[Elecraft] K3 - RTTY on 30 meters

[John E. Reiser]

Hello out there,

Yesterday a friend asked me to give him a contact on 30-meter RTTY.  I had never been on 30-meter RTTY before, but I agreed to give it a try.  But then I found that my K3 had no RTTY modulation_  just a carrier on 30-meters.  The T-R switching worked fine.

Let me explain that I have been using my K3 without a hitch in RTTY mode for the past two years on the 20, 15, and 12 meter bands, and it continues to work fine on those bands.

My K3 is # 384 running FW 3.97/2.58.  I simply have two stereo audio cables connecting the speaker and mike jacks on my notebook computer to the K3's line in and out jacks.  T-R switching is via the K3's RS232 jack and my Keyspan USB-Serial adapter.  My 30-meter antenna is resonant, with 1.2-1 VSWR across the entire band.  RTTY software is MMTTY.

The other odd thing that I observed was that my friend's signal was reversed on 30-meters.  That is, I couldn't decode him without invoking the reverse button in MMTTY.  I later had a QSO with him on 20-meter RTTY, and he was not reversed on that band.

Any ideas?

Many thanks and 73,

John, W2GW