Well, my third RTTY contest under the belt and the wounds are starting to heal
already. Conditions were constantly changing and I never could predict who I
would work from which direction. Perhaps I should have just used the vertical.
I got 3XY7C on all bands except 80m. Even exchanged QTCs with him. I spent
all last week putting down radials in the hopes of getting lots of 4x
multipliers. Not much luck with only 13 contacts on 80m.
I was working a station and he gave me a report of "599 PRY PRY"." Must be a
problem decoding because his signal is very strong and it seems to read
perfectly. "NR? NR? BK." I get the same report agn. After another try he
sends me "046 046." I got it that time. This happens a few more times as the
contest continues. I start to figure that it is some RTTY code so I try to
decipher it. By the end of the contest I had most of the code broke:
1-Q, 2-W, 3-E, 4-R, 5-??, 6-Y, 7-U, 8-I, 9-T or O, 0-P.
Well just this morning it hit me like a brick. I have taken typing before and
I could see my notes almost said "QWERTY." Obviously the letters corresponds
with the numbers above them. Well, this little tid bit of information would
have saved a lot of heartache during the test. hihi.
Then, I was searching and pouncing when I came across a signal. As I tuned it
in they were sending my callsign out. What? You guessed it, I was copying
someone sending QTCs. I had to laugh at myself agn.
I even had one station who kept calling me but I could not read his sig, it
looked backwards so finally I press REV. sure enough he was there. He said I
was his first RTTY contact ever. We talked for about a minute as I explained
to him how to fix it. I think I will send him my card for that one.
Thanks to all for putting up with me on the bands. I enjoy RTTY contesting
more than any other mode. I plan on getting on RTTY more in between contest
and learning more about it.
73, Jim
AD6WL
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