[RTTY] My first RTTY contest

[Ian White]

Welcome to the madhouse, Michael!

Thanks for the 15m contact with GM3W - the first of many, I hope.

>
>I'm not exactly sure what it was but I've come to love the sound of the
didles
>and the cadence of an efficient exchange.  I like the visual challenge
of
>tuning the X-Y scope in MMTTY and pulling out call signs from the
phantom
>characters that populate a weak exchange.  Plus the catch-in-the-breath
>moment after you send you call..will the runner come back to someone
>else or will he come back to me (and have my call right)?

Yup, this guy has Got It!

Just one passing comment: instead of the MMTTY X-Y scope, could I
recommend you try the spectrum display? When tuning, all you have to do
is drop the two tones onto  the two 'goalposts' and you will know for
certain that you're exactly on-frequency. The spectrum display also
gives you much better tactical information about QRM from intruding
tones and other people's keying sidebands.

The X-Y scope can be deactivated and frankly I don't think you'll miss
it.


73 from Ian GM3SEK


>-----Original Message-----
>From: RTTY [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Michael
>Rapp
>Sent: 02 October 2013 20:51
>To: rtty at contesting.com
>Subject: [RTTY] My first RTTY contest
>
>Hi all,
>
>Having just finished up my first quasi-real contest effort, I felt like
reporting
>my reflections on it.
>
>That was fun!
>
>I'm a relatively new licensee (May of 2012) and have been spending my
time
>primarily sampling all the various activities in ham radio.  I tried a
few SSB
>contests and while I enjoyed them somewhat, the constant yelling into
the
>mic really wasn't working for me.
>
>I stumbled into RTTY earlier this year and did some practice contacts
during
>the VOLTA contest back in May, but life intervened and I had to take a
break
>from ham radio over the summer and am just now getting back into it.
>
>I approached the CW WW RTTY contest solely as an opportunity to
increase
>my DX count; however, after only tuning the bands for a short time, I
found
>myself really enjoying the contest!
>
>I'm not exactly sure what it was but I've come to love the sound of the
didles
>and the cadence of an efficient exchange.  I like the visual challenge
of
>tuning the X-Y scope in MMTTY and pulling out call signs from the
phantom
>characters that populate a weak exchange.  Plus the catch-in-the-breath
>moment after you send you call..will the runner come back to someone
>else or will he come back to me (and have my call right)?
> And I suppose not having to constantly speak into a mic helped, too.
>
>I operated far longer than I ever intended and in fact lost track of
time at
>one point, which I suppose is a fairly good indicator that I was having
fun.
>
>I ever got up the courage to run a bit during the last two hours of the
>contest to get some practice doing that.
>
>I honestly can't wait for the next RTTY contest and it looks like I
don't have
>long to wait..the NCJ NA RTTY Sprint is coming up shortly.  Looks like
my
>next major step is to get more familiar with N1MM.  (And get some 80
>meters capability, which I don't have at the moment.)
>
>--
>/*/-=[Michael / KT5MR]-=/*/
>_______________________________________________
>RTTY mailing list
>RTTY at contesting.com
>http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty