[RTTY] Some basic RTTY radio questions

[Tim Shoppa]

My preferred way of operating is to disable AGC for everything but
"ear-saving". I will always, at the very least, turn RF gain down so that
band noise is not loud. I will always engage one or two stages of
attenuation on the low bands, in a big contest I might engage the
attenuator on the high bands too.

I try to minimize "AGC pumping" for any mode I'm on. Soft signals should be
soft and loud signals should be loud. Making everything sound the same
loudness is very much self-defeating.

I have been increasingly widening my receive bandwidth in RTTY contests as
the newer decoders (2Tone, Gritty) work so much better bandwidths of 900Hz
or above. MMTTY works pretty well at those wider bandwidths too.

I was able to do some amazing stuff in CQ WW RTTY last fall. I was working
weak EU and AF mults on 80M underneath loud locals just 100-200Hz away. I
adjust RF gain so AGC does not pump on the loud local, and I closely watch
the GRITTY waterfall to get the timing of the DX station down, because I
could not hear him at all. But either Gritty or 2Tone or both was able to
decode the weak station under the loud local. It was just amazing.

Very often after I guest op at a station, the station owner comes after me
for "messing up his radio". All I did was turn on the attenuator and turn
down the RF gain! Now I use my cellphone to take a picture of all settings
before I start and be sure to restore them at the end!

Tim N3QE