[RTTY] Digital Operators Band Plan Committee - Current thoughts and status

[Michael Adams]

Terry AB5K wrote:

> e.      We also need a 5 minute u-tube video demonstrating Winlink showing
> that it takes 5 minutes of actual air time to transmit a simple one line
> message.

I would be very careful going there.

That kind of phenomenon is probably due to either someone having a misconfigured station, using a deprecated mode (e.g. Pactor 1), and/or expecting miracles in the face of uncooperative propagation.

It would be very easy to rebut such a video by showing just how (comparatively) bloody fast Pactor 4 is, or to attempt to mischaracterize the QRM potential of RTTY by highlighting the transmissions from a poorly-configured station pushing a nasty AFSK signal.

(Disclosure: I like RTTY.  I also am a Winlink user...although most of my use is in MARS, where there are frequencies dedicated to Winlink use, or on amateur 2 meters due to a bumper crop of VHF nodes in my area; I mostly don't use amateur Winlink on HF because I do listen before I attempt a connection....)

Personally, I think effort would be better expended by promoting coordination among users of the automated subbands, and by a heckuva lot of re-education as to the need to listen before transmitting.    RMS Express, a Winlink client, will try to warn users about a frequency being busy....but it's easy to click through that warning, and/or to simply not wait long enough to adequately check if a frequency is in use.     

Of course, I've also heard plenty of RTTY, CW, and phone operators who do a bang-up job of forgetting to listen before keying up, without any software to ignore.

-- 
Michael / N1EN