[GreenKeys] About a "Straight Key Night" for RTTY

[William Wuttke]

Russ,

I already have a muffin fan over the 6146’s in anticipation. I built an Arduino-based ASCII-Baudot converter for my 33ASR which
includes a solid-state relay reader control and buffer so that I can use the tape reader at 45 baud. Baudot can run at 45, 50, 75, or
100 baud. If run at 110 baud ASCII, it uses CTS from the ST-8000 as flow control for the reader. The Arduino boards + solid state
relay fit nicely right behind the power switch. If anyone would like the details of this converter, I could make it available. (It’s still a
work-in-progress at this time. Plans for the future include “function key” macros using control codes.) The ST-8000 can run any
code, baud, or shift that I want.

I’ve just recently tried my hand at RTTY on-the-air using MMTTY and my Flex 6400M in the Makrothen and JARTS contests and had
a great time, although my poor location, trap vertical antenna, low power, and limited time gave me low scores - 36 QSOs in Makrothen
and 93 QSO’s in JARTS. Usually, if I could copy, I could make a QSO. However, there were a lot of signals I could see on the
waterfall, but could not copy. There are a lot of people using RTTY, but virtually only in the contests.

I hope we can get this “Straight Key Night” going!

73,

Bill - KE3BK