[RTTY] Waterfall and CQ conundrum

[Alex, VE3NEA]

What we are trying to do now is just a proof of concept. We want to see if a distinct keyword sent at the end of the message, 
and known to the Skimmer, has any effect on the CQ/DE error rate. We use "CQ." as such keyword because it looks almost like 
plain "CQ" and thus is not going to confuse those who are not aware of this experiment. If statistical data proves that this 
keyword does improve the accuracy of the spots, we may pick some other keyword for this purpose for permanent use, since "CQ." 
is obviously not optimal. "TEST" would not work at all as there is no way to persuade everyone in the world to never send it at 
the beginning of the message.

73 Alex VE3NEA


>
>  > If CQ'ing stations want to put the letters CQ at the end of their
>  > CQ message, they should consider changing to "CQ{period}"  That is
>  > “CQ.”
>
> CQ<period> requires *four characters* the same as TEST because of the
> need to shift to FIGS for the period.  If you are going to use "CQ."
> there is no advantage over TEST - it takes the same 330 ms longer than
> CQ each time.