[RTTY] Decoder performance on crowded bands

[Tim Shoppa]

It's interesting that in my original post, I said I wanted as little
filtering on skimmed spots as possible - something VE7CC was quick to help
me with. When my run rate slows down, I do not mind clicking on a spot and
listening for a few seconds to figure out who it really is. Pretty soon I
understand the foibles of skimmed spots for certain calls or styles and
take that into account.

Then others come in and say that skimmer spots would only be interesting to
them if they were perfect and S&P calls never show up. That IMHO would be a
much less interesting way to do contesting. I love RTTY contesting because
I'm getting hit with multiple audio and visual inputs and I have to piece
together callsigns and patterns an it's up to me to make the final call as
to what I believe (based on my eyes and ears) and goes in the log.

I love it - really love it - when I see a rare mult doing S&P, being
spotted by the skimmers and I can see him working his way up or down the
band and I position my CQ's to work him.

The concept of a CRLF as a turnover marker for skimmers seems very likely
based on my experience. There are a few hotshot contesters who do not do
CRLF- and they seem to have tweaked their RTTY T/R timing such that I often
do not decode their first character, either! But I also think it's likely
the better RTTY decoders know how to lock onto start bits most effectlively
by recognizing a preceding CRLF pattern. There are also newbies who do not
CRLF.

I know we've complained here about the guys who send 12 CRLF's and a long
string of periods at the start of every transmission. I have nothing
against a single CRLF. I am vehemently opposed to the EU macro style of
sending long strings of periods at the start of every transmission.

I betcha I would love it if I bought a broadband receiver and a hotshot PC
with Alex's skimmer to watch all the stuff flowing in real-time, that I
would be in heaven. I'm a little worried that when I go legal limit I would
burn out the receiver because I cannot get much geographic separation on my
little lot. I've done a little RTTY SO2R when at low power but am scared of
the 100V signals my scope shows on my other antennas when I am at legal
limit.

Tim N3QE