[RTTY] Digital DXCC or ARRL Board of Directors, respectfully: have my strong disagreement

[Al Kozakiewicz]

>And if the RTTY DXCC award has already accepted "all digital modes...for
>more the 25 years"
>Why is there an obviously overwhelming reason to fix it now.??

To make the name of the award match what the award is for?  Perhaps it was long past time to stop calling a tail a leg?

>Again, If the intention was at all to foster use of the the new modes,
>wouldn't a "Digital" DXCC Award give all of us something else to chase.
>I still have space on my wall, right next to my RTTY DXCC.

The intention, as noted by ARRL board members, was to make the name of the award match the criteria long established for the award. 

To be deliberately provacative, there is zero degree of difference in skill required to operate any of the asynchronous serial modes.  It's not as if RTTY is like CW, while PSK is like phone in terms of the skills required.  Characters get entered on my keyboard then spill out on your screen, and vice versa.  If you use FSK, the radio modulation setup is brainless. Not so with the analog modulated modes or AFSK. One could make an argument that it is somewhat easier to attain DXCC with RTTY as you can run legal limit power and the character rate is faster.

I understand and respect the argument (while probably not agreeing) that various digital modes deserve their own award category.  But getting worked up over the changing the name of an existing award to better describe what it's for seems pointless.

Al
AB2ZY