[RTTY] RTTY vs PSK31 on Field Day

[Ryan Noguchi]

> So why not use RTTY?

PSK31 can have an edge over RTTY when operating QRP with portable antennas, like many do on Field Day. But most of these Field Day stations are likely using FLDIGI and therefore could just as easily use RTTY.



>What we have now for Field Day is 2 or 3 KHz of spectrum that is packed with PSK31 signals....> But for Field Day, it is the wrong mode.   In a real-life emergency would everyone crowd PSK signals into 2 -3 KHz?  No, we would spread out.

There's no good reason why PSK ops can't spread out during Field Day. They don't have to stay in the 3kHz of PSK watering hole, don't need to keep their filters wide open, and don't need to send those brag files to someone calling CQ CONTEST. They do these things because that's PSK culture, not because of any technical limitation of PSK.

If you want to improve Field Day digital operating, I'd suggest educating Field Day PSK ops about efficient and courteous contesting technique:  Spread out; use crisp exchanges; tighten filters; don't call mid-QSO; etc. This is really more important than getting ops to switch from PSK31 to RTTY. 

That said, if you can motivate many 1D and 1E stations to operate RTTY on Field Day when they otherwise wouldn't have, I'd be all for it. Getting the PSK ops to use their VFOs to tune around above the JT watering hole to operate PSK, rather than just clicking on traces in the PSK watering hole, would be needed to expose them to the potential source of RTTY QSOs.

But until there are a lot more QSOs to be made in RTTY than PSK31, you won't see the pendulum swing back to RTTY. Smart ops go where the QSOs are. 

73, Ryan AI6DO