[GreenKeys] RTTY RU 2017 beat our goal of 209 contacts!

Sat Jan 14 10:52:10 EST 2017

Russ,
Thanks for the kind words - we both have felt the "pain" and I am sure the incredible satisfaction of pushing one of these beasts to the absolute limit.  Wayne Durkee did all the restoration work on my printer mechs and I light a little candle and say a prayer for him before the start of the contest - so far his machines have been bullet proof - just oil and kind words to keep them going.
I appreciate your logging suggestion, I had considered that I do have a record of all the QSOs, so I could file the electronic log after transcribing it later.  What I opted for was a logging program I created in VB6, it automatically grabs the frequency from the VFO of the radio via the CAT port, keeps track of the band, UTC, etc.  I just need to type in the call and click a "check" button that looks for dupes.  If it sees a dupe, the callsign changes from green to red telling me not to work the station and it disables the "log" button so I couldn't add a dupe if I wanted to.  This is really a time saving move and it is pretty essential if you want to maintain the "flow" of the contest and not discourage a potential contact.
I had several long runs of contact after contact after contact - where if I had to stop to circle, write or do anything other than click, folks would have moved off frequency to a faster operator.
I have sent several emails to folks at the ARRL asking about the possibility of adding a *REAL* TTY award category, we will see where that goes.  I suggested that competing against MMTTY with a TTY was like playing Chess in a room full of IBM Watsons - not gonna see a trophy anytime soon.  Why not just write a program that sends CQ, grabs the call from the response, sends the exchange, logs the call and sends CQ again - you click the start button once and then check in to see how you are doing every couple hours.  Heck you could even have your program submit the log for you automatically then text you to tell you if you won.
Thanks.--daveW5DT

      From: Wa3frp via GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
 To: greenkeys at mailman.qth.net 
 Sent: Friday, January 13, 2017 5:51 PM
 Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] RTTY RU 2017 beat our goal of 209 contacts!

Dave, 
Congrats on your great showing in RTTY RU. 
I used my M28 ASR in a number of contests up to about five years ago.  It can be exhausting!
A few comments...
I didn't trying to input anything into the PC logging software until after the contest.   Instead, i circled the distant station callsign and wrote the UTC time next to the QSO and did a local LF to slightly separate the QSOs.  If I changed bands, I had to remember to write the new band next to the first QSO on the new band. 
That seemed to work out OK except that it would take a lot of time to transcribe the data into the computer after the contest.  Another downside involves working duplicates.  I found that I could find and hold a frequency and let the other station worry about duplicates, and always work the dups anyway, as they don't count against you in the scoring.
I didn't spend a lot of time on 20M and was in S&P mode.  Sorry that I missed you during the test.  I get out a lot better on 40M where I can run 700 watts output and also easily hold the frequency.
I'll be sure to look for you in a future RTTY contest.  I have been corrupted by the power of the dark side and now use N1MM with MMTTY, GRITTY and 2Tone.  My M28ASR is now only for ragchews, especially when I find a ham who also has a teleprinter.
73 ES GLRuss WA3FRP 

GreenKeys <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] RTTY RU 2017 beat our goal of 209 contacts!
Message-ID: <908119958.1258429.1483990896659 at mail.yahoo.com>
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Wayne,
I think you could just add an award category for using a real teleprinter - the only requirement being - all outgoing TX and incoming RX has to be printed on the paper. ?It is almost impossible not to use a PC with auto logging, as the interruption to the flow of the "serious" contesters will get you shunned in the contest. If you stop between contacts to write down the contact info on paper, you are screwed. ?I suppose, since you have a printout of every contact, you could go back and do the log by hand later, but you would be missing frequency & time info.?
My contact cycle is:
1. ?Send CQ string (tape loop/macro buffer).2. ?Type received call into logging software callsign window.3. ?Click "check duplicate" button4. ?Send contact exchange5. ?Wait for reply exchange to confirm contact.6. ?Click LOG button.7. ?Send TU string8. ?Click on callsign window for next call.9. ?Goto step 1 (repeat).
I got this down to about 8 seconds, and even that probably tested the patience of many ops. ?After 50 or so contacts, your head is literally mush. ?I ended up working 45 minutes and taking a 15 minute break each hour, and I could not get the damn diddle tones out of my head last night when I tried to sleep.
Nice to work you on 20M Wayne, you were my best contact! ?I think I gave you a 599 right? :>)
--daveW5DT

Russ - WA3FRP
wa3frp at aol.com

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