[LCC] RTTY Competition

[Charles Morrison]

Scott,

Windows gives the advantage of using the soundcard for so many different
modes, its incredible.  Not only SSB message playback, but of course CW
decoding as well as RTTY decoding.

My current setup dates back a few years, and of course like you I'm hesitant
to change.  But for me, my choice is still Writelog.  For new users, it
probably does have a bit a learning curve, but I've gotten to where im very
comfortable with its quirks and work arounds.  

For SSB, messages are recorded as WAV files and played back through the
soundcard (ANY soundcard).  CW generation can continue to use your LPT1
interface (if you built or bought one of the original CT/NA/TR lpt cables).
It does NOT however have the built in keyer like NA does, so you'll need a
radio of vintage (NOT FT-1000D) that allows for straight key on one jack
(for computer generated CW) and electronic keying on the other for your
paddles.  An alternative that works excellent is the K1EL WKUSB Winkeyer.
This allows for you to leave your rig in straight key mode, it's a USB
device that creates a virtual com port on your system, you configure your
windows application to send cw to it and it generates the CW to the rig.
Additionally, you plug your paddles into it, and use its speed knob for your
manual sending speed.  Works great, and removes the possibility of the old
school serial port generated CW getting all mangled up.

For RTTY, Writelog has a sub program called RTTYWrite, which does a fine job
of sending and receiving RTTY, however I've chosen the path that many have,
and use MMTTY.  It's a fine freeware program that easily outperforms any and
just about all hardware RTTY decoders (Kam, HAL, AEA, etc).  It works as a
"plugin" to RTTYWrite, and does a great job.

There is of course N1MM.  It too has a steep learning curve, but can be
mastered.  Because its windows, it also supports the soundcard interface for
SSB message playback, CW decoding, and RTTY decoding.

Moving to Windows opens so many new doors, not only for contesting but just
overall tinkering.  I of course work with computers daily, so the digital
modes were old hat when I got back into radio a few years ago.  The ability
to download a program, hook the speaker output of my rig to the soundcard
and decode just about EVERYTHING you hear on the ham bands was awesome.

Charlie
KI5XP


> -----Original Message-----
> From: lcc-bounces at louisianacontestclub.org [mailto:lcc-
> bounces at louisianacontestclub.org] On Behalf Of Scott Dickson, W5WZ
> Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 7:17 AM
> To: LCC at louisianacontestclub.org
> Subject: Re: [LCC] RTTY Competition
> 
> OK Charlie, I'll bite.  I have a 1st generation Pentium 200 PC that I can
> run either native DOS 6.22 or Windows 98.  It has a true SB16 (yes, ISA)
as
> well as 4 com ports and 3 LPT ports.  As you know, I too still us NA for
> logging.  However, NA is pretty poor for RTTY, as it requires a KAM TNC
and
> is very limited in the commands it will pass to the KAM.
> 
> So, what software would you LCC members recommend for RTTY contesting?
> 
> Do you use the same package for RTTY, CW, and SSB, or do you use
> mode-specific software?
> 
> If planning to run SO2R RTTY, will I need 2 soundcards?  If that is the
> case, you better FexEx one to me!
> 
> --Scott
> 
> 
> 
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