[RTTY] I may have missed something

Mon Mar 13 16:12:17 EDT 2017

As a comment on the use of RTTY skimmer when running a pileup, I don't have 
any experience compared to Eds but I did try to use RTTY skimmer when the 
W1AW states thing was running a year or two ago.  Skimmer of course worked 
perfectly but the issue is that I could not get guys to stick on frequency 
resulting in the same sort of issue that Ed had encountered.

I attempted to advertise the use of skimmer and sticking on frequency 
through email to the reflectors, and via telnet spots.  But virtually no one 
observed it and the rate was actually poor despite its potential.

I think if more dxpeditions used RTTY skimmer and advertised that fact it 
would end up making for much higher Q rates.  In addition to the general 
need to have dxpediton ops who actually had some serious RTTY experience but 
that's a different subject.

There will be more RTTY for dxpeditions in the future so that's good news. 
At Dayton last year K9CT showed some data that there is much greater overall 
demand for RTTY as a band-mode slot for various dxpedition hot spots than 
SSB or CW meaning a lot of guys already have SSB/CW and when it costs $500K+ 
to tackle a dxpedition, you need guys who will pay for a QSL card as a hedge 
to offset the amazing cost and one way to do that is running more RTTY.

73/jeff/ac0c
www.ac0c.com
alpha-charlie-zero-charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Ed Muns
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2017 2:40 PM
To: w6nws at arrl.net
Cc: rtty at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RTTY] I may have missed something

The "TU, NW" technique works great in DXpeditions just as it does in
contests.  I don't see it used that often by DXpeditions, although I deploy
it 100% of the time whether contesting or not.  It works through the pileup
faster and reduces some of the incessant calling.

I had the same experience with TU7C earlier today on 17m RTTY as described
below.  I hadn't been calling for a while and all of a sudden he sends me a
signal report.  Could be that he was using a multi-channel decoder or could
be he was just calling call signs in his decoder window, no matter how old.

Problem is that I had been watching his behavior and concluded he was
randomly moving around.  So, I was also moving around between clear spots.
I had no clue where I had transmitted when he printed me.

That caused me to change my pattern and stay in one place.  A few minutes
later he called me again.  I reciprocated with a signal report, which he
never confirmed.  He just kept sending my report plus "only W0YK only W0YK".
It didn't look like I was being QRM'd, but conditions could be very
different on his side.  I finally gave up.  I'll see later if he logged one
of those two attempted QSOs.

On balance, I think being predictable is more effective than being
unpredictable.  I don't consider jumping around within a spread-out pileup
to be "unpredictable".  It could be that the DX operator is simply calling
stations that are in the clear so he can copy, and that is predictable.  He
may be experiencing uncopiable pileups immediately after he finishes his
current QSO and has to move.  That's when also moving around between clear
frequencies may improve chances of being picked up.  This random movement
may start occurring after enough savvy ops are seeing the pattern of his
regular move deltas.

The best way to figure out the predicatable pattern is to spend time
observing rather than blindly calling.  It may improve the odds of working
the DX station.

Ed W0YK
_________________________________________________________________________

-----Original Message-----
From: RTTY [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Larry
Sent: 13 March, 2017 04:23
To: rtty at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [RTTY] I may have missed something

I had never heard a DXpedition operate that way. For contests I have
heard it but there unless you are a somewhat rare multiplier I am not
likely to remain on frequency waiting for "Now...". A downside of the
skimmer/Now approach is that it tends to encourage constant calling and
DXpeditions rarely need to encourage that kind of behavior. In a list
operation there are breaks usually to know if I am "on the list" so that
there is not the constant calling (or at least, not as much). Running
from the "other side" my MMTTY window looked like a scope trace of a DC
signal with ripple for 3-4kHz and no break when I called someone. They
are no doubt seeing the same thing.

73, Larry W6NWS
On 3/12/2017 5:08 PM, Jeff AC0C wrote:
> He probably is catching a few calls when he's listening, and got your
> call with some others.  He worked the other guy and instead of calling
> CQ again, he jumps to you, just like you would stack em up in a
> contest.  Difference is that using the "now" comment is not common by
> dxpeditions.  Congrats on the catch.
>
> 73/jeff/ac0c
> www.ac0c.com
> alpha-charlie-zero-charlie
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Larry
> Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2017 4:02 PM
> To: rtty at contesting.com
> Subject: [RTTY] I may have missed something
>
> I had a new experience today. I had called TU7C several times on 20
> trying to crack the EU wall. I switched to listening for about 1.5
> minutes without sending and he suddenly called me. That was a bit
> strange but it worked. Later on 40 RTTY the op said stay on frequency.
> Almost sounded a bit like a list operation which I had not heard on RTTY
> before. On N1MMLogger you can do the "Now ..." thing but there was no
> "Now" in this case. Anybody else seen this kind of behavior on RTTY?
>
> 73, Larry W6NWS
>
> _______________________________________________
> RTTY mailing list
> RTTY at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty
> _______________________________________________
> RTTY mailing list
> RTTY at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty
>

_______________________________________________
RTTY mailing list
RTTY at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty

_______________________________________________
RTTY mailing list
RTTY at contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/rtty 