into WF1B. I then edited the times for each and, VOILA! - Here's my report! (Yeah, I know, BIG DEAL!) ;-) Still a fun day - Hamfest in Indy this morning, and this stuff this afternoon!

N6OJ - well its over; bands werent the best and the activity could have been better but for me being a newbie I had a good time..

AE5B - K3MM booming in on 40. Not a diddling peep from anyone else. RTTY/P38 combination worked perfect. No equipment or software lockups. Occasionally an operator lockup.

KK5OQ - Dusted off the cobwebs on the 811h and ran low power ,150w, into a single wire. Did not appear to be many playing this year. Enjoyed it as always.

KB4IJ - Lots of fun....kinda quiet here though (except for lots of noise).

WA8RPK - OK NICE LITTLE FOUR HRS OF WORK, ENJOYED IT, WAS A GOOD TUNE UP FOR BARTG. GETTING MORE SNOW, IM SICK OF IT MYSELF. WILL IF THE GOOD LORD WILLING AND THE RADIO STAYS OK ILL SEE U ALL IN THE  BARTG  CONTEST.

N1MGO - Had fun, but not much activity above 28.100

VE6RAJ - Took a while getting brain and hands in sync with 100 wpm. After about 20 Qs pretty much had it down pat. Light opening to EU from here. Worked one Italian station, which is a hallmark. Haven't worked any in almost a year... since the bands started to "improve".

K1ZO - That was fun! Took me longer to prepare than the contest lasted. Finally got the Timewave to talk at 75 baud...thanks for the help! Just before the 'test I downloaded Version 4 but used 2.5i. Hey Ray, the check will be in the mail tomorrow! What an improvemment. 73 Doug

W1TY/2 - Well, someone tried to follow me around, just to QRM me! It's OK though, I know who it is. My business travels take me to his area a few times a year. Seems like it's time for a 'chat' with him.

YU7AE - Definitive WF1B RTTY and Bitty not work on 75 Baud. I using demo version of BTL 1.54 and paper+pencil log ( like in Commodore 64 era ). Not bad. Good propagations and 75 Bauds is too speedy for my fingers hi. Nice contest and I hope to see all next HSS with WF1b and Bitty software. (Ray and Brian please HELP!!!) TU for all 73's de YU7AE op. Kare

N8YYS - Well, not a bad little contest. Sort of fun trying to keep an eye on the snow fall so I would know if to cancel the bowling league tonight:-) We did, so I will be here to accumulate the summary, instead of pushing it until tomorrow. Thanks to those that took the time to dig my "puny" signal out of the mush. I was sitting on 20 mtrs for an hour calling CQ, and then went out to check the snow depth, and noticed that I had melted the snow off the 20 mtr sections of the TH7DX. No, really, the whole antenna was coated with snow when I started, and next time I looked, just the 20 mtr portions of the elements had no snow. It was still piled on the other elements, and even the parts of the driven elements outside the 20 mtr traps. First time I have ever seen this! I guess we'll see you next weekend in the BARTG.

W1EM - Had trouble with the RTTY/RITTY combo. It crashed at least a dozen times!

N8PR - Did any one else try 40 M?? I heard no one in US or DX part of the band.
Was Fun for the first hour and 1/2. After that it really slowed down! 73 to all Pete

AH8LG - thank you for the contact today.. the bands faded out here about 2100hr so didn't do to well hi. the new P38 with WF1B 4.3 sure work good for me at the 74 baud rate....not one problem

W7WHY - [[Date. Sunday, March 14, 1999. 18:00 - 22:00 UTC, no rest periods.]]  Well, I guess that leaves me out. GOT to have that rest period!!! Tom