[RTTY] ARRL RTTY

[Jack West]

Rich,

You must be one hell of a good operator! I wish I was younger.
73 de
Jack / W7LD / "Lucky Dog"

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Ferch" <ve3iay at storm.ca>
To: <rtty at contesting.com>
Cc: <keepwalking188 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 11:47 AM
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
> _______________________________________________
> RTTY mailing list
> RTTY at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty