[RTTY] FEC

[Tim Shoppa]

The FEC subject drift in the GRITTY thread got me thinking about why I do
RTTY contesting.

I think it's unlikely I'd ever think of contesting using an FEC mode. It
would completely remove the engagement of RTTY contesting that I find so
addictive.

I find RTTY contesting very engaging, using ears to hear the deedles and
crashes and QRM while correlating with multiple decoder windows and piecing
together callsigns between my couple years of RTTY contesting experience
and SCP. In some ways it is more engaging than CW (which lacks the visual
engagement outside the SCP aspect)

My software experience with RTTY goes back to the mid-80's when I was in
high school and writing RTTY decoders of my own using very primitive
computers (Apple II!) and homebuilt demodulators. Since then I've had a lot
of formal training in information theory and have come to appreciate what
2Tone and MMTTY are doing for me (in slightly different ways) and generally
I like to work at a higher level, keeping in mind what the machinery is
doing for me at a lower level.

There was a South African RTTY guy, ZS6EZ, who had a very nice article in
NCJ about using his brain and experience to piece together callsigns and
pull out the QSO. March/April 2012. I'm just starting to appreciate his
depth of experience on this subject. The "still plenty of room to grow"
aspect of RTTY contesting keeps me coming back.

I am sure the Winlink ship-to-shore guys will do lots of FEC while trying
to use digital segment in automated modes during RTTY contests :-). Ideally
they would apply a truly intelligent form of FEC by NOT REPEATEDLY
TRANSMITTING ON MY RUN FREQUENCY DURING CONTEST WEEKENDS!

Tim N3QE