[RTTY] FW: DXP-38- keep it or sell it?

Tue Jul 27 11:00:31 PDT 2010

For abt 4 months I ran 2 computers each with 2 rtty modems: 1 PC with
ST-8000 and RITTY; 1 PC with MMTTY and DXB38.

I was trying to become filthy rich at the time so I didn't get on the air
much but in rtty contests would poke around while using these 2 computers
(my first attempt at SO2R which was an embarrassment).

At the time, in contest conditions (which was my main emphasis at that
time), I would rank the ST-8000 and MMTTY about equal. I started playing
with the various filter modes in mmtty during various ion condx and it was
equal to the best overall. I was very surprised how well the ST-8000 fared
but I had sent it to HAL for calibration, new ROMs, etc. Plus, it has a new
knob.

RITTY was close to the top tier and was better at AFC that MMTTY but I was
stunned it was not quite as good. Of course, these were not scientific tests
but it seemed to be slightly worse than my fond memories of it.

The DXB38 was in last place. As Kok said, it wasn't bad but it wasn't great.
In the end, I decided the desk space required for any of the external
devices wasn't worth the performance and I got everything but MMTTY off the
machines. I returned to SO1R and have been happy ever since.

Personally, I would sell it. The tuning indicator issue enough is a sell
recommendation.

73
Neal Campbell
Abroham Neal Software
www.abrohamnealsoftware.com
(540) 645 5394 NEW PHONE NUMBER

Amateur Radio: K3NC
Blog: http://www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/blog/
DXBase bug reports: email to cases at dxbase.fogbugz.com
Abroham Neal forums: http:/www.abrohamnealsoftware.com/community/

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 1:26 PM, Rudy Bakalov <r_bakalov at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Gary,
>
> Thank you very much for sharing your experience. This is exactly the kind
> of anecdotal evidence that I was seeking. I get a very good signal into EU
> from my VE3 QTH and the ability to copy from a pile up is important to me.
> Also, both US and EU stations are very loud at the same time and I am
> looking for a good solution to handle the heavy QRM created by these
> stations.
>
> Rudy N2WQ
> --- On Tue, 7/27/10, Gary E. Jones <garyejones at cmaaccess.com> wrote:
>
> From: Gary E. Jones <garyejones at cmaaccess.com>
> Subject: [RTTY] FW:  DXP-38- keep it or sell it?
> To: rtty at contesting.com
> Date: Tuesday, July 27, 2010, 9:10 AM
>
> I have an observation, but not sure if it is relevant or not.
>
> I have done 4 or 5 DXpeditions which were heavily or primarily done to
> activate RTTY from rare or semi-rare locations where RTTY was most rare. I
> have done them with MMTTY and I have done them with different versions of
> HAL hardware RTTY demodulators. I have done them with both capabilities
> side
> by side. One conclusion that was very easy to make was that at least with
> MMTTY versions 4 or 5 years ago, there was a huge difference / advantage of
> the HAL 4200 and HAL DXP-38s and MMTTY and the RTTY hardware was far
> superior in the applications I was using. Now, that is an application where
> there are hundreds of people all calling me simultaneously spread over 5-8
> KHz and the hardware has to try to quickly dig out one signal from the
> hundreds and get it clearly decoded on the screen and in this situation,
> the
> hardware solution dug out the signals far better than MMTTY. There was no
> comparison between the two. The hardware with RTTY DSP built in could dig
> out signals that were nothing but incomprehendable with MMTTY.
>
> Now that said, things may have changed but the hardware was so much better
> than the software / radio combination that I simply don’t use MMTTY
> anymore.
>
>
> Now, the situation is very different from "this end or in contests. Even in
> contest operation here stateside, or as the "caller" in a DXpedition pile
> up, we rarely find ourselves hearing more than one or two stations calling
> us simultaneously or in close proximity, and not hundreds. As a caller in a
> DXpedition, we are generally hearing only one station (the DX station) plus
> the cops and intentional QRMers. In that situation, we have the greater
> power of todays modern transceivers and their sophisticated DSP
> capabilities
> and some more time to fool with controls, and in this situation, maybe much
> more common, there might be parity between the approaches.
>
> However, there was no parity at all between the two approaches "from the
> other side"
>
> The only other observations is that if you get a look at AA5AUs station,
> you
> will see a pair of DXP-38s sitting on top of the rigs....
>
> If you decide to sell your DXP-38s, I will buy one or both of them to go
> with my own...    (PS, for 35 bucks, I purchased a EDGEPORT USB to 4 serial
> port professional ITS type serial port emulator on ebay (you can buy 8 and
> 16 serial ports also) and it interfaces easily to any USB port only
> computer. Piece of cake)
>
>        73
>
>                    Gary        W5FI
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: rtty-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On
> Behalf Of Rudy Bakalov
> Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 4:45 AM
> To: F.R. Ashley
> Cc: rtty at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [RTTY] DXP-38- keep it or sell it?
>
> Buddy,
>
> You are bringing up a good point. Clover and other modes are certainly a
> good reason to keep them...except that I am strictly a contester and won't
> use them for anything but RTTY:-)
> I brought the pair to K1TTT for this year's WPX and could not see any
> advantage vs. MMTTY, although we didn't go through the trouble of feeding
> them with the audio from the Timewave DSP-599zx. For me, it boils down to
> performance- does it copy any better than MMTTY or not.
>
> Rudy N2WQ
> --- On Mon, 7/26/10, F.R. Ashley <gdadx2 at clearwire.net> wrote:
>
> From: F.R. Ashley <gdadx2 at clearwire.net>
> Subject: Re: [RTTY] DXP-38- keep it or sell it?
> To: "Rudy Bakalov" <r_bakalov at yahoo.com>
> Date: Monday, July 26, 2010, 9:51 PM
>
> I vote to keep them.  I still have my DXP38 and use it quite often for
> Clover and also Amtor and Pactor ARQ modes.   I guess it all boils down to
> how much you use them vs. the cost of the USB to serial cable.   I have 2
> computers, one is a newer laptop that does not have serial ports, so I run
> the  DXP38 off the older computer.
> I have not made an recent HAL vs.soundcard program comparisons, socannot
> help you there.   I'd keep them just in case you get the bug to run ARQ
> modes.. there are still some of us who do.   We usually get on Clover on
> Sundays on 14065.50 LSB, the old "calling freq" for Clover.
>
> 73 Buddy WB4M
>
> (now I know where to find one in case mine blows up, hi)
>
>
> I have a pair of DXP-38 modems that I got a couple of years ago, but never
> bothered integrating into my station. I no longer have a computer with
> serial ports and was wondering if the DXP-38 was worth the USB to serial
> cables. I know it's juts a few bucks, but sometimes less is more, i.e. keep
> it simple.
> So, compared to MMTTY, how well does the HAL play? My thinking was to use
> it
> in diversity reception, fronted by a Timewave DSP-599zx in RTTY tone pair
> regeneration mode or just the data mode filter. This is where the
> complexity
> comes into play.
> So, keep them pair or sell them? If keep them, shall I bother with the DSP
> front-end or just feed them with the regular audio from my Icom 756P3s?
> Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
> Rudy N2WQ
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