[RTTY] RTTY DX'ing tutorial (was: VK0EK RTTY Update)

[Kok Chen]

On Apr 10, 2016, at 7:10 PM, John Becker wrote:

> On my FT-1000MP Mk V, I listen on VFOA and transmit on VFOB. I hit the A<->B button to tune for the station being worked or look for a clear spot with VFOA, then hit A<->B again before transmitting.

With an FT-1000MP (or Mk V), why not feed the output from the two receivers (A and B) into separate sound cards, or to left and right channels of a sound card?  

You can then be decoding and printing both ends of the QSO and know exactly when the DX is listening and when he is transmitting.

I used to do that with my FT-1000MP (non Mk-V) using the stereo line out connector at the back.  cocoaModem was built back in 2005 with two waterfalls in the window, one waterfall is connected to the left channel of a sound card, and the other waterfall is connected to the right channel of a sound card.

cocoaModem was also built so you can lock a waterfall (so you can't accidentally click to QSY) and also to lock out transmission.  You use the locked waterfall to listen to the DX, and use the other waterfall to click around looking for his QSX, and transmitting when the QSX is found.

All this is even simpler with today's SDR as long as you can write your own RTTY software (if not, there will always be the "window focus" problem).

73
Chen, W7AY