Topband: 160m in RTTY Contests

[John Bastin]

On Oct 26, 2009, at 15:24:57, Ed Muns wrote:

> Most (all?) RTTY contests prohibit operation on 160 meters.  Yet, a  
> number
> of RTTY contesters have asked that it be added.  I'd like to hear your
> thoughts on this topic, pro and con.  In particular, I'm thinking  
> about the
> CQ WPX RTTY and CQ WW RTTY contests.

I'm not a "hard-core" contester, but RTTY is my favorite mode for  
contesting when I do participate (with CW a very close second). I  
agree with just about everyone here who has commented that RTTY  
contesting on 160m would probably cause more problems and make more  
enemies of contesting than the activity would be worth.

For all the other bands where contesting occurs, there are reasonable  
WARC band alternatives on the weekends when one contest or another is  
filling up your favorite band with a mode you don't prefer (even  
though it's very hard to convince the loudest complainers to use  
them). That's not the case with 160. There's nothing close in  
frequency or propagation that would satisfy those who love the  
"Gentleman's Band." And trying to limit it to small band segments will  
inevitably force out some operators that don't happen to have access  
to that selected part of the band.

Thank you very much for asking, I vote "NO".

73,


John K8AJS
bastinj at gmail.com