[UK-CONTEST] RTTY Decoders in CW contests

[Cooper, Stewart]

Hi Gerry,
Funny, but I had written a 4th comment at the bottom saying more or less
what you say about the "I'm going to call you whether you like it or
not" brigade. I think they get a spot, hit Alt-F4 and call. I decided
I'd said enough (too much perhaps).
But yes, indeed, I had never thought of the RTTY decoder as the 'slow
call' reason. The fact that it was usually DL's was in fact another
thing I typed then deleted!
And...
>who insist on sending GL at the end of the exchange
I really fail to understand why quite a lot of stations sent 73 after
the exchange.
73
Stewart
GM4AFF

-----Original Message-----
From: Gerard Lynch [mailto:gerrylynch at freenetname.co.uk]
Sent: 28 May 2007 23:28
To: Cooper, Stewart; UK-Contest at contesting.com
Subject: RTTY Decoders in CW contests

At 21:33 28/05/2007, Cooper, Stewart wrote:

Stewart's e-mail set a few hares running in the diseased piece of meat I
use for a brain, particularly this comment:

 > Why do some stations feel it necessary when sending slowly, to repeat
> all calls twice along with the full CW 9's (DA DA DA DA DIT). It's the
> CW equivalent of the pub bore "I didn't get where I am today by
sending  > fast CW... blah blah".

If you noticed what I'm about to mention, you'll be the third person to
do so today:

In the midst of an EU pileup, DG1XXX/P, nice and strong, calls you.  You
give him a quick report.  He replies with:

G6PZ DG1XXX/P DG1XXX/P 599 009 009 (full numbers) DG1XXX/P GL TU at
about 16 or 18 words a minute.

This happened to me at least ten times and I used the dead time to write
rude notes in the log about them.

I'm not the world's greatest RTTY expert, but isn't that exactly how
RTTY contest exchanges are sent?  Now, I have no real problems with
people using RTTY decoders in CW contests.  More activity is more QSOs
and more fun, and maybe they'll eventually work out how limited CW
decoders are and learn how to use the mode properly.

BUT at such a slow speed that exchange must be using well over half a
minute when 5-6 seconds would do.  And it always seemed to happen I was
running at 150 or so.  And every single station using that particular
format was a DL.  I'd guess either there was an article in a German
magazine saying that using RTTY programs in CW contests was a runner or
one of the big German contest clubs encouraged their CW-limited members
to get on that way and increase the club score.

And I have no problem with that but before anyone tries the same thing
over here could they at least ask people to set the CW speed to 30 wpm
or so, leave the extraneous callsigns out send a cut number exchange
once.  Please.  There's a reason why rates in CW contests are much
higher than in RTTY contests.

Oh and leave out the extraneous TU at the end.  And that goes for real
CW operators as well.  And as for people who insist on sending GL at the
end of the exchange, I feel like getting a T-shirt saying "If you really
want to with me good luck, just send your exchange once with nothing
extra."  It's not that the GL in and of itself makes much difference,
short as it is, but it plays merry hell with your rhythm.

>Why do very weak QRP stations feel it necessary to append /QRP to their

>already long and complicated 6 letter callsign especially when you're
>asking them to repeat the callsign for the 3rd time. Don't they get
>it??? Oh, sorry, they can hear me OK. I see.

That's a hardly perennial, so annoying as it is, it wasn't my other pet
hate of the weekend.  That was reserved for the people who insisted on
calling you when you were trying to get the serial number from a
different weak station.  ZL6QH called me on 20 with about 7 minutes to
go in the contest and they were deadly weak, even when I swung the top
yagi down towards the long path heading.  While I struggled to copy the
serial number - TWO S9+ Ws started calling me.  No, "ZL6QH NR?" does not
mean "QRZ?", folks.

I had two weird callsign recognition moments.  One was when a weak K8
called me on 80 after sunrise on Saturday and I somehow fantasised ZL6QH
out of his call.  Don't know how I managed that one.  The other was when
7Z1UG called me in the middle of a US run late on Sunday for a welcome
DX mult and I, well, I know Manfred's call really well, I work him all
the time, but I just couldn't process it.  Even weirder, I typed the
call in and sent the exchange while still thinking to myself "is that a
ZS or something".

Who says sleep deprivation is bad for you?


73

Gerry G0RTN
http://www.gerrylynch.co.uk
"In days of old, when ops were bold and sidebands not invented The word
would pass by pounding brass, and all were well contented."


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