[RTTY] looking for the person that helped WB5AAA

[Richard Ferch]

Charles KK5OQ wrote:

> I have noticed a lot of station's calling off freq for some time now.
> I think it must be those AFSK USB stations.

It certainly has nothing to do with USB vs. LSB. If someone was going to be
off-frequency for this reason, they would be off by 2-4 kHz, which I am
quite sure is far outside the range of errors you have been observing. If
someone is off by only a few tens or even a couple of hundred Hz, that has
nothing to do with the sideband they happen to be using.

It may have to do with FSK vs. AFSK, but in fact I am quite sure that the
people who are most likely to come back to you off-frequency are either
using FSK or they are using AFSK with NET turned off.

In AFSK with NET on, their transmit and receive frequencies will be
identical. NET off allows the two to get out of synch, but S&Ping stations
should leave NET on - only the CQing station should have NET off.

In FSK, though, if someone is using software to decode (as most people are
these days), and if they either click in the waterfall or use AFC to tune in
a received signal, they will almost certainly be transmitting on a different
frequency than they were receiving on.

To use FSK properly, you have to understand whether, when and how to use AFC
and software (click in waterfall) tuning, because while either of these
tunes your receive decoder, it has no impact on an FSK (or "keyed AFSK")
transmitter.

73,
Rich VE3KI