For sure, WF1B's software brought us into the big leagues, then
Writelog, RITTY and MMTTY made software great enough that almost anyone
can join with a few hours notice.
The other person who has brought this popularity on is Don, AA5AU.
Never has one person tried so hard to recruit people that he could work
in a contest!
On Feb 13, 2005, at 8:47 PM, Mike wrote:
Hello,
Back in 1976, Ed, W3EKT, and I put together a paper for the 1976 ARRL
DX Technical Symposium titled "Some Comments on RTTY DXing". In it
we estimated that less than 1 percent of the amateur population had
RTTY capability. We figured the US had 1000 amateurs with RTTY
capability and Canada 300, Only 200 of this number operated on 20
meters (2 meter RTTY was popular then) and 50 to 75 pursued DX. The
paper included an estimate of the world RTTY population along with
information on the equipment needed to be competitive in chasing RTTY
DX, finding the RTTY DX (wasn't much available) and RTTY contesting.
Interesting to see how RTTY DXing and contesting has grown since then.
The ubiquitous personal computer gets my vote for spurring the growth
of RTTY.
By the way, in 1975, Ed, W3EKT, won the world RTTY championship which
was based on the your scoring in six contests. (Guess who was
second?)
73,
Mike, K4GMH
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