[RTTY] Software for RTTY contesting?

[Keith Maton]

I've been a RTTY operator on and off for many years, in the 1980s I used a Creed 444 teleprinter, progressed onto an Acorn Atom computer and I'm now using fldigi on an iMac.  Fldigi works very well, I've put together a good set of contest macros and I've used it with success over the last couple of years but I now feel I've outgrown it.

 

My requirements are (I hope) quite straightforward.  I'd like to be able to operate the majority of RTTY contests (it would be nice to be able to do PSK31/63 as well), including ones such as BARTG HF RTTY where part of the exchange is the current time.  I'd like a real time display of statistics showing mults worked, current score etc and I'd like DXCluster integration so that I can find multipliers and hopefully QSY direct to them, work them and switch back to my run frequency afterwards.  At the moment I'm operating almost exclusively by running and that's clearly detrimental to my final score.


My computer is an iMac but I will set up a dedicated XP or Windows 7 virtual machine just for this.  My radio is a Kenwood TS-590 and I have just a single USB cable between the rig and the computer.  Everything goes down that USB cable, both CAT and the built in sound card on the 590.


So I'm open to suggestions as to what to use and I'd appreciate any input that anyone can offer.


Thanks,


73 Keith, G6NHU