[RTTY] [Gmc] Fwd: RE: ARRL W1AW Bulletin Operations

[Kok Chen]

On Jun 5, 2014, at 8:53 AM, W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote:

> The ARRL being the largest CLUB in the world can't find operators to man their station.  Seems odd to me.

They do ask for assistance from their members, Mike.

>From time to time, I have been asked by the (paid) W1AW operator to help monitor his signals for purity (probably after someone else complains) since I have the right equipment to do it.

They have a nightmare setup, trying to distribute audio over multiple transceivers.  Look behind the flashy vernier of their audio control panel that they show the tourists and you find all sorts of ground noise potential.  Why in this day and age they don't use fiber optics like TOSlink to distribute their audio is beyond me.  A handful of chips and a soldering iron, and lots of their problems go away, even when you take into account that they are using AFSK (most of us know how to put out a clean AFSK signal).

On any given day, you will find some dirty W1AW signals on one band or the other.

If they convert to using simple inexpensive SDR as exciters instead of those Icom boatanchors, they can also distribute clean IQ data using Ethernet.

When asked, I usually try to help, but I do not go watch their daily transmissions otherwise (certainly not after they dropped SITOR/Amtor FEC -- W1AW used to be good for testing demodulators and decoders for that mode; it was also the most reliable transmission from W1AW).

73
Chen, W7AY