[RTTY] RTTY Now trashy signals

[Mark]

Several years ago the cw guys went through this same thing with key clicks. As you may recall the popular ft1000 was a particular offender.  

So what happened

A hardware fix was identified and most operators made the fix to their rigs as specified by w8ji or Inrad.  

QST starting doing spectral plots of the cw keying waveform in their equipment reviews.  

Finally manufacturers starting designing radios to have cleaner keying spectra. 

The rtty issue is more involved since it is not strictly a hardware issue but can also depend on the software used to generate afsk (and how well the radio is adjusted). Still this is an example of how this can be made better.

Mark. N2QT

On Jan 9, 2013, at 12:03 PM, "aflowers at frontiernet.net" <aflowers at frontiernet.net> wrote:

>> Don't underestimate the importance of the words "in the sense that"!
> 
> Fair enough, Al!  I've had my coffee now...
>  
> Here's a very simple way that might get at the crux of the issue.  Let's say that signal number #3 was your signal (yes, this was recorded off the air this weekend, and no, I'm not going to identify him or her publicly):   
>  
> http://www.frontiernet.net/~aflowers/rtty_examples/
>  
> Would knowing that was was being heard up and down the East (and probably West) coast bother your conscience enough to look for ways to change something?  Does anyone want to say 'no'?  
>  
> We all (well, most of the big contesters) managed to modify our early model MPs to reduce the nasty CW  key clicks without some objective standard from on high.  The problem was identified and people came up with solutions pretty quickly.  Hams have historically been able to make many changes for the better without big brother drawing a line in the sand.
>  
> Andy K0SM/2
>  
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Al Kozakiewicz <akozak at hourglass.com>
> To: "aflowers at frontiernet.net" <aflowers at frontiernet.net>; "rtty at contesting..com" <rtty at contesting.com> 
> Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 11:08 AM
> Subject: RE: [RTTY] RTTY Now trashy signals
> 
> Don't underestimate the importance of the words "in the sense that"!
> 
> While we are all ultimately responsible for operating to a set of acceptable standards, the FSK operator has no choice to make in the matter short of ceasing operation if their transmitter is performing poorly*.  The AFSK o