[RTTY] RTTY vs PSK31 on Field Day

[Stanley Zawrotny]

Tim,

Regardless of the technical pros and cons, the main thing is that the majority of the everyday PSK31 operators don't know how to operate RTTY. Many of them don't even know how to modify their macros. If you get macros tailored to FD, you will be lucky.

In my opinion, if the op is experienced enough to know both PSK and RTTY, he/she should be knowledgeable enough to make the choice of RTTY over PSK.

Stan, K4SBZ

"Real radio bounces off the sky."

> On Feb 23, 2017, at 11:44 PM, Tim Goeppinger <timgep at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> I would like to write a letter to QST to hopefully get published by Field Day.   My concern is that the North Americanhams have taken a wrong turn about 15 years ago for digital modes for ARRL Field Day.   Somehow, PSK31 becamethe de facto mode for digital in Field Day.   Before that, we had RTTY, and that worked fairly well for FD.
> What we have now for Field Day is 2 or 3 KHz of spectrum that is packed with PSK31 signals.   Many stations on topof one another.   In addition, all it takes is one over-driven signal to splatter and wipe out the whole PSK bandwidth.
> Don't get me wrong.  PSK31 is a great mode 364 days of the year for ragchewing and DXing.  It is elegantly designed, has Vitterbi decoding, and is efficient in is use of spectrum.  But for Field Day, it is the wrong mode.   In a real-life emergency would everyone crowd PSK signals into 2 -3 KHz?  No, wewould spread out.
> Even though RTTY is from the late 1920's, it is still the primary mode for digital contesting.   And yes, Field Day is a contest.   So why not use RTTY?
> And there is a huge chunk of spectrum that we can use.  On 20 meters, we could go from 14.080 to 14.130 MHz.   Spread the RTTY signals out, so there is no QRM.   The space is there.  Use it!
> If Field Day stations make the transition from PSK31 to RTTY, would the RTTY contesting community make a special effort to get on the air, andmake some RTTY contacts?   There is a Field Day category for home with commercial power, which is 1D.
> I would appreciate any inputs on this opinion piece.
> Tnx & 73,
> Tim N6GP
> 
> 
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