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Re: [RTTY] [Gmc] Fwd: RE: ARRL W1AW Bulletin Operations

To: W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu@w0mu.com>
Subject: Re: [RTTY] [Gmc] Fwd: RE: ARRL W1AW Bulletin Operations
From: Kok Chen <chen@mac.com>
Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2014 10:48:15 -0700
List-post: <rtty@contesting.com">mailto:rtty@contesting.com>
On Jun 5, 2014, at 8:53 AM, W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote:

> The ARRL being the largest CLUB in the world can't find operators to man 
> their station.  Seems odd to me.

They do ask for assistance from their members, Mike.

>From time to time, I have been asked by the (paid) W1AW operator to help 
>monitor his signals for purity (probably after someone else complains) since I 
>have the right equipment to do it.

They have a nightmare setup, trying to distribute audio over multiple 
transceivers.  Look behind the flashy vernier of their audio control panel that 
they show the tourists and you find all sorts of ground noise potential.  Why 
in this day and age they don't use fiber optics like TOSlink to distribute 
their audio is beyond me.  A handful of chips and a soldering iron, and lots of 
their problems go away, even when you take into account that they are using 
AFSK (most of us know how to put out a clean AFSK signal).

On any given day, you will find some dirty W1AW signals on one band or the 
other.

If they convert to using simple inexpensive SDR as exciters instead of those 
Icom boatanchors, they can also distribute clean IQ data using Ethernet.

When asked, I usually try to help, but I do not go watch their daily 
transmissions otherwise (certainly not after they dropped SITOR/Amtor FEC -- 
W1AW used to be good for testing demodulators and decoders for that mode; it 
was also the most reliable transmission from W1AW).

73
Chen, W7AY

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