[RTTY] ST0R RTTY Statistics

[Don AA5AU]

I agree with Doug that the ST0R operation was definitely RTTY-friendly.  Toward the end they showed up on 12 and 40 meter RTTY (they did operate 12M RTTY early for Europe).  The operation on 12 was very slow because signals were very weak for the most part and the USA had to wait several hours until the path came to us.  Many parts of the USA never did hear them on 12 RTTY.  When the path did come in, down here in the southeast anyway, their signal peaked at S-8 the second evening.  They were working 12 meter RTTY to the USA at 3 AM their local time!  I was amazed but someone in our local radio club said the propagation charts he was using actually did show an opening at that time.  I've never used propagation charts much.  Apparently they were correct this time.
 
The 40 meter RTTY effort was quite chaotic as deliberate QRM slowed the operation down quite a bit but they trudged on both nights and at times started sending their messages twice in succession.  I was very surprised they operated 40 RTTY the last two nights when they could have just as well made more contacts on CW or SSB.  I was expecting them to spend more time on 10 meter RTTY but I'm happy with what I got.  From what I see on the website, only two USA stations made 10 meter RTTY contacts.  I did work them on 10 meter CW which also surprised me because it was after midnight their local time when I made that contact.  So conditions are coming back on 10 meters and I'm very much looking forward to The 10-Meter RTTY Contest in December.
 
73, Don AA5AU
 
 

From: Doug Hall <k4dsp.doug at gmail.com>
>To: rtty at contesting.com
>Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2011 1:21 PM
>Subject: Re: [RTTY] ST0R RTTY Statistics
>
>On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 11:02 AM, Joe Subich, W4TV <lists at subich.com> wrote:
>
>> While this is encouraging, it is still well short of approximately
>> 25% of QSOs that I would expect for an expedition that treated RTTY
>> as an equal to CW and Phone modes.
>
>You have probably spent more time on the other end of a DX pileup than
>I have, and I've never operated from a location like ST0R. But in my
>limited experience operating from DX locations I have never been able
>to achieve anywhere near the RTTY QSO rates that I could on CW or SSB,
>and RTTY is the least work of all three modes, being largely point and
>click. And this wasn't for lack of stations to work, either. So to me
>the numbers from ST0R look very realistic and RTTY-friendly, and
>certainly show much more than "lip service."
>
>Out of curiosity what figures or statistics did you use to arrive at
>your 25% expectation?
>
>Doug K4DSP
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