[RTTY] ARRL RTTY

[Jeff Blaine AC0C]

Thanks Richard for the details.  A real education you've passed over here... 
Really appreciate it.

The mechanics of a machine decode vs. a traditional ear decode are 
fundamentally different and that's what I was really trying to get at. 
You've done a great job stepping through it here.  Thanks for the time...

73/jeff/ac0c


--------------------------------------------------
From: "Richard Ferch" <ve3iay at storm.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 1:47 PM
To: <rtty at contesting.com>
Cc: <keepwalking188 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [RTTY] ARRL RTTY

> Jeff AC0C wrote:
>
>> Can you explain to the uninitiated how a dual RX configuration would 
>> provide
>> an advantage?
>
> I'll be bold enough to add to what Ed said on this:
>
> I use a radio with two receivers (a K3), but only a single antenna (a
> multi-band vertical), and have found several advantages over a single
> receiver, at least in RTTY.  I don't have to worry all that much about
> marginal print, because if I can't copy someone, they can't usually copy
> me either unless their antenna happens to be just as inefficient as
> mine, so I was pretty much in the situation that Ed described.
>
> In no particular order:
>
> 1. With the two receivers on different bands, you can populate the band
> map on the second band while the radio is receiving on the first band.
> Even when you are running you spend more than half the time in RX;
> assuming you can read faster than RTTY can send, there is plenty of time
> to read and click on signals in the second window while still keeping
> track of the first window. You can also click on a previously-received
> call sign in the second window while you are transmitting from the first
> one, i.e. mouse-clicking in the second (receive-only) window does not
> have to take any useful time away from the first window. When you
> eventually QSY the transmitter to the second band, you can pick off the
> stations you stored in the band map one after the other without taking
> time to tune them in and wait to see if each one is a dupe or a new
> station. Until you exhaust your list, this can give you as high an S&P
> rate as if you were using the cluster, even though you do not actually
> have a cluster connection.
>
> 2. With the two receivers on the same band, you can do the same thing on
> a single band.
>
> 3. If your radio and software support transmitting from both VFOs, you
> can S&P on different parts of the band with the two VFOs and work
> stations as soon as you find them on either VFO. You can keep on tuning
> on the other VFO while you are receiving the exchange on the first one.
> Transmitting from the second VFO does slow down your S&Ping on the first
> one (unlike SO2R you have to wait while you are transmitting), and the
> timing does not always work out between the two VFOs so that you have to
> wait through an extra QSO on one VFO because you were working someone on
> the other one, but it's still a lot better use of your time.
>
> 4. If you are sitting in a pileup on a rare multiplier, you can keep
> right on either spotting stations to the bandmap or out-and-out S&Ping
> from the other VFO elsewhere on the band. You might have to forego
> calling into the pileup a few times while you work on the other VFO, but
> on the other hand the time spent in the pileup is not lost.
>
> 5. You can run and S&P simultaneously on the same band. When you find
> someone to work on the S&P radio, you take time out from CQing for just
> long enough to work the S&P contact, then go back to CQing. You can't
> interleave contacts the way you could with two radios on two bands,
> because you can't receive while you are transmitting, but on the other
> hand you can do this using only one antenna or on only one band, which
> you can't do with SO2R.
>
> 6. If you are a little pistol who always has to take several tries to
> get through to the other station, you can sometimes call two stations at
> once, alternating between VFOs. The timing has to be right for this -
> when one station comes back to someone else, then if the timing is right
> you can call the other one, and when he answers someone else, you go
> back to the first one and wait for his QSO to finish, etc. I sometimes
> even found myself watching two guys CQ in my face at the same time, but
> at least I could write off the stations who couldn't hear me twice as
> fast as I would have with one VFO!
>
> The downside: during the times I was doing this I didn't have time to
> surf the Net, read my e-mail, etc.
>
> Thanks for the contacts in the Roundup.
>
> 73,
> Rich VE3KI
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