[RTTY] I may have missed something

Wed Mar 15 01:41:45 EDT 2017

Had another seemingly bizarre experience with the TU7C today on 30m RTTY. 

He was working a station who replied with a long brag tape.  I figured it
was OK to interrupt the part where he sent his grandmother's grid locator
and I dumped my call sign in once.

After the QSO, TU7C called CQ UP rather than coming back to me.  I called
again on the previous QSO frequency and when that didn't work, I moved to a
clear spot in the pileup and called again.  TU7C came back and gave me a
report.  I replied and he gave me the report again.  We did this dance for a
while and since it didn't look to me like I was being QRM'd, so I decided to
try something else and moved my TX frequency up the band to another clear
spot in the pileup (a number of stations were still calling through this
attempted QSO as is often the case).  Then, he QSL'd the contact.  What??!

I don't know what happened and would love to know what he is doing on his
end.

Using a multi-channel decoder is cute and clever ... IF most people
understand what is going on.  But that is unlikely since there are decades
of precedent for how to do this pileup dance.  Announcing this method on the
reflectors and your website is hardly adequate to influence the majority of
callers.

Experienced ops don't camp on one frequency for hours on end.  Instead, they
listen carefully and determine the operating pattern of the DX station.  If
the DX station works successive stations on the same frequency but
occasionally moves up or down an increment, we understand what is going on
and how to respond.  If they alternate between two locations in the pileup,
we understand that too.  Etc, etc.  If they "appear" to be randomly moving
around, we typically assume they are finding stations in the clear that they
can decode.  So, our typical response is to move to an apparently clear
frequency to send our call sign.

BUT, the seemingly random moves may be clicks on a multi-channel decoder, in
which case we should try to remain fairly stable in our TX frequency.
Alternatively, if we move, we should somehow save our prior TX frequencies
so we can go back there in case the DX station is clicking on one of our
prior TX frequencies in his multi-channel decoder.

Keeping us on our toes.  Never a dull moment.

Ed W0YK

-----Original Message-----
From: RTTY [mailto:rtty-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ed Muns
Sent: 13 March, 2017 12:41
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
>
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