[Elecraft] RTTY for N00BZ?

[Fred Jensen]

On 10/9/2011 8:02 PM, Jim Miller wrote:
> I started working my way through trying to figure out RTTY today with the K3
> and HRD. Is there a website somewhere that might take me through setting
> this up? The RTTY stuff seems scattered throughout the K3 manual.

Don't know about HRD, but my K3 RTTY is minimalist and works great.  For 
contests, I use N1MM+MMTTY.  You can use MMTTY alone, it will decode and 
print stuff I can't hear, and it's free.

Computer Line Out --> K3 Line In
Computer Line In <-- K3 Line Out

I key the radio down the CAT cable with N1MM but you can just turn VOX 
on to do that.  Turn off your MIC [set the mic to line].  You'll need to 
fool with the Windoze recording and playback level controls and the K3 
line gains, but it's not hard.  Set the K3 to AFSK data, compression 
will turn off automatically, you want about 6 bars of ALC.

The PITCH control will become a four position [I think] step switch, I 
use 915 Hz [lowest] for the mark frequency, be sure to set that in 
MMTTY.  The "standard" >2 KHz frequencies may not work well with 
restricted bandwidths and I can't hear them anyway.  915 works great and 
is not as tiring as higher pitched RTTY.  DSP bandwidths less than about 
300 Hz will degrade copy.

I run my K3 barefoot at 100W no problem.  With the KPA500, I run 500W 
[200W on 30m] with no issues at all.  You can monitor both PA temps, 
you'll be surprised.

Lots of more complex ways to do it, I haven't found a single issue with 
this one.  Be sure to turn off all the Windoze alert sounds, they'll key 
the rig.  Oh ... the cables are stereo-stereo from RS.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2012 Cal QSO Party 6-7 Oct 2012
- www.cqp.org