[OKDXA] RTTY Elmer?

[Calhoun, Charlie]

Happy New Year all!

 

I ran the RTTY Roundup for the first time this year.  It was a lot of
fun.  It wasn't a stellar effort.  I didn't work the entire period due
to the kids being sick, so I had to take several breaks to help them.  I
also got off to a slow start learning N1MM, which I hadn't used before
but it seemed to be time to put CT behind me and move on to a test
logger with more functionality, namely a digital interface.  I did
manage to beat last year's Oklahoma SOLP entry, so I was pleased with
the first time effort during this test.

 

I have a question, though, that would help me with my operating practice
for this contest and others in the future.

 

I don't have a big fancy rig, I'm running a Yaesu FT-847.  It has DSP
and I can adjust the high and low cut separately.  I've learned to do
that and use it to the best of my ability.  The problem I found I had
was with strong adjacent signals.  I adjusted the DSP so I had a band
pass about the width of the RTTY signal.  I also adjusted the band pass
filter on the rig to one side and worked near the edge of that side and
that helped greatly with adjacent signals to that side.  But that still
left the other side open.  The built in BPF in MMTTY also helped some
but didn't do anything for the adjacent strong signals.  When I had a
strong signal on the open side of the pass band it would overload the
front end and I would lose the weak signal in my DSP pass band.  

 

Is there anything else I might try to attenuate signals out of the
passband so they don't overload the front end?  One thing I didn't try
was the attenuator.  With some suggestions, I'll try some things during
NAQP CW this weekend.

 

I also have an older Icom IC-736, but I don't use it much for 2 reasons.
It doesn't have DSP and I don't currently have it hooked up for Rig
control, but if suggestions are made to try it in comparison, I can do
that too.

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

73

Charlie Calhoun, K5TTT