Due to a conflict with a wedding I had to pass on Field Day this year. When
we finally got home from the wedding, I decided to give out a few 1D STX
contacts to FD stations.
The cocoaModem software I use for RTTY and PSK does not currently support
logging the FD exchange so I just used the RTTY Roundup template. It let me
keep track of call signs worked by band but only logged them as states
rather the normal FD exchange. This was not a big deal as I will not be
submitting a formal long. The software, including the FB built-in dupe
checker, worked great considering I was using for something it was not
designed to support.
I worked a number of QSO's in the CQ mode using slightly modified standard
contest macros. The first problem I encountered was other 1D home stations
responding to my CQ. I was sending
CQ FD DE AA5VU AA5VU CQ
Rather than taking the time to say 1D stations should not work 1D stations
in FD I just logged the QSO and moved on to the next QSO. I finally got
around the problem by changing my CQ Macro to say
CQ FD DE AA5VU AA5VU 1D CQ
This simple tweak of the macro helped in RTTY but the PKS 1D stations still
responded. Many probably did not read or forgot the rule (4.6) about Class
D Home stations.
The second problem I ran into was many of the FD users (mostly PSK
operators) are not used to the standard contest RTTY exchange format and got
confused. While in the CQ mode I would end an exchange with
N1ABC QSL ES TNX
QRZ de AA5VU
and the next station would send his call. My standard report macro would
send
K1ABC 1D STX 1D STX K1ABC
and many did not seem to understand I had acknowledged their call, sent
their report (twice) and had turned it back to them to send my report. This
got so confusing on 40 meter PSK I finally changed the macro to say
K1ABC 1D STX 1D STX K1ABC de AA5VU
and it helped. I tried to avoid using the old "K" but that may have helped.
What RTTY contesters are used to must be a foreign concept to many of the FD
digital participants.
The only problem I had in the S&P mode was responding to a long strong CQ FD
and discovering after he responded that he was alos a 1D. The same problem
I had in the CQ mode. The 1D home stations need to put something in their
CQ macro to let other home stations know they are home stations. The purpose
of the contest is to work the stations in the field, not normal home station
to home station QSOs.
It was fun and good to hear the digital activity from FD participants. Maybe
some of the FD people will get hooked and participate in some of the RTTY
contests. This was my first experience trying to run PSK in the contest
mode. It was fun but some standard exchange examples should be included the
ARRL FD blurb for next year. Many of the user defined PSK macros were set up
to sound like a FD SSB exchange.
TNX to all for the exchanges. I learn something new in each contest.
73 de Dick, AA5VU
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