[RTTY] Sound Cards and Software

[Bill Gaines AD8P]

I am somewhat new at digital RTTY operating. I seem to long for the oil smelling model 28 and 32 I used to have. However I have voluntarily come to the 21st century and have some questions about what to use.

Currently I use an Orion transceiver in FSK mode, Micro Keyer interface, MMTTY for general use and N1MM with MMTTY imbedded for contesting. When tuning I always use the elliptical crosses simply because that is how I learned to do it 40 years ago. However, on and around those crosses I see lots of what I would call noise. Interference of some sort. The elliptical crosses are always much brighter and very easy to see unless the station is pretty weak. Would other software or a different sound card make receiving a weak station better? I am not asking for your opinions on what would operate easier etc because by now teaching this old dog a new trick will be pretty darn hard to do. Just simply, will a better/different sound card or software make me able to hear the weaker ones better?

TIA everyone,

Bill AD8P