Just in case some of you haven't seen the bit about QTC's on the RTTY
reflector, and are a bit puzzled by all this mention of QTC's and the
contest this weekend, then here is some text explaining what they are, and
how to handle them with Writelog.......................
What are they all about?
Each year, the WAE RTTY Contest comes along, and there are many of us who
keep saying “SRI NO QTC” because we simply do not understand what they are
all about.
QTC traffic is quite simple, really, and very easy to handle with the right
software.
In WAE RTTY, everyone can work everyone, unlike the CW and SSB legs of this
contest.
A “QTC” is simply a list of ten contacts made by one or other station,
showing the time, callsign worked, and the serial number exchanged. Once a
batch has been sent, it cannot be sent again.
There is very little to understand, except that you can only exchange them
with someone from another continent, and the batch cannot contain a QSO sent
between the two stations doing the exchange. For example, if my 10th QSO in
the contest is with AA5AU, and I send him some QTC, I cannot send him that
10th contact, as it contains the QSO made between the two of us.
QTC traffic is normally sent in batches of 10 contacts, and each line
contains the time, callsign and serial number of that contact. Each batch is
numbered in the format 001/10 meaning the first batch containing 10
contacts.
Although there is no absolute requirement to send or receive a batch
containing 10 contacts, this is the default for most contesting software,
and is the easiest to handle.
To make life easy for me, I usually aim to get about 100 contacts in the log
before I start bothering to send QTC’s, as this would give me 10 batches,
but you can receive from the outset.
Don’t bother trying to exchange them with that weak ZL, whose exchange you
only just got after several attempts, as you will end up re-sending them
time and time again. Far better is to wait and go for that UA9 with the S9++
signal, or maybe the 5B4 or EA8. Later into the contest, there will be
plenty of W’s and VE’s with good signals that will readily exchange QTC
traffic with you.
So, how is it going to happen?
First of all, you will call someone and exchange the usual contest report
with them, and one of you will send “TX/RX QTC??". Assuming the answer is
yes, then one of you will send, and one will receive. How you decide who
will do what is up to you. Some folk use a buffer for each option, and some
will tell you what is going to happen. It really doesn’t matter who does
what, as both parties get the same points for the exchange of QTC’s.
For now, I will assume you will be on the receiving end.
He will send QRV? To which you reply QRV, and then he will start sending.
You are looking for the batch number, so watch out for that first. Next
comes the actual traffic, and will most likely be one contact per line,
unless propagation screws it up.
So, you will end up with something like this:
001/10
0012 G3URA 049
0013/AA5AU/056
0014-RA9FOE-012
etc for ten lines.
Whether there is a space, a dash or a slash between the fields depends on
what software is being used to send the data, and is not important.
If you have all the data and the calls look OK, then simply send QSL TU, and
let him get on with the contest.
If you have one line of garbage, then just ask for “07 AGN PSE” and he will
send line 7 again. If there is more than one line, do it one line at a time,
as this is less confusing all round. Too much garbage, and you can ask for
ALL AGN PSE.
Once you have all the data, you will need to store it, and how you do that
will depend on your software. Some methods of doing this will be explained
later.
If you elect to send, then the first batch of 10 QTC’s you send with your
contest software will be your first 10 contacts. The second batch will be
the next 10, and so on. Once a batch has been sent, it cannot be re-sent, so
please do make sure the other guy has all the data correctly before ending
the QSO and closing the QTC box.
Now you have handled QTC traffic, what does it mean to you?
Let’s use a simple example, as this will make it clearer.
Suppose you have worked 100 contacts in the contest, and there are 30 mults
in that total.
This would give you 30 X 100 as a final score, ie 3000 points.
Now, if you received 50 QTC’s from 5 different contacts, you score will now
look like this: 30 X (100+50) = 30 X 150 = 4500 points.
This represents a 50% increase in your score, and is well worth the extra
points.
Handling QTC Traffic with Writelog.
Writelog is well suited to handling QTC traffic, and is a delight to use.
Before you start the contest, you must ensure that you have the correct
buffers set up, as the software uses specific positions in the buffer that
you may generally use for other things. You cannot change these buffer
positions, so it is vital that you put the correct messages in the right
places.
These buffers are in Shift+F8, Shift+F9, Shift+F10 and Shift+F11.
When you start the QTC procedure, you press ALT+R to receive and ALT+S to
send. This brings up the right QTC dialogue box that has buttons to send
QRV/QSL etc, depending on whether you are sending or receiving.
These buttons are the ones that send the text stored in Shift+F8 to F11, so
you must program them in the right order.
When you receive, the RTTY receive window shows the lines, and they change
colour when complete. At that point, you can click anywhere in the line to
save it to the dialogue box. Do this for each complete line, and then click
SAVE once you are happy that you have all the data correct.
When sending, you simply click on the box to send the data. If the other
party asks for a fill of a particular line, use Alt+1 to send line one,
Alt+2 to send line two etc. Then, once the QTC exchange is complete, simply
click the SAVE button and go look for some more QTC’s.
There is plenty of help in the Writelog help files, but don’t try looking
for QTC in the index! Go to the CONTENTS at the beginning, and you will see
a list of the supported contests. As it may depend on which version of the
help file you have, I won’t mention the page number, but look for WAE
contest in the Contents.
I hope that helps dispel a few myths about QTC's!
Very best 73
Phil GU0SUP
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