[RTTY] RTTY reversebeacon spotting network wow!

[Richard Ferch]

In addition to the S&P stations being spotted, there were also some 
running stations who did not leave spaces on the end of their CQ 
messages so that their call signs showed up multiple times with extra 
letters appended, e.g. spots for VE3KI, VE3KIA, VE3KID, VE3KIF, VE3KIK, 
... all on the same frequency (made-up example!).

The solution I found to both of these problems was to use filtering at 
the cluster. The first day my filter was just (mode = rtty), and I saw 
both of these problems often. The second day I changed to (mode = rtty 
and (skimvalid or not skimmer)), and that eliminated 98% of both kinds 
of problem. If the cluster you are using does not support the 
"skimvalid" filter, you can use (mode = rtty and ((skimmer and unique > 
2) or not skimmer)) instead.

This doesn't always work. While running very near the end of the 
contest, I was called by a VE4. He was instantly spotted on my frequency 
by 5 skimmers(!), and immediately after that I was called by two 
European big guns, both dupes for me, both obviously hoping for the MB 
mult based on the bad skimmer spots. I can't see anything in our QSO 
that would have caused this. Our QSO was no different from my others, 
and other people calling me did not get spotted on my frequency, nor was 
the VE4 station usually spotted while S&Ping any more often than I was 
(occasionally only, in other words, and usually only spotted by one 
skimmer when it happened). Gremlins??

73,
Rich VE3KI


N3QE wrote:

> In the contest itself, I would get spotted within seconds of starting to
> CQ. There were a couple of CQ'ing stations that had something about their
> CQ'ing style that cause S&P callsigns to get spotted on their frequency,
> and I don't think everyone got this pattern because sometimes folks would
> try to call me when I was S&P. Hint: if 40 stations are all spotted on the
> exact same frequency, 39 of them are probably not what's there!