[RTTY] RTTY Contest Operating

[Ken K6MR]

1.        I follow the W6SX first rule of contesting: Have Fun!  If someone else wants to eek out a few more Qs by doing something odd, oh well. He likely knows what he is doing and if he can live with himself I certainly can.

2.       Guilty. I treat RTTY the same as I do CW: I don’t send the call at the end of a CW report, why should I do it for RTTY?  They are basically the same mode with the advantage of the machine doing the decoding. Yes, what you describe occasionally happens, but I think the majority of the time it’s not a problem.

3.       See #2. If I’m S&P on CW, I do not send the other stations call before sending the report. Ditto, I don’t do it on RTTY. The one or two copies of the exchange does depend on conditions. But, if you don’t think you got the report with one copy, ask for a repeat. If all of your decoder windows agree (you do use more than one, don’t you?) then that’s as good a confirmation as you are likely to get.

I’m not exactly what you would call “experienced” but it’s my 20 cents worth (2 cents adjusted for inflation).

Ken K6MR



From: David Tanks via RTTY<mailto:rtty at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2016 12:29
To: RTTY Reflector<mailto:rtty at contesting.com>
Subject: [RTTY] RTTY Contest Operating

Hello all. I have a couple of pet peeves to voice:
1. Some operators do not send the RST report that is required of some, not all, contests. I work them anyway, even though they are clearly breaking the rules to save milliseconds off of each contact


The 2016 CQ World-Wide WPX RTTY Contest
February 13-14, 2016
" IV. CONTEST EXCHANGE: RST report plus a progressive contact serial number starting with 001 for the first contact. Note: Multi-Two and Multi-Unlimited entrants use separate serial number sequences on each band. ".
2. Sometimes, there is an extended time period from when I send my call to a running station to the time that he sends my call with the report; before he starts sending the report, I have figured he hasn't heard me and send my call again. When the software finishes, I hear the running station sending a report; however, they have not set up their exchange to send the caller's call at the end of it, so all I see on my screen is " 599  123 123 " . Now, is he replying to me, or has someone snuck in there with me? Who knows? All I can do is stand by until the running station again sends the exchange, with the calling station's call displayed at the beginning. It seems a waste of time to not include the calling stations's call at the end of the exchange.
3. With excellent band conditions and signal strengths, an exchange of " AD4TJ 599 123 " may be sufficient. However, how many timjes does that happen? If just a little something interferes, then the serial number only being sent once is not enough. And, at that, sometimes they don't even send my call, just 599 123. Are they answering me, or someone else?

I would appreciate hearing from the experienced RTTY contestors on what they think is proper, concerning these items.
73, David AD4TJ
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