[RTTY] Hyphens ( was Contesting too long?)

[john at kk9a.com]

As a RTTY newcomer, I really appreciate your USOS explanation.  Only a small 
percentage of the stations that I have worked in RTTY contesting used a 
hyphen and I did not know the logic behind it.  I plan to continue using 
space between elements after reading this thread.  If people are really 
concerned about sending time, there are probably much better ways to reduce 
it such as not sending the callsign of the station you are working.


John KK9A / P40A


To: rtty at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RTTY] Hyphens ( was Contesting too long?)
From: Bill Turner <dezrat1242 at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:34:42 -0700
List-post: <rtty at contesting.com">mailto:rtty at contesting.com>

The hyphen is a mixed bag. Back in the early days of RTTY contesting,
someone figured out that putting hyphens between the elements of an
exchange speeded up the transmission. You can try it yourself: send
599-03-03 vs 599 03 03 and you'll see the hyphened version goes faster.
Why? Because of a thing called Un Shift On Space, or USOS. Without going
into mind-numbing detail, USOS re-synchronizes the transmitter and
receiver when their FIGS shift gets out of sync because of a missing
FIGS character caused by QRM, QRN, fading or whatever. With USOS, every
time the transmitter sends a space character, both the transmitter and
receiver reset themselves back to LTRS case before sending the next
character. Putting hyphens between the elements defeats USOS because
there is no space. This is why you see things like TOOAWTAWT from our JA
friends for example. What they are actually sending is 599-25-25 (25
being their CQ zone).  What has ahppened is the FIGS character got lost
before the 599 and your receiver remains in LTRS shift for the entire
transmission and therefore prints only letters instead of numbers.

If he were to send 599 25 25 instead, you would print TOO 25 25 because
USOS restored the correct shift at your end. It's true that eliminating
hyphens does take longer to transmit, but the number of requests for
repeats goes down significantly. Experienced ops recognize TOOAWT and
will type in the exchange manually, but the possibility for mistakes is
always there.

Like I said it's a mixed bag but my expreieince over many, many contests
is the hyphen wastes more time than it saves. Others will disagree, but
over the years I have observed a gradual shift away from hyphens. Usage
used to be near 100% and now it's  down to only a few percent.
Apparently others have reached the same conclusion as I have. The debate
will probably continue because there is just no way to prove it once and
for all. You will have to draw your own conclusions from your own
experience.

Thanks for bearing with me on this. This is the kind of thing your mind
starts thinking about in the wee hours of the morning on 40 meters when
you are calling CQ over and over and over with no takers. :-)

73, Bill W6WRT