[RTTY] RU macros - my views

[iw1ayd - Salvatore Irato]

Hi all.
Phil you are absolutely and undoubtedly right.  Let me and us smile a 
little bit around it. As it seems that having had on hands all that best 
practices paper about RTTY & Contesting leave a lot of us still in doubt 
to experiment more and more. I think that what you have seen is just 
somebody coming out with new ideas and testing it. Could we smile a bit 
around this?

Well, maybe some strange answer here pictured have they root in the 
small number of macro buttons ... some loggers, you know ...

I'd also seen a lot of strange things happening over and over looking at 
the used on air macros. (Unfortunately I could not see all mines from a 
third party perspective, so I must exercise my writing with cautions ...)

The last WAE a lot of Western operator, mean more than a handful over 
thousand QSO's, broken into the QSO  "answering" at their first step 
with the exchange. I have to hold on the line, maybe you know why.
Often Eastern operators start theirs answer with such things like short 
ASCII art prints. Fully of dots and parentheses, sometimes also 
asterisks.  That's a great flavorful add on, isn't?
There are other samples from other places, Martians?
The lost CQ at the end. The TEST start forgotten and replaced by the 
Contest name when not required by the rules. The use of the "-" instead 
of spaces in between letters (often is preferably a better composition 
of the two like 599 - 000 - 000 - ). Exchanges with a lot of inexpensive 
CR/LF  - sometimes several of those, at the end, but also doubling it at 
the start, of every macro string. Not to forgot the DE, the BK, the SK 
placed as stones where are not needed ... all those things and several 
others are quite normal practice. It doesn't matter, I should pray for 
myself, I know.
One of the worst thing, but it is my personal view, is when I ask NR? or 
STATE?  I get back  the complete full exchange at least the 99% of 
times. I know my call, I know the 599, I would like a lot to have back 
just the exchange data field content, that holy number or string 
whatever is it. Maybe repeated some more time than just two or one 
again. But, please, not the obvious bricks. Why not? I am just asking 
for it ... isn't? NR? JUST NUMBER? But AGN AGN doesn't give better 
results ..
  What to say about those good guys that send in 599 EXCH 599 EXCH ... 
is the 599 so important out of it is almost ever required? Do I need to 
take so care of it to have it two or more times?
Last but not least, this is most often and Eastern operators feature ...
IW1AYD IW1AYD DE XX#YYY XX#YYY XX#YYY ...
Well I know what it is, maybe. Not having such confidence on response 
timing at the call of any other station they erroneously think that 
taking the whole time of the universe could give better result.
I have the same syndrome, I admit, usually in the last hour of any 
contest, when tired and S&P usually on 40m for US calls.
Time to time I also fire two time MY2 trowing my stone in the pile. Take 
the good timings when tired and everytging seem in a hurry isn't so 
easy. But best results are when I am able to fire my MY2 (BTW, 
{TX}{CRLF}{MYCALL} {MYCALL} {RX}) depending on the 2/3 things that rules 
at the time. But I must perceive those rules, there is just some US 
operator or I am competing also with another from somewhere other place. 
Do I listen the other callers? etc. etc.
But usually I get those IW1AYD IW1AYD DE XX#YYY XX#YYY XX#YYY anytime in 
the contest.

Last but not least, timings to ask a repeat. Out of how to ask a repeat, 
as I often RUN. It's a nightmare when clock ticks flow after I send in 
my exchange as the first and there is the silence. A silence often so 
noisy that the headphones start orbit around my poor head. I often start 
my HISCALL and REPeatRAPPORT (*). ... or only the second macro of those.
With weak signals it pay usually, at fringe band times. But sometime I 
have to use the ESC key to sto my starting TX as I perceive a late 
answer ... late, subjectively, is more than 5/7 seconds.
I would need a secondary keyboard with just the ESC key for the left 
hand. Like tose big red emergency pushbutton ... preferably working in a 
reverse way. If I left hand push it everything is OK. If a leave the 
left hand the TX will stop or will never start.

I am pretty sure that several other of us may have several other 
example. But I still hope that there will be a Contest where the 
committee will force the exchange to be XX#YYY please copy 599 ### ###. 
I empathize a lot and I am delighted when I get such answer thinking to 
an old gentleman there in the shack that'is really willingly to get my 
call into his log. That's wrong AFAIK, I see please copy no more than 
one time in two years ... but it is much better that those PeSKy <:-) 
macros I could watch flown each day on air. JT modes, on that side, are 
much better.

Hope not to have been too hard on those. All aren't do bad ... but often 
all those wrong things are mixed together and there is no time to hold 
on as to stay on track ... but also this is a contester exercise, isn't?

Hope that this poor exercise will fill some more water holes about the 
subject matter. But at least also some of you are laughing, I see. Just 
happy to have reached, so hard, the end here?

      HNY lately but sincerely.

           73 de iw1ayd Salvo

*) often I get question on what that macro label means: REPRAPP ... Both 
guest operators and also usual operators, at IQ1RY, look at it as a 
small and furry animal. It's that unclear? REPeatRAPPort

On 05/01/2015 02:43, rtty-request at contesting.com wrote:
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2015 11:03:16 -0800
> From: " pcooper"<pcooper at guernsey.net>
> To:<RTTY at contesting.com>
> Subject: [RTTY] RU macros - my views
> Message-ID:<20150104110316.2C043626 at m0005296.ppops.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
> Hi all,
>
> Well, apart from suffering several bouts of severe giddiness during the contest when I had to sleep it off, there were some very unusual macros being used. Mainly (I guess) from folk new to RTTY, but some aren't.
>
> Many folk were calling CQ, but with no CQ at the end of their call, so you have to wait till they call again to be sure they are CQ'ing and not responding to a CQ.
>
> There were also quite a few sending IN DE, or IN OH, which is very confusing initially.
>
> My other bugbear was the rather large number of stations sending my serial number back to me.
> I had quite a few like this: GU0SUP TU 123 UR 599 100 DE XX1XX.
>
> Guess I am preaching to the converted here, but maybe you know one or two of these guys and can pass on some guidance.
> Not so easy to do during the contest!
>
> 73 all, and a very Happy New Year to you all
>
> Phil GU0SUP
>
>
> ------------------------------