On the continuing saga to get my RTTY station up to snuff for ragchewing,
Dxing and contesting I am now in a quandry about the right approach.
One school says that the best results are obtained by hardware generation of
the signal. They mean a TNC and the radio using FSK. I have 2 PK-232MBX's
in my shack that I am getting ready to modify into what some die hard DX'ers
call the untimate setup.
Now into the scene comes the other campus that is saying that a sound card
driving the rig in AFSK is the cat's meow. MMTTY seems to be the software
of choice (of the free stuff that is)
I have MMTTY running a RigBlaster interface currently driving my FT-920
thrrough the Data Jack in the back and for the most part seems to work ok.
I am finding however that this software has a pretty tuff time with weak
signals if there is noise on the band. What am I saying, it has a tough
time with W1AW when it comes booming in here early evening on 20 with a S9+
signal. The software misses characters like you would not believe. I have
tried every setting in the book in regards to the input and output voltages
to the sound card, setting filters to this or that setting. Quite frankly
I am looking for something better without having to spend 200 dollars on a
new piece of software or hardware. I don't think MMTTY is going to cut it.
That is why I bought the PK-232MBX boxes. They are used but they were
cheap. I spent less than 100 dollars for both of them.
So who wins here? One school says hardware and the other software. I
believe Don AA5AU uses both and look what he has accomplished.
So now is my problem. Do I spend the money and time to upgrade the hardware
or take a chance and spend yet another chunck of money on software?
And can we keep this one civil and on the topic? My last question up for
discussion (Where has all the RTTY Gone) deviated so far from my question it
was mentioned in Jim's Gazette.
73
Thom WI8W
Thanks
73
Thom WI8W
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