[RTTY] How I worked VK0EK from NA on 15M RTTY this morning

[Don Hill AA5AU]

The problem is that these DXpeditions solicit money before the trip. For
VK0EK, I believe my club may have donated $500 or something like that. Then
we get this kind of response for RTTY and we wonder why we made the donation
at all. I will suggest to my club that we offer to donate to DXpeditions
AFTER the trip. If the trip goes well, we donate. If not, they get less than
what we planned to give or give nothing at all. Joe is right on this point.

In addition to the club support, I normally will pitch in for something
after the DXpedition but I will not be contributing to this one unless
something drastically changes in the next 3 days, 18 hours and 18 minutes.

%3 RTTY is a terrible percentage. I realize they have experienced poor high
band conditions but it's no excuse. So they planned to use 15 meters as the
main RTTY band. This would not have been a bad plan a year ago but not now.
When things are not working as they should, then the plan needs to change.
(Unless they planned on only doing 3% RTTY). They need to be on 20 and 30
meter RTTY. The demand for RTTY is just too high for them to continue to
ignore it. They were on 15 RTTY this morning. I was there watching and
didn't see one letter printed from them.

Makes you wonder why they chose to make the trip this part of the cycle
anyway. Did they think the SFI was going to hang in the 100s forever?

It's disappointing that so many of us are disappointed. Obviously they are
working people since they have 63,748 contacts in the log.

Don AA5AU

-----Original Message-----
From: RTTY [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Joe Subich,
W4TV
Sent: Wednesday, April 6, 2016 1:33 PM
To: Al Kozakiewicz; 'RTTY Reflector'
Subject: Re: [RTTY] How I worked VK0EK from NA on 15M RTTY this morning


On 4/6/2016 11:02 AM, Al Kozakiewicz wrote:
 > I'm kind of inclined to agree.  If you're going to pitch something  >
(and I know this will upset some people), don't operate on 160M.

Not going to happen ... with DXCC Challenge being what it is, there is no
what that a major DXpedition is going to forgo 160 and 6 meters if the rules
in the territory permit operation on those bands and there is any chance of
propagation (e.g. VK0EK can forget 6 since there is no reasonable chance of
propagation to any population center).

It's up to RTTY operators to tell both the DXpedition organizers *and*
sponsors (manufacturers have customers, NCDXF et al have members and
donors) "No RTTY, No Money" and stick to it.  The DXPedition sponsors and
K1DG have been kvetching for years about not having the money in
*advance* ... well, perhaps it's time for RTTY operators to say that's they
way it will continue to be until the major organizers can commit to
equitable allocation for RTTY.

The major organizers may moan that without advance money there will be no
operations ... let them.  After all, without equitable allocation of time
and resources to RTTY, the operation might as well not happen at all as far
as RTTY operators are concerned.

73,

    ... Joe, W4TV


On 4/6/2016 11:02 AM, Al Kozakiewicz wrote:
> I'm kind of inclined to agree.  If you're going to pitch something 
> (and I know this will upset some people), don't operate on 160M.
> Antennas are a problem for a portable operation; hearing is a problem 
> in the tropics all year and summers in the mid-latitudes; and 
> propagation paths over the poles are iffy at best.  6M as well - it's 
> called the "magic band" for a reason.  I'm not sure why you would 
> commit resources to a propagation curiosity (sorry, being a bit hard
> here) during a DXpedition from any rare entity needed by many 
> amateurs.
>
> RTTY is also not without it's problems as there is limited amount of 
> spectrum space "up" and you can only spread the pileup out so much.
> The "cycle time" of a RTTY QSO when there is a pileup tends to be 
> longer and the rates as a result may not be as even as good as phone.
> But IMO it's the best bet for a digital mode (N.B. can you imagine a 
> DXpedition running JT65?).
>
> Al AB2ZY
>
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