[SFDXA] Jim's GAZETTE Newsletter #147 5 June 2003

[Bill Marx]

Interesting Reading
-Bill W2CQ


Jim's GAZETTE
Newsletter #147
 

Please feel free to forward this newsletter to any and all interested parties, or to reproduce it
in
any other publication. All we ask is that you give credit where it is due.

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LONG NOTES: While I cannot claim to be terribly surprised by the news, I most certainly am saddened
by the word of the RTTY Journal's sale to CQ magazine. If it were not for Bill Henry's generosity,
the Journal's sun would have set long ago. Now it has set for good. Sad to say, there won't be a
freestanding publication devoted to the digital modes in your future. We can but mourn the loss and
express a hearty thanks to all of those who volunteered their time and talent over the many years
of the magazine's life. May the Journal rest in peace! 

Don AA5AU stepped in and copied all the RTTY records from the Journal's web site. After a mammoth
job of updating and unifying them, he's placed that at http://rttycontesting.com/records.html.
Others, hopefully, will pick up more of the remnants and serve those interested through the use of
new or expanded websites. While the Internet can never replace the look and feel of the Journal,
various bits and pieces of its content will find its way to different sites on the web. The GAZETTE
is available and there are other good places as well. 

There is always a crying need for the experienced to write about and explain the mystery of the
digital modes to the inexperienced. We all should share that responsibility. If you wish to
contribute to the knowledge base, and there is ALWAYS a need, please contact me. I will try to
steer you to the right resource whether it is the GAZETTE or a more appropriate site. Let's not let
the unselfish spirit of the Journal contributors disappear along with the magazine itself. 

RTTY Journal, DIGITAL JOURNAL, New RTTY Journal . . . sk sk

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The all-of-a-sudden PSK63 Sprint (two hours each night on 24/25 May) created quite a stir for a
babe in the woods mode still very much in beta. There must have been a rush to download the
software for there were many new callsigns displayed during my time in the test. I worked nearly
two dozen Q's and found, save for my awkward use of the strangely located macro buttons (my own
fault), little difficulty handling any one of them with QuikPSK. Exchanges were rapid fire and
there was little if any problem with wide passband waterfall tuning. I never did narrow the filter
which I would obviously have to do if there were hundreds of stations in that narrow part of the 20
meter band. Note, however, that virtually all of the activity appeared to take place in a very
narrow segment of the band. Normally I tune to 14.072 USB and never change. During the second night
of the contest, I did move up to 14.075 but there was very little activity there, and as I tuned on
up to 14.080, I found mostly Pactor II MBO activity and little else. 

Many comments found their way to the various reflectors. Most were positive or at least tentatively
positive, though some wondered about the mode's capacity to handle the high volume of contacts
required in a major contest. Fair enough, but there is no way to judge at this point in the mode's
development. We'll know more when the September Sprint takes place.

No one suggested that PSK63 is about to replace RTTY as the premier contest mode. One guy suggested
that any such a claim was akin to the fabled Chicago Tribune headline of yore, DEWEY WINS! (when
Harry Truman won fair and square). 

There is no such claim here, but for different reasons than you might suspect. If RTTY loses out as
a primary contest mode it's a dead duck. The impact would be widespread and very significant. In
the first place, there would be absolutely no demand for all those boat anchors at hamfest flea
markets. This would be a major blow to the economy of several countries. The oceans of the world
would soon be polluted by the detritus contained in the new and inexpensive anchor material
provided to the budget-minded ship owners by those that collect and then sell these heavy, heavy
pieces of radio junk. So, let's not let RTTY die too soon or too suddenly. 

But, recognize that even Don AA5AU said that he was impressed by the mode and acknowledged that the
tuning problem turned out not to be less of a problem than imagined. He worries, though, about the
wide passband and its impact on weak-signal reception. John WA9ALS doesn't like the width of the
passband either and doubts the mode could stand up to the rigors of serious contesting. He doubts
anyone could work 1000 or more PSK 63 signals in a contest (and I doubt that RTTY could produce 1K
contacts in that limited space, either!).

Both may be right, and are probably wrong. Tuning and filter width will no doubt become less of a
problem and ultimately disappear as issues if this mode gains in popularity. Why? The answer is
very straightforward. Tuning problems diminish as the spectrum used by the mode expands along with
the expertise of its users. That's the first rule of the sea! And, yes, 1000 contacts will be no
problem if PSK63 utilizes more and more of the RTTY space on all bands. This mode cannot be
contained in a teeny-weeny piece of 20meters if it continues to grow. Not when all that quiet RTTY
spectrum sits there inviting use by another more active mode. But that is talk of a battle not yet
fought.

Join in the fun when /September rolls around. It just may be a defining moment!   

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Remember, ANARTS RTTY contest is 14/15 June not the 7/8 as printed in some magazines. Too bad we
get such an error on such an important contest. Join in! Rules and point tables, if you need them,
at http://user.bigpond.com/ctdavies.

The Russian RTTY contest is coming up on 26/27 July. The full rules are at
www.qrz.ru/contest/detail/93. Paper logs to Radio Magazine, Seliverstov per., 10, 107045 Moscow,
Russia. Electronic logs to contest@radio.ru. 

We come now to big, big news. The ARRL has jumped into the deep waters and announced a plan to
accept electronic proof of a DX contact. That means, if I read all the information correctly, the
post offices of the world must now go on a seriously reduced diet because they will lose the tons
of money spent on the endless back and forth of a QSL card exchange. Look at the concept! If I
operate a rare DX location and work 50,000 QSO's on all bands and in 6 modes, ALL of the
information will be in the database as soon as I upload the data. Therefore, your seven contacts in
three modes on four bands are all credited to your DXCC count without any effort on your part.
Sounds like paradise! I'll believe it when I see it, but I congratulate the ARRL on a major, major
underaking.

Elsewhere in our world, amateurs in the US have been awarded a five-channel space on 60 meters. The
only mode: USB phone with 50 watts of power. I can't wait!
 

 
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73 de Jim N2HOS
jem@n2hos.com
GAZETTE at www.n2hos.com/digital