ARRL RTTY Roundup
Call: K4XD
Operator(s): K4XD
Station: K4XD
Class: M/S LP
QTH: Raleigh NC
Operating Time (hrs): 20.5
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 215
40: 272
20: 189
15: 46
10: 0
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Total: 722 State/Prov = 52 Countries = 38 Total Score = 64,980
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
When I started dabbling in contesting a year ago, I was doing it mostly because
it was a good way to fill out band slots and work on DXCC on multiple bands,
and it was fun -- lots of QSO's in a short time -- love that adrenaline rush
and seeing what your station could do.
RTTY was the first mode I felt confident running. I didn't have to worry about
being able to copy someone else's CW, or dig that weak SSB signal out of the
mud. Sure, I still had to work a bit at it -- tuning around and trying
different antennas, tweaking the RIT to line up the guy who was not zero beat
on my mark signal, or deciding which of the four different call signs coming
from the same signal were real and which were garbled -- but I could run
stations, and running is fun!
For last year's RTTY Roundup, I was still in my "spend a couple hours for fun"
mode on contesting, and to my chagrin I look back and see that I worked 25
stations, got 400 points, and did it over the span of 2.5 hours! Good grief,
was I really that slow?! Although I see my last Q was FR1HZ in Reunion, so at
least there was one cherry in that bowl. My first Q was N4BAA, back when he
was N4... somehow I managed to miss N1BAA totally this year -- that's something
of an accomplishment since he was everywhere!!
This year, I'm more into seeing what kind of score I can rack up, and putting
in the hours to do it. Although I still find it hard physically to go 24 hours
out of 30, and to devote that much of my weekend to my hobby (?) while my wife
patiently brings me meals and hydration. What a sweetheart, I'm one lucky son
of a TNC.
So the prospect of a RTTY contest with lots of activity got me pumped up, and
the RRU delivered. Maybe because this is the first RTTY contest I tried keep
BIC for, I found it more tiring than I expected. My neck is still stiff from
staring at the screen that long (and tilting my bi-focaled vision to read the
print).
For a change, all the antennas and interfaces were ready to go prior to the
event, so I leisurely got things powered up about an hour before the contest
and started checking my WriteLog macros. I usually end up tweaking them during
the first hour or two of the contest so I don't get too obsessive over it before
the test. I think I'm getting a pattern that works and the tweaking is
decreasing. I also finally figured out how WriteLog stores keyboard macros in
the contest files, and by using the Browse button to last year's file I can
load up the old macros as a starting point. That sure saves some time. I've
also been using WA4PGM's Excel function key templates -- thanks! -- editing
them to match my macro setup, printing it out, and cutting and taping it to the
keyboard. It's a big help when you need the less often used macros at 1AM and
you're not exactly feeling your sharpest.
I use a very simple digital interface from Donner Digital that supports AFSK
RTTY. This is the first RTTY contest where I found myself wanting to try FSK,
not for the sending, but so I could use the Icom's RTTY filters. I did a
little digging around on the Internet last night, but it looks like I would
have to spend hundreds of dollars to get this one additional capability (FSK).
I have a WinKey USB interface for CW, and my Donner interface handles radio
command and sound card modes. I'll have to stew on it for a bit. I'm thinking
if I spend anything, I might as well get something that supports SO2R so if I
ever want to go that route, I won't have to buy Yet Another Ham Radio Toy (but
honey, all the other hams have one!).
Anyone having ideas for a cheap route to FSK that works with MMTTY and
WinWarbler, drop me a line. Or a nice SO2R setup that doesn't cost more than
my AL-80B.
On to the contest...I spent the first 30 minutes warming up on 20M and the
"trend of the contest" for me emerged early -- 5 of my first 18 Q's were from
MN. I think MN must have more RTTY ops per ham capita than anywhere else in
the US! Lots and lots of RTTY from the Black Hole. My wife is from Duluth, MN
and in her less sanguine moments longs nostalgically to return to friends and
family there. No offense, it's a beautiful spot ... in August. I'm thinking
that two weeks in January would cure her. And I tell her that RF simply
disappears about 100 miles before reaching that part of the US. Every time I
tell her I just had a QSO with MN, hoping to improve her opinion of my hours
spent on the radio by associating it with something she likes, I can tell I'm
digging myself a hole. "I thought you said ham radio didn't work well there?"
Keep your trap shut, Rowland!
I was hoping for more DX on 20M. I did have a G, LZ and a GI grace me with Q's
in the first 30 mins. I then decided that if 15M was going to produce, this was
a good time to go check it out, so I went "upstairs" to 15M for the next 45 mins
and found it pretty quiet, although I got a couple KH6's, P4, PY, HP and my lone
LU of the test. Tried running but the rate was pretty low -- managed to work my
neighbor, N4CW, who I am now christening N4RTY! Checked out 10M and it was
dead as a doornail, as it was every other time I took a peek. That Icom 756
pro scope rocks for doing a quick visual check of "is anyone there?"
So back to 20M I go, tra la la, picking a few mults off the band map, XE, KL,
KP4, HI, I, and YV, then picked through the QRM and found a small open spot to
run. I like using the FFT scope to find signals and open spots. A RTTY signal
looks like "owl ears" when it pokes up on the display. Find a spot midway
between two sets of ears, and guess if there is enough room so when someone
calls you they won't be clobbering either set... and make sure the ears on both
sides of you are not so big they squash you. How's that for a technical
description!?
Anyway, I found my groove here for about an hour, mostly getting West and
Midwest stations. A little S&P when things slowed down, then another nice run
higher up around 14123. I was running low power, and my homebrew hexbeam was
beaming NE, hoping to get some EU mults. The band must have been in pretty good
shape, or the leaky pattern of the hexbeam was helping, because I was getting
called from all points on the compass.
Throughout the test, running would get me rates from 45/hr to 120/hr but
usually the runs would start petering out after 30 to 60 minutes and I'd get
antsy and start S&P'ing. I guess I'm more of an ADD personality than I
thought. Good/bad news about the Icom 756PII scope - you can see all those
signals and when the run rate droops, it's too tempting to drop your run freq
and start checking out those other stations. But I found that the S&P rate on
a very populated, fresh band would peak around 60/hr when things were good --
lots of activity, almost every station was new, they answered me on first or
second call. But more typically, after 10 minutes of 60/hr rate, S&P would
drop to 20/hr or less. I also lost time rotating the beam on 20M S&P,
determined to get through. Probably added another minute on average to 1/3 the
S&P contacts, whereas running is more self-selective -- if they answer my CQ,
they obviously can hear me even if they are on the backside of the hexbeam.
At 2320 that Icom scope was showing a lot of empty space on 20M, and a quick
glance at 40M showed wall to wall activity, so down to 40M we go. About 70
minutes and 50 Q's. Not a neck-snapping pace by any means, but some minutes
here and there with back-to-back calls, the way I like it.
By the way, as a matter of style -- I set my TU QRZ macro to repeat the calling
station's QTH/NR back to them, which probably adds .2 of a second to each Q, and
98% of the time is overkill, but I know it's reassuring to see your exchange
coming back to you so you know it was really copied correctly. In the last 45
minutes of the contest, the pace was really picking up, and I had confidence in
what I was copying, so I edited the macros down to more bare bones exchanges.
Maybe I should do that from the start next time? I notice that most people
just send K4XD TU QRZ? type messages.
I stayed on 40M until almost midnight locally. It was the money band for me --
just a bit ahead of 80M, and 20M was in third place. I suspect if I had a
better antenna for running EU I would have had better results on 20M, but as
stood, only about 5% of my Q's were DX (not counting VE as DX).
I managed to find a hole around 3550 at midnight and enjoyed a good run there
of about 20 Q's in 15 minutes, then started S&Ping up the band to work those
scope signals. Looking back, I could probably do better if I would just stay
parked on my run freq, but I also think after 11 hours in the chair, I needed
the S&P action to stay awake. It was during the first few hours of the
contest, re-reading the rules, that I started to wonder what the "you can only
take your 6 hours off in two blocks" rule meant. A quick note to the PVRC
reflector reassured me that this really meant that I couldn't take a lot of 30
minute breaks like people do in SS, and as long as my two breaks totalled six
hours, any additional time off would simply be subtracted from my 24 hour max
allowed.
To be honest, I don't "get" this rule. Why would anyone really care how I
split the 6 hours off? And it still has me wondering what would happen if,
e.g., I took two one hour breaks in the first 12 hours, then slept for 5 hours,
and then took 30 minutes here and there on Sunday. Would the first two one hour
breaks be considered as "six hours off" and I could get a nasty surprise later
to learn that I was "done" four hours earlier than I thought?
As it stands, I worked for 12 hours, took 6 to sleep, and then took some time
off on Sunday, so I think I'm fine. But I could have used a 30 minute stretch
break or two on Saturday and it made me feel uncomfortably restricted to not be
sure if taking that time would eat up my 6 hours of break time or in some other
way detract from my score.
At 0616 the rate was still north of 45/hr and I should have kept at it, but I
just had to bag it for the night. I also knew that I would need to be at the
dials at daybreak to get a shot at a whole different set of mults. So after
5:56 off, at 1214 I got back on 80M, found a hole on 3573 and picked up 85 Q's
in 75 minutes. Funny how the Northeast is scarce in the evenings here in NC
but dominates the band in the morning. Both 80 and 40 are chock full of
stations from OH to ME.
At 1346 I wanted to check out 20M to see if there would be any EU activity,
remembering the great rates to EU I had during CQ WW CW on 20M around this
time. But not today. Only 5 q's in 15 mins, with one new mult, PA. I figured
it was "now or never" for the 40M morning show so found a spot at 7049 and had a
rollicking hour picking up 70 Q's with some rates hitting 131/hr, the best of
the test for me.
Man was that fun. I think contesting is best when it's like fishing in a
barrel. DX'ing is more like sailing for a week and finally catching that
trophy fish. (Although to thoroughly confuse my metaphors, the ARRL 10M test
was like fishing in the desert!).
At 1500 I had to take a break from the radio so I put my fate in the hands of
the ARRL contest committee and took two hours off to clear my head. Came back
to 20M, picked up GW and EA8, then another 45 minutes off at 1945. I was
really finding it hard to stay at the keyboard, but after 15 minutes away I
felt compelled to come back. I think psychologists call this an
approach-avoidance conflict -- you are equally attracted to two opposite
goals...
>From 1946 I was back for good, keeping BIC until 2400. I had my best run on
15M until about 2036, and then hit 20M until 2200, down to 40M for a pretty
slow hour, and finished on 80M for the last 50 minutes. As often happens, the
rate of that last half hour is one of the best. When I hit 80M I was still 26
Q's shy of 700 and with the 19/hr rates I was seeing on 40M at 2300, I was
doubtful I'd break 700 Q's. Well, maybe I should have come to 80M straight
from 20M, as it yielded 50 Q's in as many minutes.
I didn't really set a clear goal for myself at the start of this contest, other
than to have fun and run as much as I could. As it stands, I improved over 2006
(just a bit ;-), had a lot of fun, and didn't break anything. I struggled more
to stay in the chair than I had in SS and CQ WW. I think part of it was just
wanting to do some other things with my weekend. We need two weekends in
parallel - one for contesting and one for enjoying the time off from work!
If anyone has read this far, I have a question about the band change rule. It
says you are allowed 6 band changes per hour. Makes me wonder about SO2R --
don't most SO2R's run each radio on a different band? Doesn't seem feasible in
the RU.
Thanks all for the Q's and see you next time.
73,
Rowland K4XD
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