[WriteLog] WriteLog Digest, Vol 124, Issue 1 (Frustration with XMMT)

[Don AA5AU]

I can mirror Ed's comments. XMMT.ocx support for MMTTY and 2Tone is a major improvement to WriteLog. The biggest advantage is that 2Tone can be employed in the main Rttyrite window and users can transmit FSK using either Hardware or Software generated FSK. No other program can do this at this time because 2Tone does not support direct FSK.

I have over a hundred hours of testing 2Tone vs. MMTTY. 2Tone is the superior decoder when it comes to weak signals, rapid deep fading and selective fading. Selective fading is where either the Mark or Space tone is suppressed. What this means is that 2Tone will copy RTTY when only one of the two tones is present. That's pretty amazing in itself and something MMTTY cannot do.

Unfortunately, as Ed mentioned, there is no way to control NET when using AFSK. NET is always on. This makes 2Tone basically unusable in the main Rttyrite window when running AFSK. I tried it and it's not anything nice. However, MMTTY can still be run in the main Rttyrite window and 2Tone can be used in a cloned window when running AFSK. 

I think the fact that AFC is always on is not an issue at all. The tuning indicator for 2Tone is such that having AFC on all the time is good thing. You don't have to worry about turning AFC on or off depending on whether you are running or S&P. The 2Tone tuning indicator is very similar to that used with Rttyrite's native decoder and I actually prefer it over the MMTTY FFT and XY scope tuning indicators.

I think the best case scenario for all users is to run both 2Tone and MMTTY at the same time (one in the main Rttyrite window and the other in at least one clone receive-only window). The diversity is even greater when you throw in the fact that you can also employ hardware decoders such as the HAL DXP-38 and other units. Having all these options with multiple receive windows makes for better decoding. I can tell you that the number of repeats required is considerably less when using 2Tone in multiple cloned windows.

I am hammering out some web pages to deal with some of the issues that have come up that were not seen during beta testing. I believe this will all work out. Stay patient and I believe you will be happy with the end results.

73, Don AA5AU



>________________________________
> From: Ed Muns <w0yk at msn.com>
>To: writelog at contesting.com 
>Sent: Monday, April 1, 2013 2:15 PM
>Subject: Re: [WriteLog] WriteLog Digest, Vol 124, Issue 1 (Frustration with XMMT)
> 
>Yes, new capability with new a user interface and corner cases of
>incompatibilities are frustrating.  Don is working on tutorials for all this
>on rttycontesting.com, so you may want to wait for that to be complete
>rather than terrorizing yourself as an early adopter.
>
>The historical perspective may be helpful.  G3YYD developed an alternative
>to MMTTY that he and others felt would offer significant decoding advantages
>in marginal signal situations like selective fading (unequal tone
>amplitudes), flutter, multi-path, QRM, etc.  David is only interested in
>having 2Tone work on N1MM Logger.  One could argue that this is
>short-sighted, but its his creation and its freeware.  Within a few weeks of
>2Tone's availability users were claiming superiority over MMTTY.  Many of us
>discounted these reports as simply initial enthusiasm of early adopters.
>
>As time passed, more and more N1MM users got hooked including some top RTTY
>contesters with credible opinions.  Several of us non-N1MM users bit the
>bullet and invested time to start climbing the learning curve on N1MM so
>that we too could evaluate 2Tone.  Despite many hours of work and gracious
>support from N2AMG, K8UT and others, I personally was not able to make N1MM
>work satisfactorily with all the features I deploy.  I had planned to use
>N1MM/2Tone in WPX RTTY but bailed Friday morning before the contest and
>moved my setup back to WriteLog.  This was very discouraging because it
>meant I couldn't use what was increasingly looking like a superior decoder.
>
>Meanwhile, other loggers like Logger32 and WinWarbler interfaced to 2Tone.
>WriteLog's Beta testers were ecstatic when Wayne released the first
>breadboard of XMMT.ocx support for MMTTY and 2Tone.  Not only did he
>solidify this new interface so 2Tone is available, but he also expanded the
>Rttyrite ini file capability so that now a huge number of parallel decoder
>windows can be created with their settings saved reliably for WriteLog
>exits/restarts.  This is a huge enhancement for users of multiple decoder
>windows.  See my earlier post with an example Rttyrite ini sections.
>
>Because 2tone is not defined in a way that all loggers can easily interface
>to it, there are some rough edges.  An example is that 2Tone has AFC
>hardwired on.  It cannot be turned off.  The reason is that the decoding
>algorithm is optimized assuming AFC.  Moreover, NET is on by default and
>there is no way to turn it off.  This is unacceptable for a running station.
>Since N1MM Logger is the sole design goal for 2Tone, David queries the
>logger to see whether it is in "Run" state or "S&P" state.  If "Run" then he
>turns off NET.  WriteLog paradigm does not include Run and S&P states.
>
>The current hot topic on this reflector about hardware FSK not working
>properly with microKEYERs is unrelated to 2Tone or the XMMT.ocx interface.
>It is a consequence of using WriteLog's Rttyrite FSK capability when 2Tone
>is the main software MODEM because 2Tone does not support FSK transmission
>like MMTTY does.
>
>The Beta-testers thought there were alternatives around this
>Rttyrite/microKEYER incompatibility, but several people are still having
>trouble.  More work obviously needs to be done on this.
>
>The upside of all this commotion is a superior decoder.  95% of the time
>both MMTTY and 2Tone copy perfect.  But in most marginal situations it is
>2tone that copies perfect while MMTTY requires repeats.  What really stuns
>me are the times when I don't hear anything coming back my CQ, but 2Tone is
>printing the caller's callsign perfectly, multiple times.  I've never had
>that experience with any other decoder.
>
>Ed W0YK
>
>
>Nick W4GKM wrote:
>> This really seems like a lot of trouble to install my 
>> Writelog that has been working perfectly for years, and 
>> trying to figure out how to run this new 2tone program.  I 
>> have down loaded the new version of Writelog and have the 
>> XMMT.ocx already on my contest computer from Don, AA5AU 
>> several weeks ago.
>> 
>> Will this thing work with just regular soundcards and FSK 
>> operation.  Can someone explain this is simple terms as I am 
>> sure there a lot of guys out there like me that is totally confused.
>
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