[Ham-Mac] JARTS-WW-RTTY

[Dick Kriss, AA5VU]

Steve,

Contests are fun and a great opportunity to get your feet wet in new areas.
Glad to hear you enjoyed it and made some good contacts.

On 10/17/05 11:30 PM, "Steve - VA3SPH" <va3sph at rac.ca> wrote:

> I had one interesting experience I can't seem to figure out.  I think
> it has to do with 40 Meter and use of upper side band or lower side
> band.
> Anyway what would happen is I would have a fellow all tuned in on
> RTTY on 40 meters but when I contacted him he would change freq on me
> to answer
> I gather he was on USB and I was on LSB?
> Any thought or tips on this?

Normal RTTY is FSK and you don't have to deal with the AFSK LSB or USB
issue.  With the advent of the sound card technology many are now running
AFSK.  In AFSK mode,  RTTY should be run in LSB but some software programs
are setup to run in USB and they use a software switch to invert the signal.
If somebody can get it backward, they will and get things really hosed.

> Is there a different rule for RTTY for
> USB/LSB use?

In the digital world all PSK is run in USB and AFSK RTTY is LSB; however,
you will see people running RTTY in USB because they don't know better or
just don't care.  FYI, W1AW broadcast RTTY bulletins in AFSK LSB with an
offset to make it show up like an a FSK signal at 14095.00.  They do this to
make it easy for users with modern rigs to find them at 14095 on the dial
with the rig in RTTY mode.

Be careful if you spot a RTTY station on the cluster.  Cluster spots should
be the mark frequency.  On my setup the Kenwood TS-570 display frequency in
AFSK would read 14.097.125 for the W1AW signal and I would need to subtract
the 2125 Hz from the display to get the mark frequency (14,097.125 less
2.125 = 14.095.0)  Some rigs have an offset that will display the mark for
AFSK RTTY. The Kenwood TS-570 displays the Mark frequency in FSK mode. The
rig was designed before the advent of the sound card technology and they
assumed users would run FSK for RTTY. AFSK was an after thought or something
for Packet mode.

> Another question if he moved to reply to me how did he hear me in the
> first place? (Hummm...?)

Some people tune with the RIT and forget to reset it when they go to the
next QSO.  This gets compounded by the use of IF shift and very tight
filters. My guess is he tuned to you with his RIT and left his transmit
fixed.  This would explain how that happens.  Been there done that myself!

If he was calling CQ and you had your RIT on, it would cause the same
problem.  I try to avoid using he RIT for RTTY because I forget to turn it
off.

> 
> I am using iMac G5, CocoaModem and MacLoggerDX which worked great me
> and I didn't even use all the extra features these have for contesting.

You should have tried one of the coocoModem contest templates.  The dupe
checker is excellent and you can run the contest with mouse clicks.  I am
not a MacLoggerDX user, but understand it is the best logging program on the
market. I think it contains some contest tools but is not the same thing as
a high rate contest logging program.  Chen has a contest logger in
cocoaModem for selected contests; however, it does not score. Chen developed
ccocaModem for his own use and he only does certain contests, like the ARRL
RTTY Round Up. That template is perfect.  I used the TARA template for the
JARTS contest to log the age but then had to hack the Cabrillo output file
to get the format such that the TARA robot would accept my .log file.
Unfortunately, I lack the programming skill to create new templates for
logging and reporting for each contest.  The cocoModem "RST - QSO Number"
template is generic and can be use to support contests where you need to
record the QSO number.  I suggest you try them in advance of a contest and
read Chen's manual.

I think Don Argo and others have formed a SIG to come up with a Mac contest
logging program.  It is needed but the market probably does not justify
their time and effort. There are all kinds of freeware and shareware
programs for PC's and I have though about running some under an emulator but
never found the time to mess with them.

> 
> BTW.. Average age for my small sample of about 40 contacts was 55.
> Range was 73 to 26.

Steve, your assessment is pretty accurate. The following are some
interesting age stats from Carl, WA2ETU, on his JARTS log.  Carl gave me
permission to quote his message.

=================
From: "Carl" <adye at alltel.net>
Subject: [RTTY] JARTS Age

I wasn't going to take the time to figure it out this year but the comment
on average age from another subscriber got me interested.

JARTS WW 2005

1498 contacts
966 unique calls
944 unique calls not "00" or "99"
youngest age - 14 (13 in 2004)
oldest age - 83 (86 in 2004)
average age - 53.9 (53.3 in 2004)
median age - 54 (53 in 2004)

73, WA2ETU 
==================

Chris Smolinski may have been correct in saying there is zero incentive for
youngsters to enter the hobby.  I have been trying figure out why us old
guys still like the hobby when we have the same diversions available.  I
have observed men hunt, fish, play golf, tennis, chase women and play
computer games for the instant gratification of the win.  It feels good to
hit the great golf shot or to make a kill tennis shot.  Some like to blow
away the bad guys in computer games.  I used to play golf until it became
more of a source of aggravation than a gratification and the bring me back
shots became less frequent.  I have recently come to the conclusion the
logging of a new QSO's is a form of instant gratification.  Maybe this is
why I like working DX and contesting. How may other hobbies let you have the
instant gratification of a win with such frequency?  I had 239 QSO's in the
JARTS-WW-RTTY contest and enjoyed each one.  I don't care that others had
more QSOs and it really did not mean to much on who I contacted.  The appeal
was the QSO. It just felt good to make the contact.   As Chris says we need
to re-invent radio.  I really don't know how to package and sell the instant
gratification we all seem to enjoy from ham.  Something tells me we have
been selling the wrong benefits.  Maybe I am out in left field on this one?

Another explanation of the high average age of the ham community is many,
like me, are entering the hobby later in life vs. getting involved as
teenagers.  I was 37 when I got my first ham license.  There were too many
other diversions in my earlier life.

Sorry about my long winded response to your questions.

73, Dick AA5VU