[RTTY] RTTY DX'ing tutorial

[Mark n2qt]

This is exactly what I do.  If it's a difficult pileup I'll turn on the 2nd receiver with a decoder
to better pick out who was the successful caller but normally you can pick the winner without
that. 

I also use CW skimmer for the waterfall as it gives a clean display and you can click and
be tuned accurately enough to decode without touching the radio if not operating split, 
or if you have a waterfall display for the sub rx even if you are.

The other advice is to watch the cadence of the pileup. If the op is always slow coming back
I'll go to 3x on my calls (I have a short callsign which helps).  If I don't hear the dx come back, 
then normally dump in only 1 call so I can be sure and hear him respond and get back in
synch with his rhythm. 

Mark. N2QT

> On Apr 11, 2016, at 9:44 AM, Alex, VE3NEA <alshovk at dxatlas.com> wrote:
> 
> Thank you to everyone who shared their pileup cracking techniques with the group. I do not have a second receiver in my radio, so until I find a better method (or write better software), I just use a SoftRock-based waterfall display to find the frequency where the DX OP is listening. I look for a signal trace that starts right after the end of the RST message sent by DX. Usually there is more than one such message, so I also look at the trace end, it should align with the start of DX's "TU-QRZ" message. If there are still multiple signals that match both requirements, the final test is to check that the signal disappears after the end of the QSO. If it is still there after "TU-QRZ", then this is an out-of-turn caller and not the one who was in the QSO.
> 
> This method is not ideal, I am able to find the DX listening frequency in about 1 QSO out of 5, while in CW I know the right frequency in 90% cases (I just read Morse code off the waterfall). Despite its modest efficiency, this method helped me to work in RTTY all recent expeditions that I was able to hear, except K5P. I used the waterfall display in CW Skimmer just because I was used to it, I believe any other waterfall would work.
> 
> 73 Alex VE3NEA
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