[RTTY] RTTY in ARRL Field Day

[Eric - VE3GSI]

RTTY Gang,

I tried RTTY in the ARRL Field Day contest for the first time this year as a
1D, so I am unable to comment on any previous years. Since I am recovering
from a stay in the 'body shop' my attempt was sort of casual with about 450
CW Qs and about 75 RTTY Qs.

My RTTY activity was limited to Sunday morning only, mostly on 20 meters.
Any runs I had stirred up maybe 5 stations at the most and those runs were
far and few between. S&P was almost like pulling teeth at the best of times
compared to the CW side of the contest. Exchanges from many stations were
long and drawn out. One exchange was sort of like, 'I COPY YOUR 1D ON -
PLEASE COPY MY XX SS - THANKS etc.....' or my tongue-in-cheek favourite,
VE3GSI VE3GSI VE3GSI DE XNXX UR [optional propagation fade starts here]
etc....

It was also interesting that some stations I called would simply disappear!
What was that about? It also seemed to me a few stations would not answer my
call unless their call was included. There were also a handful of stations
that answered my CQ and kept me in limbo for a quite some time until they
sent their exchange, perhaps these were paper loggers? And I had one station
that obviously hand-typed the exchange at a rather slow rate.

I did not try PSK, but I did hear one comment from an Op that some PSK
stations were heavy into long macro driven exchanges with details about
wife, kids and dog, c/w with contact number and time. It could be he was
pulling my leg, I hope?

The above are observations not complaints, as I know we all have to start
somewhere. As for those setting up future FD club event stations, I would
suggest concentrate on the PHONE/CW side of the contest first and if there
are spare resources left over, add at least one digi station.

With luck the FD event may have given us a few new newbie's for the RTTY
contest radiosports. I hope so!

de Eric - VE3GSI



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Junior
> Sent: June-29-09 4:38 PM
> To: w0yk at msn.com; 'RTTY Reflector'
> Subject: Re: [RTTY] RTTY in ARRL Field Day
> 
> I ran 1E in FD to test the hurricane generator out for about 10 hours.
> I suspect the total would be higher if I played longer.
> 147 Rtty contacts
> 97 Psk contacts
> Appears rtty participation is improving. Highest ever in the past was
> around
> 90.
> Approximately 15 psk contacts did not get in the log due to the ops
> sending
> their exchange when answering the CQ and not confirming my exchange
> after
> repeated attempts. I only had about seven who did that in the RU with
> over
> 1700 contacts.
> 
> TZ6 and 8Q7 came up split making it interesting to who was calling who
> in
> rtty. I got abused by a couple of DX stations when I came up on the tz6
> run
> freq who I could not hear at the time. Can't say I blame them. The UKDX
> contest was also on using 75baud so got a little confusing at one point
> in
> the test when EU opened up a few times. Fun as always even under the
> tough
> conditions.
> 73
> Charles/kk5oq
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Muns
> Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 4:55 PM
> To: 'RTTY Reflector'
> Subject: [RTTY] RTTY in ARRL Field Day
> 
> How much RTTY activity is there in the ARRL Field Day?  Any particular
> operating frequencies or characteristics that are different than
> contests?
> 
> Thanks,
> Ed - W0YK