[GreenKeys] Tried my hand last night...

[Eugene Hertz]

I tried my first ever rtty qso last night on 40m with my 28ASR.  Didnt go so well! I screwed up a lot when I heard someone call me back.  First, my transmitter was WAY off frequency compared to his. Probably 500-1Khz! The way I tune is like this:
1. I have my receiver connected to my computer with MMTTY
2. Set my receiver VFO so that the mark/space from the transmitting station are lined up properly on mmtty. I lock the receivers vfo
3. Tune up my transmitter with about 1 watt and adjust its vfo until my receiver and mmtty show the same tones as the sending station in step 2.

I couldn't understand why my ST6 would not print myself. I thought my ST6 was on the fritz.

I didnt realize it, but when I went tune my transmitter, my mmttyy software  had its AFC (auto freq ctrl)  function on! So when I tuned the transmitter, it had drifted way off. It was tuning for audio tones of 1500 or something! I had actually tuned WAY off!  I sent a whole brag tape to the guy before I realized the problem. When the tape ended, he politely mentioned that there was someone "right next to me" and could not copy and politely signed off. Little did he know "that someone" was actually me!  

Then some 3905 century net fired up and I simply couldnt keep up! All these guys use computer and have tons of precanned messages. 

Typing on the 28 was tough! Never really tried to do it before with any regularity! I kept forgetting to hit LTRS after the "2" in my call sign (oops)! I must have looked like a real LID!

But one thing I figure out. I can connect the audio output of my PC to my ST6 to punch tape. So I use NOTEPAD and write up a nice brag tape (and save the notepad file for future embellishment) then cut and paste from notepad into MMTTY and punch the tape. Works well. 

I've also made a CQ tape loop. But whats the trick to do a loop? Seems the reader needs a helping hand to pull the tape through when it gets to the splice.

Anyway. The trials and tribulations of a newbie. I am sure everyone has gone through that (in some cases) 20 years ago! I just hope I don't get any OO notices! YIKES!

73 Eugene KC2NWG