[RTTY] New

[Al Kozakiewicz]

In a sense it did take forever; nearly twice as long at any rate,

Sending just your callsign twice (N7ZYS N7ZYS) takes 17 characters.  Adding the /KL7 takes 31:

BAUDOT is a 5 bit code, which translates into 32 possible combinations.  Not enough for all the letters, numbers and a few symbols.  As a result, the code requires a letters shift character to tell the decoder that the characters following are to be decoded as letters and a figures shift to signify that the characters following are to be decoded as numbers or figures. Some common characters (like space and CR) are in both the letters and figs table.  So, to send N7ZYS/KL7 once requires the following sequence:

{LTRS}N{FIGS}7{LTRS}ZYS{FIGS}/{LTRS}KL{FIGS}7{SP}

You can see that adding the /KL7 adds 7 or 8 characters to your callsign, depending on whether a letter follows or not. E.g. /KL7 599 takes 7, while /KL7 AK takes 8 since you need to shift back to letters before sending 'AK'.

I don't believe signing /portable is required by law if you are licensed in the USA.  If you only run S&P, adding the extra suffix probably doesn't buy you much.  Adding it when running might attract interest in certain contests.  Obviously you need to use the same callsign throughout the contest. so you need to choose wisely.

Al
AB2ZY

________________________________________
From: rtty-bounces at contesting.com [rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Neilensign [neilensign at yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2012 4:22 PM
To: Rtty
Subject: [RTTY] New

Hello all,

This past contest was my first. I posted a dismal 107 contacts. I'll devote more time next time.
I have a couple of questions....
My call is N7ZYS and I used N7ZYS/KL7. Seemed like it took forever to send my call 2 times. Since I'm in Alaska, what would be appropriate?
Also, I downloaded the N1MM macros for the contest. I trusted they were ok to use the way they are. Is this ok to do?
I'm learning a lot about what and what not to do on here. Thanks,

Neil
N7ZYS

Sent from Neil's iPhone

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